03 June 2011

Thriving at College

by Frank Turk

I had a great post lined up for today.

On Wednesday evening, I had dinner with Alex Chediak, who was in Little Rock to record a couple of episodes with Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine at Family Life Today. And over dinner we talked for about an hour about his book, Thriving at College -- and I used by fantastic, expensive portable digital recorder that records in surround sound and everything to record the conversation. It was going to be Awesome. Alex was a great interview, and he's obviously passionate about the college experience and how that journey could be maximized by someone who was intentional about his or her time in the ivory tower …

… AND MY VERY EXPENSIVE PORTABLE DIGITAL RECORDER THAT RECORDS IN SURROUND SOUND AND EVERYTHING DIDN'T RECORD A LICK!

ARGH! I'm hoping to Skype Alex for a make-up interview. We'll see how well that turns out. Sheesh.

So here's the thing: Alex has like 50 endorsements for this book, and there is already a way-more-than-adequate book review here. And if you want a taste of the book, you can find it here, preview it, and order it.

Here's my 2-cents (as I wade through my angst over why a record button DOES NOT ACTUALLY RECORD ANYTHING): Imagine you're a college student, and you had a big brother who was watching you (not stalking you, just paying attention) who had been through college and turned out pretty good. And imaging that, because he loved you, he gave you a relatively short list of "to do's" for your 4 years at college.

If he wrote down all the advice he would give you, it would be this book. Alex's approach to how a young person should approach college is serious without being overbearing, and intentional without being wooden. He gives very simple and practical advice which, in the end, is intended to make the college experience not an extension of Senior Week, but the right starting place for a sound and satisfying adult life.

If you know someone who's going to spend $100,000 on a college education (or more), drop the extra $15 (or less -- the Kindle version is only $2 thru the end of next week!) to help them spend it wisely.







10 comments:

John said...

I wish that I would've had and read this book before going to college. Not only was I unwise in choosing my school and degrees, but I wasted the opportunities I had in going to that school and earning those degrees.

candy said...

Frank. My pastor, Brian Borgman, was there at the same time recording with the same program. Alex Chediak was interning at my church (before I attended)and he and Brian also got to get together. Did you meet Brian?

FX Turk said...

I missed Brian.

Milton said...

Re your recorder not recording - could it have been set to use an external mic without one actually being plugged in? It does have an internal mic also, doesen't it?

FX Turk said...

No. It has built-in stereo mics, and the levels were registering. On this reorder, you hit "record" and then press "play". I hit "record", got the red light, saw the levels, and failed to press "play".

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I'd be interested in reading this! I really wish I'd been more diligent and faithful while in college. My eldest is only 1 and a half, but it would be nice to glean any good advice from this book NOW, instead of scrambling to cram every bit of useful advice in his head when he turns 18 or whatever. A good college student usually has a foundation that was being built when he was a toddler, after all.

jigawatt said...

Try downloading a good recording app for your phone (you do have a smartphone, right?) and use it as a backup.

I've got Hi-Q mp3 for my atrix, and I used iTalk on my iphone.

FX Turk said...

My record is literally 10x better than any phone recorder. It is literally studio quality when I hit the right buttons.

This is not a hardware problem, unless you count the hardware in my skull.

Anonymous said...

Niiice.

jigawatt said...

But a redundant, independent recording device would protect against a wide array of potential failures. Hardware, software, user etc. Of course the quality wouldn't be the same, but still.

I guess working in transmission operations for 7 years has made me think on an N-1 contingency basis. It does irritate my wife though.