A self-improvement manual that urges readers to access the power that’s all around them.
A debut handbook for the guiding principles of human existence.
Dzitiev describes a natural universe ordered along four major levels: Power, “the first principle and first cause of all nature” that gives origin to everything else; the laws of nature, which “are an endless number of transformations of one power” and are thus “all in harmony with each other” and can transform into the final two levels—the “thin-material” world of intangible thoughts and feelings and the “coarse-material” world of observable reality. In Dzitiev’s conception, the “laws of nature are a man’s natural subconscious” and are broken up into two parts: the code of a law and the power of a law. In his view, the “life power” of an individual manifests itself in virtually every aspect of that individual’s life—“health, intuition, willpower, power of logical thought, endurance, luck, steadfastness, attractiveness,” etc.—affecting everything from feelings of personal peace to the actions and successes of job-hunters or politicians or anyone. The various levels of nature intertwine to inform the dynamics of everyday human life: “[A] man’s vital strength or life power is the power of the laws of nature refracted by the notions in his consciousness,” Dzitiev says. If an individual has very little life power, even his or her concerted efforts won’t advance his or her goals; on the other hand, successful people “possess a stronger kinetic power.” But a person is capable of changing and improving, he says, since “an ability to uncover the power of objects by understanding them…is a natural ability of man.” This open-ended quality to the theory makes Dzitiev’s worldview one of constant change, one in which the nature of the universe and the nature of the individual are intricately connected. “All a man’s natural qualities are completely open in his subconscious,” he says, “in the form of endless satisfaction and joy.” Dzitiev centers the instructional conclusions of his book on his contention that if the subconscious is out of balance, disharmony can result in a loss of power, and he addresses the effects of this disharmony (and the ways to fix it) with a passionate but commonsense voice. That said, the strategies he offers for understanding and harnessing life power can sometimes come across as vague. For the most part, though, readers will find a great many thought-provoking concepts in the easy-to-follow flow of Dzitiev’s prose.
A self-improvement manual that urges readers to access the power that’s all around them.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491814840
Page Count: 172
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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
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