permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

Johnny Bunko -- optimistic and iconoclastic career guide in manga form - 
Boing Boing
<http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/30/johnny-bunko-optimis.html>
Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things
Johnny Bunko -- optimistic and iconoclastic career guide in manga form
Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 30, 2008 10:43 PM | permalink
Daniel Pink, author of many well-regarded business books, wrote his first manga business book, Johnny Bunko, after 
receiving a fellowship to live in Japan and study manga. Bunko is a quick, funny, and extremely, inspiringly sensible 
book on career-planning that throws out all the traditional bullshit about getting a straight job to fall back on if 
your creative gig fails on you. Instead, Bunko makes a convincing case for pursuing your dreams, working to your 
strengths, throwing out the idea of planning, and persevering rather than relying on talent to make it.

I spent a lot of my life ignoring (with some difficulty), the advice of well-meaning people who wanted me to know that 
I'd never, ever be able to live on what I made from writing. Instead, I took on a series of careers in fields that 
hadn't even existed when I was a student, each one bringing me closer to my dream of being a full-time scribbler. If I'd 
listened to the software aptitude test my high-school guidance counsellor gave me, I'd be a "geriatric nutritionist" 
(cook in a senior's home) today.

Johnny Bunko is a miserable accounting drone who finds a bundle of magic chopsticks. Every time he separates a pair, a 
genie emerges to help him navigate his way to career freedom. It's a great little device, and the manga artwork -- from 
the award-winning Rob Ten Pas -- is simple and clean and often very funny.

Bunko is a refreshingly frank and optimistic (but clear-eyed) story about the perils of choosing a safe, lucrative and 
hateful job that you'll never be able to afford to leave, and the joys of failing in interesting ways, learning from 
your mistakes, and making more of yourself. I wish someone had given me a copy when I was 16 or so, and forced me to 
re-read it every year until I was in my mid-twenties.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594482918/downandoutint-20