hoffman

Wow...what a mind! Ridley, darn his hide, has written the book I wanted to write! Observations and data abound about how life is simply BETTER for most sentient creatures than it has ever been on planet earth. While far from naive, Ridley understands that current abiities to TRADE and SPECIALIZE are the keys to prosperity. The sections on environmental policies and the astounding level of wrong headedness in the "green" movement are worth the price of the book. Counterintuitive, reasonable, rational, articulate...Ridley may change your mind about what it means to be alive in the 21st century. And about how "green" basic, but wrong, ideas like eating local, renewable resources, and biofuels are.

Perhaps like you, I am a bit of a self improvement "junkie." I listen to Covey, Carnegie, Schwartz, Taleb, Ziglar, and host of others. Along with science and physics books...so I would consider myself a "skeptical empericist."

So, having listened to thousands of hours of self-improvement books, I think "Crucial Conversations" is one of the best I have ever heard. Practical, solid, researched, grounded, and easy to listen to, Patterson et. al. hits it out of the park in my opinion.

Covey does an intro that is long and enthusiastic, but the following book lives up to the hype.

If you secretly want to be genuinely wise, to improve your communications and interpersonal skills, get and study this book. I am on my 4rth time through, and still enjoying it.

We all communicate...imagine being able to "get it right" when it *really matters. This book, and "Influencer" by the same author team, had been recommended to me, and now I am passing on the favor of recommending this book highly to you.

Based on a recommendation by a friend, and a great premise, I wanted to like this book. Regretfully, I found it poorly written, more appropriate for a teenage audience than adult fiction, and hard to get through.

I am halfway thru the first half...perhaps a quarter of the way through the book...and I don't know if I will finish it. And I virtually always finish a book once started.

If you are after serious hard edge sci-fi, may I suggest you download Verner Vinge instead.

Sorry to be negative, don't want to be critical without good reason. Most of my reviews...typically of science, philosophy, and investment books...are hugely positive. But this book did not work for me.