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Don’t Know What To Do Next? Love Your Neighbor

Perman, Matt. What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, 2014.

In What’s Best Next?, Matt Perman combines a comprehensive knowledge of the best self-development and personal productivity books in the field with a commitment to glorifying God and enjoying him forever. When someone says they would like to see a secular topic examined “from a Christian worldview”, they are imagining a book like this one. Perman worked for John Piper’s Desiring God organization for over a decade and describes the book as working out the horizontal dimension of Christian hedonism, Piper’s name for the teaching that, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Accordingly, personal productivity allows us to extend that satisfaction in God to those around us so that His glory is most fully known.

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10 Observations from a Week of In-Person Teaching in the Age of Covid-19

  1. I have a good memory for names and faces, yet I recognize 33% fewer people because of their masks. Conversely I’m almost positive that if my new students took off their masks, I couldn’t recognize half of them.
  2. I teach four of my five classes with students attending virtually and in-person…simultaneously. It’s hard to develop any classroom rhythm.
  3. Wearing a mask for five hours a day is significantly different than wearing a mask for thirty minutes a day.
  4. The day-long mask becomes a veritable smorgasbord for the senses.
  5. My students have been routinely gracious and flexible.
  6. Take the regular push and pull of energy and enervation that accompanies classroom teaching. Then multiply it times one hundred.
  7. Tech is fickle, so I will always bring a backup plan…and the phone number of our IT desk.
  8. Logical validity flies over my students’ heads, but it flows over a lot of people’s heads.
  9. The students who are here want to be here. The best ones want to learn while they’re at it.
  10. This semester is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. Yet, I get the sense that we’re going remote before it’s all over. That means I better sprint while the sun’s out so I’ll have less road to travel once it goes down.

God remains good. All the time. I am glad to have a job, and I am glad that job is teaching.

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Under the Influence

Cialdini, Robert B. Influence: How and Why People Agree to Things. New York: Morrow, 1984. Print.

How do you choose what books you read? Read the options below. How you respond might say something about the weapon of influence for which you are the easiest target.

  1. You were given the book as a gift.
  2. You are part of a book club and have committed to reading what the group selects.
  3. The book is a #1 New York Times bestseller.
  4. You like the author’s other books.
  5. Someone you respect—the NYT book critic or your pastor—suggested the book.
  6. The book is being banned in your child’s high school, and you want to know what the fuss is about.
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Essentialism Isn’t Minimalism

McKeown, Greg. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, 2014. Print.

Greg McKeown’s Essentialism has a thesis similar to Richard Koch’s The 80/20 Principle: pursue less and achieve more. This is an attractive offer. It’s a version of Walmart’s USP: “Save money. Live Better.” I.e. spend less and get more. Unfortunately, McKeown too often confuses minimalism and essentialism. The book can’t deliver what McKeown promises because he ultimately doesn’t know what’s essential. 

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