Profile
Name:
Todd
Channel Views:
5,046
Total Upload Views:
15,515
Style:
Miscellaneous
Age:
49
Joined:
May 31, 2008
Latest Activity:
May 31, 2008
Subscribers:
266
About Me:
- ToddGates: my musician channel
- ToddAllenGates: where I discuss the ideas in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer"
- ToddAllenGates2: where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames."
- BlasphemyPiano: where I play the piano accompaniment to songs from Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics called "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists"
I chose the YouTube category of "Musician" because (1) that was my pre-parenthood career, and (2) by doing so, YouTube allows me the option to provide direct links to the amazon pages for my books (click on the books' pictures at the bottom of this channel description, under the word "Albums").
A chapter-by-chapter summary of "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames":
PART I: WHY DO WE HAVE TO WORK?
Chapter One
*Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames* gives a historical overview of why we've always had to "go to work," tracing the common link between the workday of the prehistoric hunter and gatherer, the first millennium B.C. farmer, the first century A.D. pottery-maker, the nineteenth century assembly line worker, and today's videogame programmer.
Chapter Two
*Surgery & Dental Floss* spells out the complications of bartering, and explains why communities with multiple goods and services always end up using some form of money (be it beads or dollar bills) to solve their trading problems.
Chapter Three
*Penguins & Peacocks* is about why the changes in our workday--the transition from hunting and gathering to the ages of agriculture, industry, and information--took place, even though some aspects of these changes were for the worse. It looks at the parallel between the history of our workday and the way evolution works in nature: how change is driven by the demands of the immediate environment, not by concerns for future repercussions.
PART II: WORK, WEALTH, & HAPPINESS
Chapter Four
*Emperors & Emptiness* gives an overview of three drawbacks of our modern work system: the alienation, the perception of deprivation that can come from being in a society overflowing with goods and services, and the way our increased number of career options has opened up a large window for failure--particularly when we tie our occupation to our identity.
Chapter Five
*More vs. Enough* offers an alternative to the unattainable American financial goal of "more is better" by outlining a flexible but precise definition of how much income is "enough."
Chapter Six
*Measuring Success* contrasts our culture's guideline for happiness--the wealth, status, and identity we derive from our careers--with a guideline that instead aims for a balance of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions.
The insights I've gained from writing this book have helped me find (relative) peace within employment, and it's my hope they'll help the reader [and viewer] as well.
Country:
United States
Subscriptions
(3)
My other author channel, and my musician channel
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Videos: 103
Channel Views: 54,379
Subscribers: 3,711
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Subscribers
(266)
Channel Comments
24 year old dude, feeling in the same boat you once did. Minus any family obligation (and, you guessed it, job... or motivation, really...). Looking forward to a time I can check out that book. Keep up the good work. Really inspiring to hear from a real writer, and (more importantly) a person I think I (and for sure others) can relate with.
Yep.