Bookworm: ‘Work for Myself’ – For the businessperson; those who love politics, history

“One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America”

• By Benjamin C. Waterhouse
• c. 2024, W.W. Norton & Company
• $29.99, 274 pages

Upper management came out with new policy last week, and it’s untenable. They can’t expect people to put up with these new rules; they can expect a mass exodus in coming weeks. But here: you worked from home four years ago and liked it. Your skills are sharp. You could be your own boss. But before you tender your resignation and remodel the guest room, read “One Day I’ll Work for Myself” by Benjamin C. Waterhouse.

Prior to the Civil War, most American businesses were small businesses, owned by people who personally knew their customers, and crafted items in small batches. Big changes came, though, in the post-war years when the American Industrial Revolution made goods available on a larger scale and shippable anywhere.

Today, says Waterhouse, the majority of companies in the U.S. are, by government definition, “small.” Eighty-one percent of those businesses have no employees, except the owner. Around one out of nine people in today’s workforce are self-employed.

So how did we get to the point where not working for a corporation, not leaving for the office, not 9-to-5-ing is common, even goal-worthy?

By the early 1900s, Waterhouse says, Americans worked for someone else for benefits and a paycheck. That was especially true in the post-WWII years, when Mom and Pop ventures existed but the most substantial companies were owned by white men. Politics entered business, and it did so in a big way; that, cultural shifts, and social changes then altered the way we work. It changed again in every recession that’s happened in the past fifty years, with politics swinging support to and from small businesses and various administrations trying to convince voters that they were pro-worker. And then there was Covid-19, and why return to an office?

The bottom line, says Waterhouse, “is that there are as many reasons for going into business as there are people who go into business. Terms like ‘opportunity’ and ‘necessity’... cannot capture the complexity of those experiences.”

Ever had a job you hated, that sucked your soul dry? Entrepreneurship sounds pretty good when it’s quittin’ time then, and it seems to have its moment now. So learn the big picture on being your own boss, but beware: you might change your mind.

First things first: you’ll want to know that “One Day I’ll Work for Myself” isn’t a how-to book. There are no advice sections or end-of-chapter tips and hints. This is a history book, straight-up, and so the lessons are buried inside the timeline, the stories, and the case-studies that author Benjamin C. Waterhouse shares. Stay open to them, and you’ll see how modern work works. Why Granddad’s business thrived but yours doesn’t makes sense. How we got here – with work-for-yourself having such cachet despite the politics of it all – will be perfectly clear.

“One Day I’ll Work for Myself” is an interesting read for any level of businessperson, and for anyone who loves to read about politics or history. If you’re thinking about entrepreneurship, your new boss will love it.

“How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Night”

• By Dr. Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski, illustrations by Kristen Orr
• c. 2024, St. Martin’s Press
• $30, 320 pages

How do you do? Howdy. Hey, there. Hello. Hi, how are you? It’s polite to greet people when you meet them for the first time, and respectful, too. Furthermore, it’s human nature to want to be liked, to find common ground and get along. Read the new book “How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi,” edited by Dr. Chris Balakrishnam and Matt Wasowski, illustrations by Kristen Orr, and you can happily be a bit of a know-it-all, too.

Twenty-one years ago, a group of nerds got together to offer one another short “presentations” on esoteric topics and eventually, “Nerd Night” grew and spread around the world. Seriously, how could a nerdy knowledge gathering like that get any better?

Well, some of the presentations went up on YouTube. Others made it into this book.

If you’ve ever served in the deserts of Kuwait, for instance, you know that mythology about camel spiders is mostly an exaggeration. The creatures are big, but not all that big. They can’t jump super-long distances. They aren’t really even spiders. Oh, but they’ll chase you – though not for the reasons you’ve heard.

Or take, for instance, a glass of moo-juice. You’ve been taught all your life that only mammals give milk, but that’s not exactly a fact. By definition, birds, sharks, insects, even worms nourish their young with a form of “milk.”

Trap-jaw ants and stomatopods can bring a world of hurt to your body. People who have misophonia can’t tolerate the sound of your breathing; people with synesthesia might be able to taste it. There’s a reason why some letters get lost in words we pronounce correctly. NASA is working on ways to recycle astronauts’ solid waste for fuel, but you don’t have control of your bladder. A real grizzly bear inspired the California state flag. Chances are, “you will probably not survive the next mass extinction [but] spiders and gophers will.”

And when that end finally happens to you, embalming won’t preserve you forever...

When was the last time you had pure, light-hearted, smart-aleck, gee-whiz, smack-your-forehead, geeky goodness from a book? If it’s been a while, you’ll want to find “How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi” now.

You won’t be sorry you did, once you dip into the facts you didn’t know you needed to know, offered to you informally here, and with a slice of sarcasm. Authors Dr. Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski break their book down into eleven basic categories, but the knowledge inside it runs from arthropods to World War Z and lots of other subjects in between. Each brief chapter comes from an expert on the topic at hand – or, at the very least, someone who had reason, for instance, to wander down a rabbit-hole of maggots, meteorites, romance-by-spreadsheet, and zombies in your laundry room.

“How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi” is perfect for fun guys and gals ages fifteen to adult. Expect to learn, expect to laugh, and expect to have your eyes opened. Get it, and say “hello” to a good read.

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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Read past columns at marconews.com.