The Superman Syndrome: Is it good or bad?

[Nazreen]

Has anyone of you heard or read the book The Superman Syndrome: Why the Information Age Threatens Your Future and What You Can Do About It (http://www.amazon.com/Superman-Syndrome-Information-Threatens-Future/dp/158721704X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241194618&sr=1-2)? Anyway, I haven't read the book yet but still planning on buying this book that my friend highly recommends.


When we choose to live a life at speed, not depth, we choose an unrelenting willingness to sacrifice family, love, marriage and all else in pursuit of success. That's the synthesis of what Kamm calls "The Superman Syndrome."

The statements above were taken from a customer review of this book and briefly describes what the Superman Syndrome is.

So what do you think? Is it good or bad?

[pendelton]

If the syndrome takes the essence out of life, family, love, and all the good stuff, it is bad, for it makes people that are not really people, but mere machines that may as well not exist.

[Fergal]

Nazreen, are you asking us to vote on whether we feel the book is good or on whether or not the Superman Syndrome is a good thing?

[Nazreen]

Sorry about not being clear on the Superman Syndrome Fergal. I wanted to ask our members' opinions on the Superman Syndrome and not the book.

For myself, I think that it's bad. Sacrificing everything for the sake of success in your career is not what I want. I've always believed that we should have balance in our life. We should not just be successful in the workplace but also successful in our family, our health and our personal relationships.

[flashgordonweb]

Well, I have not read the book, but I would have to agree with the quote. At first, I thought the Superman Syndrome was more about how the information age and technology is forcing everyone to "one up" their competition, trying to be the next superhero in their field. That would also be detrimental to society, as it would foster showmanship and competition over true innovation and depth.

[Fergal]

Thanks for the clarification Nazreen, it sounds bad to me. What would be the point of work and business if you had to sacrifice everything else for it?

[Kay]

Thanks for the clarification Nazreen, it sounds bad to me. What would be the point of work and business if you had to sacrifice everything else for it?

My sentiments exactly and I can tell you I've become even more aware of that recently. Life's too short. Somehow the idea of telling my future grandchildren all about the rise of my Google PR doesn't quite encapsulate the romanticism and adventures of my life I'd like to share with them someday. :rolleyes:

It would be good for putting them to sleep though. :D

[Fergal]

...Somehow the idea of telling my future grandchildren all about the rise of my Google PR doesn't quite encapsulate the romanticism and adventures of my life I'd like to share with them someday...

Very well put, it helps to remember what is important in life.

BTW you should be analysing the number of targeted visitors to your website, not your page rank. Page rank is no good to you if you are not getting targeted visitors, on the other hand if you had lots of targeted visitors you wouldn't need to be concerned with page rank.

[Nazreen]

I do have admit that I know quite a number of people who have the Superman Syndrome in Singapore. They sacrifice everything for their career. When they think that they're already successful, that's the time they change their priorities and start planning for a family. This is the number one reason why couples are marrying when they're already in their mid 30's and above, and even if they marry, they still don't want to have children. This is why our government is now implementing a baby bonus program to encourage couples to have more than 1 baby here.