This is going to be a cynical review.

Because this book is cynicism personified.

As a computer science major, years ago, I had a pair of classes that were about writing.  Very specifically, in order to become a Doctor of Science you had to write a research paper.  We had two very different classes with two very different lecturers for those classes.  The first - and most vital subject was called Research Methodology.  That guy hated us.  He didn't get tenure and he was frustrated at us and everything around him.  So he set crazy rules for every essay we ever wrote.

The second guy was way more mellow.  That particular class was Thesis Writing.  Both of these two classes combined went together to form our Thesis Project and one of the very few lessons that stuck with me came from very early in the writing cycle:  If you're writing a Thesis, you NEVER write from the conclusion backward.  Never.

You set up a working hypothesis.  You devise tests for the hypothesis.  You analyse the data.  In short, you make sure that you're surprised in the end so that your conclusion isn't a foregone thing.

But some writers don't like that approach.  It's time-consuming.  There's so much you have to do to arrive at a completely novel [or at least unexpected] result.  All those tests you have to devise?  They take time.  All that analysis?  Why bother? Read more