Invisible Women and Juliet's School of Possibilities

INVISIBLE WOMEN by Caroline Criado Perez offers an intriguing, if sometimes dense, look at “Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.”  Perez, a feminist advocate, explores workplace and medical issues in addition to numerous other examples from daily life where the use of data perpetuates bias and discriminates against women.   Her examples fit nicely with recent press coverage like “A Fix for Gender Bias in Health Care? Check” from The New York Times. Perez provides nearly seventy pages of references and relevant links which have already been of great benefit to our student researchers.  Her work raises so many subtle decisions favoring men (e.g., calorie count on treadmills based on average male weight).  However, (perhaps because of living in London?) she does not include much discussion of the impact of data and discrimination in sports; that is a bit surprising given the disparities in media coverage and recent lawsuit by the US National Women’s Soccer Team.  Perez does include fairly lengthy sections on parental leave and unpaid work, which again could tie to recent media coverage (“Women Did Everything Right. Then Work Got ‘Greedy’”). Overall, INVISIBLE WOMEN offers an important look at systemic bias that merits further discussion and research. 

JULIET'S SCHOOL OF POSSIBILITIES by Laura Vanderkam is subtitled “A Little Story About the Power of Priorities” and is reminiscent of business fables like Who Moved My Cheese? Or Fish! Vanderkam also has a popular TED Talk about work/life balance and she has produced several podcasts on related topics. Her new text introduces Riley Jenkins, a twenty-something who has always excelled through hard work and yet receives a poor performance review as well as concerned feedback from friends and family.  Riley heads to a weekend women’s retreat where she meets Juliet, a working Mom who finds time to mentor Riley and others, offering advice like: “We always have time for what matters to us.” And “You cannot do everything. The choice to meet one expectation is always a choice to not meet another.”  Using the power of story, JULIET'S SCHOOL OF POSSIBILITIES is an inspiring and relatively quick read which concludes with several introspective exercises to help readers contemplate how they would like to spend their time.

Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky

MAKE TIME by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky is subtitled “How to Focus on What Matters Every Day” and I think this would make an excellent read for our cohort on resiliency and work/life balance. The authors share their thoughts in a very conversational tone and relate the suggestions to their own experiences like scheduling a regular time with friends or going for a run after work.  Knapp spent a decade at Google and Google Ventures where he created the design sprint process and Zeratsky (or JZ), who has written for numerous financial and technology publications, worked as a designer for fifteen years at YouTube and Google Ventures. MAKE TIME is divided into sections which deal with their formula—highlight, laser, reflect, energize. They offer numerous helpful and practical suggestions such as the idea of shifting habits (e.g., turning off notifications or deleting messaging apps from your phone) and controlling where you focus attention. 

Another example involves “to do” lists where each author describes his own method. JZ maintains a "might do" list, then selects highlights (something relatively urgent that will provide satisfaction and joy) and adds those to the calendar.  Jake, instead, establishes a burner list with “one and only one project, activity or objective” on the FRONT burner; everything else goes to the back burner.  The authors' suggestions are accompanied by simple visuals and cartoon-like drawings to help reinforce each process.  If you are interested in time redesign, MAKE TIME is a humorous and insightful read; it received a starred review from Booklist.

In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman

IN PRAISE OF WASTING TIME by Alan Lightman (Einstein’s Dreams) is a new offering in the TED Book series.  He addresses the key idea of slowing down and disconnecting, imparting a sense of urgency by comparing recent changes to global warming:  “The loss of slowness, of time for reflection and contemplation, of privacy and solitude, of silence, of the ability to sit quietly in a chair for fifteen minutes without external stimulation — all have happened quickly and almost invisibly. …. The situation is dire. Just as with global warming, we may already be near the point of no return. Invisibly, almost without notice, we are losing ourselves.”  Take the challenge of monitoring your actions for 24 hours: Even at night, is your phone readily accessible? Do you goof off and “waste time” or do you seek to fill a potential empty space with productive activity (checking email or social media, driving and listening to an audio book)? How often do you sit alone in a quiet room, letting your mind wander?  Have you made time for a “Shultz Hour” recently? That term refers to a practice of George Shultz reserving an hour a week for quiet reflection.  Lightman notes others (Mahler, Jung, Gertrude Stein, Einstein) who also found creative benefits, replenishment and unexpected connections from following similar practices. He proposes new habits of mind and screen-free zones; coincidentally, we are talking about no-screen advisories (our homerooms) next year.

Lightman references both Jean Twenge and Sherry Turkle whose books we have also reviewed. At only 128 pages his work is much shorter and contains vivid descriptors like the one of having dinner with his 20-something daughter and her friend who “placed their smartphones on the table, like miniature oxygen tanks carried everywhere by emphysema patients.” For more, read IN PRAISE OF WASTING TIME and Lightman’s post, “Why we owe it to ourselves to spend quiet time alone every day.”