A charming, convincing work of community-based self-help.
Crooks (Covenants, 2003, etc.) advises readers on how to take better advantage of one’s acquaintances with others in this motivational work.
Modern life has become increasingly centered on the individual, and this is reflected in the self-help genre, in which readers are often called upon to look within themselves to find their untapped inner potential. Crooks has a different take: turn your gaze outward and recognize just how many other people are involved in your life. “People need support from others, and lots of it,” she writes in her preface. “Support helps each of us individually and, in turn, helps all of us collectively.” This support forms the basis of “human capital,” the resource that Crooks identifies as the most important factor in individual success. She walks readers through eight networks, some obvious and some less so, in one’s family, health, education, spiritual life, career, community, home and personal affairs (including people whose services one employs), and “ghosts” (the deceased, or people who’ve otherwise left one’s life). After a breakdown of each, Crooks introduces readers to her concept of “ACTSage,” which contains an acronym for “being aware of your connections, having clarity about what you need and want from them, and using that information to transform your life.” Crooks writes in a warm, accessible prose style that will keep readers comfortable and engaged: “Every person you encounter—whether a decades-long, intimate partner, a college roommate, a trusted teacher, a stranger you meet only briefly, or a pickpocket who steals your wallet—makes an impression on you.” She illustrates her points with numerous examples, and although she frequently dips into jargon, her arguments are rather persuasive. The book’s focus on social groups is a refreshing reminder that even the most ambitious reader still shares the world with many other people.
A charming, convincing work of community-based self-help.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5320-2962-2
Page Count: 264
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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