Review: Man's Search for Meaning

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first part discusses his life in a concentration camp, while the second discusses psychology, and how Meaning gives purpose in life.

Both parts are extremely poignant and educational. I didn't think I'd find much new in either section, given how long ago it was written, but I was wrong on both counts.

Well worth the read.


https://4201mass.blogspot.com/

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Review: Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World

Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World by Emily Balcetis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author’s journey to play the drums well enough to have a private concert is an interesting anecdote that would’ve made a great article (or Ted talk, with subsequent performance). As a book it’s just dragged out and, frankly, unrelatable to most readers. 

Having said that there are some decent takeaways, which I wish had been given more focus:

- Apparently pushing something bad (like junk food) from your mind doesn’t work as well as actually thinking about eating it in terms of avoiding it in the near future. This seemed counterintuitive to me, but very interesting. 

- Narrow your focus: Focus on smaller, more immediate goals rather than the big final outcome. 

- Think back to the bad points/mistakes as much as the good points. This helps you avoid them in the future. 

These weren’t the 4 takeaways given by the author, but they were from my notes. 

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Review: The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting premise and refreshing point of view. How do studies of economics, anthropology, psychology, culture, etc. differ if we consider "Western" points of view to be an extreme, not shared by most of the world? This book (quite convincingly) argues that this is the case. I don't know enough to confirm or refute his main thesis, but I did find many of his experiments very interesting, especially stuff like the Ultimatum game with indigenous tribes in South America. I find the whole "WEIRD" nomenclature a bit click-baity, but there you go. 

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Review: How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For some reason I thought this would be some book about raising your EQ, but it turned out to be quite interesting. It sounds like it could be quite revolutionary in psychology/neuroscientific circles, but I'm not really in a position to comment one way or the other. Still, very interesting to see how what we see as very basic emotions might be culturally learned, rather than innate. 

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Review: Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life by Ozan Varol
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ok, now we need someone from the business world to rewrite this book drawing actionable business conclusions for each of the author's points. I mean, the points were great, and the examples were fascinating, and maybe I'm just lazy, but I felt like a step was missing in terms of transferring/translating these points into steps to follow/actions to take/methods to use, at least in terms of business (maybe this book isn't for businesspeople?)

Regardless, some of my notes:

Once certainty ends, progress can begin.

Some good arguments against celebrating failure, and Failing fast. (Learning is more important than failing)

Don't ask yourself "what would you do if you couldn't fail"? but "What would you do if it didn't matter if you failed"?

Ask yourself "What have you failed at?" every day. You should fail at something every day. Otherwise you're not pushing yourself.

Where failure ends, complacency begins.

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Review: The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence

The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence by Josh Waitzkin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is like a self-help book in the sense that a biography can be a business book by teaching you business lessons. He talks about his experiences and then extrapolates the lessons he learned from different incidences and accomplishments in his life. 

If you are looking for easily digestible to-do nuggets, like "don't check your email first thing" or "never go to bed angry", you won't find them here. His advice requires you to dig deep, but they seem quite worthwhile nonetheless. 

Some of my notes:

Children who are told they are smart, tend to go for results, thereby avoiding any challenge where they might fail, while children who are taught to put more effort, tend to apply more effort to greater and greater challenges (Entity theorists vs. incremental theorists)

He discusses repeating what you learn until it becomes automatic, and then adding to it, and repeating again, and adding again, etc. 

I liked his discussion about how to deal with distractions. Rather than trying to do away with them, increase them, so they don't bother you (he applies this to chess, but it probably translates to many other endeavors)

I also liked his talk about constraints being liberating. He broke his hand, and learned to compete with one hand, deflecting with one so as to attack with another, so that once it healed he almost saw it as an unfair advantage. I like this idea, that average people would see an injury as 6 weeks doing nothing, but professional athletes find ways to take advantage of it. Allow yourself not to be at peak performance, so that you can learn/try new things to improve.

Creating your own trigger: Identify a moment when, or activity wherein, you're in the zone. Find other habits/activities you enjoy. Engage in these in a set routine, then start activity where you're in the zone. Repeat several times. 

At this point, you should be able to engage in the set routine and you'll automatically be in the zone. 

While playing chess he would eat 5 almonds every 45 minutes for alertness. (or bananas/ protein bars, etc.)

Anger: 3 steps: flow with distraction, use distraction, recreate internally

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Review: The Muse Asylum

The Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up at the Bookrack in Charlotte, completely on spec. I wanted a not-too-long fiction book. These gambles rarely work, but this was an exception.

I disagree with some other commenters, who say they didn't like the dialog. That might have been one of the first things that grabbed me. It wasn't common, nor awkward, but quick, erudite and witty enough to keep me going.

The story itself dragged me into it, including the "madness" sections, and I thought I had figured out the twist, and then, turns out I hadn't.

Anyway, I'm very happy I discovered this author, and I shall be searching for more of his books.

I find it amusing to read that the author was a student of Joyce Carol Oates', who describes the book as post-modern, when there is a scathing commentary within the book on terms like "post-modernism".


Also, I really wanted to read all the short stories mentioned in the book.

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Review: Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking

Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking by Cecilia Heyes
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

To be frank, I don't think I'm smart enough to understand this book. As least with regards to its subject matter. I probably should have given up after a chapter or two. I only stuck with it because what little I did understand was interesting, and I was curious about the chapter on language (which also confused me).

Keeping all that in mind, this is probably a moronic comment, but it seemed to me that many of her conclusions could have been reached by just noting the differences between various cultures, which would show proof of cultural evolutionary psychology as opposed to purely biological evolution. Then, taking that as a starting point, we could analyze whether the commonalities evolved from a fixed proto-human culture or not.

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Review: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was afraid this book would be out of date, since I know it has been around for a while. But, as the book mentions, this information will be more and more relevant as we become more and more inundated with information from all directions. So I'm definitely glad I read it.

There are certain pointers I can probably use for business, although for the most part it was eye opening to see what methods other businesses can (and do) implement in order to get me to spend my money.

Tidbits I enjoyed:
How a woman increased sales of Turquoise by doubling the price (we called these luxury goods in Econ class)
How the tailor pretended to be deaf in order to get a sale
How the toy store manages to increase post-christmas sales
How the cult in Chicago started seeking publicity only After their doomsday scenario didn't pan out
If you are selling your car, have various potential buyers show up at the same time.




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Review: The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life by Kevin Simler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was going to give up on the book early on, since it started mentioning things I thought were quite obvious as if they were revelations. Their first point seems to be that we do things for selfish reasons, (which Adam Smith also said a few centuries ago), and then it discusses Signaling. These are both well-known concepts in the world of economics.
Then it talks about societal norms and how to enforce them, and that we need to punish those who don't punish transgressions: "In the US, for example, it is unlawful to witness a crime without reporting it". Is this true though??

Later it states how we repress bad memories (in which we did bad things or things we're embarrassed about). Do we though? I feel like memories of embarrassing things I did keep coming back to me at random times. I'd hate to think what I'm repressing if that's the case.

However, I stuck with it, and there were some interesting points later on. For example, how we have to deceive ourselves in order to deceive others (politicians do this a lot). It isn't enough to lie, but we have to lie to ourselves in order to make it work.
I really liked the section about how we do not get into discussions with other people to learn new things, but to prove how much we already know. It always bothered me in a sense. If A and B get in an argument, and A clearly wins, then B will go home feeling bad, while A will feel good about himself. However, the fact is B Is better off, since B learned something new, while A didn't gain anything. This seems like a flaw in human wiring, but it was sort of explained here (getting into discussions is another way of displaying how "fit" we are in an evolutionary sense, not of gaining new information. So the more arguments we win, the more we show we have the resources to 'survive').

The chapter on art seemed a bit odd (why do we like the original art work so much more than a copy?). I think they don't take into account the appreciation factor, in the sense of appreciating what humankind is capable of. Seeing the Mona Lisa in its original helps us "feel closer" (as faulty as that reasoning may be) to Davinci and his genius.

A couple more interesting tidbits:
There used to laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was considered cruel and unusual (like eating rats).
Aluminum spoons are better than silver spoons in every sense, yet we prefer silver spoons


So, over all, pretty hit or miss. They did state that the average reader would agree with 70% of the points they make. I probably agree with a bit more, but I feel like a lot of it had been covered in other books. The few new points, however, were enlightening.

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Review: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is probably the seminal book on happiness, and could very likely be a great book for people who need more of it in their life.

I did think it dragged on in certain parts, trying to relate "flow" to any and every circumstance imaginable, but there were plenty of takeaways. I guess my Kindle highlights are linked here so I can defer to them.

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