Amazon.com
Book Description
No matter how visually appealing or content-packed a Web site may be, if it's not adaptable to a variety of situations and reaching the widest possible audience, it isn't really succeeding. In Bulletproof Web Desing, author and Web designer extraordinaire, Dan Cederholm outlines standards-based strategies for building designs that provide flexibility, readability, and user control--key components of every sucessful site. Each chapter starts out with an example of an unbulletproof site one that employs a traditional HTML-based approach which Dan then deconstructs, pointing out its limitations. He then gives the site a make-over using XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), so you can see how to replace bloated code with lean markup and CSS for fast-loading sites that are accessible to all users. Finally, he covers several popular fluid and elastic-width layout techniques and pieces together all of the page components discussed in prior chapters into a single-page template.
Guest Reviewer: Jeffrey Zeldman
Modern web design is user-centered, accessible, and standards-based. In other words, it's completely different from the stuff we did in the 1990s. There are two vital aspects to designing with web standards:
(1) understanding why
(2) knowing how
Know-how is what Dan Cederholm has in spades, and in this updated edition of his essential text, he shares that knowledge with humor and clarity.
Dan's is one of the smartest minds in CSS and HTML. He is internationally known as a deep and innovative coder. But his background is in design and production, working on real-world sites for no-nonsense businesses like Google, ESPN, and Fast Company, Inc.
This grounding in practical user interface design and daily production issues makes Dan a great teacher of CSS, because he never loses sight of the things designers want to do (not to mention the things designers' clients and bosses demand of them).
From multi-column layouts that stay crispy in milk, to maintaining fine control of web fonts and sizes without alienating users: just about every problem a modern web designer faces is examined, with solutions ranging from good to better to best.
This second edition includes everything you need to know about taking Internet Explorer 7 into account. Little else has changed. And that's as it should be, for this book is a classic. It belongs on every web designer's shelf.
-- Jeffrey Zeldman, author, Designing With Web Standards 2nd Edition
About the Author
Dan Cederholm is a Web designer and author living in Massachusetts. He's the founder of SimpleBits, a tiny design studio. A recognized expert in the field of standards-based Web design, Dan has worked with Google, MTV, ESPN, Fast Company, Blogger, Odeo, and others. He embraces flexible, adaptable design using Web standards through his design work, writing, and speaking. Dan is the author of two best-selling books: Bulletproof Web Design (New Riders) and Web Standards Solutions (Friends of ED). Dan also runs the popular weblog SimpleBits, where he writes articles and commentary on the Web, technology, and life. He also plays a mean ukulele and occasionally wears a baseball cap.
Book Description
No matter how visually appealing or packed with content your Web site is, it isn’t succeeding if it’s not reaching the widest possible audience. If you get this guide, you can be assured it will! By deconstructing a series of real-world Web sites, author and Web designer extraordinaire
Dan Cederholm outlines 10 strategies for creating standards-based designs that provide flexibility, readability, and user control—key components of every successful Web site. Each chapter starts out with an example of what Dan refers to as an “unbulletproof” concept—an existing site that employs a traditional approach and its associated pitfalls. Dan then deconstructs that approach, noting its downsides and then making the site over using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). By the end of each chapter, you’ll have replaced traditional, bloated, inaccessible page components with lean markup and CSS. The guide culminates with a chapter that pieces together all of the page components discussed in prior chapters into a single page template.
Customer Reviews:
For web standards professionals to improve their skills........2007-09-23
If you're a frontend engineer who's already skilled in web standards (semantic markup, CSS presentation, unobtrusive javascript), this book may help you to the next level. If you're new to that stuff, then I recommend Head First HTML With CSS and XHTML.
Bulletproof - no bull.......2007-09-07
This book is simply essential for the serious web developer who cares about standards and web sites that just work. It is well presented and thorough. The knowledge it imparts is readily extended to new design challenges. Well done!
No brainer. Definite MUST-HAVE........2007-09-06
I hope knocking down to 4 stars doesnt hinder people from buying this book, it is fantastic and should be in every web designer's library. Its concise, filled with well-explained and well-illustrated CSS strategies. The author's writing is one of the best I've ever seen in a technical book. Fun to follow and a great sense of humor, but very clear about what he's teaching.
I knock it down a star for two reasons, one it does focus a bit too much on people with screen readers. I know this sounds awful to say, but before I get crucified let me explain: as a designer my medium is mainly visual. While I do think it is important to keep your audience in mind for general public sites, I think for a design book the visual should be a bigger focus only because as designers we are trying to "wow" clients visually.
The other knock is that it is fairly small for a list price of $39.99 but price is an issue I have with most computer books. I would've maybe also like to see a chapter or two of random Tips & Tricks. Stuff like making text look weather-beaten by putting a GIF of "splotches" over it that I recently saw online. Maybe that's too gimmicky for this book, but you get the idea.
Despite the knocks this is a must-have CSS book and should be a definite purchase for all web designers out there. One of those you will come back to over and over.
Heads up on quality of the book cover.......2007-08-30
Book content is excellent, but be prepared for disappointment with the paperback cover. It is not glossy and unlikely to hold up to regular handling. Plan on covering it with something reinforcing. In fact, the cover on my book also started curling within hours of unpacking it, before I even did more than flip through it.
New Riders is not the only publisher who seems unable to put a good cover on a paperback, but it mystifies me as to why that is, since so many publishers have no trouble with that aspect of book design.
A must for every serious web designer.......2007-07-24
I don't use to thoroughly read professional books from start to end. I rather browse them for solutions to specific problems I encounter.
Well, in this case I've broken my habits, because from the very moment that "Bulletproof Web Design" reached my hands, I made it my bedside (or better, my "bus-seat") book and I'm about to finish it already.
Dan Cederholm just covers 8 (+1) aspects of designing with web standards, but he does it so well and so easy to read and understand, that you learn much more about the foundations of CSS than what the chapters announce.
Congratulations, Dan. And thanks a lot.
Book Description
Recent research in the field of business strategy has shown that strategic flexibility can be achieved through a scenario planning perspective for long term competition and performance. The authors have drawn upon examples and cases to develop a new model for scenario planning that is closely integrated with strategy. They argue that the concept of scenario planning is as much an art as a practical management tool.
Customer Reviews:
Nuts and bolts of scenario planning.......2003-08-06
I saw an review in Harvard Business School and I fully agree with them: "...serious but yet it's the friendliest introduction to the nuts and bolts of scenario planning that you are likely to find..." I really recommend this book to everyone who wants to explore, understand and have an impact on the future.
Practical tools for future strategy.......2003-05-19
This is an eminently practical book on scenario and strategy development. The language is simple, straight-forward with many examples, tools and anecdotes. In a verbal style, with lots of figures and bullet point lists, the five chapters in a way resembles lectures.
As faculty and lecturer at the Norwegian School of Management I find this book a perfect supplement in the curriculum to the two classics: P. Schwartz' "Art of the long view" and van Heijden "Scenarios". This book occupies a kind of middle-position between Schwartz' very popular and narrative account and van Heijden's more rational-academic discourse, which some practitioners find a hard read. Not like this one. There's not much deep philosophy either, as in J. Ogilvys recent "Creating Better Futures". The chapter on scenario planning in practice (#3) contains loads of simple, informative examples, written much shorter and to the point, than G. Ringland's three books on scenarios with much-detailed cases, repetitions and a weak structure.
In short - this book is a toolbox with instructions manual. As the Swedish authors Lindgren and Bandhold themselves say in the book; "Get yourself a toolbox". If you, as a manager or consultant want to learn, update or expand your portfolio of future oriented strategy tools, this one is The Choice.
Amazon.com
How to Wrestle Free from an Alligator: 4. If its jaws are closed on something you want to remove (for example, a limb), tap or punch it on the snout.
Though it's being marketed as a humorous title--after all, it's unlikely you'll be called upon to land a plane, jump from a motorcycle to a moving car, or win a swordfight--the information contained in The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook is all quite sound. Authors Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht consulted numerous experts in their fields (they're cited at the end of the book) to discover how to survive various and sundry awful events. Parachute doesn't open? Your best bet for survival is to hook your arms through the straps of a fellow jumper's chute--and even then you're likely to dislocate both shoulders and break both legs. Car sinking in water? Open the window immediately to equalize pressure, then open the car door and swim to the surface. Buried in an avalanche? Spit on the snow--it will tell you which direction is really up. Then dig as fast as you can.
Each survival skill is explained in simple steps with helpful illustrations. Most stress the need to be prepared--both mentally and physically. For example, to escape from quicksand, you will need to lay a pole on the surface of the quicksand, flop on your back atop the pole, and pull your legs out one by one. No pole? No luck. "When walking in quicksand country, carry a stout pole--it will help you get out should you need to."
Hopefully you'll never need to know how to build a fire without matches, perform a tracheotomy, or treat a bullet wound. But in the words of survival evasion resistance escape instructor "Mountain" Mel Deweese, "You never know." --Sunny Delaney
Book Description
Danger! It lurks at every corner. Volcanoes. Sharks. Quicksand. Terrorists. The pilot of the plane blacks out and it's up to you to land the jet. What do you do? The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook is here to help: jam-packed with how-to, hands-on, step-by-step, illustrated instructions on everything you need to know FAST-from defusing a bomb to delivering a baby in the back of a cab. Providing frightening and funny real information in the best-selling tradition of the Paranoid's Pocket Guide and Hypochondriac's Handbook, this indispensable, indestructible pocket-sized guide is the definitive handbook for those times when life takes a sudden turn for the worse. The essential companion for a perilous age. Because you never know...
Download Description
Danger! It lurks at every corner. Volcanoes. Sharks. Quicksand. Terrorists. The pilot of the plane blacks out and it's up to you to land the jet. What do you do? The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook is here to help: jampacked with how-to, hands-on, step-by-step, illustrated instructions on everything you need to know FAST -- from defusing a bomb to delivering a baby in the back of a cab. Providing frightening and funny real information in the best-selling tradition of the Paranoid's Pocket Guide and Hypochondriac's Handbook, this indispensable, indestructible pocket-sized guide is the definitive handbook for those times when life takes a sudden turn for the worse. The essential companion for a perilous age. Because you never know...
Customer Reviews:
The book works..........2007-07-13
I read the book. I saw a car accident. I can't go into further details because it is illegal to perform medical procedures without a degree in medicine. The boy didn't survive (he was brain dead immediately (happens when your head takes a cars bumper)) but his body did and was used to keep two other kids alive.
Laughter and Skills You Hope You Never Need.......2007-04-10
The odds may not be very good that you'll end up in some of these situations, but if you ever do, you'll be glad you read this book. If you never need these skills, then it's great for a laugh.
Entertaining.......2007-02-22
Extreme and extremely funny. Some are more plausible than others but all are thought provoking.
Really good.......2007-01-31
When I bought this book, my girlfrind and some friend where making fun of me, but as soon as one of them started reading it, he couldn't let it down and everybody was reading it. It contains information that I hope I'll never need. It's funny, but at the same time the information provided was well researched.
Great for having at your coffee table, since everyone will comment on it.
I belive it might be useful also for actual surviving....
Three Reasons To Buy This Book.......2007-01-20
One: You just might learn how to save your own life.
Two: You just might learn how to save someone else's life.
Three: You just might impress the hell out of your next date.
I like this book. It's like one of the Dummies titles devoted only to survival skills. It makes you feel like you're just a leetle bit superior to everybody else. The basics are here, but so are some of the coolest factoids, techniques, and tricks I've ever read. If someday you're in a falling elevator/locked in some pervert's trunk/facing an oncoming flash flood/freezing your epidermis off in a snow-covered SUV while driving home from a ski resort where you had a fight with your significant other who was wrong, not you, you'll be glad you bought this book and spent a day reading it. It's cool, it's fun, it's empowering, and it reminds me of someone I knew in college. (Yes, that last detail won't make you rush out and buy it, I know, but...)
Read The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook and you'll feel like you're ready for anything life might throw at you!
Book Description
This scenario workbook is a collection of hypothetical fireground situations with questions regarding incident command concerns for each scenario. Answers are provided at the end of each scenario section along with explanations. Each set of scenarios is geared to expand and focus upon key concepts taught in the textbook chapters.
Book Description
Celebrate the return of Drizzt Do'Urden!
Some legends are born out of darkness.
Drizzt Do'Urden grew up in the underground city of Menzoberranzan, home of the drow--a race of twisted, evil dark elves. However, Drizzt was unlike other drow. He fled the Underdark for the surface realm, where he befriended the human barbarian Wulfgar. Together they battled the most terrible threat ever to ravage Icewind Dale: the white dragon Icingdeath!
This
Dungeons & Dragons(R) product includes:
3 figures--Drizzt Do'Urden, Wulfgar, and Icingdeath the Gargantuan White Dragon--in scale with other
Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game collectable figures (prepainted, fully assembled, durable plastic)
1 fold-out, illustrated battle map
5 full-color game stat cards, including epic stat cards for Drizzt Do'Urden and Wulfgar
A booklet containing a scenario that rekindles the classic battle between Drizzt, Wulfgar, and Icingdeath, as well as an exclusive excerpt from R.A. Salvatore's newest Drizzt novel, The Orc King.
Average customer rating:
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Scenarios for Technical Communication: Critical Thinking and Writing
Teresa C. Kynell , and
Wendy Krieg Stone
Manufacturer: Longman
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Strategies for Business and Technical Writing (5th Edition)
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Technical Communicator's Handbook, The
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Professional Writing and Rhetoric: Readings from the Field
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The Non-Designer's Design Book
ASIN: 0205275249 |
Book Description
In today's fast-paced work environment, where e-mail, fax machines, and FedEx have transformed the way people communicate, the ability to write succinctly and effectively on the job can mean the difference between gaining or losing business. Based on the belief that real world simulations of workplace writing situations provide the best opportunities for improvement, this book invites readers to consider actual relationships, situations, and the intangible elements that affect workplace writing. The tips and techniques offered in this book help readers develop critical thinking abilities in conjunction with occasions to practice realistic workplace writing. Individual scenarios of various lengths and levels of complexity provide abundant opportunities for readers to practice technical writing forms and learn about important principles. Technical writers, business people, writers and workers training for such positions.
Amazon.com
Mike Schiffman has hit upon a great formula for Hacker's Challenge. Rather than try to research, fully understand, and adequately explain attacks that have taken place on other people's networks--the approach taken by too many writers of books about computer security--Schiffman lets network administrators and security experts tell their stories first-hand. This is good. What's better is that Schiffman has edited each of their war stories into two sections: one that presents the observations the sysadmin or security consultant made at the time of the attack, and another (in a separate part of the book) that ties the clues together and explains exactly what was going on. The challenge in the title is for you to figure out what the bad guys were doing--and how best to stop them--before looking at the printed solution. Let's call this book what it is: an Encyclopedia Brown book for people with an interest in network security.
It doesn't really matter, from a value-for-money standpoint, whether your skills are up to the challenge or not. The accounts of intrusions--these are no-kidding, real-life attacks that you can probably learn from, by the way--are written like chapters from a novel (though log file listings, network diagrams, and performance graphs appear alongside the narrative text). Recall every time you've seen a movie or read a book with computer scenes so technically inaccurate they made you wish for a writer with a clue. Schiffman and Hacker's Challenge is what you wished for. --David Wall
Topics covered: The sorts of attacks that black-hat hackers (everyone from script kiddies to accomplished baddies) launch against Internet-linked computers and networks. Everything is presented from the perspective of the defenders--i.e., the network administrators--who have to look at log files and process activity to figure out what's going on.
Book Description
Find out if you have what it takes to keep the bad guys out of your network. This real-world resource contains 20+ hacking challenges for you to solve. Plus, you'll get in-depth solutions for each, all written by experienced security consultants.
Customer Reviews:
Challenging!.......2007-08-17
Hacker's Challenge is a must have for every computer forensics. The scenarious given are indeed technically challenging and I like the fact that the complexity of attack, prevention, and mitigation are already specified. It is also very helpful as it make references to external resources that contain more info about a particular specified vulnerabilities. The log files, network maps, etch are very helpful in making a forensic analysis. I look forward to getting the new version. Cold Eyes
Good, but scenarios getting out of date.......2006-02-23
The Challenge/Solution style of these books are great for security beginners as well as seasoned professionals. If you read carefully you can pick up many hints/tools which you can use in real life security scenarios.
My only -ve comment about this book is its getting out of date now. Many of the incidents described are not relevant now, as security practices at most firms would thrawt these incidents. Having said that, the scenarios are still good for security beginners. For advanced readers I would suggest the Second edition or the soon to be released third edition.
uhm.........2003-10-08
this book sucks. plain and simple. i have some respect for the author, i've used his libnet and he's a funny guy.. but this book is garbage. the last good thing mike schiffman wrote was libnet, and after that he figured why not just take it easy and write dumb books like this for the rest of his life, be a manager @stake and get paid way more than the researchers who are doing the actual work. he goes into stupid crap like backdoors in inetd.conf, how outdated can you get.. what is this? incident response to that crappy phrack article he wrote years and years ago about simple unix backdoors? hah. the real challenge here is for a real hacker to read the whole book and maintain his sanity.
GOOD Book.......2003-07-23
I have read many books about network security, but none had put it so easy to actually test the knowledge gain from my reading.
I would recommend this book to any tech guy entrusted with the security of any network of any site. This is the complement book for hacker exposed
Schiffman = love.......2002-07-02
Schiffman is the coolest. His tattoos rock, and his judo is like Menudo. I'm gonna use my company's training budget to buy his books just cuz he's cool.
Book Description
Plain-talking intro to television's newest technology. Digital Television Fundamentals, Second Edition, by Michael Robin and Michel Poulin, is the ideal guide for everyone who deals with digital video production or equipment design - or who just wants to know how this new phenomenon works. Fully detailed and heavily illustrated, this easy-reading reference covers it all--from video and audio fundamentals...to bit-serial distribution and ancillary data multiplexing...to digital signal compression and distribution methods of coding and decoding. In this edition you'll find: multimedia television treatment covering technologies, hardware, systems, workstations, A/V signal processing, disk storage, servers, cameras, VCRs, CD-ROM, DVI--plus interconnections, multimedia software, systems, and applications and standardization activities; late-breaking information on the DTV standard and how it affects broadcasting equipment and operations; a focus on the importance of relevant SMPTE and CCIR-ITU standards; details on digital/analog equipment compatibility issues; much more!
Customer Reviews:
Understanding Digital TV........2000-07-24
This book does a great job of explaining audio & video concepts. It's perfect for technical folks who didn't know much about DTV (Jpeg, Mjpeg, Mpeg-1, Mpeg-2, etc ) and computer aspects of such Detailed descriptions of algorithms, methods of coding & decoding. Highly recommended to everybody who deals with Digital Audio & Video production.
Nice job.......2000-04-08
This book is very good. Its four parts are very easy to search: analog audio, digital audio, analog video and digital video. They cover all of the existing aspects. As a university teacher, I use it for my course on Television Systems, but I think it is useful for an audio course, or a comprehensive audio and video course. I still think that books like these should have a spanish translation, for my students who do not read english.
Good for general knoledge.......1999-08-01
This is a Hybrid book - gives too much information to be a intructory book, but not enough information to be able to implement anything. the book covers a lot of grounds, from detialed description on analog television to general details on mpeg and more, and short intruductory to a lot of topics, like firewire, scsi, ethernet, pci , etc...
Very in-depth on all aspects of digital video and audio.......1998-06-23
The name is a little misleading - the book is really about television, and digital video (JPEG,MJEPEG, MPEG-1,MPEG-2 etc.) and digital audio and computer aspects of such. Detailed descriptions of algorithms, methods of coding/decoding. Highly recommended to everybody who deals with digital video production, digital video equipment design or just wants to know exactly how it works.
Customer Reviews:
A Study of the Process of Negotiation - in War.......2002-04-24
During The Cold War the Rand Corporation and the Hudson Institute were associated with work on nuclear warfare and the conduct of the Vietnam War. Herman Kahn produced a number of books on the subject in the 1960's including: "On Thermonuclear War", "Thinking About the Unthinkable" and "On Escalation". Kahn was also concerned to document the process of escalation of conflict and to establish common metaphors and language, which could be understood by both sides. Kahn stressed the essential role of communications between opposing sides. He pointed to the cultural problems which made it difficult for the US and North Vietnam to understand the way in which the other side would react to new developments during the Vietnam War.
In "On Escalation" Kahn pointed out the problems that arose between the British and the Germans in World War II because German propaganda failed to clearly communicate German intentions.
The same problem currently bedevils the relationship between Israel and the Arabs. At worst we have a "dialogue of the deaf". Normally even during War there will be a dialogue based on mutually agreed rules, for example the rights of civilians will be honored. Where one side fails to honor the implicit agreement not to behave in a particular manner then the other side will normally feel free to retaliate in ways that it has previously forsworn. The reaction to September 11th is a classic example. Where communication breaks down, as appears to have occurred in Israel, this can result in action and reaction, leading to a spiral of violence and alienation, which can only be resolved by the total collapse of one side, or an understanding by both sides that the mutual interest requires a stepping-back from such actions. In the US the public protests effectively ended US involvement in the Vietnam War.
In short Kahn deals with important issues that are if anything more relevant today than they were in the 1960's. Not the easiest of reads, pick something lighter for your next flight, but if you are interested in the process of negotiation, rather than the headline news then you should look at Kahn's ideas.
Book Description
Scenario planning allows companies to move away from linear thinking and better understand external change. Eight years (and 30,000 copies) after publication Scenarios is still acknowledged as the definitive work in the field. Now, Kees van der Heijden brings his bestseller up to date, following up on his original case studies and adding significant new material. The Second Edition changes focus slightly by providing more in-depth analysis and application of the concept of the 'strategic conversation'. While maintaining the underlying rigour of the first edition, van der Heijden revisits the text to make it far more practical and accessible, and in doing so gives you the tools you need to set out and negotiate a successful future course for your organization in the face of significant uncertainty.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive and Practical.......2007-03-08
I have found this book a delightful and enlightening read. I've been a fan of Scenario Planning since reading Peter Swartz's "Art of the Long View." This if the first book on the subject that i've read that actually provides the level of detail i wanted to see such that i could begin to practice scenario planning and incorporate the tools and language into my work environment. Great stuff.
Packed with Knowledge!.......2005-07-14
Many business books provide just enough information to whet executives' appetites for more advice accompanied by high consulting fees. Author Kees van der Heijden has written an exception. His comprehensive volume puts scenario building in historical context, explains its relationship to forecasting and tells you how to introduce scenario planning to your organization. Once you understand your corporate identity and your fundamental "Business Idea," he says, you can establish and enact informative scenarios that will prepare your company for several different versions of what lies ahead. In that way, scenario planning generates better decision making. We strongly recommend this book to top managers, strategists and planners, especially those who sense they're making decisions on the fly without having a structure for thinking deeply about future implications.
Written in stone, not in sand.......2005-05-27
I agree with the other reviewers, it is not a business novel. Fifteen pages per hour is a good score. However it is worth every minute. I recognise the strategy meetings that indeed most often strand in tactics at the very best. The idea of the Business Idea and the huge importance Kees lays on the need for an original, differentiating business element was for me the most important lesson. I am working for a 50 year old company, active in a domain that is under severe pressure of a rapidly changing business model,
after years and years of 'innovation' around the same theme. This work was an eye opener.
More than just scenarios, a book on strategic thinking & mgt.......2005-02-18
Disclaimer: This review is one of the assignments in a graduate course on forecasting.
First, I should say that this is an amazing book, but not necessarily an easy read. However, it repays the effort needed. A previous reviewer commented on the difficulty of the writing. I find the same thing, but it can be marked down to the Dutch/German writing style, which is both compact and tends toward longish sentences. Essentially this means that some sentences have to be read twice before the idea is absorbed. Let me be clear, this activity is well worth it!
This book is more than just about scenarios, offering a convincing and comprehensive understanding of how scenarios can and should be used as a form of strategic management.
Along the way, the reader is treated to clear and helpful explanations of such things as "the business idea of an organization" (ch. 3), "articulation of the business idea" in scenarios (ch. 8), "option planning" (ch. 11), and "the management of change" (ch. 12), among others.
Overall, scenarios as practiced and understood by Van Der Heijden (who spent 35 years at Shell and 6 years as an academic before writing this book), are useful tools. They are foremost organizational tools which are best used by entire organizations, not the solitary planner at their workbench.
If you want to understand how the future can be more accurately perceived (though not predicted), and how organizational learning can actually happen, then this is a worthy addition to the library of any management strategist or student of the future.
Great content but writing style makes for hard reading.......2002-10-17
Frankly I'm surprised at all the glowing reports without someone mentioning that this isn't the easiest book to read. Not that the language is difficult. Rather the sentences are long and often unclear, and there are too many reference to past and future chapters.
I'd suggest reading a few paragraphs before purchasing the book. You might find that this book is not for you -- it didn't do anything for me. I gave up half way through the book, maybe there was more value in the second half.
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