Tuesday 2020-10-27

Networking for People who hate Networking by Devora Zack

This book takes a modern medicine approach to introversion, ie. a) acknowledge that you are an introvert, and b) plan for and manage your introversion.

Which seems reasonable. Except that this treats introversion as a disease, and is one step shy of advocating that we medicate introverts back to "normalcy".

Because of this ill-chosen approach, the whole book comes across like a horribly mis-guided handbook devoted to helping fish walk, with helpful hints such as: When the real question is "What the hell are you doing on Land?"
So how do we take advantage of the world's now-even-vaster blue oceans? Nice to have chapters would have been:
  1. Don't trawl. Spear-fish! -- Using on-line social networks to build your network one person at a time.
  2. Stop the Abuse! -- Defense against the Dark Arts of conversations. ie. dealing with bloviators, snipers, and the obtuse.
  3. Coping with Addiction -- Extroverts use you to get high. Manage their doses for maximum efficacy.
  4. Conversations are Negotiations -- How to measure and evaluate conversations mid-sentence.
Maybe they'll show up in the next edition....