Good Music

Good Music PDF Author: John J. Sheinbaum
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022659338X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Over the past two centuries Western culture has largely valorized a particular kind of “good” music—highly serious, wondrously deep, stylistically authentic, heroically created, and strikingly original—and, at the same time, has marginalized music that does not live up to those ideals. In Good Music, John J. Sheinbaum explores these traditional models for valuing music. By engaging examples such as Handel oratorios, Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, jazz improvisations, Bruce Springsteen, and prog rock, he argues that metaphors of perfection do justice to neither the perceived strengths nor the assumed weaknesses of the music in question. Instead, he proposes an alternative model of appreciation where abstract notions of virtue need not dictate our understanding. Good music can, with pride, be playful rather than serious, diverse rather than unified, engaging to both body and mind, in dialogue with manifold styles and genres, and collaborative to the core. We can widen the scope of what music we value and reconsider the conventional rituals surrounding it, while retaining the joys of making music, listening closely, and caring passionately.

Good Music

Good Music PDF Author: John J. Sheinbaum
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022659338X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the past two centuries Western culture has largely valorized a particular kind of “good” music—highly serious, wondrously deep, stylistically authentic, heroically created, and strikingly original—and, at the same time, has marginalized music that does not live up to those ideals. In Good Music, John J. Sheinbaum explores these traditional models for valuing music. By engaging examples such as Handel oratorios, Beethoven and Mahler symphonies, jazz improvisations, Bruce Springsteen, and prog rock, he argues that metaphors of perfection do justice to neither the perceived strengths nor the assumed weaknesses of the music in question. Instead, he proposes an alternative model of appreciation where abstract notions of virtue need not dictate our understanding. Good music can, with pride, be playful rather than serious, diverse rather than unified, engaging to both body and mind, in dialogue with manifold styles and genres, and collaborative to the core. We can widen the scope of what music we value and reconsider the conventional rituals surrounding it, while retaining the joys of making music, listening closely, and caring passionately.

Decide

Decide PDF Author: David Wethey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780749466299
Category : BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A unique guide to the secrets of successful decision-making at work, home, or in life!

How to Decide

How to Decide PDF Author: Annie Duke
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593418484
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Through a blend of compelling exercises, illustrations, and stories, the bestselling author of Thinking in Bets will train you to combat your own biases, address your weaknesses, and help you become a better and more confident decision-maker. What do you do when you're faced with a big decision? If you're like most people, you probably make a pro and con list, spend a lot of time obsessing about decisions that didn't work out, get caught in analysis paralysis, endlessly seek other people's opinions to find just that little bit of extra information that might make you sure, and finally go with your gut. What if there was a better way to make quality decisions so you can think clearly, feel more confident, second-guess yourself less, and ultimately be more decisive and be more productive? Making good decisions doesn't have to be a series of endless guesswork. Rather, it's a teachable skill that anyone can sharpen. In How to Decide, bestselling author Annie Duke and former professional poker player lays out a series of tools anyone can use to make better decisions. You'll learn: • To identify and dismantle hidden biases. • To extract the highest quality feedback from those whose advice you seek. • To more accurately identify the influence of luck in the outcome of your decisions. • When to decide fast, when to decide slow, and when to decide in advance. • To make decisions that more effectively help you to realize your goals and live your values. Through interactive exercises and engaging thought experiments, this book helps you analyze key decisions you've made in the past and troubleshoot those you're making in the future. Whether you're picking investments, evaluating a job offer, or trying to figure out your romantic life, How to Decide is the key to happier outcomes and fewer regrets.

The Elements of Choice

The Elements of Choice PDF Author: Eric J. Johnson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593084454
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
A leader in decision-making research reveals how choices are designed—and why it’s so important to understand their inner workings Every time we make a choice, our minds go through an elaborate process most of us never even notice. We’re influenced by subtle aspects of the way the choice is presented that often make the difference between a good decision and a bad one. How do we overcome the common faults in our decision-making and enable better choices in any situation? The answer lies in more conscious and intentional decision design. Going well beyond the familiar concepts of nudges and defaults, The Elements of Choice offers a comprehensive, systematic guide to creating effective choice architectures, the environments in which we make decisions. The designers of decisions need to consider all the elements involved in presenting a choice: how many options to offer, how to present those options, how to account for our natural cognitive shortcuts, and much more. These levers are unappreciated and we’re often unaware of just how much they influence our reasoning every day. Eric J. Johnson is the lead researcher behind some of the most well-known and cited research on decision-making. He draws on his original studies and extensive work in business and public policy and synthesizes the latest research in the field to reveal how the structure of choices affects outcomes. We are all choice architects, for ourselves and for others. Whether you’re helping students choose the right school, helping patients pick the best health insurance plan, or deciding how to invest for your own retirement, this book provides the tools you need to guide anyone to the decision that’s right for them.

Decisive

Decisive PDF Author: Chip Heath
Publisher: Random House Canada
ISBN: 0307361144
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
The four principles that can help us to overcome our brains' natural biases to make better, more informed decisions--in our lives, careers, families and organizations. In Decisive, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, the bestselling authors of Made to Stick and Switch, tackle the thorny problem of how to overcome our natural biases and irrational thinking to make better decisions, about our work, lives, companies and careers. When it comes to decision making, our brains are flawed instruments. But given that we are biologically hard-wired to act foolishly and behave irrationally at times, how can we do better? A number of recent bestsellers have identified how irrational our decision making can be. But being aware of a bias doesn't correct it, just as knowing that you are nearsighted doesn't help you to see better. In Decisive, the Heath brothers, drawing on extensive studies, stories and research, offer specific, practical tools that can help us to think more clearly about our options, and get out of our heads, to improve our decision making, at work and at home.

Decide & Deliver

Decide & Deliver PDF Author: Marcia W. Blenko
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422147576
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
-Identify your critical decisions. Focus on those that matter most to your company's performance. --

Confessions of a Political Hitman

Confessions of a Political Hitman PDF Author: Stephen Marks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781402208546
Category : Elections
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A gripping tell-all from the dark side of American politics The most influential people in a political race aren't the campaign managers, the strategists or even the candidates themselves. In fact, you won't even find them on a campaign's list of official members or volunteers. Enter the world of the political hitman. Few know that these operatives exist, and campaigns go to great effort to distance themselves from the people who dig up their dirt. But political hitmen wield a secretly powerful position in today's American politics, where scandals derail campaigns and negative campaigning decides who gets elected and who doesn't. For the past 12 years, Stephen Marks has worked silently behind the scenes as one of the country's top opposition researchers: a political hitman and an assassin of reputations. Confessions of a Political Hitman is Marks's intensely personal and explosive story through more than a decade in the underbelly of American political campaigns. From his early days in politics through his rapid movement into the secret world of opposition research, Marks discovers a talent for digging up dirt. His work involves a wide scope of American politics, from state governments to presidential elections to the Republican Revolution. But the exciting work soon leads to disillusionment as candidates he believed in turn out to be worse than expected, and hypocrisy abounds on both sides of the political fence. Eventually Marks finds himself living in the shadows, both politically and personally, and searching for escape. In Confessions of a Political Hitman, Marks reveals the fascinating and incredible details of what really goes on behind the scenes inAmerican campaigning--the political realities behind the campaigns, careers and attack ads of some of Washington's heavy hitters, including George W. Bush, John Kerry, Jack Abramoff and countless others. Confessions of a Political Hitman is one man's story about secrets, lies, hypocrisy and influence--painting a troubling picture of whom we elect and how they get elected. Stephen Marks has been an opposition research specialist for more than 12 years, beginning with the historical Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 through the equally historic Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006. He has appeared on numerous television programs, including The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes and Fox and Friends.

How to Decide

How to Decide PDF Author: Jonathan Herring
Publisher: Pearson UK
ISBN: 0273770861
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
Save time, energy and life-sapping stress with this gloriously simple, clever and highly effective guide to painless and efficient decision making. This light-hearted and practical guide will help you turn your indecision into positive, assertive action. Guiding you through the entire decision making process, it is packed with clever tips and tricks to help you make the right decision, quickly, first time, every time. From work to buying a house; from choosing a holiday to choosing a partner; from the exciting and life-changing big decisions, to the more mundane little niggles that clutter everyday life – every type of decision is covered.

Politics: Who Gets What, When, How

Politics: Who Gets What, When, How PDF Author: Harold D. Lasswell
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 178912557X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, which was first published in 1936, is the classic analysis of power and manipulation by ruling elites and counter-elites. The themes that occur throughout this essay have become the guideposts for most modern research in techniques of propaganda and political organization. “It is unquestionably one of the most influential treatments of politics published in this century.”—David B. Truman, Prof.of Public Law and Government, Columbia University “This book is a landmark of modern political science.”—Daniel Lerner, Professor of Sociology, M.I.T. “For over three decades the students of politics have had their intellectual horizons constantly broadened by Harold Lasswell. There is probably no man in American political science who has brought to bear as many new approaches to the analysis of political behaviour as he has. There is perhaps no better way to get the essence of Lasswell’s thought than in his book, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How.”—Seymour Martin Lipset, Department of Sociology, U.C. Berkeley

Awake to the Moment

Awake to the Moment PDF Author: Laurel C. Schneider
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611646960
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Most introductory textbooks in theology see their primary task as explaining Christian doctrines that no one quite understands anymore. While this is one of theology's jobs, it is by no means the only, nor even the most important, one. Theology has also been called to change the world, to help people connect deeply rooted beliefs about the world's source and goal to questions of personal meaning and communal thriving. Theology is here to help us make sense of the complex, flawed world into which we've been thrust and to assist us in our attempt to love our neighbors and live toward the common good. For more than forty years, the Workgroup on Constructive Theology has brought the liberal and liberationist theological traditions into creative encounter with lived human experience. In this introduction to the methods and tasks of theology, they invite a new generation of readers, many who will have little or no exposure to Christian doctrine, to see theology as a partner in the struggle for a better world. They demonstrate how theological ideas have "legs," playing themselves out not only in religious communities but in the public square as well. Theology, the authors tell us, is constructive when it joins in God's work of building human lives and human societies. Readers will learn to think about all of life in light of their religious commitments and to see theology as an essential tool for a life well lived.