Kurt Andersen's Reset: Passionate Call to Change the World

By Tim Rosa, Publisher

I just finished reading Kurt Andsersen's short book, really an essay, entitled Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America. At 72 pages this book took me less than an hour to read and it was time well spent. Resetis a passionate call to change the world. The style is bit breezy for me, more of a journalistic approach than an academic study. Andersen has a keen eye for summarizing the tumultuous events since 2008 in pithy yet informative ways.

He also peppers the essay with lots of quotable quotes. Among my favorites are:

"History doesn't repeat itself," Mark Twain is supposed to have said, "but it rhymes."

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." (Rahm Emanuel, current White House Chief of Staff)

One of the best parts of the essay to me was Andersen's analysis of the amateur and how the status of amateurs was highly regarded at one time and almost a disdainful role now. Historically, amateurs were very serious people who didn't make a living by a certain pursuit. For example, Benjamin Franklin's profession was printing, but he was an amateur scientist, inventor, and politician. Daniel Boorstin writes: "The amateur is not afraid to do something for the first time...The rewards and refreshments of thought and the arts come from the courage to try something, all sorts of things, for the first time. An enamored amateur need not be a genius to stay out of the ruts he has never been trained in."

That for me is the rub...the courage to try and the courage to fail.

Find an hour to read Reset and tell me what you think.

—Tim

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