Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Review This!

As a retired executive with valid observations to share on the state of affairs in Corporate America, I've made a few noteworthy observations lately.  Many of my observations stem from my growing interest & influence in that social networking site called, Twitter.  More on that later.

While not engaged in the activity of posting my tweets and reading others' words of wisdom (or spam attacks), I do a lot of reading, and as a result, a lot of reviewing on Amazon.  Year to date, I've polished off close to 100 reviews of mostly good books; some even great; some not so good; a couple, fairly wretched.
One thing I've noticed about doing reviews is the passionate responses that come from the Amazon masses.  If your opinion of a particular book doesn't fit with many people's agenda, you'll experience the thrill of having the review "voted down", which is a curious option for those reading your words of literary opinion.

Frankly, whether you agree with my perspective (very centrist in every respect), my book reviews are stellar.  However, if I mention one piece of criticism towards the author or the subject matter at hand, the Amazonians answer the question "Was this review helpful?" with a resounding "NO".  I'm not sure what satisfaction they derive from voting an honest, and thoroughly comprehensive review "down"; and I won't even try to understand their motive; but it's clear they have their own very strong agenda, and feel it's their duty to quash the facts.  It's pretty lame; especially when they attack something as innocuous as favorable reviews I've given to books about Vin Scully & Joe Torre.  I mean, come on people.  I enjoyed the books, and gave a very valid argument as to these books' merits; there's absolutely no reason to vote them down.

Of course, when you offer opinions on controversial topics, such as anything to do with President Obama, or anything to do with the state of the economy, or for that matter, any type of social issue, the hate mail comes trickling in.  There's no hiding from the angry masses; but that's quite all right.  I've got supporters, too.  It just seems weird that a few paragraphs giving my insightful perspective should be considered so dangerous; so "unhelpful".  Yeah, right.  Review this.

More to come.  My next post will deal with the baffling censorship I've run up against on Twitter's platform for big-shot executives---Exectweets.  Plus, a strange encounter with a Linked In Group known as "Little Media".  I've run afoul with them, as well; simply by having an opinion that didn't meet the agenda of the Group's commandant---a P.hD with zero tolerance for my valid observation.

PS---I wrote a great book about my experience in dealing with Corporate America (which as it turns out, is an "on-going" experience long after the book's release).

The book:  Life Under the Corporate Microscope---A Maverick's Irreverent Perspective

The book's website:  http://www.outskirtspress.com/LarryUnderwood

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