|
Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style |  | Author: Randy Olson PhD
Publisher: Island Press
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.89
as of 11/20/2009 18:39 CST details
You Save: $7.06 (35%)
New (21) Used (6) from $12.89
Seller: sbd-
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 3372
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 216
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 1597265632
Dewey Decimal Number: 501.4
EAN: 9781597265638
ASIN: 1597265632
Publication Date: August 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Drawing on his own hilarious—and at times humiliating—evolution from science professor to Hollywood filmmaker, Olson shares the secrets of talking substance in an age of style. The key, he argues, is to stay true to the facts while tapping into something more primordial, more irrational, and ultimately more human.
In a book enlivened by profane acting teachers and earnest scientists, serious insights and poignant stories, Olson walks the walk. You’ll laugh, you may cry, and you’ll certainly learn how to communicate critical scientific and environmental issues using your heart as well as your head.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
 worthwhile, non-preachy read!! November 11, 2009
Linney (NC, USA)
"Don't Be SUCH a Scientist" had me chuckling in the first three pages! Olson uses countless real-life anecdotes to portray his points. His vignettes are both serious and humorous, which make for an overall easy read. Olson goes so far as to call academics "eggheads," leaving the reader unsure what to expect next!
ex:)
"By now you may be thinking, 'What's this guy got against intellectuals? He's calling them brainiacs and eggheads.' Well, I spent six wonderful years at Harvard University completing my doctorate, and I'll take the intellectuals any day. But still, it woul be nice if they could just take a little bit of the edge off their more extreme characteristics. It's like asking football players not to wear their cleats in the house. You're not asking them not to be football players, only to use their specific skills in the right places."
Olson confronts scientists/communicators by provoking and urging them to communicate differently and to utilize visual media. Olson states, "...if you gather scientific knowledge but are unable to convey it to others in a correct and compelling form, you might as well not even have bothered to gather the information."
At times, Olson relies heavily upon reminiscence of his film documentaries ("Flock of Dodos" & "Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy"). Having seen these films helped me to understand Olson's style on a deeper level, as well as better appreciate the anecdotes.
The reader should come away with ideas on how to speak the right language to the right audience. This is a worthwhile, non-preachy read!
Science IS exciting, thrilling and important -- we just need to know how to communicate this work to the public! October 23, 2009
Sharon D. (Chicago, IL)
Scientific feats are some of the most thrilling and engrossing stories of our world - the lunar landing / eradicating polio / risking life and limb to save a species from extinction. Science can be WAY better than fiction. Yet, for some reason (and we all know the reason!) science too often comes across as dull, boring and mind-numbingly tedious.
Simply put, scientists must learn how to talk to the public. It's a new age and era of communications and if scientists don't snap out of it, and learn how to talk to average people - tap into the mediums that people are using to communicate - the majority of the world will simply ignore them. What's the point of scientific evidence if no one knows about it -- or no one cares about it because it has been communicated poorly? It won't change anything. It will mean nothing. We can not make the important, serious work of scientists so meaningless -- our world, lives and livelihoods are at stake -- yet if we don't learn how to become an engaging and likeable voice for science it doesn't matter. Today, people listen to a playboy model with zero credentials and zero evidence who tells them that vaccines cause autism. People listen. Why is that? Because she has style, and she's likable and people can relate to her. Evolution vs. Intelligent Design... the Climate Change "debate" even though all the scientific facts point to global warming, etc, etc. The voice of the scientist is overshadowed by that of starlets, politicians and professional communicators with an agenda contrary to that of the research evidence. It sucks, but it's the way of the world. We need to change the game by changing how scientists communicate.
If scientists were more down to earth, got to the point (why people should care/ why "it" matters) and were better storytellers, the public would listen. They would be engaged. A good story is so inspiring! Look what Top Gun did for Navy recruitment, and CSI has done for field of forensic studies! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could inspire a new generation of scientists in numerous fields of study? Right now science literacy is at an all time low - we must change the game!
I've been working with scientists for 15 years, and my respect for them is through the roof, but until the scientific/ academic community learns to better communicate and engage the public, the rate of scientific literacy will continue to plummet.
Randy Olson hits the nail on the head in this funny and biting autobiographical critique of scientific communications. I highly recommend this book!
Stylized Substance October 21, 2009
J. Jacquet (Vancouver, BC)
Style and substance. When it comes to communicating, that's what matters. This is the central premise of Randy Olson's new book Don't Be Such a Scientist. It might be the central premise of existence.
To understand this book, you have to understand Randy Olson, so the book is part advice, part autobiography--tales from Olson's career as a tenured academic and his unique and therefore bumpy transition to Hollywood. Because he is a bit of an outsider in both worlds, Olson is well positioned to examine the strengths and shortcomings of both science and communicating.
For the sake of disclosure, I should mention that Randy Olson and I have known one another for over two years now. We met after I sent him an accusatory email (quibbling, like SUCH a scientist, over proper accreditation in an article Olson had written) that wound up with Olson co-inviting me to give my first academic talk at Scripps, me blogging on the topic of Shifting Baselines for two years (our seafood debate kicked it off), and, earlier this year, a friend and I pulling a cunning New Year's prank on Olson (my friend pretended she was an escort who was looking for Olson's neighbor and he fell for it like SUCH a scientist).
Disclosure out of the way, I can honestly (and perhaps a bit biased, too, as I have heard much of this book over the last couple years and always found it engaging and worthy of repetition) say: buy this book.
It takes enormous bravery (or stupidity--but, in this case, I can confirm it is the former) to opine on how to effectively communicate. The lambasting can go wrong and the missiles of scrutiny can easily turn toward the pro communicator. Olson must balance delicately between self-assuredness and self-deprecation. He also must practice what he preaches. He does.
With humor, anecdotes, and succinctness, the book is an effortless read (for a title with 'science' in it, this is a real feat). Olson's years of experience and valuable insights are particularly valuable for young scientists who can still alter their ways undetected. He advises on the power of positivity, spontaneity, and marketing. He discusses the two types of errors scientists can make when communicating: accuracy and boredom. Both are fatal but only one of which is ever discussed in the halls of academia (you can guess which one).
Olson is also convincing that film is a new language and we all must learn to speak it. However, he does not delude us (or himself) that they will ever replace more conventional educational techniques. Olson says films are not designed to educate but are designed to motivate. And in today's inhospitable climate (think global warming or stem cell research), motivation should be an end product of science. Indeed, what is the use of all this knowledge, if nothing changes as a result?
The niche-ness of Don't Be Such a Scientist is evident (it's a book mainly for scientists, after all, but it's also probably more for Americans than Britons). And some scientists might be put-off by the accusations that they are dry, boring, and disconnected to the 'lower regions' of the body. But I can imagine that the same scientists who have a difficult time digesting Olson's Hollywood-steeped conceits will enjoy his erudite anecdotes about Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck and his Popperian quips: "Film has infinite power. And guess what - that's not a falsifiable hypothesis so you can't tell me I'm wrong!"
What is a falsifiable question is: does society take science as seriously as it did 50 years ago? The answer is a resounding no. This is not because scientists are poor communicators but because, as Olson touches on lightly, we now live in an attention economy and the competition is stiff. Today's scientists must struggle even harder for center stage. Olson is not concerned with the broader phenomenon of dumbing down our culture (although I do know one of his favorite films is Idiocracy). He says: this is how the world is changing; here are some tools so that you can adapt and be heard above the cacophony. But he never asks if this is the world we want to live in. That is up to us.
 Winning hearts and minds October 15, 2009
John C. Snider (Roswell (GA, not NM))
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Science is controversial, whether we like it or not. The nature of science is churn: old ideas are replaced by newer, better ideas; everything "known" is contingent, accepted only as long as new data doesn't contradict it. Still, science is a human process, and therefore imperfect. Factions dig in their heals, refusing to see the truth even as the data piles up to the ceiling. Reputations are lost (and, of course, made) when paradigms shift.
That said, not every paradigm shift becomes an eternal battlefield. Astrologers don't vie with astronomers to teach alternative facts about the cosmos, nor do alchemists lobby state legislatures for the right to be called chemists.
But, for a variety of reasons, some areas of science are controversial; for example, the realities of evolution and climate change. There is, essentially, no debate within the scientific communities that a) all living creatures on earth-including human beings-evolved from a common, single-celled ancestor; and b) the earth is warming and civilization is one of the primary causes.
So why is it that, in the public arena, science is losing the battle for hearts and minds? Despite all the data, why are average people-nevermind policymakers-convinced of the exact opposite of the truth? The perennial power of religion and the influence of corporate greed definitely are at play here, but scientists can be, well...cold: off-puttingly intellectual, overly analytical, impatient, a bit Aspergery when it comes to dealing with non-scientists. In short, some-including scientist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson-are convinced that working scientists have been flat-out out-communicated by their ideological rivals.
Olson has practically made a second career out of showing scientists how to step out of their lab coats and slip on their metaphorical cardigans-a la Mister Rogers-in order to relate to regular folks. Olson, who left a tenured position as a marine biologist to pursue his dreams in show biz, has made several films (e.g. the short Talking Science, the evolution/creationism documentary Flock of Dodos, and the global warming comedy Sizzle) that either seek to make science interesting, or try to show scientists how to be interesting.
Olson's latest effort is not a film, but rather a book: Don't Be Such a Scientist (pub. by Island Press, Aug 2009, 206 pp trade ppb, $19.96). Using his own experience in the world of acting/writing/directing for film, and copiously illustrated by humorous real-life anecdotes, Olson lays out his case. Scientists shouldn't be so cerebral, literal minded, or unlikeable. What people want are good storytellers, engaging personalities who can make them not just understand the complexities of science, but also understand why they should care. Olson compares the effectiveness of two recent climate-change documentaries: Too Hot Not to Handle and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The former was a straightforward, accurate film packed with impressive scientific evidence; the latter had only a modest dose of hard science (and even a few factual errors), but was a memorable film that left Gore looking like a real person and not a cardboard cutout. Which film do you remember?
Don't Be Such a Scientist might easily have been called Don't Be Such an Atheist, Don't Be Such an Engineer, or Don't Be Such a Lawyer. The lessons are applicable for any vocation or avocation which tends more toward the intellectual than the emotional. And at a couple hundred pages, it's an easy-to-read and convenient-to-have handbook. The book has one pointless figure (showing only the titles of the two documentaries mentioned above) and one unreadable photograph (of a message scrawled into the sidewalk outside the USC film school), but otherwise it's an entirely professional and useful volume.
Some scientists will resent Olson's advice. They'll find it frustrating-even demeaning-to have to "put on a dog-and-pony show," but it's hard to see that they have much choice. They'll either do what it takes to earn the trust and affection of the public, or they'll get used to the proponents of bad science (or anti-science) getting all the air time.
A must read for anyone who wants to get their point across, or capture people's attention October 12, 2009
M. de Carbonnel (Boston, MA)
Randy delivers exactly what he teaches - tell a good story. For scientists, or anyone else that has been confounded while trying to deliver information to the masses (or even just a classroom), this book is a must read. It delivers the right cocktail of direction and instruction while making you laugh out loud. The message of the book is so important in a time of great frustration in the scientific community; that people just don't "get it". Randy shows that people would "get it" if scientists could only apply the principles of good communication. Don't be Such A Scientist provides the approach and the principles, while making you want to keep turning the pages and reading more.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
|
|
|
|
Return to Math.com | |
