When was the last time you dealt with a bureaucracy—the phone company, an airline, a hospital, school, or government agency—and got what you wanted without weaving through a maze of infuriating hand-offs? Have you found these systems to be utterly indifferent to the inconvenience or hardship they cause? Russell Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin say, "Enough is enough!" They have extensively studied organizational systems—how they function and malfunction, what drives them, and where their weaknesses are. Here they share both perversely entertaining anecdotes about the abuse of individuals by various bureaucracies and detail the creative—and deeply satisfying—approaches these people used to get even. Best of all, they offer successful strategies and tactics you can use to pinpoint the weakness of any system and exploit it to your advantage.

There are stories that can reach into our hearts and tear at them with an unrelenting force and there are others, which delve deep into our subconscious and leave an indelible mark on it. Sometimes these stories come with an unremitting feeling of hopelessness and a sadness that knows no end, while others deliver nuances of anticipation that there is still some good in the world. Beating The System: My Life in Foster Care, is the story of Marquis Williams and his turbulent childhood, as he tried desperately to figure out society while never knowing his father and having to deal with the consequences of violent outbursts from an unpredictable mother. Torn from his siblings and grandmother at the age of eight, then continuously relocated from one foster home to another, Marquis found his life almost echoing that of his wayward mother, with only the joy of the game of basketball to soothe the agonies and confusion he endured. Read his story, from being an introverted kid who just wanted to have a normal life, to developing into a well-adjusted adult making the right decisions. Beating The System: will challenge us all to take a deeper look at underserved children, and reflect on what we can do to help make a difference in others' lives, all while simultaneously changing our preconceptions of the Foster Care System.

With 170 wheels in Las Vegas, 144 in Atlantic City, thousands in Europe, and hundreds in the Far East, roulette is undoubtedly the world's most popular casino game. But can the game be beaten, except by luck? Yes, says Russell Barnhart, an expert in gamblilng strategies and a roulette winner far more than thirty years. In "Beating the Wheel, " he shares his valuable strategy.

Director of the Chapman journalism program—and mother of four recent college grads—Susan F. Paterno leads you through the admissions process to help you and your family make the best decision possible. How is it possible that Harvard is more affordable for most American families than their local state university? Or that up to half of eligible students receive no financial aid? Or that public universities are rejecting homegrown middle- and working-class applicants and instead enrolling wealthy out-of- state students? College admission has escalated into a high-stakes game of emotional and financial survival. How is the deck stacked against you? And what can you do about it? Susan F. Paterno, a veteran academic and journalist, answers these questions and more in Game On. Paterno helped her four very different kids navigate the application process to a wide range of colleges, paying for their four-year educations on a finite budget. She incisively decodes the college admission industry—the consultants, the tutors, the rankers, the branding companies hawking “advantage”—and arms you with the knowledge you need to make the system work for you. You’ll learn how to narrow your focus, analyze who gets in and why, and look for the right financial fit before considering anything else, including geography, reputation, and, especially, ranking. Among the tools and insights in Game On: · Why forty years of failed free-market policies have led to skyrocketing tuition and historic levels of student debt · Why applying to college has become a bewildering maze and how to find your way to a successful result · Why college costs are more terrifying than you think · How to read beyond the rack rate to negotiate the best financial package with the least debt · Why merit is a myth, but merit aid is essential · The difference between family debt and student debt and how to split it A playbook for the Hunger Games of higher education, Game On explains the anxiety, uncertainty, and chaos in college admission, explodes the myth of meritocracy, exposes the academy’s connection to America’s widening gap between rich and poor, and provides strategies to beat—and reform—a broken system.

"Contrary to popular belief, you can beat the system." So says Lionel Goldfish, once hailed as "the Simenon of Success; the Asimov of Achievement," the octogenarian narrator of this extraordinarily funny novel by Denison Andrews. Disturbed by current trends in American society, Lionel Goldfish has come out of retirement to write his fiftieth and final success book. He has chosen the old formula of the success biography, the story of a shoeshine boy who made good. But all resemblance to Horatio Alger quickly disappears when we discover that the shoeshine boy, Rene Benet, is thirty-seven years old and one of the least honorable characters in recent fiction. Surprisingly, his story, told over many shines, causes Goldfish to repent his lifetime's labor. The story of Rene Benet, the man who beat the system, opens with one dazzling day in 1969 when our hero, driven by chronic lechery and a pathological aversion to work, loses career, marriage, and all pretense of respectability and goes off with a voluptuous hitchiker to a rock concert in Woodstock, New York. So begins a series of outrageous adventures where the monstrous world he comes to inhabit is filled with so many seedy, scheming characters that even he becomes a Pinocchio-like innocent in contrast. Our hero finally finds himself inside The System itself where he comes face to face, and duels with, its Boss. His spectacular escape gives the aged narrator, Lionel Goldfish, and all his readers the answer: how to beat the system. Denison Andrews takes on marriage, divorce, academia, the counter-culture, the rich, the poor, the middle class, Harvard, Santa Claus, drugs, the "ethical" drug industry, feminists, and anti-feminists with ripping humor. Above all, HOW TO BEAT THE SYSTEM lambastes our basic values of hard work and success. From the Silent Generation of Rene Benet to the adolescent cultural revolution of the late sixties, the author has a great deal to say about values, about ideals gained and ideals lost, and about what has happened to the "greening of America."