The Sum of Our Discontent
Encyclopedia
The Sum of Our Discontent is a nonfiction book by David Boyle
. It was published by Texere in 2001. The tagline
and theme of the book is "Why numbers make us irrational".
and happiness
by using numbers to count an increasing amount of things, and while it has worked in many ways, it has also had a cost in sanitizing the representation of existence by trying to reduce everything to numbers, and has not often been very effective. This tension is very similar to the one described in the classic The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution of C.P. Snow.
in early history to their present day pragmatism
. It opens in 1904 Berlin
with the story of a counting horse named Clever Hans
, who was, to the relief of all, proved by psychologist
Oskar Pfungst
to not really be able to count. This fit in with the earlier opinion of Nicholas of Cusa
, a cardinal
who was a pioneer of quantification, that counting is what separates man from animals.
Boyle then covers the history of counting in detail, starting with when numbers were considered to be divine and were the exclusive domain of the accountant
-priests of the Assyrian Empire, then going on to Pythagoras
and the Ancient Greeks who believed numbers represented the harmony
of nature
. Legend
has it that Pythagoras may have studied with the Magi
and been influenced by them after having been held captive in Babylon
. Even a later practical and scientific mathematician
such as Heinrich Hertz agreed with this natural significance of numbers. Boyle then goes to the medieval fascination and obsession with clock
s that are thought to have possibly been invented by Gerbert of Aurillac, a monk
. The long and fascinating history of the abacus
also turns up time and time again in counting history. Luca Pacioli
's invention of double-entry accounting further brought us to the present day situation of numbers being used to measure everything.
The next chapters tell the stories of various historical figures and how they relate to the book's concept. They are all good stories; many of them focus on the unintended consequence
s of the ideas of their creators, specifically Thomas Malthus
and John Maynard Keynes
, who have both become known as measurers, but were really more interested in unmeasurable concepts. It all starts with eccentric Jeremy Bentham
who tried to measure happiness, then progresses to his utilitarian followers John Stuart Mill
and Thomas Malthus. One problem with counting that became evident from this era was that it gave no solutions or causality, just data. Next he describes the political self-esteem
movement started by California
politician John Vasconcellos
in consultation with his friend Jack Canfield
, author of the popular self-esteem self-help
book Chicken Soup for the Soul
. A lot of Vasconcellous' ideas came from the Esalen Institute
in the mountains near Big Sur
, where Abraham Maslow
's hierarchy of human needs theory was popularized. Boyle then tells the interesting story of Frederick Winslow Taylor
and his extremely number-oriented scientific management
. He then covers the ethical investing fad
, an attempt to measure by more than numbers that itself falls victim to counting irrationality. Next is the story of economist
John Maynard Keynes.
The chapter on "New Indicators" describes attempts to replace GNP
with broader measures such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
(ISEW) that attempt to account for full environmental costs. That index was popularized in a 1994 article in The Atlantic Monthly
by Clifford Cobb about his new Redefining Progress think tank
. Hazel Henderson
's 1981 book Politics for the Solar Age was responsible for sparking the creation of the Air Pollution Index
, one of many quality of life
measurements that are now proliferating. An interesting point is that such measurements are often most meaningful if created and made by the people who care about them.
The next chapter covers the story of Edgar Cahn http://nejl.wcl.american.edu/cahnarticle.html who came up with the time dollar as an outgrowth of his battles with proponents of cost-benefit analysis
but more importantly from his desire to make people feel valuable. The initial time dollar projects began in 1987 with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
.
The book ends appropriately enough with a chapter named "The bottom-line". Boyle summarizes how the practice of trying to measure everything (which used to go by the name pantometry but is now so common that the word has fallen out of use) can rob us of our humanity. Measuring is very necessary, but so is intuition and storytelling
, which can often express points much better than numbers can. He thinks we should try to bridge the gap between the eastern and western view of numbers, which have been in conflict since Pythagoras. He ends with a relevant quote
from Prince Charles from his millennium
broadcast on the BBC
. Boyle's bottom line is that measuring does not in itself improve anything.
David Boyle (author)
David Courtney Boyle, 1958-, is a British author and journalist who writes mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business and culture. He lives in Crystal Palace, London. His book Authenticity put the phenomenon on the business and political agenda...
. It was published by Texere in 2001. The tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
and theme of the book is "Why numbers make us irrational".
Premise
The author's premise is that humans have been trying to improve the quality of lifeQuality of life
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...
and happiness
Happiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
by using numbers to count an increasing amount of things, and while it has worked in many ways, it has also had a cost in sanitizing the representation of existence by trying to reduce everything to numbers, and has not often been very effective. This tension is very similar to the one described in the classic The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution of C.P. Snow.
Synopsis
The first chapter is entitled "A Short History of Counting". It describes the progression of numbers from being considered divineDivinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
in early history to their present day pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
. It opens in 1904 Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
with the story of a counting horse named Clever Hans
Clever Hans
Clever Hans was an Orlov Trotter horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks....
, who was, to the relief of all, proved by psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
Oskar Pfungst
Oskar Pfungst
Oskar Pfungst was a German comparative biologist and psychologist. While working as a volunteer assistant in the laboratory of Carl Stumpf in Berlin, Pfungst was asked to investigate the horse known as Clever Hans, who could apparently solved a wide array of arithmetic problems set to it by its...
to not really be able to count. This fit in with the earlier opinion of Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa
Nicholas of Kues , also referred to as Nicolaus Cusanus and Nicholas of Cusa, was a cardinal of the Catholic Church from Germany , a philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, and an astronomer. He is widely considered one of the great geniuses and polymaths of the 15th century...
, a cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
who was a pioneer of quantification, that counting is what separates man from animals.
Boyle then covers the history of counting in detail, starting with when numbers were considered to be divine and were the exclusive domain of the accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
-priests of the Assyrian Empire, then going on to Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
and the Ancient Greeks who believed numbers represented the harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
of nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
. Legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
has it that Pythagoras may have studied with the Magi
Magi
Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which...
and been influenced by them after having been held captive in Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. Even a later practical and scientific mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
such as Heinrich Hertz agreed with this natural significance of numbers. Boyle then goes to the medieval fascination and obsession with clock
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
s that are thought to have possibly been invented by Gerbert of Aurillac, a monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
. The long and fascinating history of the abacus
Abacus
The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of...
also turns up time and time again in counting history. Luca Pacioli
Luca Pacioli
Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and seminal contributor to the field now known as accounting...
's invention of double-entry accounting further brought us to the present day situation of numbers being used to measure everything.
The next chapters tell the stories of various historical figures and how they relate to the book's concept. They are all good stories; many of them focus on the unintended consequence
Unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
s of the ideas of their creators, specifically Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularized the economic theory of rent....
and John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
, who have both become known as measurers, but were really more interested in unmeasurable concepts. It all starts with eccentric Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
who tried to measure happiness, then progresses to his utilitarian followers John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
and Thomas Malthus. One problem with counting that became evident from this era was that it gave no solutions or causality, just data. Next he describes the political self-esteem
Self-esteem
Self-esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame: some would distinguish how 'the self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the...
movement started by California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
politician John Vasconcellos
John Vasconcellos
John B. Vasconcellos Jr. is an American politician from California and member of the Democratic Party. He represented the Silicon Valley as a member of the California State Assembly for 30 years and a California State Senator for 8 years...
in consultation with his friend Jack Canfield
Jack Canfield
Jack Canfield is an American motivational speaker and author. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, which currently has nearly 200 titles and 112 million copies in print in over 40 languages...
, author of the popular self-esteem self-help
Self-help
Self-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
book Chicken Soup for the Soul
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Chicken Soup for the Soul is a series of books, usually featuring a collection of short and dense inspirational stories and motivational essays. The 101 stories in the first book of the series were compiled by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.There have been over 200 titles...
. A lot of Vasconcellous' ideas came from the Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...
in the mountains near Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...
, where Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow
Abraham Harold Maslow was an American professor of psychology at Brandeis University, Brooklyn College, New School for Social Research and Columbia University who created Maslow's hierarchy of needs...
's hierarchy of human needs theory was popularized. Boyle then tells the interesting story of Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor was an American mechanical engineer who sought to improve industrial efficiency. He is regarded as the father of scientific management and was one of the first management consultants...
and his extremely number-oriented scientific management
Scientific management
Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management...
. He then covers the ethical investing fad
FAD
In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
, an attempt to measure by more than numbers that itself falls victim to counting irrationality. Next is the story of economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
John Maynard Keynes.
The chapter on "New Indicators" describes attempts to replace GNP
GNP
Gross National Product is the market value of all products and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country...
with broader measures such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare is an economic indicator intended to replace the gross domestic product.Rather than simply adding together all expenditures like the gross domestic product, consumer expenditure is balanced by such factors as income distribution and cost associated with...
(ISEW) that attempt to account for full environmental costs. That index was popularized in a 1994 article in The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
by Clifford Cobb about his new Redefining Progress think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
. Hazel Henderson
Hazel Henderson
Hazel Henderson is a futurist and an economic iconoclast. In recent years she has worked in television, and she is the author of several books including Building A Win-Win World, Beyond Globalization, Planetary Citizenship , and Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy.- Career :Henderson is now...
's 1981 book Politics for the Solar Age was responsible for sparking the creation of the Air Pollution Index
Air Pollution Index
The Air Pollution Index is a simple and generalized way to describe the air quality in mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. It is calculated from several sets of air pollution data.-Mainland China:...
, one of many quality of life
Quality of life
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of...
measurements that are now proliferating. An interesting point is that such measurements are often most meaningful if created and made by the people who care about them.
The next chapter covers the story of Edgar Cahn http://nejl.wcl.american.edu/cahnarticle.html who came up with the time dollar as an outgrowth of his battles with proponents of cost-benefit analysis
Cost-benefit analysis
Cost–benefit analysis , sometimes called benefit–cost analysis , is a systematic process for calculating and comparing benefits and costs of a project for two purposes: to determine if it is a sound investment , to see how it compares with alternate projects...
but more importantly from his desire to make people feel valuable. The initial time dollar projects began in 1987 with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the United States' largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care; it is based in Princeton, New Jersey. The foundation's mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans...
.
The book ends appropriately enough with a chapter named "The bottom-line". Boyle summarizes how the practice of trying to measure everything (which used to go by the name pantometry but is now so common that the word has fallen out of use) can rob us of our humanity. Measuring is very necessary, but so is intuition and storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
, which can often express points much better than numbers can. He thinks we should try to bridge the gap between the eastern and western view of numbers, which have been in conflict since Pythagoras. He ends with a relevant quote
Quote
Quotation is the repetition of someone else's statement/thoughts. This can be in the form of words, songs, American Sign Language, written, or any other form of communication. Quotation marks are punctuation marks used in text to indicate the words of another speaker or writer...
from Prince Charles from his millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
broadcast on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. Boyle's bottom line is that measuring does not in itself improve anything.