Book Description
Any sensible diet will help you lose weight, but the challenge for 90% of Americans is actually staying on the diet they choose.Enter Dr. Judith Beck and The Beck Diet Solution.Dr. Beck, one of the foremost authorities in the field of Cognitive Therapy, has created a four-week plan that will help people stick with their diet, lose weight with confidence, and keep weight off for a lifetime. This program is not only based on the authors personal success and on her success with her many clients, but also on published research. It all starts with how you think. With other programs, you think about nothing but food: counting, weighing, and worst of all, food you cant have. This way of thinking inevitably contributes to diet failure. The Beck Diet Solution is the only program that helps dieters use Cognitive Therapy methods scientifically proven over 20 yearsto forever change those treacherous thought patterns that lead to overeating, cheating, excuses, and other dieting downfalls.
Customer Reviews:
A simple and easy-to-follow way to retrain the way you think about food.......2007-10-10
Coming from a family of obesity and over-eating, this is the one book that is enabling me to break the cycle and break free from my old ways of doing things (that were not getting me anywhere). It's definitely not another "diet" book but a great way to condition ourselves in order to succeed at any diet we choose to follow. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is tired of failing at dieting and failing themselves and ready to make some real changes that will result in lasting and joyous results.
Applies to more than just diet.......2007-09-27
Judith S. Beck is right, and her approach works not only for diet, but it can be applied to other efforts in life as well where people derail themselves with their own thoughts. This is a tool for success, not a diet.
Beck Diet Solution.......2007-09-21
This book is great for anyone who wants to lose weight and keep it off. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the same thing I used to quit smoking 20 years ago, and it really works. The book is written in layman's terms so it's easy to understand, yet not condescending. I highly recommend it.
Brain training........2007-09-17
Judith S. Beck, The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person (Oxmoor House, 2007)
The Beck Diet Solution is not a diet book in the strict sense; there are no eating plans to be found here. This is, more accurately, a diet book adjunct; Beck has designed this to be usable with any diet, whatever you work with. Even the grapefruit diet. (If you're crazy enough to try the grapefruit diet, of course.) Beck's goal here is not to change what you eat so much as the way you eat it, the way you think about eating it, and your habits while eating. After all, as millions of us are well aware, just changing what you eat is in no way guaranteed to shed pounds and keep them off. The idea is to read a chapter a day for six weeks, learning Beck's tips and techniques gradually in order to change your mindset towards food. Does it work? I know that since reading it, I've looked at a few things differently; it's certainly worth a try. *** ½
Awesome book!.......2007-09-15
I am always telling people to buy this book. I have made a friend buy it. Now the tricky part is sitting down and doing it daily. It is a process. I can't wait for the workbook to come out in Oct 2007. This book needs the workbook. It should have been thought out before.
Average customer rating:
- Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck
- Bringing Words to Life
- Valuable Vocabulary Strategies
- easy read with quick interventions for vocabulary instruction
- Fabulous, Fantastic, Superb...should I say more?
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Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction
Isabel L. Beck ,
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Linda Kucan
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Similar Items:
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The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension
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Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction (4th Edition) (Words Their Way Series)
ASIN: 1572307536 |
Book Description
Exciting and engaging vocabulary instruction can set students on the path to a lifelong fascination with words. This book provides a research-based framework and practical strategies for vocabulary development with children from the earliest grades through high school. The authors emphasize instruction that offers rich information about words and their uses and enhances students' language comprehension and production. Teachers are guided in selecting words for instruction; developing student-friendly explanations of new words; creating meaningful learning activities; and getting students involved in thinking about, using, and noticing new words both within and outside the classroom. Many concrete examples, sample classroom dialogues, and exercises for teachers bring the material to life. Helpful appendices include suggestions for trade books that help children enlarge their vocabulary and/or have fun with different aspects of words.
Customer Reviews:
Bringing Words to Life by Isabel Beck.......2007-10-17
This is an excellent book on teaching vocabulary to all grade levels. It is check full of ideas you can implement immediately with just enough philosophy to make the strategies understandable. I highly recommend it!!
Bringing Words to Life.......2007-07-22
While I appreciated the premise of the research outlined in this book, and have no doubt the approach recommended would be effective, I question the practicality for application in a classroom. It seems that it would take a considerable amount of planning and cumbersome documentation particularly with younger children or multiage classes. I plan to try to implement some of the suggestions and like the idea of working to help children establish their own definitions, moving away from traditional dictionary definitions that are only confusing for young students.
Valuable Vocabulary Strategies.......2006-05-01
Bringing Words to Life is an essential book for any classroom. It offers valuable insights and strategies for teaching vocabulary in all classrooms, elementary through high school. It's written so that it's easy to understand and each chapter ends with activities for the reader to better understand the content of the chapter. There is also an easy reference appendix for books to use with vocabulary instruction. If you're looking to enhance the vocabulary of your students, this book has everything you need!
easy read with quick interventions for vocabulary instruction.......2006-03-26
I read this for a graduate class and found it to be a quick, easy read. The authors give you simple ways to enhance your vocabulary instruction. I would recommend this book to teachers at all levels but especially those working 3rd grade and above.
Fabulous, Fantastic, Superb...should I say more?.......2006-02-25
A great easy to ready and easier to use tool to enhance everyday classroom teaching to support vocabulary in students! A must for all teachers!
Book Description
The health care sphere we inhabit would unquestionably be more satisfying if everyone adopted the cooperative techniques taught in this book.
--New England Journal of Medicine
Renegotiating Health Care presents pragmatic and effective tools for understanding conflict, negotiating differences, and creating a workable balance among those who deliver, receive, administer, and oversee health care. The authors present practical methods and techniques giving all the players the knowledge and skills they need to put their work in perspective and create workable solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Must Reading for Health Care Executives.......2001-12-02
This book is essential reading for any leader in the world of health care. Health care execs are confronted with complex, highly charged negotiation challenges, internal and external, nearly every day. Many of these conflicts can damage lives and corporate finances. The book gives you very practical, results-oriented advice on how to resolve conflicts and move forward.
Dr. Marcus is the nation's leading expert in health care negotiations and conflict resolution, having helped numerous high-profile organizations overcome conflicts and reach mutually productive agreements. This book thoughtfully conveys this valuable expertise.
Excellent principles for conflict resolution.......2001-06-25
Marcus presents a broad spectrum of options for getting through tough times in the healthcare industry. The personable style and ongoing case history make this a very readable presentation.
Marcus teaches us that conflict is not only always present and unavoidable but can be used as a catalyst for good change. He describes differences in types of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. He is a proponent of interest-based negotiation which is an attempt to improve the lot of the whole by improving the parts. He advocates active listening.
As witness to his sincerity, he dedicates a chapter each to four of the healthcare stakeholders: policymakers, healthcare management, physicians, and nurses. Each of these chapters speaks loudest to its own stakeholder, at once representing them and persuading them to enter into negotiation.
Postitional bargaining is also explored. Marcus does not advocate being a sacrificial lamb.
This book serves as an excellent introduction to the topic of conflict resolution and negotiation. However, in order to engage into the fray, one would also need to continue to study and practice the principles presented.
Although Marcus seems preachy at times and overhopeful at others, he is at least starting to draw the diverse and strong healthcare industry into one place to sit and talk. Hooray for that.
Average customer rating:
- The Four Day Win
- Good book, terrible editing
- Glad I did not listen to the negative reviews
- The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace
- Small Bites, Small Nibbles
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The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace
Martha Beck
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live
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The Best Life Diet
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100 Days of Weight Loss: The Secret to Being Successful on ANY Diet Plan
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The Beck Diet Solution : Lose Weight with Confidence, Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
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If I'm So Smart, Why Can't I Lose Weight?: Tools to Get it Done
ASIN: 1594866074
Release Date: 2006-12-26 |
Book Description
The woman Psychology Today calls "the best-known life coach in America" shatters the myth that willpower is an effective weight-loss tool and introduces a revolutionary approach to lifetime leanness based on a series of "4-day wins" that work with any weight-loss program
Substitute a good habit for a bad one and stick to it for just 4 days, and it begins to feel normal. That’s the surprising discovery that holds the key to lifetime weight control, according to life coach and New York Times best-selling author Martha Beck. Not a conventional diet or exercise program, The Four-Day Win combines evolutionary logic, psychology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to restructure itself, which suggests ways to reshape our bodies) with strategies and success stories—plus large doses of humor and an insightful, straightforward approach to teach the principles required to reverse weight issues.
Drawn from hundreds of hours interviewing weight losers—in both her discussions with private clients and her groundbreaking consulting work for Jenny Craig—Dr. Beck reveals:
• why willpower-based dieting is doomed to fail
• how to step out of the conflict between the rule-making Commander (who bans all our favorite foods) and the rule-breaking Resistor (who gives in to cravings) and reach the Watcher, who is our happiest self
• what the latest research into the mind-body connection reveals about how our emotions affect our eating
Breaking down the weight-loss marathon into 4-day intervals, Dr. Beck provides effective strategies for changing the behaviors that make us fat. And if there is a relapse, readers take comfort in knowing they are just 4 days from turning it around.
Customer Reviews:
The Four Day Win.......2007-08-23
I purchased this book because of my enjoyment of the author's monthly articles in Oprah magazine. I am half-way through it, and am finding much good information. There is too much of the irreverant humor, though, bordering on slapstick. As I have no more than ten pounds to lose, this may not be what I need as I don't have a background of struggling with eating disorders or problems. I love Martha, but I cringe at the over-use of this type of humor to get the point across.
Good book, terrible editing.......2007-07-30
I really like this book's gentle approach and it coincides with things that I've noticed about myself in the past. For example, at times when I'm giving myself lots of options and not really worrying about my weight, I tend to stay the same or even lose weight. When I'm actively dieting, I have wider swings of either losing or gaining weight. Not to mention the fact that after 20 years of dieting more or less continuously, I am sixty pounds heavier than I was when I started. Common sense should tell me that what I've been doing is not working. I am excited to get started with this program. Unfortunately, while I was impressed by the substance of the book, the book was distracting in its poor editing -- words left in where a sentence was obviously re-written, double negatives, too much "humor" that is not particularly funny. Most egregiously, in Chapter 14, the book discusses "12 EASY beliefs" and the author repeatedly refers to them as the "dirty dozen" but the book lists only 7 of these "myths." Come on people!
Glad I did not listen to the negative reviews.......2007-07-24
So glad I did not listen to the negative reviews, although there are not many. This book address lots of things I never worked on before, with a unique way of doing so. Have not had it long so will have to wait and see about the weight loss. But I have every confidence that it will happen.
I already can feel the different attitude I am having.
Go for it!
The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace.......2007-07-19
We all know that in order to lose weight we have to eat less and move more. This seems like a simple and obvious concept, so why doesn't it work. Why is it that the harder you try to lose weight (eating less and less and exercising more and more) the more likely that you end up craving junk food, binging, and eventually giving up? The Four Day Win gives us the answer.
Losing weight and being healthy isn't about willpower, starving ourselves to death, or exercising until we pass out. In fact, stubborn will-power is actually the problem. The key is listening to our needs and being kind to ourselves. Simplistically put, once we care to stop, listen, and understand our true needs, we soon realize that instead of dealing with our anxieties, our fears, and the things in our life that cause us stress, we tend to self medicate with food. It's seems so much easier to eat that chocolate cake than deal with that relationship issue or that job we hate. Then, we turn around and beat ourselves up because we weren't strong enough which makes us hate ourselves that much more causing us to binge. It's a horribly unloving cycle.
I'm eating less and I'm moving more but most of all I am paying more attention to my inner self these days. I'm constantly learning about myself while developing healthy self soothing and rat park strategies. I'm happier, healthier, and far more hopeful after having read this book. Four days really can change your life for the better.
Small Bites, Small Nibbles.......2007-07-18
Most of my adult life, I have been able to maintain, with relative ease, the same weight. Then, here comes midlife. And with it, a crisis or two. Factor in stress and a slowing metabolism, a more hurried pace, various anxieties, and the softness glued itself stubbornly to me and would not let go.
I can't say I have ever been among those who follow the latest diet trend. Pshaw. None of them have ever made sense to me. I got it: eat less, move more. Everything else is doomed to fail. I'd seen it enough among friends and colleagues: longterm, diets fail. To remain healthy lifelong requires a lifestyle, not one of suffering and deprivation, but one that can be maintained with ease and, yes, even pleasure. That's for me.
I picked up Martha Beck's book with great interest. I had recently read and enjoyed her book, "Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live." Now, here was a respected life coach and psychologist who debunks diets and disdains suffering as a way to lead to healthy living. She speaks of attaining "thinner peace." Diets, after all, are stressful, and the last thing we need in the typical American lifestyle is more stress. Indeed, recent studies have shown that the same amount of calories ingested by stressed animals and animals at peace turn into fat on, you guessed it, the stressed animals, while the calm ones remain at a healthy weight. Beck is onto something scientifically sound.
Another important item Beck has understood well is our short attention span. Four days. We can do just about anything for four days. If we approach any change in our accustomed routines, if we do it in small bites, small bites eventually accumulate into a big pie (so to speak). If we do not overwhelm ourselves with immense and heroic goals, we might just be able to conquer this gremlin.
Her approach is almost frustratingly gradual. But that is as it should be. Gradual changes can sneak up on us to become life-transforming. And any change begins in the mind, in the spirit, deep in the heart where all our anxieties breed.
Since I began reading Beck's book, I can honestly say without any deprivation (I still eat at restaurants with my friends, still munch out of the party snack bowl, still eat popcorn while watching a movie), I have been shucking off, gradually but permanently, the extra bit of softness midlife gifted me. I am also feeling a thinner peace. Being at peace, for me, may have been the most crucial factor in this, as I have come to believe that in the past years, I was carrying the "weight of my emotions."
Beck's book is effective and it's downright funny to read. With various thoughtful questionnaires, she prompts us to think about what brings us stress, what brings us peace, and how to work with that. She teaches how to quiet the voices in our head, how to identify emotional hunger versus physical hunger, how to feed both. Have a nibble of chocolate - and read. Four days at a time.
Average customer rating:
- Get This Book
- The Nuts and Bults
- Informative
- came as ordered
- Text for grad school
|
Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond
Judith S. Beck
Manufacturer: The Guilford Press
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ASIN: 0898628474 |
Book Description
Since its development in the 1960s as a structured, short-term psychotherapy for depression, cognitive therapy has come of age. Today the approach is successfully applied in the treatment of a broad range of psychological disorders, an evolution reflected in the myriad titles now available. Regardless of the disorder, all these applications are based on core, underlying principles, which are clearly articulated in this volume. Providing readers with a solid foundation for practice, Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond delineates the fundamental building blocks of cognitive conceptualization and treatment.
Written in a clear, step-by-step style, this text helps therapists sharpen their conceptualization skills, plan more effective treatment, expand their repertoire of techniques, and trouble-shoot difficulties. Throughout the volume, the author offers clinical examples and transcripts drawn from one patient's treatment to illuminate the narrative and illustrate cognitive therapy in action.
Introductory chapters describe how to conceptualize clients according to the cognitive model, plan and conduct the first session, identify initial problems and goals, and structure therapy within and across sessions. Then the basic steps for conducting cognitive therapy are presented, with specific instruction on how to identify, evaluate, and respond to a client's automatic thoughts. Effective strategies for modifying underlying assumptions and core beliefs are also explicated.
Methods for increasing homework compliance, preparing for termination, and preventing relapse are laid out. Even experienced cognitive therapists will find new strategies and insights in chapters on planning treatment, diagnosing problems, using imagery, and bringing about behavioral change.
In addition to numerous practical suggestions, this volume features a variety of sample patient worksheets and appendices that detail resource materials and reading lists for both the practitioner and the client. A final chapter offers guidance in progressing as a cognitive therapist.
An important resource for any therapist's shelf, Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond is necessary reading for the practitioner or student new to cognitive therapy who wants to learn about this tested approach, and for the clinician already practicing cognitive therapy who wants to learn the cutting-edge strategies of conceptualization and treatment.
Customer Reviews:
Get This Book.......2007-09-25
One of my all time favorites. I'm not an M.D., Psychologist or even a very smart person, but the lessons in this book about self-evaluation and rational observation are crucial for all people. True it's geared to teach the very basics of Cognitive Therapy in a Clinical setting; I must say its applications are nearly endless. Take me for example. With this book under my belt I feel as if I've been given years of therapy in only a few hundred pages. I'm not kidding you. Not only that but I can usually always put my friends' fears, anxieties and whining to rest simply by mimicking the scenarios found within this wonderful text. Beck is a genius, his daughter is his disciple. Are you all about observing your life in a more rational fashion thereby alleviating your negative reactions to what you believe to be "not the end of the world" problems? Or do you need help counseling your needy friends? All I have to say is Enjoy. I read it at least once every year.
The Nuts and Bults.......2007-05-13
This book teaches the nuts and bolts of Cognitive Therapy. I first read this book as part of a graduate course on cognitive-behavioral therapy and have been using it as a reference book and an occasional refresher ever since. The book covers the most important structural and content components of cognitive therapy. It is didactic in format and interspersed with client/therapist dialogue illustrating various techniques and problem situations as well as the phases of therapy. This book is proof that Judith Beck is both a talented teacher and practitioner of cognitive therapy.
Informative.......2007-03-21
This book was useful and had many good resource tools in it for use in sessions. It was basic and I am next reading the challenging problems in therapy book by the same author. I believe that will help with those clients that are not so receptive to change and counseling.
came as ordered.......2007-01-11
The book came in a timely manner and arrived in new condition exactly as I ordered it. Very pleased.
Text for grad school.......2006-11-12
The book is easy to follow. Cognitive therapy seems like a good way to go, if you like things simple and organized.
Book Description
“Anyone can cook in the French manner anywhere,” wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle, and Child, “with the right instruction.” And here is the book that, for forty years, has been teaching Americans how.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for both seasoned cooks and beginners who love good food and long to reproduce at home the savory delights of the classic cuisine, from the historic Gallic masterpieces to the seemingly artless perfection of a dish of spring-green peas. This beautiful book, with more than one hundred instructive illustrations, is revolutionary in its approach because:
• It leads the cook infallibly from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection.
• It breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of recipes; the focus is on key recipes that form the backbone of French cookery and lend themselves to an infinite number of elaborations—bound to increase anyone’s culinary repertoire.
• It adapts classical techniques, wherever possible, to modern American conveniences.
• It shows Americans how to buy products, from any supermarket in the U.S.A., that reproduce the exact taste and texture of the French ingredients: equivalent meat cuts, for example; the right beans for a cassoulet; the appropriate fish and shellfish for a bouillabaisse.
• It offers suggestions for just the right accompaniment to each dish, including proper wines.
Since there has never been a book as instructive and as workable as Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the techniques learned here can be applied to recipes in all other French cookbooks, making them infinitely more usable. In compiling the secrets of famous cordons bleus, the authors have produced a magnificent volume that is sure to find the place of honor in every kitchen in America.
Customer Reviews:
THESE BOOKS IS ALL THAT I NEED!.......2007-09-30
I have the Volume I and II. You really don't need another Cook Book. These are my all time favorites. I highly recommend these books. I am a Professional Chef and I find myself always going through these Cook Books. I mean, that is all I really use. Not only for seasoned Cooks but specially for not so experienced Cooks. These books are the real "deal". If you like to cook you got have these.
Hard to find volume, found!.......2007-09-06
My wife and I have been looking for Volume one for ages, without luck.
This book came out as a 20th anniversary edition. Maybe other websites carry
this now, but it was easy to find on Amazon.
The classic best.......2007-08-11
I bought it for my daughter for Christmas. Then I bought a new oven for myself with plans to borrow the book to get good at making French bread Julia's way. For anyone interested in high quality cooking, this is a must have for the book shelf.
Great Book.......2007-07-20
It is painfully obvious alot of thought went into this book,but then again what would you expect from a master like Julia Child.I am in the reading stage and have'nt made any recipes yet,but was impressed early.This book is for anyone that loves to cook,amateur like me or pro.
Appreciative of Speedy Delivery........2007-07-13
Overseas 'customers'of Amazon are disadvantaged by the price of postage and often waiting time therefore it was gratifying to get 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' within a few days. It is helpful for our customs if such packages are marked 'BOOK ONLY'. The book was in prisine condition. All books I have bought through Amazon have been in the condition stated but occasionally have taken a long time to arrive.
Jan Birmingham, Sydney.
Customer Reviews:
Very inspiring.......2007-07-31
This is the most inpiring and thought-provocing book on programming that I have read for many years. Very well-written, short, fun. Whatever language you are programming in, you will find it useful.
Niels Holst, Aarhus University.
Almost perfect!.......2007-06-10
I really like this book and it helps me a lot when I was developing a prototype of a complex application.
The idea of using tests to force you to think about the APIs is powerfull and the use of Python to implement a xUnit framework is very interesting.
But if you are a experienced developer you will find the first part of the book very boring because Kent uses extremely small steps to develop their example.
Finesse and humor.......2007-05-15
While I have only read half of this book, what I have read has been extraordinarily useful.
Years ago I attempted TDD with mixed success. It was very interesting and I liked having the enforcement of quality control but found it cumbersome. This book, however, has removed my reservations about TDD. Regardless of how simple the concept of TDD, its practice takes some finesse, which this book helps to provide.
The examples are quite effective at demonstrating where the traps are and how to avoid them. His appendix also includes a very simple example that is a simple explanation to give a taste to someone who is considering the technique.
The examples show not only how to do things correctly but also how to recover when you make a mistake. This practice provides both information about recovery and why certain practices are good, such as only writing new code when there is a single red light and only improving code when all the lights are green.
Finally, the book was very enjoyable. Kent uses a humorous, self-effacing style that illustrates thought processes, both "good" and "bad". It kept me completely engaged for the first eight chapters or so (before life interrupted my enjoyment of the book). It does tend to get more technical after that but I just see that as speaking to all levels of TDD practitioners - beginners to experts.
If you are thinking about using TDD, this book will convince you.
Must read, but with a serious flaw........2006-11-06
This is a short, detailed, easy-to-follow introduction to TDD. Nothing on the market is a better first book on the subject. This book will be only your first step on a long journey; you'll probably have to read more, or take some course(s), or work with an experienced TDD practitioner, to apply TDD to read world projects.
But there's a zeroth step Kent Beck could have given a lot more help with. You can't use TDD on a medium-to-large sized project without getting approval from the project's leaders. They might well ask, "Exactly what is the primary benefit from using TDD?" Does it directly increase project velocity (i.e., get the software out the door faster)? Does it improve the quality of software developed with it? This book doesn't answer that question. (It tells you how much TDD supports refactoring, but that leads back to the same question.)
Don't get me wrong. I think TDD is very helpful. I just couldn't convince management of that, based on this book.
Read this, but look elsewhere for justification on using TDD.
Intentionally slow-paced; this is a book on fundamentals.......2006-03-28
Many other reviewers have, with some justification, bemoaned the crunchingly slow pace of this book. Yes, the book moves through its examples slowly. Yes, sometimes Beck's mock humility comes off more than a little snide. It's not perfect on those counts, but please keep in mind that this is a book about a _process_, not a _result_.
The first example takes up almost half the book just to go through a pretty minimal implementation of a multi-currency representation for money. If this were a book about how to implement money representations, it would be a dismal failure. But of course, that's not the point at all -- the point is to use an example that's simple (so as not to be distracting), but just complex enough to produce adequate talking points to drive a discussion about test-driven development (TDD).
TDD is incredibly important, surprisingly late in arriving as a TLA unto itself, and Beck certainly gets points (cf. the review about "90% is just showing up") for producing a good straightforward introduction that's sorely needed. Nobody's going to come away from this book feeling filled to the brim with facts and sophisticated techniques. It's a short book (around 200 pages), and its pace is unhurried. What it does is focus on _fundamentals_.
TDD is all about buyin -- once you "get religion" and become "test-infected" (per Gamma), you've got a solid basis to grow from. It's about habits, and habits can be hard to teach. What's obvious to one person is mysterious to the next. Beck's approach of "sit here with me and listen to my thoughts on a simple, representative problem" is perfectly adequate. It concedes (repeatedly) that some of the steps are obvious, but the pages quickly and one never feels truly bogged down. He's really just teaching a handful of concepts throughout the whole book. You could write the concepts in a single paragraph; that's how much real, critical information is here. But it's _really good information_, and sometimes the key to grasping a fundamentally new (to you) viewpoint or idea is just hearing it rephrased for the 101st time, this time in words your brain is prepared to listen to.
So... it's a quick read, maybe a little pricey on that count. I'd say buy it anyway, and recoup the investment by loaning it to others on your team.
TDD is an incredibly beneficial infection; it's worth exposing yourself to a plainspoken explanation like this. You'll probably know within 50 pages whether you agree.
Average customer rating:
- Makes sense out of things that didn't make sense
- A New Way of Understanding the World
- Brilliant Idea
- The Emperor Has No Clothes
- Finally, something that begins to put things together
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Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change
Don Edward Beck , and
Christopher Cowan
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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ASIN: 1405133562 |
Book Description
Now available in paperback, this bestselling book presents a new framework for understanding the dynamic forces at work in human affairs -not only in business, but also in personal lives, education, and even geopolitics. Focusing on cutting-edge leadership, management systems, processes, procedures, and techniques, Spiral Dynamics synthesizes changes such as increasing cultural diversity, powerful new social responsibility initiatives, and the arrival of a truly global marketplace.Ideal for managers, consultants, and strategists, this inspiring book adds power and precision to the understanding of human value systems and twenty-first century leadership. It draws UK biologist Richard Dawkins ' concept of "memes " and Clare W. Grave's 'Level of Existance Theory' to lay out a very specific toolkit for managing the deepest differences in people. The authors' concept of MEMES represents a new element in the Science of Memetics and why ideas resonate or not. Spiral Dynamics demonstrates how, by applying the right tools at a base level rather than to surface symptoms, any bright, curious human being can begin, quite simply, to change their world.
Customer Reviews:
Makes sense out of things that didn't make sense.......2007-10-01
The model presented about how the paradigms of thinking and how value memes develop over time in a person, organization, or society are brilliantly insightful. This book should be required reading for anyone running a company or organization of any size. The insights that can be gleaned are significant (at least in the lines of development in which one if far enough along oneself).
This is not at all an "easy" book to read. It takes time and thinking, and is probably best read in parallel with a few other people and discussed regularly along the way. I read this book along with another CEO, and a PhD psychologist who specializes in working with family-owned businesses.
--Lee
A New Way of Understanding the World .......2007-07-13
It may not be the "answer to everything" but Spiral Dynamics helps to put a context around why people act in certain ways when presented with certain life conditions. Using the theory of memetics (idea viruses), spiral describes the evolution of humans as a progression from one value system to another along a double helix spiral. Pitched to those in management or leadership, Spiral Dynamics offers insights as to why some people need traditional or hierarchical or ordered or opportunistic or caring or project based workplaces depending on their value meme. The text can be stilted and academic at times and the introduction is confusing, however there are some great insights and well worth reading if you are interested in finding the answers to everything! Pity the colour plates from the hardcover were not replicated in the paperback seeing how Spiral Dynamics relies on the use of colour descriptors.
Brilliant Idea.......2007-07-11
I first heard of Spiral Dynamics when I went to hear Don Beck speak at the Dallas Philosopher's Forum. He was one of the worst speakers I ever heard -- but his ideas were so incredible, so brilliant, that they shined through the poverty of his delivery. When I then went out to buy the book, I encountered the same problem: brilliant ideas, poor delivery. But the ideas are so good, it is work struggling your way through this book just to get the ideas.
The idea is this: thinking and societies exist at different levels of complexity, with new forms of psychoosocial complexity emerging as lower levels become oppressive. It fits well the latest complex systems paradigm in science that takes into account emergence, information, time and process, and fractal geometry. More, it maps extremely well on to the emergentist theory of time developed by J.T. Fraser in books such as "Time, the Familiar Stranger" and "Time, Conflict, and Human Values" and in Frederick Turner's latest book "Natural Religion". The nested hierarchy. evolutionary, emergentist view of nature is THE new paradigm. This and Fraser's works are excellent introductions to these ideas.
The Emperor Has No Clothes.......2007-05-21
A very interesting developmental theory taken WAY to far. The ideas expressed here could have been presented as a helpful extension of the work of psychologist Abraham Maslow and others. Instead, they are framed as comprehensive theory of morality itself, marketed to managers (!) and consultants (!!), as 'leadership lit' no less. It's as if Nietzsche wrote "how-to" books for his developmentally superior ubermensch.
However, the authors have an ace up their sleeve. Spiral Dynamics defines two tiers of human development and pretty much anyone who agrees with the theory is automatically classified as a 'tier two spiral wizard.' Pretty cool- but those who read The Emperors New Clothes as a child might feel a bit uneasy about all of this. It turns out, however, that they feel this because they are still "first tier." Similarly, fans of the work of Karl Popper could see this internal dismissal of external criticisms as the surest sign of non-falsifiable oogy-boogy flim-flam, but again we are assured that that is not the case here. We are not actually bad for thinking this way- just developmentally limited. We are destined to live in the clutches of the 'mean green meme' in the hope of someday bowing to the superior functionality of the philosopher kings and their consulting affiliates.
And kings they are! It turns out there is a heck of a political agenda here. "Wizards," it seems, are instantly able to see solutions to systemic problems- and they need not take seriously the niggling and limited opinions of the lesser-tiered, except to figure out how to win them over. They are "big-picture" sorts, again like Nietzsche's supermen, busy moving the universe forward. They have a duty to run things in this chaotic world. Call it the "Turquoise Man's Burden." You see, these "Wizards" inherently tend to know best and to question their judgment is to betray an almost endearing naiveté. To point out that this is essentially what Plato had in mind when he wrote The Republic 2300 years ago, would, I suspect, be a faux pas. While the idea has yet to really work -and has led to more than a few revolutions- apparently its time has yet again come. From this standpoint, it is interesting that about half of this "developmental theory" is devoted to techniques for shilling ideas to the lesser-tiered.
As someone who grew up in Boulder, Colorado all I can think is that this functional superiority must surely account for the absolutely stunning moral, institutional and financial successes of the city's Integral Institute, which set out to be a sort of "Mensa" for all the lonely "spiral wizards". That it all snowballed into lawsuits and acrimony is only a sign of the sheer incomprehensibility of their greatness.
The bottom line: Much of the developmental theory is actually really good but absolutely ruined by the decision to conflate it with self-help pabulum for the self-righteous and cultish. Two-star stuff.
Finally, something that begins to put things together.......2007-05-13
Spiral Dynamics will give you an edge in assessing people and situations. I am a professional legal mediator. I have found the theories in this book to be of immense help to me in understanding how to approach people and problems in the legal world. I have not read a great deal about the application of Spiral Dynamics in the legal world. I frankly don't think there's a lot out there, and their web site is frankly short on guidance concerning the application of Spiral Dynamics theory in legal mediation and negotiations. I have nevertheless considered approaches to many mediation problems against the background of information I gleaned from this text. I am rather amazed how simply adjusting the language of the mediation to the particular meme-level (or color) of the client suddenly opens the door to progress in communications and the chance to ultimately find common-ground between warring parties. Someone definitely needs to write a follow-up text with practical suggestions as to the application of this theory to mediation and negotiations in the legal world. Lawyers are increasingly turning to mediation as a way of resolving disputes. Someone could make a small fortune teaching lawyers how to utilize these theories not only in negotiations and mediation but also in jury selection in courtroom trials. Oh man, the possibilities are staggering, and lawyers will pay for this kind of knowledge.
Anyway, the writing is interesting, anectodal and fun to read. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in figuring out why no matter how hard you try, the guy next door just doesn't seem to "get it." It also explains why the political vision and understanding of some politicians seems to go right over some people's heads and that of other politicians just leaves you shaking your head.
Amazon.com
Your class library works, but could it be better? Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code shows how refactoring can make object-oriented code simpler and easier to maintain. Today refactoring requires considerable design know-how, but once tools become available, all programmers should be able to improve their code using refactoring techniques.
Besides an introduction to refactoring, this handbook provides a catalog of dozens of tips for improving code. The best thing about Refactoring is its remarkably clear presentation, along with excellent nuts-and-bolts advice, from object expert Martin Fowler. The author is also an authority on software patterns and UML, and this experience helps make this a better book, one that should be immediately accessible to any intermediate or advanced object-oriented developer. (Just like patterns, each refactoring tip is presented with a simple name, a "motivation," and examples using Java and UML.)
Early chapters stress the importance of testing in successful refactoring. (When you improve code, you have to test to verify that it still works.) After the discussion on how to detect the "smell" of bad code, readers get to the heart of the book, its catalog of over 70 "refactorings"--tips for better and simpler class design. Each tip is illustrated with "before" and "after" code, along with an explanation. Later chapters provide a quick look at refactoring research.
Like software patterns, refactoring may be an idea whose time has come. This groundbreaking title will surely help bring refactoring to the programming mainstream. With its clear advice on a hot new topic, Refactoring is sure to be essential reading for anyone who writes or maintains object-oriented software. --Richard Dragan
Topics Covered: Refactoring, improving software code, redesign, design tips, patterns, unit testing, refactoring research, and tools.
Book Description
As the application of object technology-particularly the Java programming language-has become commonplace, a new problem has emerged to confront the software development community. Significant numbers of poorly designed programs have been created by less-experienced developers, resulting in applications that are inefficient and hard to maintain and extend. Increasingly, software system professionals are discovering just how difficult it is to work with these inherited, "non-optimal" applications. For several years, expert-level object programmers have employed a growing collection of techniques to improve the structural integrity and performance of such existing software programs. Referred to as "refactoring," these practices have remained in the domain of experts because no attempt has been made to transcribe the lore into a form that all developers could use. . .until now. In Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Software, renowned object technology mentor Martin Fowler breaks new ground, demystifying these master practices and demonstrating how software practitioners can realize the significant benefits of this new process.
With proper training a skilled system designer can take a bad design and rework it into well-designed, robust code. In this book, Martin Fowler shows you where opportunities for refactoring typically can be found, and how to go about reworking a bad design into a good one. Each refactoring step is simple-seemingly too simple to be worth doing. Refactoring may involve moving a field from one class to another, or pulling some code out of a method to turn it into its own method, or even pushing some code up or down a hierarchy. While these individual steps may seem elementary, the cumulative effect of such small changes can radically improve the design. Refactoring is a proven way to prevent software decay.
In addition to discussing the various techniques of refactoring, the author provides a detailed catalog of more than seventy proven refactorings with helpful pointers that teach you when to apply them; step-by-step instructions for applying each refactoring; and an example illustrating how the refactoring works. The illustrative examples are written in Java, but the ideas are applicable to any object-oriented programming language.
Customer Reviews:
Most Useful for People engaged in Post Imp Environments.......2007-04-26
This is the most practical book for people involved in Post release / production support projects still reporting bugs and in dire need of refactoring. Project with bad Code albeit working code are toughest to refactor, even peers are scared to touch anything which has been working. Martin Fowler's insight gives all that there is to know about refactoring. Thanks Martin for your insights. Keep up the good work.
Anirudh Vyas
By far the best Tech book I have purchased.......2007-04-05
This is one of the best books that sit in my office desk. I really enjoyed reading this book & implementing lot of the refactorings.
Good ideas, bad book.......2007-02-26
Fowler's book is has a lot of very good ideas, but it is poorly written, hard to follow, and incredibly disorganized. I think it would have benefited immensely from the services of a good editor.
My two major complaints: First, Fowler tries so hard to be clever and witty that at times his point is completely lost in his misguided attempts at humor. Second, he constantly refers ahead to material not yet covered, so that it's impossible to understand Chapter N without already having read Chapter N+1, which of course presupposes that you have read and understood Chapter N.
If you are going to read this book (and I concede that you probably should) then you should at the same time buy a copy of Joshua Kerievsky's "Refactoring to Patterns." Kerievsky brings far more organization and explanation to the subject than does Fowler. Read Kerievsky first, and refer to Fowler when he directs you there (which he very frequently does). But don't try to read Fowler by himself.
Great Book! .......2007-02-19
I am working on an a C# agile project for the first time. The word "Refactoring" comes up a lot. This book will provide the true meaning of what refactoring is all about! Great examples will show you when and how to refactor your code. There is a handy list of Refactoring rules or guidleines that will tell you what page in the book to go to to learn about that type of refactoring technique. Make sure you put your name on the book because your co-workers will try to take it!
One of the few truly MUST HAVE books.......2007-02-17
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code is one of those amazing books that every professional developer should have on their book shelf. The bulk of this book is a catalog of refactorings, but there is more to it as I will explain below.
In case you aren't aware of what refactoring is, I'll give you Fowlers definition.
"Refactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure." For the most part this means cleaning up your existing - yet working - code. It involves anything from renaming a method to be more concise with the purpose of that method, to breaking up switch statements into a polymorphic structure. There are many different techniques used to refactor your code, which is what you learn in this book.
Right off the bat Fowler throws you into a small sample application that is poorly designed. He then takes you through a few different refactoring techniques that improve the design of this simple application. Right from the start you see how effective refactoring can be. From there he goes into topics such as how to detect "bad smells" in code. This chapter is particularly informative and entertaining. You also learn a little bit about testing. After the introductory chapters you begin to dig into a deep catalog of refactorings. Each one is named. Like design patterns - naming the refactoring and building a vocabulary really helps in communicating thoughts and ideas.
The catalog of refactorings is extremely useful. They are structured so that each refactoring has a name, a motivation, the mechanics and a simple example. This is very effective. As I said earlier, the name is useful because it helps build your programming vocabulary and it helps in communicating thoughts and ideas. The motivation explains why the refactoring should be done and when it should/shouldn't be used. The mechanics provide a step-by-step description of how to carry out the refactoring and the example shows a small example of the refactoring in use. All examples are written in Java 1.1.
Although the examples are written in Java the book is still very good for any developer. Developers that have never written a line of code in Java, C++, C#, or anything similar may have a little bit of a tougher time working through this book. Luckily most examples are very small and simple so even if you fall into this category you shouldn't have too much of a learning curve. Some of the code is a bit outdated and can be done a bit better now-a-days but what do you expect? This book was written 8+ years ago! Times have changed. The ideas are still very relevant though, which is what makes this book so timeless.
Martin Fowler books are always a joy to read. His writing style is humorous, yet often very blunt and to the point. Just like UML Distilled, he is able to communicate a lot of ideas into a very short amount of space - the book is a bit dense in other words, which is very good in my opinion. Martin Fowler does not beat around the bush and he has very strong opinions on certain topics. Unlike a lot of books you read, he actually writes with personality. I have a hard time putting his books down. Here is an example of the type of verbiage he uses...
On how comments can be a "bad smell":
"Don't worry; we aren't saying that people shouldn't write comments. In our olfactory analogy, comments aren't a bad smell; indeed they are a sweet smell. The reason we mention comments here is that comments often are used as a deodorant." - Martin Fowler. Here he is talking about how people use comments to hide bad code, or "bad smells".
I highly recommend this book. If you are a professional developer or plan on becoming one then click the "Buy Now" button without second thought. This is one of those rare books worth its weight in gold - I would spend $100.00 on a book like this if I had to.
Book Description
In 1995, the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with a range of renowned experts, embarked upon a major international study into current state practice in humanitarian law in order to identify customary law in this area. This book (and its companion, Volume 2: Practice) is the result of that study. Volume 1 is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts.
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