Malcolm Gladwell has his vocal critics, to be sure. You don’t sell millions of books without taking some shots along the way, right? A few weeks back, New Republic blogger John Gray called Gladwell a fairy-tale writer, noting his “comforting tales of self-improvement and overcoming evil are given a thin gloss of scientific authority.” Gray, author and emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, comes off…
Book Review – Better Under Pressure by Justin Menkes
You may have heard that the Oxford Dictionary has identified its Word of the Year for 2013: selfie. Yup, snapping a photo of oneself has an official place in our lexicon and as well it might, what with its use being up some 17,000% in the past 12 months. So kids,imagine taking a selfie today and staring back at you is an image of you as a…
Book Review – To Sell Is Human by Daniel H. Pink
This marks the thirty-third book reviewed in this space since 2011 and the mission remains the same: to give you a quick snapshot and enough information to be dangerous. This is primarily meant for the busy professional who finds it difficult to make time for reading. In no way is the intention to create any guilt over not actually reading these books; life is increasingly crazy and we have to…
Book Review – The Outsiders by William N. Thorndike, Jr.
The winner of the dubious honor of following Decisive (reviewed rather glowingly in this space last month) is William Thorndike, author of the excellent-if-not-quite-as-Average-Joe-applicable The Outsiders. The title might bring you back to a rather popular piece of teen gangland fiction that was made into Ralph Macchio’sother 80’s movie, but focus people – it’s unrelated. The outsiders profiled here are eight renegade CEOs, you know, the type who operate outside…
Book Review – Decisive by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
Decisive is the book of the year. Sure, being a huge fan of the Brothers Heath causes me to have what the authors call “confirmation bias,” but let’s put that aside for the moment. This completes the trifecta – it’s their third brilliant book in a row. They’ve followed up Made to Stick and Switch with this new one, and like their first two, it’s written quite literally for everyone. What, you want to appoint…