An easy, engaging read that provides readers with a better understanding of their idiosyncratic thought processes.
A self-help book designed to make people aware of why and how they frequently make erroneous snap judgments about the people with whom they interact.
Written by an executive coach grounded in organizational learning, the book embraces a breezy, conversational approach to its subject matter and aims to shine a light on how automatic thought processes often steer people in dangerous directions and how people can gain control of those thought processes to achieve more positive results. A facile and entertaining author, Powers quickly introduces readers to the four steps of what she terms “the Rat Brain Loop” and settles right down to the business of presenting example after example of how predictable—and often wrongheaded—this familiar pathway tends to be. Basing much of her analysis on her own experiences and those of her colleagues, Powers’ numerous anecdotes about the Rat Brain in action bear a stamp of familiarity that many readers will easily identify with. Virtually anyone who works in a corporate environment has, at some point, misinterpreted a coworker’s gestures or comments (or lack thereof) and, believing in the absolute correctness of misinterpretation, gone on to compound the error by basing future action on the original misconception. Powers hopes to slow that process down and show how people tend to base their conclusions on a highly limited amount of information, define the meaning of that information based on their personal histories, immediately attach a label that may forever limit the possibility of a more productive outcome and, finally, take decisive action based on the entire series of earlier miscues. A large part of what Powers hopes to get across can be summed up easily enough—thought before action. But the myriad examples of how one can fall into the Rat Brain Loop amply illustrate how crucial it is for people to take a close look at some of their dearest assumptions about the people with whom they work every day. Changing those ingrained habits of thought may not be quite as easy as Powers suggests, but identifying them is nonetheless a great place to start.
An easy, engaging read that provides readers with a better understanding of their idiosyncratic thought processes.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2010
ISBN: 978-1936236282
Page Count: 252
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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
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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
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