For the last six years, I’ve been working with Tony Kynaston on a book, The Psychopath Economy. It’s an exploration of why the world is so fucked up and why our leaders keep failing us. The manuscript is finished and we’re looking at various options for publication. I thought it might be a good idea to test it with some folks and see what you think of it. So if you’re like a preview of the book, click below to download it as a PDF or EPUB, and then please come back here and answer the five quick questions in [qsm_link id=1]this survey[/qsm_link].
I’ ll start with a niggle, because that’s how I roll.
Formatting : I did have issues with the separation of the paragraphs. I’m an old cranky so-and-so, and I like at least one total line of empty space between paragraphs. It helps the flow. Maybe because this is like a first draft, such niceties were not observed.
Tone: If the audience is faithful listeners to the multiple Can & Ray efforts, then carry on smartly. But if the audience is a more widespread affair, I would suggest a slightly more formal tone. That is don’t be using four letter curse words right at the beginning of the introduction. I would also consider rephrasing the bit about the RC Church viz accusations of pedophilia and sexual assault. ( See what I did there? Same idea made a bit less objectionable to the Billion plus RCs out there)
I like the linking to Dawkins, and would like that teased out more. Eg. The 20 or so people on the board of directors being like the 22 chromosomes of the human being. Personally, I would like a tighter definition, not necessarily professional, of what you mean by psychopath. A bit more focus on the Narcissism, selfishness, immorality / amorality of the people and the consequences. I would even provide the rare example of how this can lead to great things eg. Napoleon, Steve Jobs, etc.
One last bit, a continuation of the previous point. If the Dawkins “Selfish Gene” hypothesis is the undergirding structure, if you’re using the science of Biology as your smile, then please use the discipline precisely as possible. Ei. Define “fitness” as it applies to biological science so people don’t get it confused with Social Darwinism.
I’ll let this read rest a bit and do a re-read near when the trick or treaters are out and about
Hi Cameron
I read your preview last night. Here are some of my subjective responses…
Yes… this is all true… but what new perspective or approach are you bringing to this. I was generally aware of much of this… but I may not be your typical reader (as a hypnotherapist, 3P-er, novice nondualist, with a broad interest in the world, blah blah blah, as i like to think).
Still being pretty self centred in my everyday thinking it would be good to get a bit more of an idea of what I was going to gain if I spent the time to read this book.. i.e. my benefit.
In this vein, I like the title the War on Your Mind better. Makes it more personal. And according to Amazon the title doesn’t seem to be taken.
Being nit picky… I am in “two minds” about the use of the word fuck on the title page etc. On the one hand it tells me this is a book for the every man… not merely intellectuals… on the other hand a lot of people have been doing it in the last few years and it looks a bit cheap and easy.
Hope this is helpful. A worthy subject to shine more light on.
Thanks Mitch! Great notes.
Hi Cameron,
So far I’ve been looking at your book only from the technical side, i.e. epub formatting.
Unfortunately, the epub is one of those “turn word into epub using calibre” ebooks, which provide good epubs only when the word document is well formatted. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case at the present stage (first draft version?).
For instance, the text on the “copyright” page (“Here’s some stuff about the book…”) is marked as French langue text. Further, the footnote anchors are formatted as superscripted superscripts with varying formatting styles.
Another issue is the use of several different font families. Since most ereaders contain/support only a limited number of fonts, these fonts won’t be displayed unless the corresponding font (e.g. the ttf files) are embedded into the epub. At least serif/sans-serif is added for the selection of a substitute font.
A thorough proofreading might also be helpful.
Thanks Werner! I’ll didn’t notice any of those formatting issues, so I’ll take another look. Hoping a publisher will bring someone who can do all of those things for us.
Hi Cameron,
After reading the preview, I’m uncertain what the book is actually aiming at, when compared with current TV, radio and Internet “shows”.
According to my understanding, the book covers three major topics:
a) Big organizations are/tend to be toxic.
b) Why big organizations tend to be toxic.
c) How to cure this problem.
Regarding a) and b), these topics are discussed regularly on television and radio and in podcasts (well, German TV and radio and British/German/US podcasts in my case). Therefore, this part of the book will only be interesting in my opinion, if some new and important issues are discovered and explained.
Concerning c), this topic is also discussed heavily on the internet (and political programs of both left and right parties). As before, this part will only be meaningful, if a consistent and working cure/solution will be proposed.
If I hadn’t known Cameron’s podcast before, I would have assumed that a wannabe guru is writing a book to get rich. However, since he puts a lot of time into his podcasts, this will most likely not be the case.
Nevertheless, a short preview showing new insights and solutions might improve the reviews of this book.