The World's Best Book Summaries
What are the common myths about love? Do you believe any of them? In The Road Less Traveled, psychiatrist M. Scott Peck identifies five myths about love. Once you understand them, you will be better equipped to practice genuine love. Keep reading to learn five myths about love.
How important is a teamwork culture in your organization? What do qualities do you look for when hiring for your teams? What do you think makes a good team player? Many leaders and organizations say they want teamwork, but they can’t define what they mean by a team player or prioritize identifying team players in their hiring process. Patrick Lencioni wrote The Ideal Team Player to answer this very question: what makes a good team player? In this article, you’ll learn about the three qualities of a team player, according to author Patrick Lencioni.
What are some examples of good marketing? What tactics did these companies successfully implement? In Contagious, Jonah Berger discusses effective marketing strategies used by companies, from Apple’s earphones to the gamification of airline travel. Knowing these examples of good marketing can help you apply the lessons to your own marketing strategy and improve your approach. Learn from the examples of good marketing discussed below.
What is the proper way to pray to Jesus? Is there a prayer formula that guarantees your prayer gets heard? Praying to Jesus is a manifestation of energy—you can release spiritual energy through the mechanism of prayer. In his book The Power of Positive Thinking, pastor Norman Vincent Peale advises experimenting with different methods of praying. The idea is to find the method that works for you—that helps you open your mind to God, and let God’s power flow into your life. Here is what Peale has to say on praying.
Where do governments get the money they spend? What are the tax revenues used for? And what happens when governments go into debt? Generally, to pay for current benefits like the military and civilian personnel, governments use tax revenues, allowing those benefited to pay. For investment projects like highways and schools, governments sell bonds, go into debt, and essentially push the cost onto future generations who will benefit from the investment. Keep reading to learn about the economics of government spending, what happens when governments go into debt to finance current expenditures, and the implications of taxation.
Do you resist change? Do you take a long time to plan and scheme, but when it comes to taking action, you back off? Too often we fail to activate change because we are stuck in thinking mode. We analyze and rationalize, and we get mired in too many details and options. Fortunately, we can learn to get out of paralysis and into action—motivating change in ourselves and others. Here are three ways to motivate change, get unstuck, and spark action.
What is the EWMA formula? Why shouldn’t you rely on raw, weight loss measurements to track your progress? EWMA stands for the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average. In The Hacker’s Diet, John Walker suggests using this formula for tracking your weight loss progress rather than focusing on the daily weight fluctuations which can be caused by a number of variables. The EWMA formula, on the other hand, tracks the trend of your weight loss. Here is how to use the EWMA formula to track your weight loss.
How do you deal with heartache? What is the most effective way to cope with emotional pain? Grief, sorrow, and other forms of heartache and inner suffering are part of being human. It happens at some point to everyone and there is no surefire way to avoid emotional hurt altogether. Here, Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking, shares his advice on how to cure heartache.
Are you a good judge of risk? What factors do you take into account when trying to anticipate risks involved in a project or an endeavor? According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of Fooled by Randomness, most people are poor judges of risk because they do not fully comprehend the power of randomness. As a result, they harbor misguided beliefs about risk that lead them to make poor decisions. In this article, we’ll look at the characteristics of people who fail to anticipate risk properly and discuss specific things you can do to anticipate risk mindfully.
What was the housing bubble of 2008? What caused this devastating financial crash? The stock market crash and housing bubble of 2008 saw a huge decline in house prices from the 2006 peak. The fallout was huge, with many big financial institutions facing considerable losses. The causes are debated, but essentially too many people took on loans they couldn’t afford, leading to an inevitable crash. Here’s what happened during the housing bubble of 2008.