Stanley BingRezensionen

So, my daughter has trouble sleeping and I was stuck with just this book to read. It was a REALLY long night ...

The cover got my attention while perusing through the new book section. Mostly, while reading the book, everything went over my head. Or under my feet. Or something.

It was filled with two to four page short stories finding humor in corporate life. I work in the corporate world ... surely, some of these corporate jokes would tickle a funny bone once in a while.

Nope, sorry.

The late Gil Schwartz aka Stanley Bing was a CBS executive who wrote many best-selling books with titles like 100 Bullshit Jobs . . . and How to Get Them, Sun Tzu Was a Sissy, and Executricks, or How to Retire While You’re Still Working. Prior to this he wrote a couple of non-science fiction novels. He was also was a reader of science fiction.

That corporate experience and knowledge of science fiction give this novel a breezy, knowing air without stylistically stumbling the way many non-genre novelists do when wandering into science fiction.

And this book is pure science fiction, a black satire on one of humanity’s oldest obsessions: the quest for immortality.
And Bing is right up front in his dedication about who his targets are: “To Craig Venter, Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, and all the visionary titans exploring the possibility of eternal life for those who can afford it.”

Arthur Vogel is definitely one of those who can afford it. At 127, he’s the world’s richest man. His day is a tedious regimen of drugs and supplements and no normal food, walking about on his cyborg legs. His only fun time comes after printing out a penis, popping some pills, and having sex with his hot wife Sallie.

Arthur is the last boomer. He even went to Woodstock. He made a fortune in finance and retired at age 35 to pursue “dark studies” about the boundary between life and death. In the early 20th century, he made even more money after inventing a switch for quantum computers.
His obsession is conquering death and for that he has enlisted Bob, a research scientist. (As far as I can tell, Bob never gets a last name. I suspect his name is Bing’s knowing joke on the “As you know, Bob” cliché. But it’s Bob who does a lot of the explaining here.) Bob has an attractive assistant named Bronwyn who thinks Bob is a good guy with a “loose moral compass”.

Bob has created Gene, the fourth iteration of a project to create a human body for Arthur to download his consciousness to. 3-D printed to spec, Gene is supposed to have just enough function and consciousness to work independently but not enough to interfere with Arthur’s goal. Gene is an amiable sort of person, fitted with some knowledge (courtesy of Bob who used some of his own memories and knowledge), and not a lot of memories.

But, when the project nears completion and Gene is brought around for Arthur to examine, things start to go wrong. Especially after Sallie looks approvingly at Gene’s body and says she hopes they will become good friends. Gene begins to suspect what’s planned for him and bolts to reunite with a woman he dimly remembers loving, a schoolteacher named Livia.

But, when you have a cranial tracking device and are up against the security forces of a trillionaire, you aren’t going to get far, and Gene is reeled in.

The project proceeds. Arthur takes up residence in Gene’s skull.

And then we begin to learn of two conspiracies: Arthur’s plan to sell his immorality to his fellow trillionaires in exchange for control of the Cloud and a shadowy group of rebels led by Master Tim (modelled, I suspect, on Apple Chairman Tim Cook) who plan on stopping him and hitting the reset button on this civilization. Livia and Bronwyn are members of that group.

The book is quite funny in parts with robot cops, a security head whose principal asset and liability is his stupidity, banter between Bob and Gene, Gene really only being able to wrest control of his body from Arthur by being wasted on liquor all the time, and Sallie being appalled by the man she loves returning to the top of his form.

But this isn’t the usual adventure of rebels fighting a system by attacking its one Achilles Heel – another cliché Bing acknowledges. It’s a serious look at the technodreams of our current elites.

This is a world of uploaded minds, cranial implants, augmented reality, transhumanism, and life extension. But it’s not yet reached the Singularity the rebels fear.

In this future, only the coastal cities and Chicago are under full corporate control. The Real United States of America, full of citizens who have resisted brain implants, lives in the heartland, a market that Arthur wants to exploit, a group he wants to rule.

At a crucial meeting of the world’s CEOs, we learn all is not well. (And, significantly, this is mostly news only to the world’s richest man).
While medicine has advanced to the point where more people die of household accidents than anything else, society has become very risk-adverse. Indeed, the vehicles on Arthur’s corporate campus move no faster than 15 mph. There is overcrowding. Automation like self-driving vehicles have created a passive and workforce with plenty of time to consult “internal-electronics” and further divorce themselves from “real experience”. They can live a full day without an “analog experience”. Teledildonics have allowed people to divorce themselves from human contact even during sex. Humans 2.0 --“enhanced individuals – are more capable but explode and are “extremely fungible”, representing “yet another demotivator for people who are already prone to inertia, indolence, and virtual existence”. Extended life means multiple sexual partners and marriage.

“Extended intergenerational families from such multiple unions take up massive amounts of space and sometimes create creatures of . . . uncertain legitimacy”

(Is Bing hinting at massive dwellings with incest going on?)

The use of cranial implants is leading to brain centers of undirected thinking atrophying. The workforce has no competition to work against and no chance of promotion and no sense of ownership. Productivity is down and. Disorganization and malaise are up.

You can argue about the validity of some of these extrapolations, but it’s hard to argue with all or another passage which notes that, in a world of instant connectivity and knowledge embedded in the Cloud, even the professionals of this world don’t really know much anymore. They just know how to look things up.

At 290 pages, it’s a fast-paced, funny, but serious satire that ends on a note of ambiguity which may strike some as unsatisfying in its coda, but that’s a minor quibble. This novel deserves to be better known as an examination about the merits of extending life too far.

Bitter and biting, this indictment of corporate dealings zig-zags from wry to deadly serious to cheap-shots with examples real and legendary. Published in 2004, proto-45 is more frequently mentioned than Warren Buffet. Full of awful Tzutsy Tzuff, ending on tzissy wistful note.

Tepid at best, and quite shallow.

L'ha regalato a un mio amico il suo capo (che per inciso non gli dà lo strameritato aumento che richiede da circa tre anni), e fin qui. L'idea è divertente ma, un po' perché non posso cogliere i riferimenti al mondo aziendale statunitense (meno male!), un po' perché è troppo poco impegnativo anche come lettura durante la colazione... Io abbandono i libri a malincuore, ma direi che questo caso fa eccezione.

Chock full of anecdotes that back up his conclusions, Bing provides narratives for the five worst case bosses: bully, paranoid, narcissist, wimp, and disaster hunter - and even those who are combos. He's really a humor writer but the subject is seriously important, especially when it comes to the impact that hating these people (justifiably) can have on your own life and mental health.

Quotes: "Senior management is proud of its craziness. They eat it for breakfast. They roll in it. In their great craziness, there is strength."

Re: Donald Trump (2007 edition) "Figure of fun for several decades, know for outlandish and entertaining inability to implement impulse control; now perhaps the most successful individual on the planet at marketing his own pathologies to a mass audience."

"Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, was concerned about the fact that the company couldn't seem to retain its top talent. So he called a meeting to discusss it - at 6 PM on the Friday before the July 4th weekend."

"My bad boss was a convenient excuse for everything that was wrong in my life."

"The paranoid: capable of great, intense emotion but virtually no actual feeling."

"Anxiety and distrust are without question the sanest reaction to life as we know it. Rational paranoia is therefore endemic."

"In America most of all, the guy who believes he's the lone redwood standing at the edge of the bold frontier can be found in every business that employs more than one person. We're all guilty of this convenient personal myth, to a certain degree."

"The disaster artist: he's like a kid that, when caught eating candy, immediately shoves another huge handful into his mouth."

"A procrastinator lives life on the edge and needs the drug of terror to get the job done not well, but at all."

Plainly speaking, Immortal Life is a disappointment. Meant to be a satirical cautionary tale, it falls victim to its attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor. Meant as a nod and a wink to savvy readers, its references to tech industry titans have all the feel of convenient name-dropping. The story is choppy, and the science is nonsensical. Rest assured, this is no Andy Weir blockbuster, although it is valiantly attempting to be just like it.

There is no doubt that mankind has always been obsessed with living longer and finding that fountain of youth. The premise that the über rich are actively seeking ways to live forever is not a stretch of the imagination. What will strike readers as odd is the fact that it is the tech titans who are funding this immortality research. Mr. Bing mentions almost all of them by first name to leave no doubts that he means those giants of industry who created Apple and Microsoft and Tesla and all the rest. These are supposedly the men funding projects that would prolong their lives – using everything from bio-engineering to artificial intelligence to DNA cloning.

The thing is that if Mr. Bing had done his research, he would know that these titans have actively warned against the use of artificial intelligence in any form. They have warned about the ethical issues with bio-engineering. Their concerns are for the future of humanity, and they are not alone in that regard. They sit right alongside the likes of Stephen Hawking when touting the idea that artificial intelligence and robotics will mean the end of mankind. Knowing this information, it makes the entire premise that these One Percenters would ever go so far as to use robotic arms, legs, and internal organs to extend their lives, let along clone another human being into which they could transfer their personalities, utterly preposterous.

Granted, no one reading Immortal Life could ever take it as science fact or even science potential. The science portions of the story are laughable. If anything these passages read more like wishful thinking rather than anything possible right now. The theories mentioned and the science used throughout the novel have no basis in reality. For a science fiction novel, it appears to be more fantasy than science-based.

All this brings me back to the idea that Immortal Life is supposed to be a satire, but one has to wonder what exactly it is trying mock. One can see the ridicule of our obsession with youth, looking young and staying fit as long as possible. However, it is difficult to take the novel seriously let alone use it as a magnifying glass to highlight faults within modern society. In attempting to scorn certain trends, the story goes too far into the incredulous making it ineffective at the very thing it was trying to do.

Review: Sue Tzu Was A Sissy by Stanley Bing.

I guess this book could be taken as humorous or appalling or perhaps a little of both. Bing uses the business sector as his prodigy messenger to unleash his comments and opinions into a military style context. I know it’s supposed to be humorous and a lot of it was but was it done properly. There were chapters on the adversarial qualities of short and tall people and fat and skinny people among other issues although like all humor, someone somewhere will take offence. I’m one who doesn’t take offence but you never know….

Stanley Bing supplied plenty of puns and dark humor scattered throughout the book. I believe anyone taking this book, attempting to use some of the context for strategy in their business might want to think twice. If you have acquaintances and happy co-workers you might have just shone them the door…..

I feel this book was written for the intent of pleasure and some serious fun poked at modern business methods with an occasional jab by a justified prod straight to anyone who’s trying to achieve climbing the ladder to the top. I guess anyone can say it was written in a moment of harmony to be read by all walks of adventure….. Life is a battle…..

O colunista da revista Fortune condensa 1.200 anos da história de Roma numa breve e loucamente divertida sátira para homens de negócios

Funny book about what BS some jobs can be...It ranges from Barista to Donald Trump to Pundit to Vice President.

A hilarious mix of business research and classic history or a metaphor too far? Never mind, this book is hilarious and makes for great weekend reading.

Mõnusa huumori ja irooniaga budistlikus Zen kastmes kirjutatud bossi ohjamise õpik. Raamatus mõtestatakse eluterve huumori abiga lahti töötaja staatus ja roll ning antakse näpunäiteid kuidas oma positsiooniga rahul olla ja seda ülemuse oskusliku juhtimisega nauditavaks muuta.
Elevante, kes on raamatus bossi allegooriliseks võrdkujuks võib kohata ka töösuhte välistes suhetes. Elevante iseloomustab üldiselt egoistlik, omakasule ning oma ihade rahuldamisele orienteeritud käitumine: pragmaatilisus ja ärakasutamine üle võrdsena võtmise ja empaatia. Aga seepärast ta ongi see, kes ta on.
Kui see raamat viitsimatusest õpetust ellu rakendada, või millest iganes, ei viigi meisterliku ülemuse juhtimise ja nn elevandi heitmiseni, mis on ülemuse ohjamise kõrgem tase, aitab see kindlasti kaasa oma positsiooni ja ülemuse kergemini, läbi huumoriprisma, võtmisele. Võib olla hakkadki nägema, et tegu on loomaga keda selles raamatus nii tabavalt kirjeldatakse ja ümber käima õpetatakse. :)

Bing tries to summarize the successful tips Machiavelli lays out in "The Prince". Bing acknowledges that this is not a stratagem for personal satisfaction. It is only a professional guide to mirroring the debased behavior of other notorious practitioners of corporate management. Bing is not the the most astute reader of Machiavelli but he does find consistently paralleled examples from American business executives. Machiavelli claimed to be the best of observers about behind the scenes use of/threat of force, both past and present. Bing, as a Machiavellian, urges blind activity until the inevitable downfall of the reader. This book is a clever listing of some of the worst recent business decisions. He then satirically shows how these people weren't thoroughly Machiavellian enough.

I am a Bing fan but this is outdated, written during the dawn of the technological boom. I believe it's be updated and re-published. I will have to check that out...

An amusing diversion from some of the touchy feeling "fictional" management accounts I'm reading. Funny, with some rather sharp jabs at some of the people at the top of the food chain.

One might get tempted to start acting like Stanley Bing recommends in the book. Don't. You're not smart enough or dedicated enough.

Unless you are, in which case you didn't just listen to me.

He manages to capture some of the essential principles of Machiavelli: Work hard. Gather information. Control people and pay close attention to their actions and motivations.

Bing just adds another twist. If you are good at being a Prince, you can also be an obnoxious, whiny, manipulative infant. To a point.

The analogy is only mildly clever as delivered. I felt the author went for the one-liner rather than the content. I found it shallow and disappointing.½

I love Stanley Bing. I even loved his podcasts early in 2006. I have been known to really laugh out loud reading his essays. But this book is just mean. Maybe I have worked for too many people following these rules and succeeding. All I can say is that I never laughed. I rarely cracked a smile. I'm glad this book was short, because the sooner over, the better.½

I couldn't really enjoy this book because the main character is just such a sleazeball.½

As a former student of Latin and Roman history, I greatly appreciated this book and actually understood much of the satire contained within the pages. I would not recommend this book to everyone - but if you love all things Roman or you have had Roman history pounded into your head by your magister, this book is for you!

FIRST LINE: "After nearly 6,000 years of evidence on the subject, one thing stands clear: the people who end up as leaders in any organization, large or small, are often the craziest guys around."

LAST LINE: "Summon ony your enmity and intelligent defiance for thos who stand in your way."

A good read, SB always is. But should not have been used as a vacation book.

If an elephant stomps on your head and there is no one around to see it, did it stomp on your head at all?
The answer is yes, if that elephant is your boss. Can anything be done about these enormous, gray, and sometimes smelly beasts? The answer is yes, if you know Business Zen. For thousands of years, Zen masters have plumbed the secrets of the universe while wearing comfortable clothing. Now you, too, can learn the wisdom of the ancients and win valuable prizes.
It may be easier than you dare to imagine. Don't you already spend a good part of your day sitting and thinking about nothing for hours on end? That's Zen! You're already doing it!
In this simple little handbook, Throwing the Elephant, Stanley Bing, the master of Machiavellian meanness, offers the nicest possible way to manipulate one's executive elephant to achieve enlightenment -- and power.

A very funny but slight book about real nightmare jobs (or dream jobs that are not what they may appear to be)and how to get them. Better to borrow from the library than to pay for.

A cute book with a dry satire of business advice, including such bits as that the best CEOs kill their enemies and convince their middle managers that they are gods. Although occasionally it goes for one-liners, it generally uses deadpan mode. I actually picked up a good deal of Roman history from it -- which either says something about the book, or about my ignorance of classical civilization.½

This is not my favorite Stanley Bing book becuase its just a collection of his articles. While he puts them together so that they are relevant this still does not read well to me. Yet another example of an author taking something made for a daily newspaper and gathering it together to make into a book. Somehow the transition does not work or maybe I need to just read one article a day with a cup of coffee rather than trying to read it like a normla book.

Another excellent book by Stanley Bing. I found myself laughing out loud several times. THe book has made me a lover of this man's work.