An engagingly written and deeply optimistic program for personal renewal.
Rabin offers a wide-ranging primer on the basics of living life.
“Life is not a thing,” writes the author, a psychiatrist, in his nonfiction debut. “It is a process. A living conscious interaction.” As he promptly acknowledges, that process feels far more complicated in the 21st century, an era characterized by dopamine addiction, short attention spans, and what the author refers to as “the Gods of Optimization” (“a polite, spreadsheet-driven religion built on the quiet terror that you are never quite enough as you are”). The text is divided into two halves: The first details many of the problems facing people in the modern era, from burnout to digital (and chemical) addictions to overwork and the resulting neglect of physical health; the second provides a varied selection of medical observations and health strategies for jettisoning unhealthy habits and getting back to the fundamentals of physical and mental well-being. The topics range from proper eating to healthy sleep habits to tactics for avoiding or defusing stress. Every chapter includes insets like a “Dr. Dave’s Mindblower” (“Anxiety decreases when attention returns to sensory experiences in the body,” reads one; “Rumination and worry stop in the mind when the body is humming, getting hugs, or exercising”) or a “Pro Tip” (“Breathing the way we do when we sleep helps the body feel like it’s already there and activates safety circuitry in the brain”). The text is generously illustrated with pictures and charts (depicting such standard concepts as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), and the book includes detailed endnotes for further study.
Rabin makes the effective choice to deliver this information-heavy material in a light, aphoristic manner, breaking his subjects down into readily graspable rules and maxims; the book even includes equations, like “Dr. Dave’s Essential Equation #9: Intention x Time = Manifestation.” (“Intention is the human energy that we put into anything we do that makes things happen in our lives.”) This approach doesn’t only keep things lean and engaging—it also underscores one of the author’s main themes, since he’s really advocating simplicity. Humans, Rabin writes, are essentially “emotionally complex houseplants: we need frequent light, water, attention, nutrients from the Earth, and preferably someone whispering nice things to us in the morning.” At every turn, the author advocates a positive, holistic empathy and the simplest, healthiest approach to meeting the needs of body and mind. “If the body doesn’t feel safe, it won’t allow pleasure,” he asserts, adding that “pleasure accelerates healing.” Rabin recommends play and paying close attention to the physical senses, and he provides some common-sense safeguards against anxiety-causing overload in the age of hyperstimulation. “The brain is constantly filtering incoming information and asking a single question,” he observes: “Does this matter enough for me to store?” Even regarding the most worrying subject of all—death—he urges a broad-minded outlook, noting what a “hilarious irony” it would be to let fearing death rob us of the moments when we should be living life. Ultimately, he counsels his readers to make the conscious choice of love over fear, describing love as “not only what we’re all made of, but [also] the glue, the rhythm, the frequency of life.” Readers who don’t find this sentiment too unrealistically idealistic will doubtlessly take great comfort from it.
An engagingly written and deeply optimistic program for personal renewal.Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781964421230
Page Count: 428
Publisher: Merack Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2026
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
BOOK REVIEW
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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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