Book Review - Gut Feelings

Midway through my graduate program in Adult Education, I'm finding that I don't have a lot of time for extra reading.
So, I'm pleased that I've found some time this week in La Paz. Today was a windy day with rough waters, so I was able to finish "Gut Feelings".

Title: Gut Feelings
Author: Gerd Gigerenzer

Genre: Psychology, Business, Cognitive Science
Summary: As per the subtitle, Gut Feelings explores "The Intelligence of the Unconscious"

Favorite Quote: Here are my three favorite quotes from the book.

1. "Complex behavior does not imply complex mental strategies."
2. "...people adapt to their environments much as gelatin does; if you wish to know what form it will have when it solidifies, also study teh shape of the mold."
3. "...natural language is more sophisticated than logic."

Strengths: Entertaining and educational. It's an enjoyable book that's easy to read, with clear examples. I also appreciate the working definition of instict as "a judgement that appears quickly in conciousness, whose underlying reasons we are not fully aware of, and it is strong enough to act upon."
Weaknesses: The second half of the book dragged. It didn't really add anything new to the first half, in my mind.

Conclusion: Worth a read if you find it in a used book store.
Post-it Flags: 9 flags
* Each time I find an interesting quote, model, image, or idea in a book, I mark it with a Post-it flag. The more flags, the more value I found in the book.

Do you have a Fixed or Growth Mindset?

I've been reading "Mindset" by Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford.

The book explores the two mindsets that Dr. Dweck's research has identified - the Fixed Mindset and the Growth Mindset.

Given today's business environment, one could argue that it's mandatory that we all develop a Growth Mindset.

I recommend you read the book. In the meantime, download this excellent visual representation of the Mindset concept by Nigel Holmes (a god of visual communication or 'explanation graphics' as he calls it).

Book Review: Snoop

When I saw this book at Borders, it immediately got my attention.

I often refer to myself as an 'amateur anthropologist'. Living overseas for ten years forces you to watch people closely, since language often fails.

Besides, who doesn't like to snoop?

We all make judgements about people based on what's in their office, apartment, or car.
But we don't know how accurate or inaccurate those judgements are, until we get to know them better.

This book offers to help us make better assessments.

Title: "Snoop: What your stuff says about you"
Author: Sam Gosling
Genre: Psychology
Summary: "what we would find if we look at your belongings."

Favorite Quote: Instead of quotes, I'll share Gosling's three broad 'mechanisms of space'. These are the clues we should be looking at:

1. identity claims - objects that identify who we are, or want to think we are. These could include the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, music we listen to, or posters on our walls.
2. feeling regulators - objects that help us maintain a mood . These could be photos of loved ones, inspirational posters, artwork, or incense.
3. behavioral residue - the 'things between the things' - like teapots that are never used, as opposed to teapots that are never cleaned.
   

Strengths - These three distinctions were very interesting to me. There were some excellent examples and quite a bit of additional information.

Weaknesses - I was excited by the first chapter, but all the distinctions were declared in the first 11 pages. I kept waiting for some kind of 'procedure' for looking at an office or a bedroom, but it never came.

Conclusion: I'd recommend browsing this in your local library. The subject is interesting, but it didn't deliver the depth I expected. Gosling delivered the 'what?' and the 'so what?', but we never got the 'now what?'.

Post-it Flags: 15 flags
* Each time I find an interesting quote, model, image, or idea in a book, I mark it with a Post-it flag. The more flags, the more value I found in the book.

Unconditional Positive Regard in Action

This is one of the three most impressive videos I've ever seen, and I can't even name the other two (yes, I'm sandbagging, just in case I think of any others).

It's a clip that's featured in the two-day Egonomics workshop. It's used to show what 'Unconditional Positive Regard' looks like in action. I found it on YouTube today and wanted to share it.

Watch it and then we'll continue.



Fred (Mr. Rogers) Rogers is clearly a hen facing a wolf, but he wins anyway.
How is that possible?

It's possible because Fred Rogers sincerely holds Senator Pastori in Unconditional Positive Regard. UPR was a term coined by well-known psychologist Carl R. Rogers (no relation to Fred Rogers). The term means that you suspend judgement and listen to a person with the belief that they can change.
It has to be sincere, or it's meaningless.

Now watch the video again, and see how Fred Rogers trusts Senator Pastori to do what's right, and allows him the space to do so. I'll wait.....

How impressive is that? It's like a superpower, isn't it?
On a scale of 1 to 10, what's your ability to invoke UPR with your worst antagonist?
Can you do better next time?

Where does Emotion Come From?

One of my favorite things about travel is that I finally get the time to read.

Today, I finished "blink" by Malcolm Gladwell.
Quite an interesting book, about how the best decisions are sometimes the ones made instantly.
Like most books I enjoy, it veers into many unexpected directions.

My favorite quote regards the surprising discovery, by a team of German psychologists, that your facial expression can influence your emotion (vs. the opposite view)

"...we take it as a given that first we experience an emotion and then we may - or may not - express that emotion on our face. We think of the face as the residue of emotion. What this research showed, though, is that the process works in the opposite direction as well. Emotion can also start on the face.
The face is not a secondary billboard for our internal feelings. It is an equal partner in the emotional process."

Which makes a pretty strong argument for the age-old warning "if you keep making that expression, your face will freeze"!

Tomorrow, I start on "The Wisdom of Crowds".