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Summary: Who moved my cheese?
Review: Change is inevitable so how do you best deal with it? Most of us have experienced a broken relationship. lost an important job opportunity, and witnessed the deal of a loved one. Clearly, our personal success is a function of our ability to be our best in any situation. This book shows us how various people react when they face change. It is good read. I absolutely recommend that you read "Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self" to learn how to make the most of change -- to accept what is out of your control, and to make the most of what is within your control.
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Summary: Ahhh...the power of cheese. Not just another fable.
Review: I have to thank Kim for pointing this one out. As a teacher constantly worrying over budget cuts, and my position in this big, wide world, I confided in Kim (a first year teacher in our district) many times to find the positive in looking for something better and bigger. Honestly, this past spring was a time of searching for me. I didn't look hard, mostly because I trusted God to show me the way. God said stay put, but this book spoke to me also. Kim lent me the book one spring afternoon and strongly suggested that I read this book. It was fantastic! I loved every page. I actually had the book read Friday evening before the weekend ever really began. Dr. Spencer Johnson tells a modern fable about 4 creatures that handle "searching" for something important to them very differently. Sniff uses smell to find his way to the cheese (which becomes symbollic for anything the individual may deem important). Scurry, uses deliberate thoroughness but efficiency and speed to find his cheese. Sniff and Scurry are simply mice, in a maze where the cheese is hidden in various places. However they share this setting with two other characters called "littlepeople". Most of us are Littlepeople. Johnson introduces us to Hem and Haw. Hem and Haw see the cheese as holding a significance deeper than the mice do. To them cheese may represent family, money, success, work, relationships, etc. Both Hem and Haw deal with the loss of cheese very differently. In the end one of them learns something very valuable that applies to all of us in our search for something important in our own lives. This was a fast and fantastic read. It helped me better understand that life is full of obstacles and change. We all have to deal with these things. The way we deal with them is what is most important. Above all this book made me feel so much better about myself in my career. I recommend this book to anyone who ever struggles with questions of why, how and "when is such-and-such going to happen for me?" It clarifies the thinking process needed to survive change and makes me realize that change is very important to my success as an individual. I also like the illustrated blocks of cheese with motivational quotes in them. Although I didn't take the time to do it, these easily could be photocopied and hung up as reminders and personal motivators. I still recommend, however, that anyone dealing with change consult God first. I mean after all, it is just cheese.
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Summary: The cheese is "tainted"!
Review: A former employer of mine gave us all a copy of the best-selling book, telling us that after reading it, our productivity and attitude would increase tenfold. So, I, like all the others, read it. Like many on this site, I found the "revelations" to be trite, repetitive, and an insult to me as an adult. The only thing that the book tells me is that we Americans are suckers for any self-help guru with an "idea" destined to improve our believed-to-be mundane lives. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition
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Summary: Marvelous!
Review: This book is wonderful! It can apply to your personal life as well as your corporate life. The characters are defined in such a way that you will find yourself looking in the mirror to see if they are talking about you or who? Excellant reading! Could not put it down. I would recommend this to any person or corporation in need of change.
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Summary: Guaranteed to be a best seller (CEOs have deep pockets)
Review: "If this wasn't so rediculous, it'd be even funnier." -- Who Moved My Cheese This audiobook was given to me, along with a number of other coping-with-trying-times resources, by one of my many middle managers in the midst of a merger. With an open mind I gave it a shot. What did I have to loose, except my job? This book is an over-simplistic metaphor for unexpected change that is beyond one's control, in which "cheese" is a symbol of something you want, ie: happiness, security, financial resources. The message the authors attempt to convey is that your future, success, security, and ultimately happiness is within your control. While this may be PARTLY true, the tone of the childlike story is so condescending (an unintended byproduct of the tale's simplification, I suspect), one could easily get the feeling it was penned by the committee representing CEOs Happily Unopposed to Bad Behavior (CHUBB). The book amplifies feelings of rejection and betrayal by the faceless "Cheese Removers". It raises many questions like, "What if I was counting on that cheese for future use", but offers no answer other than you've got to go out and find more "cheese" for yourself, even though everything you had was just taken from you for no apparent reason. To me (and many others) this was not an inspiring read. It was painful. This book was destined to be a best seller because, no doubt, it can be ordered by the box-load by those anticipating removing others' cheese. Sure, the message is a fine one, it's the delivery that flat-out stinks.
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Summary: A simple approach to changing!
Review: It really amazes me to see the previous reviews. This book is very good if you are looking for motivation to stay on your toes. It is not meant to be a philisophical interpretation of life or changes in life. This book was very helpful for my co-worker and me. We were both very unhappy at our jobs and both read this book. After reading it, I cleaned my desk and starting looking for my passion. However, she knew that she should leave but couldn't get herself to make the steps necessary.
One month later I left!!! God definitely gets all of the glory, and the book added to my determination. This book will be good for anyone who want to make a change, knows a friend who wants change, or even for a child to teach these principles early. I consider a book that even a child could read a damn good book. Try it, you'll like it!
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Summary: Who Cut My Health Benefits?
Review: I could've saved a lot of paper and written this "parable" using five words: "[stuff] happens, deal with it". Don't ask questions, don't think creatively, just put on your little running shoes and join the rat race. If someone cuts your benefits, your pay, your job, don't ask "Why" -- it's probably your fault anyhow. Just deal with it. This book implies that we are better off blindly following our animal instincts or the directives of others ("Two Blind Mice"?) rather than using our reasoned intellect. As "suggested" reading in a workplace, this book will do nothing more than foster resentment amoungst the thinking masses. And to the manager who "suggested" I read this, I plan to "suggest" she read Dostoyevsky's "Notes From Underground" or Camus' "The Stranger" for a more thoughtful depiction of man's relationship with the world.
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Summary: Where's Mickey?
Review: The major analogy in this book is mice looking for cheese. Okay....interesting. A major theme of "Who Moved My Cheese" is that change happens in our lives. Really? And change occurs at times whether we initiate it or not. That so? And, a large majority of people are averse to change. I do agree. The metaphor of cheese in this book represents the things that are most important to us in our lives. It can vary for each individual. It can be career, relationships, spirituality, financial independence, or achieving a lifestyle change, for example. This book is written in a juvenile way which insults the readers. The concepts are redundant, impish, and oversimplified. I am a bit surprised something such as this can continue to sell to the American public. Or perhaps, I shouldn't be surprised at all, considering the state of the nation and Americans as a people, in June, of 2003. In regards to a person who works for a bureaucratic agency that had employees read and use this test to help people "feel better about themselves" or become efficient: it does not surprise me that government workers would be forced to read this book, bought with taxpayer dollars, and take the test, paid with taxpayer dollars, to get results that mean absolutely nothing--financed by taxpayer dollars. When it comes to the government, the cheese is in the rubbish bin--not eaten--but wasted.
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Summary: It's all about power
Review: When you write a book on why those WITHOUT power should be accepting of any treatment by those WITH power, you're guaranteed to sell millions of copies of said book to those WITH power. It's little wonder that managers, CEOs, teachers, and pretty much anyone with authority over others praises this book. It gives them a moral blank cheque, and condemns anyone NOT in a position of power for even questioning, to say nothing of failing to conform. If you want a crash course in what's wrong with humanity, read this book. The fact that there are people in this world who read and agree with it is horrific.
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Summary: Great book within its genre
Review: This book is about attitudes toward change in life, in particular at work. The book teaches that change is inevitable, and if you know how to deal with it, it can be positive. The main thing in life is to have the right attitude. This is an important lesson to learn. Categorize this book along with other great books about the true meaning of life, such as "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "Feynman's Rainbow".
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