The World's Best Book Summaries
No matter what environment we operate in—whether a town, city, family, relationship, workplace, or other setting—change is inevitable. Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson is a parable about a place that changed, and how its inhabitants reacted. Through the characters’ triumphs and travails, Who Moved My Cheese offers lessons and tips for coping successfully with change in our lives by changing our attitudes and behavior.
Accurate predictions are hard to make. The world is full of uncertainty. How do you make plans when you can’t know the future? How do you deal with uncertainty? We’ll cover the difficulties with making accurate predictions and how to deal with uncertainty in an unpredictable world.
In an unpredictable world, why plan? Is there a way to prepare for unexpected events, even if we can’t exactly plan for them? Why is planning important? We’ll look at the concept of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “black swan” and explore why planning is important, even if the world is unpredictable.
Part of a leader’s responsibility is to lead her team courageously and decisively, no matter what stress and confusion is happening around her; presumably, this is part of the reason she has earned her position as the head of the team. Sometimes, a leader will only have limited information available to make a critical decision, and in these cases she must be comfortable making the best decision possible with what she has. At times an educated guess will be the best option available, and this is when a leader’s knowledge and experience is especially critical to compensate for missing information.
It seems counterintuitive that exercising discipline in turn gives you freedom, but, as with all of the dichotomies described above, this requires balance. If you are strategic and deliberate, you can create a regimented approach that ultimately gives you more freedom.
Do you feel uncomfortable negotiating for what you want in life? Do you know what negotiation skills and negotiation tactics you need to be successful? Negotiation is a part of life, and we all want to know how to do it successfully. We’ll cover how to develop effective negotiation skills and how to use the most essential negotiation tactics.
For thousands of years, the Biblical David and Goliath story has given hope to underdogs inspired by David’s miraculous victory against the giant Goliath, with only a rock, sling, and stick at his disposal. The odds were against David…or were they? In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell argues that we misunderstand the David and Goliath story particularly and underdog victories in general. Keep reading to learn why you’ve been getting the moral of this story wrong, and what the real takeaways are.
What are desirable difficulties? Are all difficulties desirable? Desirable difficulties are so-called disadvantages that can actually be strong advantages. They build resilience and make you seek surprising strengths despite having the difficulties. We’ll cover three desirable difficulties — disability, tragedy, and having nothing — and look at why these difficulties may make you stronger than you would have been without them.
In 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson refers to Order and Chaos. He refers to them as Yin and Yang, as female and male. But Peterson is often vague and philosophical. What do Order and Chaos mean for you, day to day? We’ll cover two critical concepts from 12 Rules for Life about Order and Chaos.
In 12 Rules for Life, Rule #8 is “Tell The Truth – Or At Least Don’t Lie.” What does this mean? Why is lying so bad to yourself? Why is telling the truth so good? This rule discusses not only lying to others, but also lying to yourself and obscuring your personal truth. Instead, you need to develop your personal truth, then act consistently with it. This chapter is fairly abstract, but try to see if its principles resonate with a specific problem you have in life.