The World's Best Book Summaries
What is social proof bias? What is the harm in following the herd? Social proof bias is the tendency to have faith in the prevailing consensus and the belief that the majority always knows better. This tendency can be particularly dangerous during stressful situations where you may tend to make ill-thought-out decisions. Read on to learn more about the social proof bias.
What happens when you put members of the 4 tendencies together? Which pairs do well and which shouldn’t be in the same room? According to The Four Tendencies author Gretchen Rubin, some tendencies tend to get along better while some tend to butt heads when they’re together. While tendencies aren’t by any means an all-encompassing personality trait, you can generally tell if you’ll get along with a person based on their tendency. Here is how the 4 tendencies work together.
Why is it important to celebrate short-term wins when leading change in an organization? How does reaching short-term benchmarks help employee morale? In his book Leading Change, John Kotter says that short-term wins are important because they allow employees to feel accomplished and give them something to celebrate—even if the project is far from being over. If you only set long-term goals, employees may become discouraged. Here is John Kotter’s advice for generating short-term wins.
What is the first step in the No-Drama Discipline process? Why should you pause and approach discipline with mindfulness rather than reacting automatically? If you want to discipline your kids effectively, the first step is to prepare to discipline. It’s important to prepare first because, if you react on instinct, you’ll often resort to autopilot responses or ineffective methods such as time-out and spanking. Keep reading to learn how to discipline kids without the drama.
Is it possible to influence your subconscious mind through conscious thought? What can you do to train your subconscious mind to think more positively? In his book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murphy explains how to train your subconscious mind through conscious thought. The process to train your subconscious mind is very simple: You just need to use your conscious mind to imprint positive thoughts and images upon your subconscious mind. Murphy explains that there are two steps to making this process work for you: First, you need to decide to think positive thoughts. Then, you need to
What is information asymmetry? What are the ethical implications of asymmetries in information? Asymmetry of information is where one party involved in a transaction has more information than the other party. According to Nassim Taleb, the author of Skin in the Game, asymmetry of information is essentially the same as asymmetry of risk. When there is a hidden imbalance of information in a transaction, the party with less knowledge incurs more risk. In this article, we’ll explain how the risk created by information asymmetry contributes to unethical transactions.
What happens in the return with the elixir stage of the hero’s journey? Is it dangerous for the hero to return to the secular world? The return with the elixir stage of the hero’s journey is the step where the hero returns to the secular world with the divine boon in hand to be shared with his people. However, a returning hero faces the danger of losing the spark of divinity due to the banalities of ordinary human existence. This is why the mythical Aztec god-king Moctezuma never set foot on the ground to avoid being sullied by the un-sacred
What are some of the most common obstacles you encounter when creating? How do you deal with these challenges? No matter what creative pursuit you take on, there will always be attending annoyances. Developing an ability to cope with irritants and unpleasantness is as much a part of your job as a creator as actually creating. In this article, we’ll discuss how to handle the inevitable creative challenges you’ll encounter on your creative journey.
What does Taleb mean by “Intellectual, Yet Idiot”? What are the defining traits of someone whom Taleb would consider Intellectual, Yet Idiot? “Intellectual, Yet Idiot” is a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to refer to a type of person who lacks “skin in the game”—that, who is averse to risk. Taleb argues that Intellectual, Yet Idiots create flawed systems because the concept of skin in the game is totally foreign to them. They would never think to dissect a situation in terms of risk, and as a result, they fundamentally misunderstand many aspects of life. In this article, we’ll
How did nationalism develop? What was it like to live in the pre-nationalist age? Political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson says that the ideology of “nationalism” is a fairly recent social construct. Before nationalism, people would identify themselves with their occupation, or village, and political communities were ruled by dynastic sovereigns rather than governments. Keep reading to learn about the origins of national consciousness, according to Benedict Anderson.