59 seconds
author gives us a myth-busting response to the self-help movement, with tips and tricks to improve your life that come straight from the scientific community.Richard Wiseman has been troubled by the realization that the self-help industry often promotes exercises that destroy motivation, damage relationships, and reduce creativity: the opposite of everything it promises. Now, in 59 Seconds, he fights back, bringing together the diverse scientific advice that can help you change your life in under a minute, and guides you toward becoming more decisive, more imaginative, more engaged, and altogether more happy.From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, resilience to relationships, Wiseman outlines the research supporting the new science of "rapid change" and, with clarity and infectious enthusiasm, describes how these quirky, sometimes counterintuitive techniques can be effortlessly incorporated into your everyday life. Or, as he likes to say: "Think a little, change a lot."From the Hardcover edition.
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What Hacker News says
- I found 59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot by Richard Wiseman to be a good contribution to the genre, if you're looking for more.
- Yeah, it's Gladwell's conflation, I think. (And the writer's conflation of Gladwell's assertions with Ericsson's.)
If you're interested in this type of thing, I'd recommend ":59 Seconds" for a somewhat more down-to-earth and research-based approach. Amongst many of the more interesting findings is that just having actual physical plants around[1] helps improve creativity and that brainstorming in groups (as opposed to separately and then comparing results later) is counterproductive.
(Of course that's also provisional, so some of the research referenced therein may have been refuted, so... Such is that Way of Science.)
[1] Interestingly, pictures of plants/nature don't work.
- Read about how this is actually harmful for long-term motivation though in a book called 59 Seconds with latest psychological research.
Basically as kids we are rewarded for doing things like going to school. Good effort on exam and learning = A+. But then carrying into real life that kills our motivation for doing things without the reward (if we're not getting paid for it we must not like it).
It also has the opposite affect, if we get a reward for something we don't like doing it either. Maybe people would like doing things more if they got paid less!
- Interested in seeing what books have helped people improve their lives or learn useful skills.
For me, 'Driven to Distraction' was a helpful book, though limited to ADHD. 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman has been helpful too. Logging three things I'm grateful for each day led to one of the happiest months of my life.
- Perhaps a boost in creativity isn't solely restricted to walking but other activities which don't involve the task at hand (as others have mentioned)? For example, even doing a simple crossword puzzle to distract yourself may boost your creativity vs concentrating solely on trying to do something 'creative'. I highly recommend Professor Richard Wiseman's book: '59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot' which references some studies involving topics similar to this.
- 1. "59 Seconds" http://amzn.to/12DMx27
A good no-nonsense self-help book. Outlines set of strategies for dealing with challenging situations in everyday life, touching on areas such as Parenting, Career, Dating. Author also looks into common misconceptions about how we function and which mental tricks are efficient and which are not so much.
2. "Start Small, Stay Small: - A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup" http://amzn.to/12DMzHt
I actually have a blog post on it here - http://blog.nimblegecko.com/when-your-drugs-wear-off/ - in short it's a book for developers that focuses on how to start building an online product, with heavy emphasis on market, and marketing. It also addresses some of the common mistakes we, as developers, tend to make when conceiving and carrying out the execution of an idea.
3. "The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company " ebook - http://amzn.to/V3BxWq dead tree book - http://amzn.to/12DNfwd
This is classic, really. What was interesting for me in particular is the types of markets that a startup launches to - new market, resegmenting an existing market (low-end, high-end, specific features), clone market, and all of the limitations/dangers/expectations/growth profiles that choice of marketing strategy entails.
4. "Core Transformation: Reaching the wellspring within" http://amzn.to/Vw5nAR
Not that I've only read this book in 2012, but I keep returning to it - that's probably one of not too many truly life changing books for me. It contains very simple, yet very efficient reframing exercise (think NLP) that helps to uncover the true motivations behind behaviours that you don't like in yourself, and change those for good, yet in a completely unexpected and never predictable ways.
