Book Review: Major Decisions by Henry J. Eyring

This was such a great book! I give it four out of five stars. If you have a college-bound child, you will want to read this book to help mentor them through the process of getting into and attending college. The book has a web site http://majordecisionsforcollege.com. You can download chapters for free and hopefully soon the podcasts will be available.

I love Eyring’s explanation as to why youth should get a great college education. He uses an illustration of a quadrant involving high-stakes vs. low-stakes judgments and judgment call vs. standard procedure. The people who make the most money are usually (outside of movie stars and athletes) those whose jobs fit in the quadrant that involves both high-stakes judgments and judgment calls. Eyring explains that because of the free market world increasing and automation, more and more jobs that involve standard procedures and low-stakes judgments are being taken over by machines and people outside of the U.S. That is why it is so important to get a great education, so you can get an education that allows you to have the knowledge needed for high-stakes judgments and judgment calls. This will allow you to get a job that won’t be taken over.

He has a lot of other great counsel, I wish that this book had been around before I started college. It’s interesting how the counsel meshes with Leadership Education/Thomas Jefferson Education (TJED). He doesn’t use TJED language but some of the same ideas are there: namely, get a great education so you learn how to think, not just what to think, seek professors who are true mentors, own your own education, meaning don’t think that someone else will oversee your education.

My only beef with this book (the reason I give it four out of five stars) is that the author did not have a little section to specifically target young woman, and how to factor getting married and having a family with getting a college education. He does mention his own mother, and that her great education from UC Berkeley allowed her to make high-stakes judgments in behalf of her children. I love the story he tells of his mother cutting the cord to the TV set and then destroying it with a sledgehammer because she finally decided it was damaging her family.