The World's Best Book Summaries
Have you hit a rough patch in your relationship? How can making changes mend your relationship? In Getting the Love You Want, Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt suggest that you and your partner need to make changes to fulfill your needs. These changes are important for personal growth. Here’s how to effectively make changes in relationships so you and your partner can be happier.
What is in-group favoritism? Is in-group favoritism necessarily a bad thing? In-group favoritism is a tendency to favor members of one’s in-group (e.g. in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, etc.) over members of out-groups. On the one hand, in-group favoritism is a good thing because it fosters bonding and cooperation. On the other hand, it causes unfair prejudice and irrational animosity towards members of out-groups. Keep reading to learn about the phenomenon of in-group favoritism, its biological underpinnings, and how to overcome it.
What are diminishing returns? If you want to learn a new subject, should you read every book on it? Why do horror movies seem to become trite after a while? In The Great Mental Models Volume 3, Rhiannon Beaubien and Rosie Leizrowice include diminishing returns as one of the thinking models that can boost your understanding and decision-making ability. While the law is often used in an economic context, the authors extend the principle to everyday applications. Read more to learn about diminishing returns and how understanding them can help you understand so much more.
How do we define social proofs? What are social proof examples in the real world? How dangerous are negative social proofs? In Influence, Robert Cialdini describes “The Social Proof Principle,” which states that when people are unsure of how to behave, they base their behavior on the behaviors of others in the group. Social proofs can be defined as a way to cope with insecurity and pursue social acceptance. Read on for a social proof example in the real world, taken from Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed.
What kind of person does the devil target in particular? Who’s in a better position to resist the devil’s influence? If you aren’t in control of your own life, the devil is happy to assume that control for you. That’s the view of Napoleon Hill. In his book Outwitting the Devil, he discusses how independent thinkers can resist the devil far more easily than passive people who just drift through life without minds of their own. Read more to learn what independent thinkers are like and how this makes them stronger.
Are you your own worst enemy? What forms does your inner nemesis take? Self-sabotaging comes in three major forms: imposter syndrome, inner wounds, and self-created stories. Todd Herman highlights these destructive patterns in his book The Alter Ego Effect. Here are the three signs that you are your own worst enemy.
How does the devil operate? How does he seek to manipulate you? According to Napoleon Hill, author of Outwitting the Devil, the devil is a threat to you now, not after you die. In the book, Hill argues that you can outmaneuver the devil if you go to work against him in the right way. First, you must understand how he operates. Hill asserts that the devil seeks to rob you of success and fulfillment by manipulating your desires and fears. Continue reading to learn more about this view of how the devil works.
What makes social networking apps and job search websites valuable? What’s needed for societal change? How does churn affect a group? In the third volume in The Great Mental Models series, Rhiannon Beaubien and Rosie Leizrowice borrow models from systems science and mathematics to build a framework for understanding human behavior and viewing the world more objectively. They discuss three types of group dynamics—network effects, critical mass, and churn—that help us understand how groups create value based on their size, how social change works, and how turnover can both help and hurt a system. Keep reading to learn how certain
How do you go about creating an alter ego? What traits should your alter ego have? In The Alter Ego Effect, Todd Herman says you should construct an alter ego that will rise to the challenge in high-stakes moments. There are four steps to doing this, including giving your alter ego an origin story and a powerful name. Find out how to create an alter ego so you can live out a better version of yourself.
Would you like to sharpen your thinking and decision-making? What practical lessons can you learn from models such as critical mass, algorithms, and randomness? The Great Mental Models Volume 3: Systems and Mathematics is the third in a series of books designed to improve your thinking by giving you a set of models that you can use to better understand the world. The premise of the series is that the world operates according to specific rules and patterns (“models”) that occur again and again in many different contexts. Volume 3 draws its models from systems science and mathematics—fields rich in