Who Moved My Cheese? #1

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life...

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"Who Moved My Cheese?" is a simple parable that reveals profound truths. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a "Maze" and look for "Cheese" to nourish them and make them happy.

Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are "Littlepeople" — beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw.

"Cheese" is a metaphor for what you want to have in life — whether it's a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind.

And the "Maze" is where you look for what you want — the organisation you work in or the family or community you live in.

In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the Maze walls.

When you come to see "The Handwriting on the Wall," you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success (however you define it) in your work and in your life.

Written for all ages, the story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime.

98 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,1999

About the author

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Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Patrick Spencer Johnson was an American writer. He was known for the ValueTales series of children's books, and for his 1998 self-help book Who Moved My Cheese?, which recurred on the New York Times Bestseller list, on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list. Johnson was the chairman of Spencer Johnson Partners.


Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
38(38%)
3 stars
29(29%)
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99 reviews All reviews
April 17,2025
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You can read this book in about 45 minutes, but it will feel like a week. I think that I would have enjoyed the Spanish version better. I don't speak Spanish.

I don't know whether the authors of this book have an employer, but if they do, I would recommend a "random" drug test.

This book is about a team of two mice and a team of two minature exectives who each slide into a pair of size 0.005 sneakers and run through a maze in search of cheese. All goes well--until somebody moved the cheese! Chaos then (predictably if not hilariously) ensues. And that is the intelligent part of the book...

For the remainder of the book, we get to listen in on a group of friends discuss how the philosophy behind this epic tale of missing cheese relates to their lives. The members of this discussion group are the type of people for whom warning labels are placed on hot coffee cups. If this half-assed tale of relocated dairy food has any relevance to your life, then there is any number of medications that you should consider asking your doctor about.
April 17,2025
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It requires a unique sort of demonic skill to take the utterly obvious, lather it with sentimentality, turn it into an animal story, give it a big font and wide margins so that what really ought to be a pamphlet handed out for free on subways becomes instead a "book," and then expect businesspeople to buy it.

Which they did. God help us all.
April 17,2025
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This is a book about victimized lower and middle class mice trapped in a corporate capitalist maze, forced by The Man to scurry around, looking for "The Cheese" (salary, 401K, maybe even decent PPO or HMO). Then The Man (maybe Boeing, maybe American Airlines, maybe Monsanto--whoever) MOVES THE CHEESE because it interferes with his quarterly earnings reports or THE CHEESE will be more cost effective if it is shipped to China or Rwanda where labor is cheaper. So what are the mice supposed to do? Are they supposed to unionize, or protest the WTO, or elect people who will enforce antitrust laws in this country! oh, Nooooo! They are supposed to change directions and start running around looking for THE CHEESE in some other part of the maze. Inferior quality CHEESE, no doubt--maybe more of a PROCESSED CHEESE FOOD, without the employer-matched 401K, sans health insurance. Scurry, scurry, little mice! Find your CHEESE before Wall Street and NASDAQ move it again! They are pretty quick to move THE CHEESE and they don't care if you starve!
That is why this book is horrid.
But I'm not bitter.
April 17,2025
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Make it pizza.

Two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people, Haw and Hem, are enjoying a perfect blissful life, until one day someone moves their Cheese. Oh no! What will become of them now???

A nice allegorical story about embracing change.

I think this could’ve been a lovelier 4 star message if it would’ve been just a tad less allegorical and repetitive; and the ending far less corporate.

The movie clip is perfect adaptation. Right to the point, 15 min, without all the excessive repetition and almost none of the corporate stuff.



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n  PERSONAL NOTEn:
[1999] [96p] [Self-help] [Conditional Recommendable] [I think I'm a Haw.] [Be practical. Always keep two or three backup Cheese for a rainy day.]
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Que sea pizza.

Dos ratones, Sniff y Scurry, y dos pequeñas personas, Haw y Hem, disfrutan una perfecta feliz vida, hasta que un día alguien les mueve el Queso. ¡Oh no! ¿¿¿Qué será de ellos ahora???

Una linda historia alegórica sobre abrazar el cambio.

Creo que hubiera sido un mensaje de 4 estrellas mucho más lindo si tan sólo hubiera sido un tanto menos alegórica y repetitiva; y el final mucho menos corporativo.

El cortometraje es una perfecta adaptación. Directa al punto, 15 min, sin la excesiva repetición y casi nada del mambo corporativo.



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n  NOTA PERSONALn:
[1999] [96p] [Autoayuda] [Recomendable Condicional] [Creo que soy un Haw.] [Sé práctico. Siempre guardá dos o tres Quesos de reemplazo para un día lluvioso.]
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April 17,2025
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SPOILER ALERT! I am going to save anyone who thinks they need to read this book time & money by summarizing the entire book in the next two sentences: Things change. Learn to adapt.

You're welcome. If you still feel the need to spend money please contact me & I will tell you where to send it.
April 17,2025
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Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson

Allegorically, Who Moved My Cheese? features four characters: two mice, "Sniff" and "Scurry," and two Littlepeople, human metaphor, "Hem" and "Haw." (The names of the Littlepeople are taken from the phrase "hem and haw," a term for indecisiveness.)

They live in a maze, a representation of one's environment, and look for cheese, representative of happiness and success.

Initially without cheese, each group, the mice and humans, paired off and traveled the lengthy corridors searching for cheese. One day both groups happen upon a cheese-filled corridor at "Cheese Station C." Content with their find, the humans establish routines around their daily intake of cheese, slowly becoming arrogant in the process.

One day Sniff and Scurry arrive at "Cheese Station C" to find no cheese left, but they are not surprised.

Noticing the cheese supply dwindling, they have mentally prepared beforehand for the arduous but inevitable task of finding more cheese. Leaving "Cheese Station C" behind, they begin their hunt for new cheese together.

Later that day, Hem and Haw arrive at Cheese Station C only to find the same thing, no cheese. Angered and annoyed, Hem demands, "Who moved my cheese?" The humans have counted on the cheese supply to be constant, and so are unprepared for this eventuality. After deciding that the cheese is indeed gone they get angry at the unfairness of the situation. Haw suggests a search for new cheese, but Hem is dead-set in his disappointment and dismisses the proposal. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پانزدهم ماه فوریه سال 2010میلادی

عنوان: چه کسی پنیر مرا جابجا کرد؛ نویسنده: اسپنسر جانسون؛ مترجم: شمسی بهبهانی؛ تهران، نشر اختران؛

بسیاری این کتاب را با عنوانهای گوناگون ترجمه کرده اند

موشها «اسنیف» و «اسکوری»؛ و آدم کوچولوها «هم» و «ها»؛ این چهار شخصیت، برای نشان دادن سادگی و پیچیدگی درون آدمها، بدون در نظر گرفتن «سن»، «جنس»، «نژاد»یا «ملیت» هستند؛ همگی گاهی همچو «اسنیف» عمل میکنیم، کسانی که تغییرات را زود بو میکشند؛ یا همچون «اسکوری» به سرعت وارد عمل میشویم؛ گاه همانند «هم» میشویم، که با انکار تغییرات رودرروی آنها میایستیم، چرا که میترسیم به سمت چیزی بدتر کشیده شویم؛ یا همچون «ها»، که یاد میگیرد وقتی شرایط او را به سمت چیزی بهتر راهنمایی میکند، خود را با آن هماهنگ کند

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 29/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 27/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
April 17,2025
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For an inspirational, self-help book, Who Moved My Cheese is an easy, quick read but quite unpleasant too with a very patronizing tone to its narration. I just picked it up out of whim as the Internet is full of positive reviews and praise, so naturally I was curious and also since I had an ebook stashed since forever. But, now after having read this, I am not exactly sure what to make out of it. Well, I am glad I didn't buy and read this and another positive thing was that it was a really short read.

In a single sentence, this book tries to explain the significance of adapting and reacting positively to changes which is in fact quite a decent subject for an inspirational book, but Who Moved My Cheese does absolutely no justice with it. The story was exorbitantly simplistic and entirely obvious and I found myself absolutely not agreeing with a lot in here. I am not going to go into details about characters who are called Sniff and Scurry, Hem and Haw and who actually sniff and scurry, hem and haw.

One thing that I found really irritating was how the author, in his slightly condescending manner, tries to force the readers to believe that all change is good change and the faster you let go of things the sooner you can get back to enjoying life as before. No I surely do not agree with this. There are some things one simply does not get over with. What about fatal health issues, or the loss of a loved one? Yes, one learns to live with it but does not really get over it. Ever. Yes, change is inevitable. Situations change, people change, life happens and hardly anything ever remains the same, but, that still doesn't mean that all change is good, or that people need to be happy about every change that occurs. Everything does not revolve around enjoying every change. Adapting and accepting a situation is one thing, trying to happy about every other situation, fair or not is entirely another.

Sorry this review was more of a rant, and I know I've used too much of the word change, but I was totally disappointed with this so called bestseller and I needed to vent. Thanks for reading.
April 17,2025
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Two decades ago, only one man understood the transformative power of his parable about industrious mice. Now the world knows.

Sept. 8 marks the 20th anniversary of Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese?,” one of the most unlikely bestsellers in American publishing. Since 1998, when it first appeared in print, this brief self-help title has sold almost 30 million copies, and its sales are still gouda. Johnson, a physician who turned to writing early in his career, required his American publisher to keep his masterpiece always in hardback — never paperback — so that readers would take it seriously. And they do.

In the world of business books, the “Cheese” stands alone.

Johnson’s big-print fable captured the imagination of a whole generation of managers, but the question of what moved “Who Moved My Cheese?” remains something of a mystery. Its phenomenal success exceeded the expectations of almost everyone involved at the beginning. After all, the title sounded silly, and years had passed since Johnson had co-written “The One Minute Manager” with Kenneth Blanchard. So when early sales of “Who Moved My Cheese?” languished, no one was particularly shocked. One former publishing executive recalls that the book looked . . . .

To read the rest of this essay, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
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