Thursday, October 6, 2011

You Think It's Cold Here?

Captured on an October morning in Lake Charles, LA.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Good Reason To Let Sleeping Classics Lie





Many, many years ago, I read the classic work, "How to Win Friends and Influence People," by Dale Carnegie.  Its impact on my life since then has been beyond measure.  Its practical, sensible, and proven advice for getting along with people is worth a read by anyone.  In fact, I have recently been listening to it on compact disc in my car.  Though my eldest son will grimace here, I once insisted that he read the book after some now forgotten relational infraction he committed.  He did read the book, or said he did, though I recall thinking that he must have had some angle on a rapid reading method.


It is a classic book.

That's why it should be left that way.

I happened to notice the other day that the book has been "updated" for the 21st century.  Admittedly, some of its illustrations and examples are dated.  After all, the book was originally published in 1937 during the height of the Great Depression.  The world has changed much since then.

Unfortunately, the book apparently has as well.  Just one sentence will suffice as an example:

Today’s biggest enemy of lasting influence is the sector of both personal and corporate musing that concerns itself with the art of creating impressions without consulting the science of need ascertainment.

Huh?  What?  And just what in the name of Dale Carnegie is "need ascertainment?"

Here is a good example of why classic works need to be left to stand as they were first conceived.  One of the reasons this book has spanned the generations, no doubt, is its plain and simple language.  Now that clear and easy to grasp wording is changed into gobbeldygook. 

Let that be a lesson to all.  

Some things are better left alone.