Pitch Perfect – How to Say it Right the First Time, Every Time: a book review

Bill McGowan and Alisa Bowman’s book is a prescription for public speaking success. It hits the mark though more so for those with some prior public speaking experience. For novices, there are likely better places to start and ‘graduate’ to Pitch Perfect.

The attempt to package McGowan’s ideas (it seems Alisa Bowman is a collaborating writer helping with copy) using catchy, easier to remember principles, e.g. the Pasta Sauce Principle, the Draper Principle, doesn’t work as well as McGowan may like to believe. They make sense while reading the chapters but is one really going to remember the Draper Principle based on the name of some television character?

Nonetheless, the book is a thoughtful ‘contemporization’ of presentation principles for the Social Media age. Public speaking is not what it used to be before the age of live streaming on social media and just because a speaker is learned and has many acronyms (Phd, MPhil, etc.) attached to his name doesn’t make her speech a must see. Indeed, academics and senior corporate types stuck in their world of jargon and knowledge delivery may benefit most from such self-help books.

For those wishing to perfect public speaking techniques Pitch Perfect will strike a chord though perhaps not too loudly. Like any good self-help book, the author has shared his expertise in the field but to benefit the reader must practice constantly by applying the principles highlighted by the author. Not always an easy thing to do, even for those with regular public speaking engagements.

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Imran is a Singapore based Tour Guide with a special interest in arts and history. Imran has lived and worked in several countries during his past career as an international banker. He enjoys traveling, especially by train, as a way to feed his curiosity about the world and nurture his interest in photography. He is available on twitter (@grandmoofti); Instagram (@imranahmedsg) and can be contacted at imran.ahmed.sg@gmail.com.

Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shaped the World by Wade Graham – a book review

After reading this book, it seems amazing to try and understand modern human history without any familiarity with cities, urbanization and the development of the metropolis. In many ways, urbanization has been the driving force behind human progress over the last few centuries, since the Industrial Revolution.

There is no doubt much of contemporary human culture and social tradition is intertwined with the urban area. Cities have developed their own culture and lifestyle and much of that is based on the living arrangement within each city, i.e. the unique architectural blend of each city. For example, Singapore will not be Singapore without its HDB (Housing Development Board) estates. From its ‘coffee shop’ culture to its ‘New Town Centers’ the HDB estate is the cornerstone of a certain unique Singaporean lifestyle.

In order to help readers make sense of different styles, Wade Graham organizes his book by theme and in a loose chronological sense. Each chapter covers a basic architectural idea, e.g. Castles, Monuments, Malls, etc. For a non-architecture type like me, it appears these categories – at least to some extent – represent the thought of the author and may be controversial to others. Undoubtedly, some architectural historians will dispute the categories and propagate their own different framework for the development of urban architectural styles.

The author’s deep knowledge of recent architectural designs comes out clearly in the book. Different architects are ‘humanized’ in the work through cross referencing the impact of their personal lives on their work. However, at times, perhaps due to the author’s deep knowledge, the book gets dry and difficult to read. Paragraphs extend into pages and laypersons like me get bored.

Wade Graham’s Dream Cities is a book any social thinker will benefit from reading. However, if I had started my journey into architectural history with an easier book I might have benefited from Graham’s analytical insights more. The importance of understanding urban geography in the modern world means this will likely not be my last book on the subject.

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Imran is a Singapore based Tour Guide with a special interest in arts and history. Imran has lived and worked in several countries during his past career as an international banker. He enjoys traveling, especially by train, as a way to feed his curiosity about the world and nurture his interest in photography. He is available on twitter (@grandmoofti); Instagram (@imranahmedsg) and can be contacted at imran.ahmed.sg@gmail.com.