Everything Bad...

Everything Bad is Good for You:
How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

Last week I read Steven Johnson’s, Everything Bad is Good for You. A couple of years late is better than never.

The basic premise, as the name would imply, is that video games, television and other consumptions of our mass media culture are not dumbing us down, but making us more intelligent. If you have any doubt, his arguments are very persuasive. He cites the perceived contradiction as being a general confusion between content and structure. Because someone finds the content of a movie, tv show, or video game to be base- full of sex and violence, and without social merit, one assumes that the media is therefore “dumb” or plays to the least common denominator, hence dumbing us down. Turning this conventional wisdom on its head, he convincingly argues that once content is disregarded, and we focus on structure, it is apparent that our entertainment is becoming much more complex. And not just more complex, but more complex in precisely the manner that forces us to give our brain’s pattern recognition muscle a workout (just the sort of problem solving logic that a standardized IQ test measures for). He then uses James Flynn’s research into rising IQ test scores to bolster his argument.

I’m not a serious gamer myself, but I can attest, from what gaming experience I do have, that the software that must be mastered in order to be proficient at any of the contemporary hit video games is astoundingly complex, and easily more mentally challenging than learning most mainstream business software applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, et al.).

At 238 pages, it is a quick read- I put in a leisurely day and a half, but it could easily be read in one day on a plane. I enjoyed the book, and I recommend it to all. It is both thoroughly researched, and yet easily accessible.

The paperback edition has an endorsement on the cover from Malcolm Gladwell, and if you like Mr. Gladwell’s work, this title should also be to your liking.

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My most recent prior read was The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson, former Editor-in-Chief of WIRED magazine. My current read is also from another WIRED alumni, former Executive Editor, Kevin Kelly— his 1994 Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World. At 13 years, it is still quite relevant, and all the more impressive, given the time of change, directly related to its subject matter, that has transpired in the interim since its original publishing. I may post more when I’ve finished the book.

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Maybe I should add a recommended book list after my right column link list.