The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ

The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ Review

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With irresistibly persuasive vigor, David Shenk debunks the long-standing notion of genetic “giftedness,” and presents dazzling new scientific research showing how greatness is in the reach of every individual.


DNA does not make us who we are. “Forget everything you think you know about genes, talent, and intelligence,” he writes. “In recent years, a mountain of scientific evidence has emerged suggesting a completely new paradigm: not talent scarcity, but latent talent abundance.”


Integrating cutting-edge research from a wide swath of disciplines—cognitive science, genetics, biology, child development—Shenk offers a highly optimistic new view of human potential. The problem isn't our inadequate genetic assets, but our inability, so far, to tap into what we already have. IQ testing and widespread acceptance of “innate” abilities have created an unnecessarily pessimistic view of humanity—and fostered much misdirected public policy, especially in education.


The truth is much more exciting. Genes are not a “blueprint” that bless some with greatness and doom most of us to mediocrity or worse. Rather our individual destinies are a product of the complex interplay between genes and outside stimuli-a dynamic that we, as people and as parents, can influence.


This is a revolutionary and optimistic message. We are not prisoners of our DNA. We all have the potential for greatness.

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The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work

The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work Review

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Our most commonly held formula for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.
           
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS and KPMG—to fix this broken formula. Using stories and case studies from his work with thousands of Fortune 500 executives in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive edge at work.
           
Isolating seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential. Among the principles he outlines:
 

   • The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
   • The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
   • Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network

 
A must-read for everyone trying to excel in a world of increasing workloads, stress, and negativity, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

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Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter Review

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Are you a genius or a genius maker?

We've all had experience with two dramatically different types of leaders. The first type drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the ones around them and always need to be the smartest ones in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, the diminishers of talent and commitment. On the other side of the spectrum are leaders who use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room, lightbulbs go off over people's heads, ideas flow, and problems get solved. These are the leaders who inspire employees to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. These are the Multipliers. And the world needs more of them, especially now, when leaders are expected to do more with less.

In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman and management consultant Greg McKeown explore these two leadership styles, persuasively showing how Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations—getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation.

In analyzing data from more than 150 leaders, Wiseman and McKeown have identified five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. These five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed, they are skills and practices that everyone can learn to use—even lifelong and recalcitrant Diminishers. Lively, real-world case studies and practical tips and techniques bring to life each of these principles, showing you how to become a Multiplier too, whether you are a new or an experienced manager. Just imagine what you could accomplish if you could harness all the energy and intelligence around you. Multipliers will show you how.

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Por Que Algumas Pessoas Fazem Sucesso E Outras Nao (Em Portugues do Brasil)

Por Que Algumas Pessoas Fazem Sucesso E Outras Nao (Em Portugues do Brasil) Review

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Uma expert em motivacao e psicologia da personalidade, Carol Dweck descobriu em mais de 20 anos de pesquisa que todos tem um dos dois tipos de codigos mentais basicos, o fixo ou o construtivo. Se voce tem o primeiro, voce acredita que seus talentos e habilidades estao gravados em pedra ou voce os tem ou nao. Voce precisa provar a si mesmo o tempo todo, tentando parecer esperto e talentoso a todo custo. Este e o caminho a estagnacao. Se voce tem um codigo mental construtivo, entretanto, voce sabe que seus talentos podem ser desenvolvidos e que grandes habilidades sao construidas com o tempo. Este e o caminho da oportunidade e do sucesso.

Dweck demonstra que o codigo mental se desdobra na infancia e na idade adulta e dirige cada aspecto da nossa vida, do trabalho ao esporte, dos relacionamentos a paternidade. Ela revela como genios criativos de todos os campos musica, literatura, ciencia, esportes e negocios aplicam o crescimento do codigo mental para atingir seus resultados. Talvez ainda mais importante, ela nos mostra como podemos mudar nosso codigo mental em qualquer estagio da vida para atingir verdadeiro sucesso e satisfacao. Ela olha atraves de uma ampla gama de aplicacoes e ajuda pais, professores, tecnicos e executivos a ver como eles podem promover o crescimento do codigo mental.

Altamente cativante e muito pratico, O Codigo da Mente rompe novas barreiras ao levar voce a mudar sua percepcao de si mesmo e do seu futuro.

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Mom-in-Chief: How Wisdom from the Workplace Can Save Your Family from Chaos

Mom-in-Chief: How Wisdom from the Workplace Can Save Your Family from Chaos Review

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We work so hard to build our management and leadership skills in our careers, but we often feel like blithering idiots when faced with a child who won't cooperate, a husband who doesn't pay attention and a household that seems ready to collapse from the weight of our anxiety about chores. “Why can't I be as smart at home as I am at work?” I have often found myself wondering.

These words—written by Carol Evans and excerpted from the Foreword of Mom-in-Chief—sum up why leadership expert Jamie Woolf wrote this book. They reflect the sentiments of countless professional women who feel great about our accomplishments in the workplace but not so great about how we run our homes.

In this one-of-a-kind book, Woolf sets out to help readers bridge the gap between corner office and kitchen counter. Along the way she shares inspiring stories, practical strategies and interactive assessment tools to illustrate how the best workplace practices can bring more joy and success to family life.

Drawing from two decades of experience, she lays out her "best practices" to improve your communication, create a healthy family culture, discover your parent leadership style, manage crises, thrive during adolescence, and juggle work and family priorities. Readers will explore common leadership dilemmas, including:

• When to step in and when to step back
• How to maximize the learning opportunities that come from mistakes
• How to stay connected with a pesky toddler or testy teenager
• How to create rituals that strengthen the family's esprit de corps
• When to push kids and when to let them quit
• How to feel less like a maid or short-order cook and more like a skilled leader capable of unleashing the potential of others.

Mom-in-Chief addresses real quandaries and covers everything that smart career-oriented women need to know in order to fulfill their parenting potential and navigate challenges with skill and grace.

This book is a welcome reminder that leading a family doesn't mean churning out living masterpieces, or indulging children with the perfect everything. It does mean inspiring without pushing your own agenda, nurturing without micromanaging, encouraging without aiming to win a best-of-show competition, and expecting the best without ignoring the joyful ordinariness of childhood.

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Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents

Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents Review

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What do we wish most for our children? Next to being healthy, we want them to be happy, of course! Fortunately, a wide array of scientific studies show that happiness is a learned behavior, a muscle we can help our children build and maintain.

Drawing on what psychology, sociology, and neuroscience have proven about confidence, gratefulness, and optimism, and using her own chaotic and often hilarious real-world adventures as a mom to demonstrate do’s and don’ts in action, Christine Carter, Ph.D, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, boils the process down to 10 simple happiness-inducing steps.

With great wit, wisdom, and compassion, Carter covers the day-to-day pressure points of parenting—how best to discipline, get kids to school and activities on time, and get dinner on the table—as well as the more elusive issues of helping children build healthy friendships and develop emotional intelligence. In these 10 key steps, she helps you interact confidently and consistently with your kids to foster the skills, habits, and mindsets that will set the stage for positive emotions now and into their adolescence and beyond. Inside you will discover
 
• the best way avoid raising a brat—changing bad habits into good ones
• tips on how to change your kids’ attitude into gratitude
• the trap of trying to be perfect—and how to stay clear of its pitfalls 
• the right way to praise kids—and why too much of the wrong kind can be just as bad as not enough
• the spirit of kindness—how to raise kind, compassionate, and loving children
• strategies for inspiring kids to do boring (but necessary) tasks—and become more self-motivated in the process
 
Complete with a series of “try this” tips, secrets, and strategies, Raising Happiness is a one-of-a-kind resource that will help you instill joy in your kids—and, in the process, become more joyful yourself.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts Review

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Why do people dodge responsibility when things fall apart? Why the parade of public figures unable to own up when they screw up? Why the endless marital quarrels over who is right? Why can we see hypocrisy in others but not in ourselves? Are we all liars? Or do we really believe the stories we tell?

Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson take a compelling look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right—a belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral, and wrong.

Backed by years of research and delivered in lively, energetic prose, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) offers a fascinating explanation of self-deception—how it works, the harm it can cause, and how we can overcome it.

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Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success (P.S.)

Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success (P.S.) Review

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Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success (P.S.) Feature

Why have all the sprinters who have run the 100 meters in under ten seconds been black?

What's one thing Mozart, Venus Williams, and Michelangelo have in common?

Why are baseball players so superstitious?

We love to win and hate to lose, whether it's on the playing field, in the office, or in the classroom. In this bold new look at human behavior, award-winning journalist and Olympian Matthew Syed explores the truth about our competitive nature—why we win, why we don't, and how we really play the game of life.

Bounce reveals how competition—the most vivid, primal, and dramatic of human pursuits—provides vital insight into many of the most controversial issues of our time. From biology and economics to psychology and culture, from genetics and race to sports and politics, Bounce shows how competition provides a master key with which to unlock the mysteries of the world.

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Mindset: The New Psychology of Success [Paperback]

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success [Paperback] Review

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Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries Review

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What do Apple CEO Steve Jobs, comedian Chris Rock, prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, the story developers at Pixar films, and the Army Chief of Strategic Plans all have in common? Bestselling author Peter Sims found that all of them have achieved breakthrough results by methodically taking small, experimental steps in order to discover and develop new ideas. Rather than believing they have to start with a big idea or plan a whole project out in advance, trying to foresee the final outcome, they make a series of little bets about what might be a good direction, learning from lots of little failures and from small but highly significant wins that allow them to happen upon unexpected avenues and arrive at extraordinary outcomes.

          Based on deep and extensive research, including more than 200 interviews with leading innovators, Sims discovered that productive, creative thinkers and doers—from Ludwig van Beethoven to Thomas Edison and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos—practice a key set of simple but ingenious experimental methods—such as failing quickly to learn fast, tapping into the genius of play, and engaging in highly immersed observation—that free their minds, opening them up to making unexpected connections and perceiving invaluable insights. These methods also unshackle them from the constraints of overly analytical thinking and linear problem solving that our education places so much emphasis on, as well as from the fear of failure, all of which thwart so many of us in trying to be more innovative. 

             Reporting on a fascinating range of research, from the psychology of creative blocks to the influential Silicon Valley–based field of design thinking, Sims offers engaging and wonderfully illuminating accounts of breakthrough innovators at work, including how Hewlett-Packard stumbled onto the breakaway success of the first hand-held calculator; the remarkable storyboarding process at Pixar films that has been the key to their unbroken streak of box office successes; the playful discovery process by which Frank Gehry arrived at his critically acclaimed design for Disney Hall; the aha revelation that led Amazon to pursue its wildly successful affiliates program; and the U.S. Army’s ingenious approach to counterinsurgency operations that led to the dramatic turnaround in Iraq. 

             Fast paced and as entertaining as it is illuminating, Little Bets offers a whole new way of thinking about how to break away from the narrow strictures of the methods of analyzing and problem solving we were all taught in school and unleash our untapped creative powers. 

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