The World's Best Book Summaries
How does being open-minded make you a better leader? Why should you be willing to listen to other people’s perspectives? Being a leader isn’t just about taking control and giving orders. According to The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, it’s also about humbling yourself and taking the time to see other people’s points of view. Learn how to be a more open-minded leader who listens to others.
Do you use the Pomodoro technique when you work? Is quiet quitting for you? Does collaboration help or hurt productivity? Celeste Headlee wants to help you rebel against the productivity culture and get your life back. She urges you to free up time by doing more focused work, stop working more than you need to, work with a group when you can, and create a dream schedule that includes leisure time. Read more to learn about these four healthy work habits that can change your professional and personal life for the better.
What is motivated reasoning? Why is it important to be able to recognize it in yourself and others? Humans, despite our intelligence and ingenuity, often behave irrationally. Steven Pinker explains that people frequently fall victim to cognitive blunders that lead them down an irrational path. One of these blunders is motivated reasoning. Continue reading Pinker’s advice on how you can overcome this tendency and think more rationally about your choices.
Why do unconscious desires create negative patterns? What’s an existential kink? According to Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott, people tend to repress desires that they’re ashamed of. But, repressing desires doesn’t get rid of them; they just turn into negative habits. Ironically, the only way to destroy these habits is to fully embrace the desires behind them. Keep reading to learn how unconscious desires manifest and to find the number one solution to dissolving them.
Do you show your employees that you appreciate them? Why is it important to practice gratitude in leadership? The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership argues that effective leaders must practice gratitude. This involves being grateful for everything that comes your way and accepting gratitude from others. Keep reading to learn how to practice gratitude daily.
Are you a participant in today’s productivity culture? Are you ready to step off the treadmill and get a real life? In Do Nothing, Celeste Headlee argues that, by trying to do too much, people are working less efficiently and suffering professionally and personally. She shares several tips for changing the way we work and making space in our life for leisure and human connection. Keep reading for Headlee’s advice on how to start living a healthy lifestyle.
Do you always feel rushed? What are some ways to slow down in life? Life goes by quicker than you expect. One minute you’re catching up with friends on the phone, and the next minute your entire day has ended. But there are solutions to feeling like life is passing by too quickly. Let’s look at how to slow down in life and why we tend to rush through it.
What are your deepest desires? Are you even in touch with them? How can you take control of your life by taking control of your desires? We all have negative patterns we see playing out again and again in our lives. In Existential Kink, writer and teacher Carolyn Elliott argues that the negative patterns in our lives are manifestations of what we unconsciously desire. Read below for a brief Existential Kink book overview.
What should be the basis for how you behave? Why isn’t empathy the best guide? If we want to be kind and moral people, it seems obvious that we should practice empathy. But, psychologist Paul Bloom suggests that we should cultivate a rational form of compassion instead and use this more measured and distanced approach to make decisions that are better for everyone involved. Continue reading to learn about Bloom’s concept of rational compassion.
Do we need empathy to understand and practice morality? What should guide our moral decisions? In Against Empathy, psychologist Paul Bloom argues that we rely too heavily on our emotions—especially empathy—to guide our judgments, decisions, and behavior. He suggests that our empathic responses to other people can lead us away from the morally good and right course of action. Read more to learn how to be a moral person by putting empathy in what Bloom believes is its proper place.