Linchpinism

 

           “Linchpin” is a professional development text written by Seth Godin and published in 2010 by Penguin Group. Godin is a best-selling author, but he can also be described as an entrepreneur, public speaker, and marketing guru. In this text, he sets out to teach readers about what he feels workers must become in the modern world: linchpins. The alternative to the linchpin is the cog, and readers are instructed to avoid being a cog at all costs. Stories of successful, ingenious go-getters are sprinkled throughout; Godin tells us anecdote after anecdote of these linchpins—from Darienne Page, receptionist to Barack Obama's White House, to Virgin Airlines founder Richard Branson. What qualities do these people share, making them linchpins? In one way or another, their services are indispensable.

            The text is broken down into an introduction, twelve chapters, and a summary. Each chapter is broken down into numerous subheadings, rarely more than a page long (about twenty-five per chapter), relating to the topic at hand. There are also several hand-drawn diagrams referred to in the text (e.g. a Venn diagram where the linchpin is found at the center of charm, talent and perseverance on page 43). Godin's tone is persuasive if not overbearing—certain terms and concepts are repeated over and over (e.g. linchpin, cog, shipping, make art, etc.). He employs a sort of no-nonsense, tough love approach to offer a wake-up call to those readers who have not yet seen the tell-tale signs of a changing world for themselves. Also, interestingly enough, Godin seems to set out to squash gender stereotypes in his writing. Instead of using “one,” “he,” or even “he or she” when referring to the subject of potential situations described, he almost exclusively uses the pronoun “she.”

            According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, a linchpin is literally a locking pin inserted crosswise as through the end of the axle or shaft, and figuratively a person that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unit. A cog, in contrast, is defined as a tooth on the rim of a wheel or gear and metaphorically as a subordinate but integral person or part. Godin sets out to translate these metaphors to the tenor of the American worker.

            For the last two hundred years, it was okay to be a cog. In fact, it was the American Dream to strive to be a brainless cog as a means to a nice house and a comfortable retirement. Godin goes so far as to say that certain elements of our society (namely the education system) were deliberately constructed to churn out this cog-type worker: “it's about overcoming a multigenerational conspiracy designed to sap your creativity and restlessness (2).”  Godin offers a long list of what modern schools are “teaching kids to do (with various levels of success).” On this list are things such as fit in, follow instructions, don't challenge authority, do the minimum amount required, be a generalist, and move on once you learn a topic. We are, in short, breeding mediocrity. Achieving average scores, in American schools (with already low standards), is a feat worthy of praise. Godin counters, saying that in order to address the needs of our society, we should actually only be teaching two things in our schools: to solve interesting problems, and to lead (45-47).

             In the current economic climate, factory jobs that have historically provided secure employment to innumerable cogs are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Godin extends the definition of a factory outside of the conventional sense, to any organization “that has it figured out, a place where people go to do what they're told and earn a paycheck (40).” He gives examples of failed factories, such as print newspapers too busy following established industry protocol to see that radical adaptation is a must for survival. In order to achieve job security and be considered generally employable now, Godin ventures, the linchpins are the ones with the competitive edge. Godin systematically and almost redundantly emphasizes this point (“there are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do [14].”), describing just how and why this dichotomy and shift occurred.

            Once Godin has established why the American Dream was the way it was, as well as how and why it is no longer viable, he spends the remainder of the text detailing elements of what he sees as the next necessary step: becoming the linchpin. He explains the exact characteristics of a linchpin: linchpins make art by giving gifts of emotional labor, and a great deal of time is spent on the topic of art. An artist is defined as a person “with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done (8).”

             There are several elements of being a linchpin as defined by Godin that are personally intriguing to me. For one, he encourages that the purpose of starting is to finish, and regardless of relative readiness, one should “ship” on the ship date (103). Now, this concept makes me slightly uncomfortable, as my perfectionist self often has a hard time producing any kind of sub-par work. I can see the value in Godin's shipping policy though, because my ego nags me more often than I'd like to admit and as a result, in the absence of 100% quality work, too often 0% quality work gets shipped (aka nothing). To accomplish this shipping goal, another novel idea: do all editing at the beginning of a project. Later in the text, Godin adds another layer to this concept when he says that “we shouldn't bother doing it if all we're going to do is do it (197).” Put your all into everything you do, he seems to be saying, and when it still isn't good enough on ship day, get it out anyway.

            At the core, Godin teaches universal life lessons about passion—on page 190 he talks about how opportunities come after you're inspired and not vice versa. He's driving home an age-old adage: do what you love and you'll be happy (because you'll be doing art), but with a caveat—if you don't, you won't have job security anymore. However, it is difficult to conceptualize how realistic the linchpin business model is for a universal audience. It depends upon an us vs. them mentality—Godin isn't speaking to everyone. On page 202, he lists the linchpin's only, two, “elegant” options:

 

1.      Hire plenty of factory workers. Scale like crazy. Take advantage of the fact that most people want a map, most people are willing to work cheaply, most people want to be the factory. You win because you extract the value of their labor, the labor they're surrendering too cheaply.

2.      Find a boss who can't live without a linchpin. Find a boss who adequately values your scarcity and your contribution, who will reward you with freedom and respect. Do the work. Make a difference.

 

This brings up the ethics of being a linchpin. Unless you want to be managed, the act of being a linchpin is inherently dependent upon the continued exploitation of cogs. Throughout the text, over and over, we are told in various ways, “let someone else do cog job x—you're a linchpin.” So the logic is slightly flawed—Godin's premise rides on the fact that anyone can pick up this book and learn the tools of linchpinism. He convinces us that this is a necessary avenue to any kind of real or lasting future success. We are reassured and convinced that we are all capable of making art and becoming linchpins, but it is understood that not everyone will. It's like an exclusive club, and only suckers are cogs—but they are still necessary in society. And often a linchpin's success depends upon those cogs.

            All in all I did like the book, in that it uniquely underlines what is essential to living a fulfilled life—finding passion, love, and true enjoyment in what you do. In a way, readers are presented with a wonderful opportunity: as the security of the cog-til-retirement career path becomes less and less of a realistic option, we have no choice but to find this fulfillment  The problem, it would then seem, lies in the interim period. As it stands now, our schools are still effectively punishing artists and rewarding bureaucrats. If we were properly encouraging creativity in schools, we would be effectively nourishing individuals in tune with their passions and aware of what kind of art they excel at; we would be growing people capable of drawing their personal map to becoming a linchpin.

~ Amanda Pratt~

           

Magnum Opus

I reluctantly sat at my grandmother’s kitchen table as she feed me piping-hot chicken noodle soup and a piece of fresh rye bread. I was twelve years old and my world was very simple and easy. My existence revolved around me trying to fulfill all of my petty, self-centered desires. I would not take no for an answer. There was nothing that I went without. Suffering was foreign.

         “You know Collin, Nannie came over to the United States during the Russian Revolution. It was not easy for her to come into America. She needed to know someone in America. Thankfully she knew someone in Buffalo.”
     
         I blew on my soup and rolled my eyes at the story I had heard a multitude of times. The story that my grandmother held so close to her heart was so far from my realm of existence; I lived in America, the land of opportunity. I never knew what it was like to be denied something.

    “I know Grandma. You told me this story a million times. I remember. Uncle Max shot his finger off so he didn’t have to fight for the Russian Army. I know Grandma, horrible.”

I never understood the hardships, the pain and turmoil, but I also could not understand the beauty and pride that lays precedence in the hearts of the Russian people, until I attended Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poetry reading at the University at Buffalo on November 1st. When I received an invitation to attend the reading, I was not sure what his reading was going to entail: what themes were laden in his poems? Was he going to speak solely in Russian? I had never heard of Yevtushenko, so I was curious to see what his poetry was like. After conducting some of my own research, I discovered that Yevtushenko is an outspoken political activist, writer, poet, dramatist, and filmmaker who opposed many of the Soviet Union’s ideologies. His magnum opus, “Babi Yar,” discussed the Soviet Union’s down play of the horrific events that occurred in a Kiev ravine, in which 34,000 Jewish people lost their lives during the Holocaust. This poem inspired the noted Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovich, to write his “Symphony No. 13.”

Before attending Yevtushenko’s reading, my fellow attendees and I met to discuss some of his poetry. The discussion turned to aesthetics, and how and why we gauge meaning and value from various forms of art.  We discussed the differences between mainstream and commercial art in comparison to “high-brow” literature and visual art. We talked about how certain forms of art make us work harder to contextualize and formulate an understanding of meaning, how if good art allows for its participant to create their own meaning. I was curious to see if Yevtushenko’s poetry fit on this spectrum.

       When we arrived at Lippes Concert Hall on UB’s North Campus, I realized I was surrounded by predominately Russian-speaking Americans. The lobby was full of people conversing in this immensely tonal, beautifully soft, consonant/vowel language. It was refreshing to hear individuals speaking their native tongue, not feeling obligated to conform to Western culture’s predominantly English-speaking standards. Inside the actual venue was incredible: the concert hall showcased a brass organ perched up high over the stage, looking out with its splendid symmetry and grandeur. It was overwhelming. The concert hall started to fill and I could not help but overhear all the Russian being spoken around me. It was almost as though the majority of the Russian-speaking population came out to acknowledge and remember their home country and traditions.
       
          When Yevtushenko graced the stage, he had a presence unlike anything I had experienced. He had passion- a fire in his eyes that was unparalleled to anything I had seen. It was like he had a memory of the past that was haunting him, and when he looked at the audience, you felt that emotion sitting in the pit of your stomach. The poet was also accompanied by three English students: Daniel J. Schweitzer, a Ph.D. candidate in American literature; Paige Melin, a senior English and French dual major; and Jennifer Johnson, a senior English and theatre and dance major. It was then that I learned that Yevtushenko’s reading was going to involve a diverse array of speakers, and would be recited in both English and Russian. The exchange of stanza reading in which one of the students recite a verse, and then Yevtushenko would recite the next stanza was incredibly interesting. Here you had an American college student who was doing their best to read Yevtushenko’s poetry with the poet sitting right next to them, potentially worrying that their reading would not do the poem’s emotive rhetoric justice.
         
        I think the readers did a good job striving to recite the poem with the proper emotion at the proper time. At times there was an immense contrast between reader’s tonality and reading style, but I felt that when a plethora of readers recite different parts of poem, there are going to be differences in projection.  It was also fascinating to hear certain stanzas in English and Russian, because while I got some context from the English speaking stanzas, when I was hearing the Russian verses I had to go solely off my imagination which was dictated by Yevtushenko’s tone, rhythm, and overall dramatic approach. This was not entirely the case for the vast majority of attendants, who were most likely bilingual speakers who understood both the English and the Russian. It is hard enough to gain an understanding of most poetry, let alone poetry read in a completely different language; through this, I came to the realization that language is everything when trying to understand another human being, and we often endure disconnect and misunderstanding because of languages inability to fully articulate a situation. For me, I was left, essentially to the status of an infant because I could only go by Yevtushenko’s tone to gain the meaning.
    
        When Yevtushenko did speak English, he was relatively inaudible and the language failed to stick in my brain. At times Yevtushenko was shrieking, and at other times he was quiet. I had to infer the truth of what I made an inference of what I thought the overall theme or mood of the poem was based solely off the reader’s emotion. My vulnerability and susceptibility to the language of the reader was very humbling and made me come to the conclusion at how vast the world really is, and how little I have seen or experienced.

        It was here that I remembered my grandmother, who constantly tried to help me understand a past that I never really connected to until I heard Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poetry. After the reading, I felt I had been transported to a different part of time and life that my grandmother was trying to get me to see. Language can transcend time and place, and it took a world-renowned poet to make me realize that power.


~Collin Schreiner~

 

 

 

The Hunger Games…feeding its readers a steady diet of violence, romance, and hardships.

                The namesake of The Hunger Games comes from an annual tradition, brought about by the government of Panem after they brutally put down a revolt by the citizens in its outlying districts 74 years ago.  The Hunger Games pits one male and one female teenager from each district, 24 in total, against each other in a battle of survival.  This, to show those districts that "The Capitol" is in charge.  The Capitol gets the best while the other districts get the rest.

                Why is this book so popular? Well, there are many relatable elements.  This is a Dystopian coming of age novel, where a 16 year old teenage girl faces a series of trials and tribulations and survives but sees others she cares about get injured and die, sometimes grotesquely.  A Dystopian novel which takes place in what's an alternate reality of America, where a small overprivileged majority rule over an underprivileged minority that is trampled underfoot.  Doesn't that sound like today's society?  Our lady protagonist is named Katniss Everdeen, the daughter of a late coal miner.  Our male protagonist is Peeta Mellark, the well-built young son of a baker.  Girls will swoon over the star-crossed teenage lovers and the strapping young lads.  Boys will swoon over that adventurous girl Katniss that's into guy things.   Be careful though, or she'll shoot you in the eye with her silver bow.   Yes, they'll also be into the weapons and violence.  Lastly, this includes a classic socioeconomic good versus evil struggle.  In other words, something for everyone. 

                As for my personal thoughts on this book, let's get down to it.  Before I read this book, I instinctively thought of this series as a reboot of Twilight, only without a pregnant vampire and werewolves.  But it's not.  When I read The Hunger Games, I'm not infuriated by thoughts of Rob Pattinson, a modern-day Casper the Ghost with fangs and an emo attitude.  I'm intrigued by a female protagonist who uses a combination of ingenuity, dexterity, and wit to outsmart her foes, which includes The Capitol; she's MacGyver with a braid.  I'm intrigued by the violence of the games, which relies on sheer brutality as much as it relies on the survival skills of the "Tributes".  Lastly, I'm intrigued by the technology at the disposal of The Capitol, controlling the climate controlled Hunger Games arena which is replete with weather controls, fireballs, and mutated wasps and dogs, just to name a few things.  Oh, and hoverplanes to pick up the dead tributes.  Nice touch. 

                I will say that I willingly read this book AND watched the movie, without a girlfriend forcing me to, either.   This book resonates in so many sectors of society that you can't help but pick it up and read… 

~Jason A. Wright~

A Politically Incorrect Love Story

          For this book autopsy, I have read a book by Canadian author Henry Makow called A Long Way to go for a Date.  The book is about the author's experiences traveling to the Philippines to meet a woman he's met through a correspondence service.  This story takes place in 1998, where dial-up ruled the Internet and cell phone technology was in its infancy.  He goes there as a late 40's man, there to meet a girl for marriage that's nearly half his age.  Do I have your attention yet?

          Having been to the Philippines many times and having travelled throughout Manila and several different provinces, I've seen a few of the areas that are discussed by Makow.  He describes life in rural provinces very well, with many Filipinos in those areas working long and hard hours for low pay just to support their families.

          Makow labels himself as a man scarred by Feminism and the expectations of Western women and he is unapologetic in wanting a woman who is submissive and who wants a more "traditional" household.  On the back of this book, it is described as an "ironic, politically incorrect diary of a quest for masculine identity".  It is most certainly filled with irony and politically incorrect language and situations.  Makow seems to be author who has indeed lost his "masculine identity" since his divorce.  Yes, he's divorced and has a son from his first marriage.

          As for the story itself, he decides to embark on a journey to find a second wife; this time, in the Philippines.  To say that Makow is culturally inept would be accurate.  He has a very hard time adjusting to Filipino culture and just refuses to accept some of the cultural norms of the Philippines.  In the long run, it's his loss.  He uses many humorous anecdotes in his ultimately unsuccessful efforts to appreciate Filipino culture.  Personally, I have a deep admiration for the Filipino people who have learned to live a simple life; a simple life that sometimes involves hard work for low pay.  This is something I could never do, I'll admit it.  The Philippines has a rich and deep culture, some of which can only be truly appreciated by born and raised Filipinos. 

          The story follows Makow as he meets Cecilia, his future bride, as well as her friends and family.  It follows his trials and tribulations in relating to her and arranging for their marriage.  It also shows why a late 40's man should never marry a woman who isn't even 20, no matter where he's from.  There's just an incredible difference in maturity.   Haven't you all heard of the half plus seven rule? A man should only consider dating a woman who is no younger than half his age plus seven years.  By that math, a 46 year old man shouldn't date someone younger than 30.  The age difference goes for both genders…immaturity at that age isn't gender-specific.  And if you're 18-21 now and think I'm a jerk for saying that, wait until you're 30 and take another look at that age group.

          Cecilia, in the beginning of this tale, is a beautiful and thoughtful woman.  Her parents are very hard working, particularly her father.  When she can't find the right words to tell Makow how she feels, she takes the time to write letters to him in English, many of which are reproduced in this story.  (Spoiler ahead, read on to last paragraph). However, as the story progresses, you will see that wedded bliss is not in the cards for her or Henry Makow.

          As a future husband, he doesn't have patience with Filipino culture nor does he have it with his future wife.  He doesn't sugarcoat things and speaks his mind plainly; whereas, in Filipino culture, some things are just better left unsaid or handled in private.  Some readers of this book might throw Makow under the bus and blame everything on him.  However, these readers apparently don't take into account the part of the book where Makow and Cecilia are trying to live a married life in Winnipeg where he resides.  His once submissive bride takes to talking to 100's of men on the Internet, goes into fits of rage for minor reasons, trashes the house, has him falsely jailed for domestic abuse (more than once), and even gets jealous of his teenage son from his 1st marriage.  I'm sorry, but no matter what he said or did previously, cut him some slack at that point.  He finally manages to divorce her after nearly two years of being with her.  Before the divorce is finalized, she flies to the US to meet up with a sailor stationed in San Diego, with Makow's blessings.  She marries him less than six months after the divorce became final. 

          Now, for some of my final thoughts.  I don't excuse Makow's behavior.  He had no business marrying someone less than half his age.  He clearly didn't respect or even understand a lot about Filipino culture.  His motives for going to the Philippines for a woman were grounded in a dislike for the attitudes of Western woman, which is also wrong.  In that regard, a man should marry a woman for who she is, not for the other women who are not.  I don't excuse Cecilia's behavior, either.  If she wanted to be with other men, she could have been the one to initiate the divorce, instead of making his life in Winnipeg a living hell.  Henry Makow isn't one of the more well-known authors out there; however, A Long Way to go for a Date is a good read, particularly for those that are more culturally well-rounded. 

-Jason A. Wright