Books

The Magic of Thinking Big

One Sentence Summary: Success is function of believing or thinking you can tackle anything big while ignoring negativity and luck.

Thoughts: This book was a reinforcement of ideas I have heard before from several sources. If you have never read a book about success it is a good place to start given the way it ties several great principles together in one volume. Solidifying the idea that teams will believe in big goals if the leader does made this book worth the dry read.

Personal Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Stumbling on Happiness

One Sentence Summary: Happiness comes from exercising ones self control rather than steering towards an imagined happy future.

Thoughts: This book is deep and complicated but the humor and conclusions make it a worthwhile read. The idea that humans accept large real consequences quickly and with unreal rationals, imagine future events in the present world, and should act on whether or not people who have achieved our dreams are happy.

Personal Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

Talking to Strangers

One Sentence Summary: Humans have a bias towards truth especially in unlikely situations and have no effective way to read minds based on people’s expression, which leads to several situations where we crucify others for acting in a way that seems wrong.

Thoughts: .The world is super complicated. We make it simple by telling stories and generalizing. Sometimes that is helpful but other times, when we generalize incorrectly, it can cause people to get in terrible situations. Several examples of this are told throughout the book and the most intense example comes at the end where Malcolm Gladwell uses all that we have learned as a reader about truth bias and police training to explain how a routine traffic stop for failing to turn on a blinker leads to the driver committing suicide in jail three days later. This book will want to make you shake your fists in the air at the world but the world will be more understandable. Understandable is worth 5 stars to me.

Personal Rating: ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑