How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
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Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#2Couldn't help but check that it is rated 4.6/5 (113 reviews) in Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Surrounded-Idiots-Behavior-Effectivel...
Excerpt from one of the top review..
The book really helps you to understand why 'blues' ask 100 questions, want to problem solve all the time, always ask for more information, and can be cold and distant instead of being emotional creatures. Yellows on the other hand are always day dreaming, coming up with broad ideas, trying to plan social gatherings and always seemingly have their 'head in the clouds' (this is totally me). Reds can seem really aggressive, very dominant, demanding, and short with those around you, and frankly they can't help it, and greens are very amiable. They agree to everything, but are often afraid to speak their mind.
Looks like it is not only Sweden but other places as well. Seems like easily relatable and digestible like those on Sun Signs and Personality and hence a 'good seller', if not a best seller.
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#3This seems strikingly similar to the "shape" nonsense being sold to managers as an explanation of explain team dynamics [1].
[1] https://www.delcor.com/resources/blog/project-management-per...
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#4Couldn't help but check that it is rated 4.6/5 (113 reviews) in Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Surrounded-Idiots-Behavior-Effectivel... Excerpt from one of the top review.. The book really helps you to understand why 'blues' ask 100 questions, want to problem solve all the time, always ask for more information, and can be cold and distant instead of being emotional creatures. Yellows on the other hand are always day…
AKA confirmation bias: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-confirmation-bias-279...
Fascinating how it's the same thing "mediums" use to say there's some person speaking to them from beyond the grave, with a message for someone whose name begin with M...
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#5This seems strikingly similar to the "shape" nonsense being sold to managers as an explanation of explain team dynamics [1]. [1] https://www.delcor.com/resources/blog/project-management-per...
As a matter of fact I have done a very similar color-coded personality test at a corporate event.
https://www.insights.com/us/products/insights-discovery/
After the test, we were even given blocks to keep at our desks so that people who interact with us knew whether we were 'blue' or 'yellow' and adapt their reactions accordingly.
I guess I should have just said I was an Aquarius or Capricorn or some such and it would have been just as scientifically accurate.
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#6>"talk of colours from the infamous Myers-Briggs test, administered by less-respectable management consultants" //
I think in the UK Myers-Briggs was fronted by "respectable" management consultants and was mainstream.
Or perhaps no management consultants are respectable because they primarily seem to front the current fashionable pseudo-science?
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#7Original (in Swedish):
https://www.vof.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Katz-Erikson-1...
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#8Is it not the same for the current wave of anti-bias/discrimination/racism training? There is zero evidence that it has any effect. What few brave researchers have risked their careers exploring the effectiveness of the training have found that it does basically nothing. None of that stops companies from paying millions for it and good luck to the employee or executive that even dares suggest that perhaps there's better ways of tackling the problem/issue.
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#9> · Red: dominant, driven, solution focussed.
> · Blue: analytic, careful, meticulous
> · Green: patient, considerate, nice
> · Yellow: extroverted, creative, verbal
Damn. I spent so much of my time and energy pushing back exactly on this bullshit when I was young. That's part of the curriculum of mandatory courses I had to take during an apprenticeship in Switzerland. Expensive and mandatory courses paid by students' employer, of course. But I didn't know that the "color model" was THAT popular.
In french speaking countries, that's often presented as a package called PNL, aka "Programmation Neuro-linguistique" (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmation_neuro-linguistiq...). Based on my experience, that kind of pseudo-science is super popular in corporate environment, and is really difficult to fight against.
Re: How Swedes were fooled by the book “Surrounded by Idiots”
#10I think all of these "personality tests" are total BS -- while it's great to think you can tl;dr a person, in reality we're far more complicated than that. When you make assumptions about a person's "personality color" or Meyers-Briggs profile, you disempower them from making their own decisions.
As adults mature, we all learn to be comfortable with a range of communication styles. This kind of pop psychology may be comforting and in some ways holds some element of truth, but the entire idea that a "personality" is fixed in any way dismisses the potential for growth that makes us all so human.