Starfish and the Spider

I forget which year exactly but for many years now, I’ve often asked myself this question of why exactly do we follow a structure of power. Do I need to elect only one President or vice president, why does my company have one ceo and not three or four or so ceo’s, why should I have one leader to lead? Before I get your mind running into all the theories of one command, unity of power, structure, responsibility and a hundred other things; I just picked up a book called ‘The Starfish and the Spider’ which gives a small yet meaningful insight to the power of leaderless organisations, just general reading fare but in terms of bringing out one important point among many, it is successful. It’s an ok read but only if you liked books like fish, freakanomics and the kind.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

read : Gang Leader for a Day

don't know why i feel that you could understand better...

sss

kp said...

Thanks dear anonymous, I’ve actually already read the book immediately after Freakanomics (actually stumbled upon it since there is a mention of it in Freakanomics). While sociology as well as economics is close to the heart (you believe I would understand it better?); I’ve always better loved the writers of the era gone by along with their broader outlook which tries to encompass the world at large. Something along the lines of what Oscar Wilde meant when he was referring to ugliness lying in the details I guess (which doesn’t mean I didn’t like these books, they are wonderful books). Anyway, considering your love for nature and all it holds, I would suggest a nice little book called the secret life of plants written by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. A few other authors would include James Gleick of Chaos fame and of course Rifkin & Huntington (…another author I really love but I don’t know how to spell his name – will just look up his book and send you his name shortly) . & then of course, if nothing else works, I never get tired of reading the Mahabharatha.