In the previous post about reviews, I said I hoped to review here some books and articles I wished I could have included in Grow With the Flow.

Mike Rose is a professor of education at UCLA. His book, The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker, is about “the thought it takes to do physical work.” It’s one of the most exciting books I’ve read in recent years: to listen to him describe how a high school carpentry student is learning to think about his work becomes – I don’t exaggerate – thrilling. I’m seeing the world a bit differently than before I read his book.

Well, there’s one problem with reviewing the book: I haven’t actually been able to finish it yet, because I keep loaning it to friends “for a few days.” I just rescued it from my wife’s study, and my son volunteered to buy his own copy, so as soon as I can, I’ll post my thoughts about it here.

Why not buy your own copy now and read along, so you’re ready to comment when I get around to posting my review?

Mike Rose
The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker
New York: Viking, 2004

To write anything which builds on the work of others is to always be behind the times: As soon as you finish a sentence, paragraph, or chapter, along comes some terrific new information that screams to be included. With a book like Grow With the Flow (GWTF), which very much depends on the research and thinking of others, it’s a constant temptation to go back and revise. One day, I noticed that if I kept including good new stuff, I’d never finish.

It was easier to move on because I saw that I could use this Web site, IntelligenceRiver.net, to tell you about some of the good new work that keeps coming along, and show how it fits in with the goals of GWTF. So the first reviews here will all be of books or articles that came along after I made that decision to quit revising.

Maybe they’ll go into a second edition eventually. For now, I hope they deepen your understanding of the ideas advanced in GWTF, as they did mine. Enjoy! And click that “Comments” button!