Buzz Worthy
Who Moved My Brain?

I am stunned. Absolutely stunned. Ecstatic. I had no idea reading could be this much fun, that insights could flow off sparsely populated pages and into my brain with the ease of an IV drip. I have read a book, without once being forced to furrow my brow. Of course, I'm talking about Who Moved My Cheese (Simon & Schuster Audio, 1998), the bestselling business book about organizational change.

If you want to say you've read a book this summer without having to spend too much time or effort actually reading it, pick this up. You can read it in the bookstore over a cappuccino without even having to buy it. In fact, you'll probably be done before the barista pops your cappuccino onto the counter.

Given that its author is Spencer Johnson of The One Minute Manager (Berkeley Publishing Group, 1983), you knew this was going to be faster than Wendy's drive-thru window. He cuts out the middleman in the process of creating books that become tapes, summary articles, or Cliff Notes. He poses and answers the question: Why not go right to the summary?

You knew it was going to be quick, but could you have guessed that there would be so much wisdom in such a tight package? Johnson writes in the great literary tradition of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (Penguin USA, 1993), with the succinctness, moral clarity and anthropomorphism of Aesop. It made me realize that now, more than ever, we have a lot to learn from mice.

You also cannot underestimate how useful this is. When my local cheese shop closed after many years (I mean how many cheese shops can really stay in business these days?), I knew exactly what to do. I didn't keep coming to the same closed cheese shop but, looked in the Yellow Pages, found another cheese shop, and went there. And I learned this from a book.

Seriously, you've got to admire anyone who can sell this many copies of a book. If you don't learn anything about change, you'll gain some valuable insights into marketing, entertainment, and the human mind. If you ask them, most people may say they'd like to see Nightline, but a lot of them are tuning in to Letterman. They quote from Shakespeare but laugh at The Simpsons. (After all, why, may I ask, are you reading this treatise by a cartoon character when there are so many insightful, well reasoned recommendations from distinguished Wharton faculty?)

In a world in which everything is so deadly serious, a few simple fairy tales, stand-up routines, and e-mail jokes are a welcome break. And you don't need a mouse to tell you that.

Say cheese,
Buzz [buzzworthy@wharton.upenn.edu]

P.S. And speaking of cheese, why not think about munching on a Wharton staple, a Philadelphia cheesesteak, while you are reading. These lo-cal delicacies can even be found near our Wharton West center in San Francisco.

Please send your career questions to Buzz Worthy and he'll answer them with the help of Wharton faculty and executive coaches.

    

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