[.ca] Orbiting The Giant Hairball (ISBN 0670879835)

Amusing, but not helpful:
I was really disappointed after reading this book - I should have paid more attention to the negative comments. Any book that bills itself as a "guide to surviving with grace" should have actual advice for how to do it. "Hairball" adoringly recaps the author's career path with little practical advice on how to replicate any of his success. (Unless I want to work in dim lighting and pretend to be a mysterious.) Like "Who Moved My Cheese?" this book dumbs down any good lessons it could make. And like WMMC, it had my teeth on edge by the end. The illustrated stories started out as whimsical and amusing, but became irritating after the 50th messy, run-on sentence-filled, stream-of-consciousness page. If you want to learn why Gordon was the man at Hallmark, this is the book for you. If you want to learn how to survive with grace in your own corporate hairball, sorry - you're out of luck.

You Know You Got a Classic When:
You know you've got a classic when people either love it or hate it. My wife tries to get this idea across to students who either love E.A. Poe or hate him as being 'too creepy'. The point is that the work creates strong emotions. What, if anything, you do with your reaction is up to you. MacKenzie's 'hairball' is one of these. Me?, I love it.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball:
As the college I worked for reorganized, this book inspired me to look at the way we were doing things and to bring my full creativity into my administrative role. It helped me to be open to the changes and discover new ways to work. In the process, I recreated my position and felt the joy of the change as it reverberated through my staff (lowered the turnover and gave people a sense of joy in their work). I think it gets bad reviews because it doesn't do the work for you. You have to ask yourself how am I like what he describes and how could I break from this routine? And isn't that his point? He is not about formula. Get out and just question one of the rote ways you proceed and the magic of change happens. If you feel uncomfortable about it, he has covered that, too. (and don't forget it is a process -- once you change that can become rote, too -- so keep dreaming up new things -- this work/fun pays off in the beauty of removing yourself from the same dried up place.)

A unique spirit:
This week I was pulled back to Gordon's book and his message, seven years after first meeting him and reading his book. Gordon spoke at our annual conference in 1997 and I can only say that we all fell in love with him. If you're looking for a 10-steps to a better whatever, this is probably not a book you'll like. If you want to slow down a bit and get a glimpse into someone else's soul in a way that touches your own, this book is cool water on a warm day. Gordon approaches creativity as a way of being not a roadmap. His gentle stories illustrate his own lessons in a way we can all relate to and connect to our own lives. Occasionally when I get too caught up in models and formulas and processes, I pull Gordon's book out and re-connect with the deeper flow of what this work of creativity is all about. Gordon left us too soon but I am deeply grateful that he left this piece of himself with us.

Enjoyable, insightful, inspiring!:
This book is a must read for anyone trying to live creatively inside an environment that lends itself to repetitive, dry and dusty monothink. Presented in a dynamic visual style, this book will vault you out of the rut into fresh and expansive new terrain - don't miss it!