Sign in with FacebookCheryl in CC NV's Reviews > The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time
The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time
by David Sloan Wilson
by David Sloan Wilson
I wish I could do a review that is as thorough and expansive and enlightening as the book. But no. I expect to stumble randomly as I praise Wilson's efforts. Bear with me, or read other's reviews, you determine your choices & consequences. ;)
He didn't stumble. He obviously used an outline, and several patterns (biographical sketches of notable individuals, for example), and a handful of illustrative leitmotifs (Ivory Archipelago, hammer blows of natural selection, Frodo's quest) that worked together to keep the narrative coherent.
The Neighborhood Project itself is terrifically ambitious. He tries to make it seem easy enough - but a lot of things will need to happen throughout, as they happened to get him well enough begun to justify writing the book. And that's the thing, he has room for extensive materials about the background and context of the project because he actually hasn't done much to help his city but collect some cool data.
So, not a whole lot that's practical; but many very interesting bits. And he is a professor - and despite protestations (and some evidence) that he's trying to unite fields of study for practical good, he still has little understanding of what it really means to be blue-collar. But the book is easy enough to read if you have a high school understanding of biology, psychology, and Darwinism, though it does get a little boggy in bits and a reader does have to make an effort. Moreover, he makes a particular point of reaching out to people who are religous - but even then he has a certain sense of what it means to be spiritual, and he disses both creationism and 'angry atheists.'
In other words, a review could be organized point by point on a balance sheet. 'This aspect was a strength, but on the other hand....' I don't think I understood every bit, nor do I agree with all his claims, opinions, or predictions.
One bit I liked was the idea that we tend to like to use fireplaces because we have an inner hunter-gatherer who liked nothing better to sleep safely & warmly by a fire after the day's adventure, and similarly plants in hospital rooms help patients recover because we've evolved to feel plants = life, barren = famine.
Another bit refers to technology as "a gift of cultural evolution operating over a process of many thousands of years." The thing is, evolution isn't necessarily slow, which is one of the points I wish he'd expanded on a bit more.
Another statement helps us remember to read Gladwell and his ilk carefully, "If you don't take context into account, strong patterns cancel themselves out and seem like meaningless noise." If you read one chapter, read this one ('Our lives, our genes'). You'll never read the magazine articles that say "Studies show..." the same way again. The take-away example are lactose and gluten intolerances - basically, there are genes for them, depending on our ancestry. Some people can be nourished by wheat & milk, others' bodies react more as if to poison.
Another thing that I had no inkling of is that the Swedish prize for Economics is *not* a Nobel. It was established over 70 years later "In Memory of Alfred Nobel." Wilson has no respect for economics. He says, among lots other provocative stuff in this exciting chapter, that the innacurate perception of the prize makes it seem that the winner "has done something comparable to discovering the structure of DNA." Well alrighty then - tell us how you really feel, David.
I do respect that he wants us to create our own paths in cultural evolution. Stumbling along isn't going to help more kids achieve their fullest potential nor is blind faith going to help us avoid destroying the biosphere.
Overall I'm very glad I read it, and I do recommend it to anyone who reads popular books about evolutionary biology, early childhood education, behavioral economics, neo-Skinnerian psychology, etc. etc.
Actually I won a First-Reads Uncorrected Proof, so it's a paperback, sans index and other finishing touches. It looks like the ideasin it have potential, but may be more theoretical than practical for me. It is registered it on bookcrossing.com - it deserves a wide audience!
Oh, and, if anyone happened to notice my dates, I actually didn't start to read this when I first put it on my currently-reading shelf. Ok.
He didn't stumble. He obviously used an outline, and several patterns (biographical sketches of notable individuals, for example), and a handful of illustrative leitmotifs (Ivory Archipelago, hammer blows of natural selection, Frodo's quest) that worked together to keep the narrative coherent.
The Neighborhood Project itself is terrifically ambitious. He tries to make it seem easy enough - but a lot of things will need to happen throughout, as they happened to get him well enough begun to justify writing the book. And that's the thing, he has room for extensive materials about the background and context of the project because he actually hasn't done much to help his city but collect some cool data.
So, not a whole lot that's practical; but many very interesting bits. And he is a professor - and despite protestations (and some evidence) that he's trying to unite fields of study for practical good, he still has little understanding of what it really means to be blue-collar. But the book is easy enough to read if you have a high school understanding of biology, psychology, and Darwinism, though it does get a little boggy in bits and a reader does have to make an effort. Moreover, he makes a particular point of reaching out to people who are religous - but even then he has a certain sense of what it means to be spiritual, and he disses both creationism and 'angry atheists.'
In other words, a review could be organized point by point on a balance sheet. 'This aspect was a strength, but on the other hand....' I don't think I understood every bit, nor do I agree with all his claims, opinions, or predictions.
One bit I liked was the idea that we tend to like to use fireplaces because we have an inner hunter-gatherer who liked nothing better to sleep safely & warmly by a fire after the day's adventure, and similarly plants in hospital rooms help patients recover because we've evolved to feel plants = life, barren = famine.
Another bit refers to technology as "a gift of cultural evolution operating over a process of many thousands of years." The thing is, evolution isn't necessarily slow, which is one of the points I wish he'd expanded on a bit more.
Another statement helps us remember to read Gladwell and his ilk carefully, "If you don't take context into account, strong patterns cancel themselves out and seem like meaningless noise." If you read one chapter, read this one ('Our lives, our genes'). You'll never read the magazine articles that say "Studies show..." the same way again. The take-away example are lactose and gluten intolerances - basically, there are genes for them, depending on our ancestry. Some people can be nourished by wheat & milk, others' bodies react more as if to poison.
Another thing that I had no inkling of is that the Swedish prize for Economics is *not* a Nobel. It was established over 70 years later "In Memory of Alfred Nobel." Wilson has no respect for economics. He says, among lots other provocative stuff in this exciting chapter, that the innacurate perception of the prize makes it seem that the winner "has done something comparable to discovering the structure of DNA." Well alrighty then - tell us how you really feel, David.
I do respect that he wants us to create our own paths in cultural evolution. Stumbling along isn't going to help more kids achieve their fullest potential nor is blind faith going to help us avoid destroying the biosphere.
Overall I'm very glad I read it, and I do recommend it to anyone who reads popular books about evolutionary biology, early childhood education, behavioral economics, neo-Skinnerian psychology, etc. etc.
Actually I won a First-Reads Uncorrected Proof, so it's a paperback, sans index and other finishing touches. It looks like the ideasin it have potential, but may be more theoretical than practical for me. It is registered it on bookcrossing.com - it deserves a wide audience!
Oh, and, if anyone happened to notice my dates, I actually didn't start to read this when I first put it on my currently-reading shelf. Ok.
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Not much about the actual project because it's pretty new, but def. a worthwhile read if you're a city planner or on the school board or in social work, etc...., or even if you're just plain curious."