The book is freely available on oreilly.com[1] and likely worth a look for anyone interested in TFA.
For example, O'Reilly claims "in writing about the mystique of the superhero, Herbert himself was prey to it" quoting Analog editor John Campbell's rejection letter for Dune Messiah: "science-fictioneers [...] want heroes—not anti-heroes. They want stories of strong men who exert themselves, inspire others, and make a monkey's uncle out of malign fates! As Paul did in Dune —not as he fails completely to do in The Messiah"
Campbell misses the point, O'Reilly says, " that Herbert deliberately looked for this reaction from his readers. To Herbert, the hero mystique is symptomatic of a deadly pathology in contemporary society, a compulsive yearning for easy answers. As long as men are looking for simple solutions to their problems, they will give over their ability to think for themselves to the first person who comes along and promises a solution. The Dune trilogy is an attempt to unveil that pattern and, in some small part, to change it."[2]
https://www.oreilly.com/tim/herbert/
Edit: I see Tim O'Reilly was the editor of the "Maker of Dune" book mentioned here also.
> You gain insights into the moral base upon which Paul makes his own decisions. All of this is couched in a form which makes Paul and his people admirable. I am their advocate. But don't lose sight of the fact that House Atreides acts with the same arrogance toward "common folk" as do their enemies I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it. The arrogant are, in part, created by the meek. [0]
CEOs, I think, get away with stuff like this because the "common folk" accept their place in the hierarchy and don't question them. So without honest feedback the people at the top of the hierarchy lose touch with reality.
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I recently read "Frank Herbert" by Tim O'Reilly and Herbert also speaks with the same metaphors but with a much heavier emphasis on ecology: https://www.oreilly.com/tim/herbert/.
I suspect analyzing the ideas that Herbert and Watts emphasize and how they're related would be a very interesting and worthwhile exercise.
"I wrote Frank Herbert over a period of about two years, and it was published in 1981. In the course of writing it, I read all of Herbert’s novels, stories, and essays, as well as a lot of his newspaper writing (which, by coincidence, included a stint at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the local paper for the region in which I now live.) I interviewed him several times, and, in a small way, we became friends. His ideas came to influence me deeply. I had always loved Dune and Dune Messiah, and especially the idea that predicting the future too closely can lead to a kind of paralysis. But the deeper I went, the more substance I found. Ecology, mysticism, and a kind of hard-headed insistence on the relativity of human perception and the limits of knowledge combine into a richer mix than is found in a lot of science-fiction. There’s some really cool stuff here!"
(Yeah, that's Tim O'Reilly from O'Reilly Publishing...)
It is a must-read for all Dune fans.
In Tim Oreilly's book 'WTF? What's the future and why it's up to us' (1), he talks quite a bit about the emergence of the idea of corporations focussing on maximizing shareholder value over actually productivity (true societal/economic value).
It's the same philosophy that drives the standard massively inflated corporate 'leader' comoensation packages - even when some leaders are severely incompetant. This Wash. Post article describes it a bit (2), but Tim pinpoints the origin to a specific conference talk (can't remember who/when exactly, but the shift occured sometime in early 80's). It's why founders/early invvestors can achieve massive payouts by selling a company even when they've never achieved a profit and ultimately fail - because they're paid in 'smart money' vice cash from profits ('dumb money' - how the worker bee's are paid). It's why companies will continue to opt for short-term gains by displacing workforce with automation versus investing in the long term health of a comoany by training their workforce to be more efficient working in conjunction with automation.
Trust me, I believe in large compensation/payouts for talent, but I think that the talent should be measured in true contribution to the health of the economy - which is distinct from the percieved value of a share.
HN: Can we please start focussing on building truely productive companies again?
1. https://www.oreilly.com/tim/wtf-book.html 2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/businesses-f...
http://www.oreilly.com/tim/herbert/
I am a long-time Dune fan, and this book and the background information it provides makes me read it and Dune again, and again.
Tim O'Reilly made an interview with Frank Herbert on how he created his universe, and describes the huge effort that went into it. Worth to read. Unfortunately they don't print it anymore, but hey, at least it is available online.
"In 1981 the young O'Reilly even wrote a reputable biography of the science fiction writer Frank Herbert, the author of the Dune series, in which he waxes lyrical about Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers."
And the book is available here
http://oreilly.com/tim/herbert/index.html
Stallman's four freedoms look very clear don't they?
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That book is well worth reading by anybody who wants to better understand Frank Herbert, and is available for free at https://www.oreilly.com/tim/herbert/.