WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? By Dr Spencer Johnson

Main Theme:-

Change is inevitable. Everything in the world, and even beyond, is perennially and eternally in a state of flux. It is something over which man can exercise no control. The only thing that he can control is his response to change.

About the author

Dr Spencer Johnson, M.D., is one of the much-loved and appreciated authors in the world. He has help out millions of readers ascertain how they can enjoy better lives by using simple actualities that lead to accomplishment and success at work and at home.

Dr Johnson is often referred to as the best at taking complex subjects and presenting in simple solutions that work. He is the author or co-author of frequent New York Times bestselling books including #1 International Bestsellers Who Moved My Cheese? And The One Minute Manager, the world’s most popular management method, co-authored with Kenneth Blanchard.

Overview

Who Moved My Cheese? Illuminates how we need to change. In short, the book offers acumen into the ways of tackling life’s ups and downs. Who Moved My Cheese? Tells a superficially simple tale. However, it reverberates with inferences that can have influential effects on our lives. The core story resides of four characters—two mice and two little people— who live in a “maze”. 

The Maze

The maze is a metaphor for the world itself, whether it be the world at large, or one’s own personal world entailing of one’s family and community. The four characters seem without end engaged in a quest to treasure trove their own “cheese”. The names given to the characters plainly display that the author wants them to remain types and not individuals. The two mice are Sniff and Scurry and the little people, Hem and Haw.

Cheese signifies all that they live for and long to have in life so that they can be cheerful and gratified. Metaphorically, cheese outlooks for the ends of human life — it could be a job, it could be a partner in life, it could be money, health or spiritual well-being.

The story

The story illustrates the two mice become accustomed better and faster to change, whereas the two little people, microscopic originals of the human race, with their complex brains end up muddying things. The consequence is obvious. The sooner we learn to adapt to change and utilize it to our improvement, the better aided we will be.

This little parable is situated in a background, using the frame-tale technique, bring to mind memories of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The story is sandwiched between “A Gathering” that portrays a get-together where former classmates try to put the changes that have come about in their lives in perception, and “A Discussion”, which ultimately throws light on the practical applications of the lessons learned.

A good judge of art might be certain of that the story could have gained in likable appeal had it dole out with the context, but it is comprehensible, considering the objective of the book, which is first and foremost to inculcate and teach people a valuable object lesson, rather than appeal to their senses.

The allusions to dark alleys and corridors of indecision indeed jog your memory one of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Latin American novelists who put on a display incomparable interest in mazes and labyrinths.

Objective

Naturally, the book tries to pass on a few self-serving lessons. Change is inevitable, and hence, we need to anticipate and adapt as nippily as conceivable. It drives home the point that we have to take change as a dare or an adventure and try to relish it. As the author says, “they keep moving the cheese” (74), so we need to be ready to change quickly and enjoy the experience so that we can do it time and again.

The book helps us

The story helps us giggle at ourselves and keep things simple and relaxed. The story can also be viewed as a parable of human advancement. The characters in the story make it a point to write down the lessons they have learned, so that the others following them can use these as indicators screening them the way.

Human history dashes an analogous course. All the knowledge and intelligence that we have harvested over thousands and thousands of years have been well-looked-after for the sake of later generations. On the backside, some of the urgings and metaphors used in the story look as if too far-fetched and unnatural, and, in his journey to drive home his points, the author go around, at certain places, into tutoring and moralising. At times, the story agonises from wordiness and over-explanation. And the effect this book visualises to have on people should vary far and wide, since the human multitude cannot be considered into four mere categories.

Moreover, involvement teaches us that change need not always produce affirmative effects. That is why the human race is gifted with tendencies like homeostasis (conflict to change). Not all change may be constructive for the persistence of the species at large, and hence, a part of the human race needs to be guarded and apprehensive about change.

Moral

Change, merely for the sake of it, may prove counterproductive and it is every now and then better to wait and see how a new-fangled progress works before adapting to it. By flattering change, we should not end up with misadventure. All said, the book is a one-time read for one and all who wants to get ahead in this fast-changing world. For some, it could work like a guide, for some it could offer some fresh insights. And, for a few, it could even be a new beginning.