I’m just going to put something out there. Something that is completely obvious to anyone that knows me, even just a little bit: I love to work alone on my own projects. I love to work alone so much that, as a musician, I have consistently failed to find a band because I feel like I want complete creative control over my songs. I love to work on my own projects at a steady, yet productive pace in an environment that I have tailored to suit my own creative needs. I love to work alone so much that I resent the thought of working as a relatively insignificant part of a vastly larger system, let alone working directly underneath somebody. Is this a weakness? Absolutely. A massive weakness by the standards of any human being that is thinking rationally about a safe form of income. But, I also consider it a gigantic strength in many contexts, because if we all just thought about everything that could happen in our lives based on what is most likely, we would all be miserable. I am a stubborn person. I will never stop until I have constructed a life for myself in exactly the way that I want it. I am a level-headed fanatic. Calmly hell-bent. A juggernaut that will burst through the staunch, condescending walls of likelihood into a land of satisfaction and fulfilment using only sheer determination and one heavily used acoustic guitar … But I digress. Once again, I draw attention to my hatred of working as a cog, and that is where our class readings come in.
The second that the books were announced to us, I knew that I would resent these first two. I read the titles and examined the back covers, and I was unhappy. Leadership Jazz? Fabulous. Another old white guy, a product of the macho, non-PC mid-1900s, to tell me that I need to have ethics in a work environment. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity? Good thing I read it, otherwise I might have changed into a tyrannical, soulless robot concerned only with my company’s profits. And you know what? I honestly do not believe that these books are that bad. I can be upset all I want that I had to read them in my college class, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles. I simply must learn to let go of my preconceived notion that I can save myself from things I don’t like all the time, and accept that these books are absolutely not written for me. I mean, these books even are good to read for some of the people in this class that are in internships and that have an interest in becoming managers. All I can do now is admit that my frustrations are futile, petty, and perhaps even unjust. They commonly are in general. However, I still feel the way that I do, and these books have simply been another exercise for me in doing something that I have to do that I do not find valuable to my long-term goals.
Of the two, Leadership Jazz was definitely worse. I think that it’s a book written by an old white guy for old white guys in upper management. Not only were none of his ideas interesting (I actually found his was of thinking about “celibacy” irritating and borderline insufferable), but he is actually a very bad writer. He writes with awful transitions, goes on tangents, and thinks it’s a good idea to have endless lists in each chapter. Not an enjoyable read to me in the slightest. I doubt I even would have liked it if I had any interest in management. I believe firmly that the values that are presented in books like this are not meant to reach young people. I was raised, as basically every liberal my age was, with a set of values that places the importance of stable relationships in the forefront. “Treat others how you want to be treated.” “Be fair.” “There are consequences for your actions.” Maybe these ideas are new to people that are incredibly out of touch and in a position of power or privilege, but these things are instilled in me and my peers to a drastic degree. So, I don’t disagree with this book. I was just incredibly frustrated the entire time reading it.
Radical Candor was a bit better. A bit… Though it was certainly an update, it also simply seemed like just that… A better version of Leadership Jazz. It was far more bearable to read, and her diagrams helped put her points into a form that is more tangible to me, but ultimately it felt like she was just trying to say the exact same thing in different ways the whole time: be nice to your co-workers. Again, the same point can be made about the relevance of that point to a younger generation. I’m certainly not saying that this generation of young people is flawless and would never benefit from books like this, but I am saying a group of liberal college students, especially at this hyper liberal college, are just not going to find the points that are made here interesting or revolutionary.
Honestly, that’s all I have to say other than that I really look forward to the other books for this quarter. I kind of have to. I really am holding out hope for some quality reads that will enrich my life and allow me to think in ways I never have before. Here’s to the future.