Have you read Steven Johnson's "Everything Bad is Good For You"?

Question

Looks interesting but I don't want to buy something that turns out to be a boring piece of crap. Thought I'd get your opinion, if you've read it...

Answer 1

I have not but you could go to Borders Bookstore and sit and read for a while and decide then if it is worth your investment.

Answer 2

Everything Bad is Good for You
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Everything Bad Is Good For You)
Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter is a book by Steven Berlin Johnson in which he claims that popular culture in general, and tv shows and computer games in particular, have grown more complex and demanding over time and are in fact making us smarter.
Johnson's argument has little to do with the subject matter of popular culture. Rather, he argues that the beneficial elements of videogames and TV arise from their format. Probing the interface of a game, one must not only deduce the control system, but figure out the point of the game itself and find the edges of the simulation. One learns to rapidly build and adjust mental models. Johnson refers to this action as "Probing."
In television, Johnson contrasts older shows like Hill Street Blues to modern shows like the Sopranos. He asserts that the storyline complexity has increased dramatically, and even the best shows from 20 years ago would be regarded as quite primitive were they to air today.
In film, Johnson highlights the recent trend of mind-bending films: Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Pulp Fiction. He argues these films have become popular despite their use of avant-garde techniques, which normally would restrict their accessibility and economic viability. The popularization of narrative experimentation in these films works to further Johnson's main thesis, which highlights an increase in complexity and viewer involvement throughout mass culture in the last twenty years.
Johnson's argument is that same skills exercised in modern pop culture are useful in the modern world and also correlate with the type of intelligence measured by IQ tests. As generations grow up more engaged in behavior that exercises this type of intelligence, their IQ scores rise. He asserts that this may be an explanation for the Flynn effect.
Some critics of Johnson's analysis argue his perceived support of unfettered, laissez-faire capitalism diminishes the overall poignancy of his argument. In the February 2006 afterword to the paperback edition of Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, Johnson responds to these arguments with an admission of love for the spread and evolution of technology rather than open market systems. He furthers his stance by stating free market capitalism, in combination with mass communication advances in the 20th century, led to less challenging entertainment and a mired popular culture in comparison to our present high-tech, open-source society.

Answer 3

no