Bunch of Amateurs
A Search for the American Character
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Narrated by:
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Peter Colburn
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By:
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Jack Hitt
About this listen
What is it that drives the success of America and the identity of its people? Acclaimed writer and contributing editor to This America Life Jack Hitt thinks it’s because we’re all a bunch of amateurs.
America’s self-invented tinkerers are back at it in their metaphorical garages - fiddling with everything from solar-powered cars to space elevators. In Bunch of Amateurs, Jack Hitt visits a number of different garages and has written a fascinating book that looks at America’s current batch of amateurs and their pursuits. From a tattooed young woman in the Bay Area trying to splice a fish’s glow-in-the-dark gene into common yogurt (all done in her kitchen using salad spinners) to a space fanatic on the brink of developing the next generation of telescopes from his mobile home, Hitt not only tells the stories of people in the grip of a passion but argues that America’s history is bound up in a cycle of amateur surges.
Beginning with Ben Franklin’s kite and leading all the way to the current TV hit American Idol, Hitt argues that the nation’s love of self-invented obsessives has always driven the country to rediscover the true heart of the American dream. Amateur pursuits are typically lamented as a world that just passed until a Sergey Brin or Mark Zuckerberg steps out of his garage (or dorm room) with the rare but crucial success story. In Bunch of Amateurs, Hitt argues that America is now poised to pioneer at another frontier that will lead, one more time, to the newest version of the American dream.
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Cunning Plans
- Talks by Warren Ellis
- By: Warren Ellis
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Cunning Plans collects several of NYT best-selling author Warren Ellis' lectures on the nature of the haunted future and the secrets of deep history, given in recent years at events in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin.
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By the time you are finished it all makes sense!
- By Beverly Lynn Sterling on 12-18-17
By: Warren Ellis
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Borrowing Brilliance
- The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others
- By: David Kord Murray
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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As a former aerospace scientist, Fortune 500 executive, chief innovation officer of two major companies, inventor and software entrepreneur, David Murray has made a living by coming up with new and innovative ideas. In Borrowing Brilliance he explains the origins and evolution of a business idea by showing you how new ideas are merely the combination of existing ideas.
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Really good but...
- By MasterMind Mentor International on 07-20-20
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The First Human
- The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors
- By: Ann Gibbons
- Narrated by: Renee Raudman
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This dynamic chronicle of the race to find the "missing links" between humans and apes transports readers into the highly competitive world of fossil hunting and into the lives of the ambitious scientists intent on pinpointing the dawn of humankind. The quest to find where and when the earliest human ancestors first appeared is one of the most exciting and challenging of all scientific pursuits.
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Interesting subject, poor execution
- By A book reader on 10-14-06
By: Ann Gibbons
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Meet Me in Atlantis
- My Quest to Find the 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City
- By: Mark Adams
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A few years ago, Mark Adams made a strange discovery: Everything we know about the lost city of Atlantis comes from the work of one man, the Greek philosopher Plato. Then he made a second, stranger discovery: Amateur explorers are still actively searching for this sunken city all around the world, based entirely on the clues Plato left behind.
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A Bryson-esque tour of people, myth, & archaeology
- By A reader on 05-14-15
By: Mark Adams
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The Upright Thinkers
- The Human Journey From Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Leonard Mlodinow
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.
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10/10 Got What I Wanted.
- By Austin on 09-22-15
By: Leonard Mlodinow
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The Fire Seekers
- The Babel Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Richard Farr
- Narrated by: Scott Merriman
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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An undeciphered language in Crete. A rash of mysterious disappearances, from Bolivia to Japan. An ancient warning at the ruins of Babel. And a new spiritual leader, who claims that human history as we understand it is about to come to an end.
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A fresh story!
- By AB on 02-08-15
By: Richard Farr
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50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True
- By: Guy P. Harrison
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 13 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels. Or perhaps you're trying to find a nice way of dissuading someone from wasting money on a homeopathy cure. How do you find a gently persuasive way of steering people away from unfounded beliefs, bogus cures, conspiracy theories, and the like? Longtime skeptic Guy P. Harrison shows you how in this down-to-earth, entertaining exploration of commonly held extraordinary claims.
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Skepticism, so Dull & Condescending
- By Mr Conway on 03-11-13
By: Guy P. Harrison
What listeners say about Bunch of Amateurs
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steve Erickson
- 06-25-16
Amazing book. Profound premise, excellent delivery
this book was fun and interesting. it's initial NB premise is that amateurs lay behind many profound trends in our times.
I endorse it whole heartedly.
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- terry
- 01-22-13
Wanders a Bit
The stories of amateurs are great, but there aren't quite enough of them. Jack Hitt is exuberant and a little too much in love with his own voice, so he digresses a lot. A couple of his amateurs are professionals who got there by unusual routes. But that's part of the story as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Irvin Herman
- 01-03-13
Worse book I have ever read
What would have made Bunch of Amateurs better?
Researched facts, avoided unsubstiated generalizations. From opening premse, manufactured a thesis and forced data into it. Can't comment on the conclusion as I was so fed up with the con job in the first several chapters I quit.
What could Jack Hitt have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Went to a movie instead of writing this book...or better yet, offer me my money back.
Any additional comments?
Can I have my money back? I'd get more by buying a lottery ticket.
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1 person found this helpful