Shortform Books

Rewarding Good Behavior: Is It Helping or Harming Kids?

Should you reward children’s good behavior while punishing bad behavior? Does rewarding good behavior help or harm kids in the long run? Author Alfie Kohn cautions that it’s easy for parents to forget about long-term goals when busy or overwhelmed, instead shifting their focus to whether or not a child is being “good” or “bad” at any given moment. Kohn says creating a system of rewards and punishments leads to potentially harmful outcomes in children. Read on to learn Kohn’s advice about rewarding good behavior, including his examples of rewards for children.

Find Your Artistic Voice to Improve Your Creativity

Do you have an artistic voice? How can you find your artistic voice? An artistic voice can make your creative work better, according to Seth Godin in The Practice. If you trust your own voice, you’ll be able to create something unique that will stand out. Read below to learn how to find your artistic voice.

The Interoceptive Sense: A Little-Known Yet Powerful Tool

What is the interoceptive sense, according to psychology? Why is your interoceptive sense important? How can you strengthen it? The interoceptive sense is a powerful tool for understanding and coping with your own and others’ emotions, according to neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett. Barrett believes this little-known sense impacts your mental wellbeing more than most people realize. Read on for Barrett’s definition of the interoceptive sense, including why it’s important to strengthen it.

Suzanne Simard’s Mother Tree—Explained

What is Suzanne Simard’s “Mother Tree” concept? What do Mother Trees do? Ecologist Suzanne Simard explains in her book Finding the Mother Tree that trees in a forest are interconnected. Mother Trees connect to many of the other trees and take care of their communities. Read below for an explanation of Suzanne Simard’s Mother Tree concept.

Unwinding Anxiety: Book Overview & Takeaways

What is the book Unwinding Anxiety about? What are the main takeaways of the book? In Unwinding Anxiety, Brewer explains how anxiety becomes a habit and how it spawns additional habits that only make things worse. Brewer shows why mindfulness succeeds where traditional methods like willpower, substitution, and avoidance fail. Read below for a brief overview of Brewer’s book Unwinding Anxiety.

Political Advisors: Classic Advice on Choosing & Managing Them

How can you choose advisors who will stay loyal to you? How much power should you give them? In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli advises that princes should surround themselves with reliable advisors. He gives recommendations on where to find advisors and what the relationship with them should be like. Read more about Machiavelli’s discussion of political advisors below.

Nikole Hannah Jones: Quotes From The 1619 Project

Are you looking for Nikole Hannah Jones’s quotes from The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting? Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning investigative journalist and staff writer for the New York Times who specializes in racial injustice. In The 1619 Project, she argues that American democracy and the prosperous nation we know today were largely built by enslaved Black Americans. Below is a selection of The 1619 Project quotes with explanations.

How Do You Get Anxiety? Through a Habit Loop

How do you get anxiety? How does anxiety become a habit? Unwinding Anxiety by Dr. Judson Brewer suggests anxiety is a habit loop. To understand how to break the cycle of anxiety, you first have to understand how anxiety works as a habit loop. Let’s look at how anxiety forms as a habit.

Steve Jobs’s Products: Where Art Meets Technology

Was Steve Jobs an artist? How are Steve Jobs’s creations like art? Walter Isaacson’s biography, Steve Jobs, depicts the entrepreneur’s highs and lows throughout his career. While reflecting on Jobs’s successes, Isaacson compares Apple products to works of art. Learn the similarities between famous artists and Steve Jobs’s art.

Strategic Inflection Points: When Your Business Is in Crisis

What are strategic inflection points? Is your business facing such a crisis? Drawing on his experience as the CEO of Intel, Andrew Grove provides clear guidance on preparing for, identifying, and adapting to the kinds of upheavals that send less agile companies out of business. He calls these crises “strategic inflection points.” Keep reading to learn what strategic inflection points are and how to determine whether your business has reached one.