Amateur. The Art of Doing What You Love

Professionals everywhere. Today, little happens without the involvement of a professional "expert" offering their specialized knowledge: scaling and assessment, measurement and consulting, planning and organizing the lives of millions of people around the world. In his book, Andy Merifield (b.... 1960) contrasts the professional expert with an alternative figure - the amateur, a person who thinks outside the box, takes risks, dreams of the impossible, strives for independence - and thereby changes the world. Through examples of such personalities as Charles Baudelaire, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Guy Debord, Hannah Arendt, and Jane Jacobs, Merifield illustrates how one can challenge pedants, accountants, and formalists, and begin to enjoy once again what we do.