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Book: Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The theme of this book is analyzing how people interact with one another. It starts with analyzing how people in the early 1700s in London started drinking more. Shirky analyzes how this is because more people were moving to the city. In arguing for different examples of how people have made different decisions and why they do. Another example is when a new opportunity comes people always ask why and what allowed the opportunity to come (was it new tech etcetera) and not what made the new event come about or what made it surprising. The author develops another argument about how If people are involved in an activity that affects other people, they are less likely to act selfishly and think more about others. Although this seems pretty intuitive that when people are with one another they act for each other, it is interesting to see that this is actually how it plays out. In this fashion, Shirky analyzes how people interact and act, whether is be socially, culturally, or in business, and explains the underwritten reasons why.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book in the latter half did go into how group projects work as well as other business projects. This book talks a lot about communication and how people interact, a large part of what entrepreneurship is. I think it enhanced my understanding of entrepreneurship most specifically when it talked about members of a group and the emotional commitment they need to continue to be a working part of a project. This can be compared to a company and how we have learned in this class that culture and employee satisfaction is a lot allows for success when building a company. The fact that the author took such a deep dive into how people interact in groups allowed for me to see how to build a company and enhance the interactions that group members (or employees) have with one another.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

This exercise would be to assign a uniform project to several groups in the class. The class would then analyze the chapter from ‘Cognitive Surplus’ on pages 161-174. These pages would give insight into how better work in a team and on a project. After completing the project, the first part of the assignment, there would be a written report on what each group member felt about how the reading enhanced how they worked in a group previously to how they worked in groups in high school or other projects. The main benefit of this project that relates to this book would be the written report to see how the reading enhanced their idea of group work.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I actually think the idea that gin blew up because people moved into the city of London was kind of interesting. I related this to how the nightlife scene of big cities is obviously much greater than those of rural areas. It is a way for people to entertain one another and interact socially, so that it is very population density dependent. Similarly, this idea that the popularity of alcohol expands in a population dense area can be compared to how even in a town like Gainesville, when you get the conglomeration of students coming to campus, it creates this same nightlife scene.