921–930 of 1001 posts
The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. The gene is the unit of replication, and this affects every process in this universe.
What's the big deal and why are so many people raving about this book? Can someone summarize the key points in a paragraph or two?
tldr: Talk about how genes influence organism, is like reading animal planet
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg is an amazing eye-opener. It's a book about how how to interact with your fellow humans in a way that enriches the lives of everyone around you. It's full of things that should be obvious, but in practice are not. You can think of it as a more advanced version of Dale Carnegie's "How to make friends and influence people", with more focus on conflicts, and a specific c…
The main take away that I use all the time is that most of us jump to solution oriented problem solving when in conflict or explaining our side, and that's usually not what people are looking for. When someone is upset, they are usually looking for empathy. They want to be understood. When they are understood, they are able to problem solve or hear the other side.
The problems are that:
1) Marshall is teaching a new language. So, he's speaking slowly, repeating himself, and talking at a very basic level. That's why it sounds unnatural.
2) People generally suck at giving empathy, even more so when they are personally invested in the situation. So, they have a bias against it.
But, like learning any new language, when you get to native speaking level, it sounds very different.
I do couple's coaching on the side, and this is one of my main tools. It is amazing to watch. A couple who comes in and sit on opposite sides of the room, not looking each other will be cuddling on the couch crying in each other's arms 20 minutes later, right after I translate their actions into the feelings that drive those actions and simple requests. They see each other at a deep level, and that's what people typically want.
These made me realized how much control I can have on my life.
To sum all that up for you using my own words: If I die tomorrow, I’ll make today the most meaningful day of my life. Rinse and repeat.
Mindset by Carol Dweck mixed with one or 2 quotes from Steve Jobs. That’s really it. These made me realized how much control I can have on my life. To sum all that up for you using my own words: If I die tomorrow, I’ll make today the most meaningful day of my life. Rinse and repeat.
I can't belive nobody has mentioned "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. To be fair, I'm not a big recreational reader. But this one will always stick out to me. When I read it in college, it had such a profound effect on me, I belive it literally helped shape who I am as a person even to this day Maybe it was right place, right time. It is certainly an impressionable age, but I have read it again as an older man, & it w…
When I initially read this thread I had precisely the same reaction. Emerson and Thoreau weren’t just naturalists preaching justice. Their Nature is the same Nature Marcus Aurelius refers to in Meditations. Once you put their work in the context of the Trinitarian/Unitarian debate of the early 19th century, you see how deeply they thought about not just civilization, but science and philosophy together. I’d add to Wa…
Mindset by Carol Dweck mixed with one or 2 quotes from Steve Jobs. That’s really it. These made me realized how much control I can have on my life. To sum all that up for you using my own words: If I die tomorrow, I’ll make today the most meaningful day of my life. Rinse and repeat.
I read these books when I first got into management and they changed so many things about the way I communicate with others. Everything in the books is obvious but things I was never taught growing up.
Learning how to understand others' intentions by the totality of their body language along with what they say is incredibly important. It's helpful for diffusing tense situations, understanding whether or not strangers pose a threat, easing tension in a relationship, etc.