Hmm, interesting points. But I get the impression we evaluated it with sharply different goals in mind. From his intro:
"My hope is that whether you are a professional, a nonprofessional
or a student, you will find here an unsettling but empowering new
way of looking at yourself, your colleagues, the institution that
employs or trains you, and society as a whole. This book strives
to arm you with a very practical analytical tool that you can use
to your advantage in whatever individual and collective struggles
you find yourself in as an employee, student, organization member,
consumer or citizen."
I took it as a practical guide on identifying and even countering ideologies from the professional world. A window into others' personal experiences with that world.
In that light, I personally found the audio version a good listen. Some of the examples were pretty interesting to me, especially the fun part about chameleons. He claims that a number of these pretenders were outed not because of poor results (allegedly they were well-regarded by peers and clients in terms of job competence), but rather because lacking certain "professional" attitudes was a dead giveaway...
> All I know about him is from the book and an approving review in
> ZMag, but that matter of his being fired strikes me as
> unintentionally funny. IIRC, he got fired from some Nature-level
> physics publication after more or less bragging that he had written
> the book while at work. Now we see the violence inherent in the
> system!
It's hard for me to comment, as I only know his side of the story. I'm sure the irony's not lost on him. But if we talk hypothetically, then should a productive person, who got good results for 19 years on the job, be fired for writing the following?
"This book is stolen. Written in part on stolen time, that is. I
felt I had no choice but to do it that way. Like millions of
others who work for a living, I was giving most of my prime time
to my employer."
All right, the corporation doesn't just own her output but hours of her life too. But if coworkers goofed off as much as her, hanging by the water fountain or watching Youtube, and that's accepted... then doesn't her firing kind of illustrate the point?
Tayssir