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One of my high school english teachers hated Who Moved My Cheese. She said that anyone in my Freshman class could write a more worthwhile, better written book.
Posts: 1015 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote: 7 Habits, as I understand it, teaches skills for a good life. I think your distaste for it comes from thinking it is also teaching the desirable attributes for a good life.
I think that it's the skills first approach that I worry about. It could be simply that I don't like formulas, especially life formulas, kind of like how I get on you about your katie rules for forum behavior. I imagine I'd be an awful military man. I waver between thinking that it's merely a distaste for those kind of rules, in which case, it's not a moral issue and is not a mark on anyone's characters, or rather, if the existence of rules, formulas, and strategies at the core of ones comportment in life belies thinking upon life or a single phenomenon in its particularity, in which case, placing strategy/skills first in apprehending this world and the demands for your conduct in it is a mark on the quality of a given person's character.
(Thanks for taking out my "w"s, btw, it is a dear thing.)
quote:It could be simply that I don't like formulas, especially life formulas, kind of like how I get on you about your katie rules for forum behavior, or something like that. I imagine I'd be an awful military man.
You probably wouldn't thrive in the military, that's true. I think Katie's Rules for Life are great, but more so because I don't use them much anymore. I don't need to.
I think of the 7 Habits, from what I understand, as a map to achieve something better. The part about seeking to understand before seeking to be understood? That's not a path to an odious end - true communication is a worthy part of any life.
I think the reason I am so forgiving of them is because I think they are Life's User Manuals, and I deals with user manuals all the time. No one likes to read user manuals, and if someone is reading one, it's because they are frustrated because what they want to have happen isn't happening. There is definitely a range of quality among user manuals, but the fact that the category exists evidences a need for them.
quote:I think that the existence of rules, formulas, and strategy, at the core of ones comportment to life belies thinking upon life or a single phenomenon in its particularity.
The lack of thinking would only come if people read and applied techniques and strategies without considering why they are doing so. I don't think using a map implies a permanently lost condition.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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