Archive for category Reviews
iPad Review: Expensive/Sexy/Toy/Yet To Be Proven/Keeping It
Here’s my take on Apple’s latest shindig.
The Great
A screen of sheer beauty
This feature will be what hooks most people at impulse. Looking at luscious content- videos, hi res photos, well formatted publications – is the most amazing strength of the iPad. Here are three examples that, while not capable of reproducing the experience, may get you into the Apple store to at least check it out.
The Guardian App
NYT Editors' Choice - go Kagan?
The Ricky Gervais Show
Why Wifi is enough and 802.11n
N wifi makes the web feel local, which makes the iPad great. It’s very important to have wifi set up perfectly at home and often shops’ wifi is second rate either in speed or configuration. I chose to avoid the 3G model because any mobile information demands can be met easily by the iPhone. Hence, steer clear of the 3G ($130 price premium, $30/month) if you have any type of smartphone. A dumbphone plus 3G iPad could be a powerful combo though because you won’t be locked into the telecoms for as much monthly.
Innovative developer opportunities, some allowed by Apple, some not.
The possibilities with bluetooth and wifi are practically boundless. A lot of the most valuable stuff imaginable, like tethering to one’s cell phone connection, is certain to be banned. But many apps that allow you to directly control your desktop from anywhere, manage and view files seamlessly, stream videos from your desktop, and connect all sorts of crazy stuff, quickly prove that developer ingenuity will trump most restrictions Apple lays down.
Blogging and composing vs iPhone
Activities like writing this review, a few other blog posts, to do lists, notes, etc, so far are all vastly more comfortable on the iPad than on the iPhone.
A lap stance is best, I can get about 80 WPM (estimated) when focused. Typing on a tabletop is somewhat weird, so situations at a desk or table like meetings or class may be uncomfortable with the iPad versus a laptop.
Navigation, surfing content, using multitouch are wonderful
When Steve Jobs comments on browsing the web, checking out photos, and using certain apps, saying it is the best experience possible on iPad, he is onto something. Multitouch and the superlative quality of iPhone OS devices’ touch hardware have been THE human interface revolution over the past three years. There are some minor problems with responsiveness when apps are in the middle of loading but with inline apps like mail, calendar, and safari, it feels absolutely right. I think loading screens would be a wonderful idea in some apps, but thus far the issues have probably just resulted from rushing apps to release.
The Ugly
Content prices and availability
Prices are about three times what you’d expect coming from the iPhone app store and free content is far less promoted. The market should hopefully handle this, but companies are definitely setting their initial prices with a huge early adopter tax included.
Most painfully, of the last 10 books I bought, only 5 are available on either iBooks or Kindle and I would have saved a total of… Nothing. That’s right. It’s plain misunderstanding to think that you will pay much less for what books are available. As you get into the blockbuster titles you may save between $1-3 from the Amazon paperback price, but do not buy this device thinking it will pay for itself. (See earlier first impression).
Glare, lack of e-ink and poorly formatted content
An antiglare screen protector ($15, Amazon) quickly alleviates the horrid, headache inducing glare. It’s important here to recognize the difference between scanned PDF content, which is worthless, clunky, and ugly, and content that is formatted for the iPad, which makes use of the display capabilities and is thus sexy. Most major publications like NYT, WSJ, Time, Nat Geo, etc have already released beautifully formatted, interactive issues. Be very careful when shopping for content though; I would hesitate to purchase any PDF content other than something I immediately needed for more than $0.99, and some magazines (Men’s Health) are charging $5-7.
Reality of development speed: It took freaking GOOGLE a week for an app update
It took Google about a week to update their simple app. Judging the length of time it will take others to update their far more complex works by roughly that standard, we may be waiting quite a while to see a sea of delicious apps. I can see lazy companies – even now only ONE airline had its own iPhone app – just sitting the whole thing out.
iPad app store/iBooks lack polish present in past storefronts
I’m not sure why but these two storefronts are a step back from the iPhone app store. I expect that to change soon but for now feel very scared that awesome content is hidden away.
Carrying both is immediately burdensome
Having an iPhone and iPad leads to a bit of overlap. The iPad is too large to take on a run and sometimes even too large to use on a commute, for example when standing on a rush hour bus.
Its ultimate comparative utility depends on how much latitude Apple allows devs (tethering, voip apps, flash – their record is not good) and how quickly a market for heavily developed apps designed specifically for iPad materializes. Two weeks in though, it’s looking pretty good.
Important personal questions
Law books, law school use in general – skeptical
Will casebooks come to the iPad in a year? A quick and confident “No.” seems to be the safe bet based on a quick sampling of people who would probably know. Will taking notes on here be as effective as on a laptop? Perhaps with the keyboard dock, or perhaps hand written notes will prove best. Examsoft release for iPad? Doubtful. The outlook then may be limited to some good ol’ space saving.
Games: potential is there, shovelware is plenty
Pocket Legends, a free to start iPad mmo, has very nice looking 3D and is a wonderful showcase for what’s possible. Pricing right now – 10 to 15 for shovelware like Plants vs. Zombies (am I just a snobby gamer?) – is discouraging however. Mirror’s Edge ($13) has quite a bit of depth and makes amazing use of simple swiping and tilting.
I don't have time for this
Action packed!
Stylus tablet writing
Will the original purpose of tablets come to life on the iPad? I’m not familiar enough with the tech to make a judgment either way, but on the one hand I’d be doubtful because the screen is so touch focused. On the other, I’m optimistic about it being made possible in a year or two simply by the sheer power of the mind (sup Rand).
Verdict: overpriced, beautiful toy right now. Lots of potential to become revolutionary. It’s on Apple, publishers (CASEBOOK PUBLISHERS: I’LL DO ANYTHING!! *wink*), and devs to make it happen.
Review/reaction: Atlas Shrugged
Like with The Fountainhead, I read Atlas Shrugged to become better adjusted from my weak, by-default liberal background. Confronting myself with what, in theory, I didn’t subscribe to, was and has been a very big help in seeing more faces of complex issues.
General Results
Atlas’ characters tilted me toward the right a pretty decent deal. In believing now that the world operates a little more as Rand sees it and a little less as, say, Obama does, I am both scared of what I didn’t know and motivated to move forward very forcefully to survive within it.
As a prime example, the Galt speech had quite a profound effect as most of what it said had already been addressed one way or the other, just not in such concentrated form. Reading through it – and it took a few sessions – was dazing; it knocked me out mentally perhaps as it was designed to do to people who didn’t see eye to eye with him.
This reaction seems to be usual. I am no exception, really. To add some of my personal tastes, four points that stood out the most are as follows:
Condemnation of Sacrifice: Disagree
Rand believes that sacrifice is wholly destructive to the rational man, and as such includes it as a demand of the antagonists quite transparently. I feel like even amid an individualistic drive, sacrificing as an investment: giving up a measly amount of short term pleasure for that which one foresees to be much much larger fits with rational self-interest. I have tried to find worthy opportunities that fit this description.
Could be missing something but I can’t agree fully here.
Sexual Thoughts: Wow
Being attracted to the mind is something that at a few points in life I have had the luxury of enjoying very much and very frequently. When minds I am attracted to are scarcer, not really in terms of anything as broad as intelligence but rather as a matter of fit, life becomes frustrating. The way attractiveness and sexual motives are portrayed here are quite agreeable. One exception may lie in how far she takes the claim that sex is not at all animalistic but rather is that ultimate expression of humanity. Not in today’s world.
Labeling, Naming, Physical Appearances
That all paternalistic laws are labeled for their hoped-for results, that the fittest businesses are named for their owners, and that all the heroes are ripped became very apparent soon into the book. Once it was obvious that this was no coincidence I wondered how well these correlations manifest today. Some yea, some nay, but most notably as the incidences continued it became funnier. Why laugh, I wonder?
Resemblances to and Borrowings from Bioshock and Lost
The insertion of various themes, characters, and places like Galt’s Gulch into our collective conscience has, I’m sure, helped many readers of Rand put other fiction and real world events in better perspective. Personally, Bioshock 2 and recent episodes as well as previous installments of both have been greatly enhanced by “witnessing” Atlas.
Cheers, Ayn. I am not a GQ labeled ARA but you have roped me in somewhat.
Ongoing Review: The iPad
Today, after making a few distinct risk calculations and working out an interesting insurance rebuy deal with a friend, I picked up the 32GB iPad. It’s been getting use all day and has performed marvelously so far, but I am certain the bear share of the value is yet to be discovered.
My huge contingencies are:
1) a cheap laptop solution for school: I have no illusions that this probably won’t work for note taking or test taking as would a laptop. Typing in my lap and on flat surfaces is actually going extremely well but it would take years of training to approach the same efficiency as years of online gaming have netted me.
2) law books: On the other hand, delusions of whether law casebook publishers will go iPad are, while still significant, much more constrained. If I can save even 10% of textbook costs over three years this puppy could pay for itself.
3) financial disaster: If I’m suddenly on the hook for meaningfully more than I expect to be through July I may have to exercise my put option on the sucker. While unlikely, I spent no trivial amount on this and really hope to get some great use out of it.
To that end, I’ll maintain a list on this post of specific uses I have found for it that it does best and, most importantly, tasks on which it supersedes an iPhone or a laptop.
First, an important observation:
Expect to transact a lot of business with Apple on your iPad
iPad apps are expensive. Of paramount importance, for example, Super Monkey Ball is $13. An iPad only WSJ subscription is $18/mo. IMO, these products are priced too high and should adjust as no one buys them.
Similarly, Apple has obviously given publishers free reign to set book prices. Unlike Kindle, best seller and classic works range from $9.99 to $30.00 in digital format. Amazon seemed to be making an iTunes-like push toward making books cheap, however, Steve Jobs’ vision of this device as an ultimate replacement for books is reflected in the equal and sometimes higher prices of a lot of titles. For example, Atlas Shrugged costs $15 for a Signet Anniversary set that also includes The Fountainhead. Unfortunately, on iBooks Atlas alone costs $28.
Hopefully the market works out these pricing disparities and iPad versions’ 300% markup flutters down to the 100 range on apps and 50 (…am I missing something?) range on books and periodicals.
You will also find less free content featured and available. Not sure if Apple has orchestrated is or if content is just dictating it but the bottom line is you cannot fully enjoy this device without spending something of a monthly service fee on content.
Consider carefully then, before even purchasing the pad, whether you can afford some more monthly charges in addition to hardware and accessories. Especially when thinking of 3G, don’t cap your additional monthly expenses at $30; instead think $30 + the amount you imagined above. For me this case was strong support to forego cellular data and just use wifi. It is sufficient, especially if you have an iPhone.
Ok, usefulness to come. Soon. Bookmark and subscribe!
Review/reaction: The End of Overeating
David Kessler has assembled a quick, readable work detailing how corporate food interests lay traps, how and why Americans fall into them, and how to disarm them.
As someone who suffers from the habituation Kessler claims to be the endgame of Big Food, I found his prescriptions difficult to digest, as few have really helped me move overcome overeating in the past few months. A general sense of awareness should come to anyone who reads this book, but one will have to try harder than me (or be less addicted to cheap combinations of fat, sugar, and salt) for it to end up as a tool of progress.
Still, Kessler’s varied accounts of corporate officers’ behavior with respect to the content of their products compels me to believe they want you hooked. An executive of the industry reviews the cheesecake factory menu in terms of the layering of fat, sugar, and salt, and it is absolutely disgusting. Studies on mice where addiction to popular food items is shown to cause conditioning approaching that caused by cocaine is startling. A third piece to the puzzle, the general argument that, in nature, size matters, is equally believable and compelling.
On the drug note, a lot of Kessler’s solutions did involve increased government regulation in the form of labeling requirements and transfat type bans. While in extremely limited cases this type of action may be warranted, I tend to be swayed away based on the Becker-Posner blog’s general consensus: such requirements are useless and burdensome where the costs of knowledge to the consumer are low. (Becker, Posner)
Review/Reaction: The Fountainhead
Literary review and criticism never really came easily to me so don’t expect a penetrating masterpiece of things never before said.
Characters
I relate to aspects of both Keating and Roark as well as nuances of numerous other characters. To find myself in opposite and multiple characters speaks to the complexity of humans vis a vis characters, or viewed another way, it reveals my indecision as to what kind of person I am. As to the character I would like to emulate more or eventually become, Dominique Francon or Gail Wynand would be the choice.
Dominique in particular reflected my persona because she didn’t mind irrationally subjecting herself to extended anguish at times.
The liberal, altruistic, and cultured establishment
I was drawn to Rand’s treatment of the establishment’s self image. Happily, the unabashedly self congratulatory tone taken by Toohey in his speeches and reviews was ridiculed extensively. Moreover, my disdain for artistic criticism as an instrument of power and influence in disguise was repeatedly piqued. It’s very hard to enumerate why a work is “awful,” or “bad,” people just tend to trust the reviewer.
Two speeches in particular, that of Toohey on altruism and Roark in defense of the pioneer, were amazing. Toohey’s cast doubt on my affinity to social liberal policy and Roark’s helped me come to terms with why I am so deeply in love with the (common noun) big city. The imagery at the end of the book, wherein Dominique ascends above the established buildings like banks, churches, and apartments, was thus very moving and fitting. Roark wins.
Although he won, per se, expressing his truth in such a destructive form as he did was easily beyond what my set of beliefs would realistically allow. Perhaps it is this hesitancy that allows the left to maintain a hold on people who would otherwise defect; it leverages internal moral leanings as Rand suggests it exploits.
Man over nature / Individual over collective
Right now I see a beautiful sunset, the likes of which I cannot remember seeing before. Nature is indeed beautiful. I am only able to see it, though, because of the Embraer vessel in which I fly, thanks to UAL Corp., and due to man’s progress in science and industry.
Still left to consider are the government wrought enablers. The FAA allows for takeoff and landing. Birmingham’s airport authority, although incompetent in its loss to Atlanta many moons ago, keeps the shared land running. Even, for example, the US military, or whatever peacekeeping entity that affords me the security to value an arrangement of colors in the sky instead of worrying about immediate survival, is partly to thank for this experience.
Nature, individuals, and collectives all create beauty and progress in harmony. To argue for the extermination of one, in my opinion, is to prove blindness to their synergy. We may miss the mark on the mix but should reallocate, incrementally, when possible.
Atlas remains.
Works I am Currently Involved in and Unwordy Reviews
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
Thanks to a GQ article, a playthrough of Bioshock, and a giddy Borders salesperson I picked up the Signet version of Rand’s two best known works. One section through the first I relate closely to a lot of the characters, don’t yet fully see her as the article perceived her (elitist jerk), and am enjoying myself.
Can a Smart Person Believe in God, Michael Guillen
My pop got me this book as a birthday gift. Guillen’s main premise of two separate dimensions with respect to knowledge and spirituality resonates thunderously with my personal beliefs. Some of the explicit, rational argumentation doesn’t ring as loudly because it contradicts the whole just-mentioned separation of reasoned articulation and internal spirituality (my brands, not his) but on the whole I feel like a better person having finished this book.
The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin
Not as much of an insider job as The Brethren, The Nine picks up chronologically at the end of the Burger Court and tells of the entire Rehnquist court. The revelation of more justices’ personalities, doctrine, and professional habits has confirmed most of my notions about the court but twisted others. A set of contemporary issues, some newer than those of Woodward’s piece, takes the stage too: the 2000 election, heated Senate confirmations, and religious America’s crusade for the court are all reviewed.
Still love it. Still would love to take part in it.
Dragon Age, Two Badass Doctors who started a small game company
Bioware RPGs have never stuck with me, but because I got this in the $40 pre-holiday rush and because I think their quirkiness is evolving to meet my attraction to mass-produced qualities (ugh, a weakness I might point out) I have gotten into it and resolved to finish. Not an uberfan I will not give it more than one playthrough except possibly to harvest some easy achievements or new key story elements and am playing it on a pretty low difficulty (normal, no FF I think?).
Zenonia, Gamevil
For the $2.99 I paid on the iPhone this Zelda meets Secret of Mana meets Diablo mix of goodness has returned hours of occupation when staring at the drywall of Las Colinas’ McDonald’s was the only otherwise available activity. Still leaves a lot to be desired story and control-wise, but again, for the circumstances this work is great. Picked up HYBRID on $0.99 holiday sale too but I may not get to it for a while.
Cheers.
Review/Reaction: The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court
On November 29, 2009, I finished my reading of Bob Woodward’s The Brethren, which I set out to read in order to form a more perfect understanding of law. My interest in the courts has grown enormously, therefore, I am immediately preparing a draft review for circulation.
Woodward
Knowing of Bob Woodward from his involvement in Watergate and then from his recent Bush book, I knew I was getting into a quality piece of writing. Woodward pieced together all of his sources to form a beautiful, descriptive narrative that flowed sequentially from the Warren-Burger transition to the resignation of Douglas and appointment of Stevens in the 1975 term. The author’s slant is obviously anti-Burger, but some of the suggestions that made him look like a dope seem to have been originated by the other Justices rather than Woodward himself.
I love how the book travels around the bench at key junctures at least once per term. That frequent exercise illuminated the way Justices operate, the way their ideologies are involved (or not) in decisions, and the way legal reasoning works in general.
History
The Brethren attuned me further to Nixon era history in that, for example, I watched the Nixon resignation speech for the first time. I saw Vietnam from an angle other than the protest or war zone settings that have comprised the extent of my exposure thanks to popular movies and documentaries. Perhaps most importantly to my future, I saw a slice of Court history almost completely ignorant of the surrounding eras. Sowell talked about the Warren court quite a bit so I had a conservative taste of Burger’s predecessor, but now I have my sights set on The Nine, the news, and any other recommendations you might have for a more complete understanding.
Court Practice
For all the times I’ve heard SCOTUS referred to as “a club” and for all the calls for its reform or abolishment I wasn’t too surprised at some of its secretive inner workings. But I was still shocked by how much power over the outcomes of so many lives a man like Earl Warren held. This influence, the impassioned opposition to it of court colleagues among any set of disagreeing justices, and then their camaraderie afterward and in general was hard to digest.
With respect to the rules, both de facto and de jure, I see many opportunities for FDR-like exploitation. Depending on some unlikely but possible circumstances some crazy outcomes could possibly be reached. Most notably, had Nixon stayed around and Douglas and Marshall both retired at the same time, say, Nixon would have had six appointees! In a more general sense the fluid and unarticulated nature of many of the court’s internal regulations is suspicious.
Issues
The main issues highlighted across the terms included are segregation enforcement, abortion, obscenity, the death penalty, Watergate and executive privilege, and mental illness. Not sure what may have been skipped over but these seemed like a representative sample of what mattered in the early seventies.
Key Takeaways
Number one: Supreme Court Justices, while they usually arrive at their station via a fiercely political process, seem to be some of the most independent-minded people in Washington. My major support here would have to come from Hugo Black, the deep south justice who tended to vote heavily on the left. Despite his already surprising, effectively anti-deep south philosophy, he still remained to what would politically be considered “the right” on issues like busing, a stance he took for actual, logical, legal reasons. Other polar justices doing the same on other issues and the centrist justices’ unpredictability confirm the feasibility of cultivating a flexible set of beliefs. I like this.
Number two: this stuff is cool. My desire to participate in the courts either as an appellate lawyer or clerk has risen ten-fold. Maybe approaching this aspiration with Vince Lombardi’s “strive for perfection settle for excellence” in mind could propel me a long way.
In any case, I’m happy for the recommendation given by Tom at Alabama Law’s Career Services and would recommend the book to anyone interested in either law school or what happened in the judiciary in the Nixon era.
Modern Warfare 2
Oh it’s that time of life again, that time to adopt a singular line of free-solo-time entertainment for the next couple of months. Last year and at Alabama, COD4 was such a fantastic, reasonable, and non-time-consuming choice for whetting this particular appetite that I think I’m going to do it again.
Reunion
Cody, Doug, and Dan, with whom I’ve kept in close touch, all seem to be doing the same. Hooah. But playing with Tuanh and Tuhoa again as well as whomever these guys all bring along ought to be as or more fun as the lovely memories from before (Cloverfield, tobaccer, etc). Balancing improvement with all that’s going on in life.. well, just the crappy commute at the moment.. may be rough. But I’ll try mainly to keep ahead of the curve by playing a good bit each week.
I’m bad
Using my normal Halo/Assault Rifle/Sprint regimen of offense across handful of games my ratio has landed at a stanky 0.7ish. I’m seeing how a more Counterstrike mode of play makes sense here, but map and weapons familiarity are still at a minimum. That should change soon though, but not too soon (read: don’t play too much!)
Single Player Sensationalism
The campaign’s art direction, music, and story were a recognizably higher sensual bombardment than those of COD4′s single player. You may have read of some controversy in the media, or you may not have, so I’ll leave out all the spoilers, but the twists do not end with “No Russian.” Although shorter – 5 hours on easy – the range of environments is the most diverse of any FPS and the difficulty was a bit sharper.
Knowledge and Decisions after Common Sense Economics
Wanting to shore up my ignorance about most substantive economic arguments I requested of my good friend a couple of books to do just that.
He lent me Common Sense Economics by James Gwartney, et. al, and Knowledge and Decisions by Thomas Sowell.
Results
Both works contributed to a tempering of my unchecked bleeding heart, which I believe stemmed from both a harsh rejection of the moral leanings of the right to which I was exposed in childhood and an enchantment with the oratory and narrative of Barack Obama. Each work contained massive amounts of evidence for the superiority of free markets and argued for free markets, although much of Sowell’s substance flew over my head.
The Theory
One shadow of doubt convincingly cast was that of “hoped-for” results. Defining governmental programs and organizations up front by their hoped-for results helps mask their truly important parts: processes and actual results.
However, articulation also comes under fire as a force opposed to free market decision-making where inarticulate actions like purchases communicate many processes and actual results.
Sowell’s thesis seemed to focus on the differences in the costs of knowledge to different decision makers. He used this framework to explain various societal problems, historical events, and the economic/political/legal status quo. To be honest, the applications of this main point tended to fly over my head. What I take away from it is that those for whom knowledge is cheap and accessible (for example, connected politicians, organized labor unions) tend to hold more power in decision making. But should they? Another component of the argument seems to be that in our current societal setup these groups make damaging decisions because those making them are so distant from the first-hand knowledge held by those affected.
Oh who knows, I probably missed it completely. Seemed libertarian. But plenty of background in history, law, economics, and politics made the read well worth it.
The Content
A few crucial turns in recent American history were highlighted, most notably the expansion of power of the Executive and Judicial branches during the Warren court. I’m now reading Bob Woodward’s The Brethren, which has begun with an expository of how Burger follows Warren.
Certain commonly fallen for fallacies also made a lot of sense. For example, the democratic fallacy often hits American voters who think that options are unlimited and because we live in a democracy we can vote for anything we want. The animistic fallacy describes when one believes order must have been created by design, whereas many disparate chaotic events can actually amalgamate into order.
Common Sense Economics was a great brush up of aspects of econ that I had once known more closely in high school and college. The chapter on personal finance was especially great.
Provoked Thoughts
Telecom executives will complain about regulation stifling their investments then turn around in less than a month and try to perpetuate the regulation that has propped them up in the face of competition from Google. First, hypocritical. Second, a system in which that can be done is one in which government seems to be bought and sold with no real ethical direction.
The power of government with its “threat of violence” as the key mechanism for getting certain behaviors out of the populous is indeed vast, and as Sowell describes overwhelming to all individuals and organizations. Was it overwhelming just now to Goldman Sachs?
I agree that the term “self-made man” is ignorant and arrogant.
Unmonitored monitors, for example, mothers and entrepreneurs, are the most productive people in society. Again, I agree!
The sections on antitrust made me want to lawyer my way into M&A.
Sure, the Constitution has survived for 250 years. But I would ask those who decry some of its stretchier interpretations as perverse: hasn’t the leeway for such changes allowed that very survival?
Upon reading that the founding fathers explicitly rejected Utopian speculations, well, again, I found my suspicions about the left increasing.
On the Life and Influence of John Adams as Read by a Young Citizen from David McCullough’s Biography
Long ago while still in college I saw an unassuming ad for Paul Giamatti in John Adams only a few days before staying in a hotel that had, you guessed it, HBO. There I happened to flip through the channels and the series was on part 4, wherein Adams was installed in Europe to negotiate with the French for manpower, the Dutch for financing, and the British for peace. Even though the poster ad in the Post Office had not meant much, this episode – its music, its acting, its touching upon the origins of our country – inspired me to watch the rest.
In my experience, Tom Hanks + HBO is one of those alchemical recipes that fuses to form nothing other than beauty. Lately I picked up From the Earth to the Moon, another masterpiece, and upon being revisited by the magical feelings Hanks somehow evokes amid a bid to go to law school, I thought it appropriate to read the real thing.
Humor
I laughed audibly at a few points quite possibly only because of Giamatti’s job. Picturing him courting a girl in the gardens and reading aloud from a book on wooing women by Franklin, of all people, was just one of these episodes. His verbatim reaction to attending a Catholic service, “had the Reformation failed?” also tickled me, myself Catholic. Some of the antics that took place in France, like Abigail’s quip that it would be worse to be out of fashion than to be seen in nature’s form, which happened often in Paris, simply cracked me up.
Admittedly this work is not meant to be one of comedy, but the fact that my reading led to a few laughs speaks to the personable manner in which this story is told.
Government and Law
Adams, the most vociferous of our forefathers, had plenty to say on government in this work. Before launching on a reaction to some of his thoughts it’s important to note the historical context affected him in a way I don’t and probably can never fully understand.
Adams’ consistent line of inquiry into the necessity of government was always intentionally coupled with remarks about the widespread diffusion of knowledge, positive moral character of the governed and governing, and ceiling on power where “no living man can endanger the public liberty.” The big vs small government debate today, and most political talk in general, seems to be unable to breach even this amount of qualification. It must have been nice, then, to accompany a position with a detailed argument as Adams often did.
Principle
I felt that the central quality of Adams’ disposition toward government, one he held more closely than every other character in the book, was firm adherence to his principles. And, as far as I can remember, as written he was completely unwavering. Should we attribute then the trade offs made by characters like Jefferson, Hamilton, and Franklin, all a bit more artful than Adams, as poor moral character?
On slavery, yes.
On US politics, unfortunately, maybe not. At least with the direction party and legislative politics has gone over the past two centuries, there seems to be little room for holding to one’s principles.
On international relations, no. Adams was probably very lucky to have succeeded as much as he did abroad, probably due mostly to Congress’ management of his whereabouts and respect for standing his ground from the governments with whom he negotiated.
I hate to conclude then that it’s best to sell out in some instances but not others, however, like with the debate on government this issue is very complex. That he went without a clear cut compromise of his deeply held religious, political, and legal beliefs is just as or more admirable than the victories enjoyed by men history often deem more successful than him.
Leadership
Participation in events like the Treasury fire, Boston fire, and firefight aboard the Boston was equally admirable. I am happy that my belief was confirmed that good leaders are at an instant among their followers, performing the same task just as well, when the situation calls for it.
When speaking on how an executive branch would be necessary for the new government he also brought out a concept of leadership I also love, that of the natural or emerged leader. He argues that the masses cannot always decide best or even come to a decision by invoking the physical analogy of centripetal and centrifugal forces. The implication here is that leadership is a necessity, and coupling that necessary role with good leaders leads to good government.
Quotes I loved
“Fame without honor would be like a faint meteor gliding through the sky, shedding only transient light.”
-Abigail
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in the shallows and in miseries…
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
-Shakespeare; one of Adams’ favorite quotes
“I must study politics and war so that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”
-Adams
“I shall bear and forebear.”
-Abigail
Meaning
I take away from this book a more complete survey, incomplete having only watched the miniseries, of great men and women. I understand and believe in the value of truths that they each embraced that have survived for 230 years, some of which in their time had already survived for over 1000. I want to reread the French Revolution because I had forgotten it from junior year HS and really wish we had analyzed more closely its causes and implications instead of just memorizing a 100 item list.
I appreciate how at age sixty John Adams did not retire as so many people today feel entitled to do at 59.5, and I earnestly hope to love what I do so much that whether it’s law or business, or whatever, that retirement at 59.5 would be a punishment. I would hope that the outcomes of Adams’ life demonstrate how lawyers’ skills and thinking like a lawyer can lead to any number of stations of consequence so that I can resolve to do half as well as he did.
As the above Shakespeare quote suggests and as Adams’ life suggest countless times, there is a time and place to sail into a storm. I hope for me that this time is now and this storm is law school and that the venture ends up worthy.
But above all these hopes and dreams and what not, I seriously hope I can form principles and adhere to them more loyally than I have up until now.
Lucky I read this..
because Penn asks to describe the work of literature or art that motivated you to go into law. John Adams will be a fine choice, although, he and Franklin were at odds more than once!