Rush
Why We Thrive in the Rat Race
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
We think we will be happy when we have some downtime-when we can finally go on vacation, disconnect, shut down. But in this provocative book, Todd Buchholz will convince you that what you really want is to chase your tail-even if you never catch it. Weaving in everything from neuroeconomics to evolutionary biology to renaissance art to General Motors, Buchholz will convince you that the race to compete has not only made us taller and smarter, it's what we love and need. Among the book's many counterintuitive takeaways are: * Put off retirement-it can make you stupid. * We all need to be control freaks. * In-house competition is actually great for morale. * Never let the ninth place team take home a trophy. Witty, breezy, and very funny, Todd Buchholz shows that it's the race itself that literally delivers the rush, even if we never reach the finish line.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taking a vacation won't make you happy. Neither will attending a yoga retreat, argues Bucholz, a Harvard economics professor and former White House economic adviser. The quest for happiness has launched a huge industry touting the benefits of a return to a mythical, more relaxing "simpler" time. Bucholz calls its proponents "Edenists," and his book is a sharp rebuke to their message and popularity. Happiness is about activity, he says; stress drives us to perform our best, and competition is endemic to human nature. It leads to innovation and keeps us active, useful, and neurologically fit he cites studies showing that people frequently show a drop in cognitive abilities after retirement. Though his high-spirited writing sometimes forgoes accuracy for hyperbole, he justifies his contempt for the "happiness industry," and advances his argument for setting ambitious goals for ourselves instead of lapsing into complacency or a "Zen-like sense of calm" with humor and conviction.
