by Michael Lum ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 2015
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Two dolphins contemplate midlife career moves in this business parable.
Ventura and Status Quo are brother and sister dolphin performers at Dolphinarium, a tourist destination run by harsh hammerhead shark owners. “Trapped in the throes of their midlife crisis,” the siblings discuss how they should push beyond their comfort zones and look for new opportunities. Status Quo stays put, but Ventura takes a new job with another employer, which unfortunately ends after nine months. He then attends seminars, motivating him to form his own Dolphin Tours business, which turns out to be “both slow and competitive,” so he calls it quits. Ventura then suggests to unemployed former colleague Applica that they journey to the unknown northeast part of the Red Sea to look for work. There, they meet an osprey that tells them of an amazing Deep Blue ocean to be found after leaping over a land mass called The Rubicon. Impatient Applica misjudges The Rubicon’s size, gets beached, and dies. More mindful Ventura spots an underwater opening, emerges into what he thinks is Deep Blue, and convinces his sister to accompany him there on his return. They get caught in nets, but dolphin Livita frees them, telling them Deep Blue is still farther off and that oysters only offer the opportunity, not the certainty, of pearls. Fearful Status Quo goes home, but Ventura ultimately finds Deep Blue and develops a conglomerate that makes “huge profits” but doesn’t “neglect its corporate social responsibility.” Singapore-based business coach Lum has quite a bit of fun with this tale, including mocking the meaningless, demoralizing performance mantras promulgated by the Dolphinarium’s overlords. His narrative, both brief and amusing, makes his message to shake off complacency an easily digestible and entertaining experience. While parts of this story are alarming, particularly the death of Applica, these elements underscore the necessary caution required when embarking on new business ventures. Perhaps the best part of the volume remains Lum’s back-of-the-book exercises, allowing readers to plot their own ways out of potentially deadening comfort zones. A vivid tale about sea creatures that highlights the need for strategic risk-taking.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5116-2614-9
Page Count: 106
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
Share your opinion of this book
More by Daniel Kahneman
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
IN THE NEWS
by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.