The ideas and projects become repetitive, and repetition begets staleness. For example, there are a number of 'rules' strewn throughout the pages. Some are funny, some insightful, but many of them are just restatements of an earlier rule, such as ‘if you wear a white shirt you’ll spill coffee on it.’ Repeating the sentiment and replacing 'shirt' with 'pants' seems, oh, I don’t know: repetitive? Then there are some rules that just don’t seem to fit into the whole scheme of the book.
It suffers, too, from a bleak outlook. The blurbs say it’s 'inspiring … projects for the residents of cubicle land.' However, many projects are vindictive, not inspiring; juvenile, not distracting. And every once in a while, it almost seems like you’re encouraged to actually do a good job. There’s a whole section devoted to getting up early and being in a good mood and being nice to your mate, etc. It just seems so out of place in a book full of spite.
At the end of the day (an overused metaphor that, paradoxically, is also what we dream of throughout the workday), this book gives tangibility to the sundry desires populating the minds of labor whores around the world. Doubtless, Yamaguchi wrote this book on the clock. For that he deserves applause.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!