A useful and highly readable book of self-discipline and reflection.
Writer and speaker Cadsby’s treatise asserts that the very traits that set humans apart from animals also cause existential and behavioral disadvantages.
The author defines five “cognitive design features” of the human brain, which he says is optimized for the primal living conditions of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. These features, which include “We’re Greedy Reductionists” and “We’re Addicted to Certainty,” become flaws in the sociocultural context of 21st-century living. He expertly outlines why humans possess these reflexive, instinctive responses to stimuli and provides actionable tips and exercises for overcoming them by embracing what he calls “The Space Between”—a self-generated mental area that separates the knee-jerk “System 1” from his proposed metacognitive powerhouse, “System 2.” Cadsby notes the Buddhist notion that the human experience is predicated on suffering but asserts that “our ultimate freedom lies in our metacognitive ability to pause and reflect before we respond.” In these pages, he walks readers through the System 1 defaults, offering a mix of simple, concrete solutions and more labor-intensive mental exercises to help overcome them; the latter range from taking deep breaths to restructuring the way one approaches difficult decisions to ultimately redefining one’s search for meaning: “We are not designed to live free of existential anxiety,” he states, because, despite ourselves, “we are the species that ruminates, causing us no end of uniquely human suffering.” The book effectively doubles as a crash-course in philosophy, delving generally into the ideas of such foundational thinkers as Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Carl Jung, Daniel Kahneman, and Steven Pinker. Cadsby does an excellent job summarizing and making connections between interrelated philosophies and subsequently grounding his own assertions on these theories to construct a consistent and cohesive game plan. Although his conclusions and techniques may not be new, his presentation is creative and informative, restructuring classic ideas into accessible advice.
A useful and highly readable book of self-discipline and reflection.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4597-4884-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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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