Category:

Short Book Reviews

Factfulness

by Ron Potter August 1, 2019

Ron’s Short Review: One of my clients used to say “Things are never as bad as they seem and never as good as they seem.” He was right. This book says, “the world is not as dramatic as it seems. Factfulness, like a healthy diet and regular exercise, can and should become part of your daily life. Start to practice it, and you will be able to replace your overdramatic worldview with a worldview based on facts. You will be able to get the world right without learning it by heart. You will make better decisions, stay alert to real dangers and possibilities, and avoid being constantly stressed about the wrong things.”

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Short Book Reviews

The Order of Time

by Ron Potter July 1, 2019

Ron’s Short Review: Deep, difficult book but with great power. Here is just one quote “Why do we remember the past and not the future? Do we exist in time, or does time exist in us? What does it really mean to say that time ‘passes’? What ties time to our nature as persons, to our subjectivity? What am I listening to when I listen to the passing of time?” Ready for some deep thinking? Jump in.

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Short Book Reviews

Wisdom at Work

by Ron Potter June 1, 2019

Ron’s Short Review: Because you are older doesn’t necessarily mean you’re wiser. But, research does find that many people who do cultivate wisdom, gather wisdom at every age. Daniel Pink in his book “Whole New Mind” noted that pattern recognition is the only cognative ability that correlates to success. Older people who have cultivated wisdom are much better at pattern recognition because of their longer experiences.

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Short Book Reviews

The Book of Why

by Ron Potter December 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: I found this a little difficult to read but the key point for me is that we put way too much emphasis on cause and effect when in fact they are random events that happen in the same time frame. Our human mind looks for shortcuts to understand the world around us and if it can attach a cause and effect to an event, it will do so in order to explain it quickly and easily. Take caution. We have to question more to better understand the world around us.

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Short Book Reviews

Great at Work

by Ron Potter November 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: The key to top performance is focus! There a lot to this book but this line summarizes the key message: “Whenever they could, top performers carefully selected which priorities, tasks, collaborations, team meetings, committees, analyses, customers, new ideas, steps in a process, and interactions to undertake, and which to neglect or reject.” Easily said. Difficult to do. Especially for High Achievers. High Achievement is what got you here. Focus is what will get you to the next step.

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Short Book Reviews

On Dialogue

by Ron Potter September 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: This is an old book but good dialogue (true dialogue) is the process that helps us make good decisions and helps us get beyond the pitfalls of debate and discussion. Worth the read.

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Short Book Reviews

12 Rules for Life

by Ron Potter August 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: Peterson has received a lot of criticism and created some controversy with this book but what I find interesting is that it seems to be purely common sense. This is stuff we’ve known or should have know but have lost track of. It’s interesting to me that the controversy seems to be happening simply because we’ve lost or rejected common sense. This will help reduce the chaos in your life which is goal enough to put it on your reading list.

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Short Book Reviews

Why We Sleep

by Ron Potter July 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: This may seem odd to find in a business library but this is a shocking book about how we’re depriving ourselves of needed sleep in the service to productivity. When in fact we’re both fooling ourselves and damaging our productivity levels. Read this book.

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Short Book Reviews

Reclaiming Conversation

by Ron Potter June 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: I’m worried by the loss of face-to-face communication in our digital age. Alvin Toffler wrote nearly 40 years ago in his book “Future Shock” that in order to make this high tech stuff work well, we couldn’t abandon high touch, personal contact.

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Short Book Reviews

Principles

by Ron Potter May 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: Ray builds on Life Principles such as: embrace reality, understand that people are different, and effective decision making. He moves into Work Principles with get the culture right, trust in radical truth, and others. Very thought-provoking.

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Short Book Reviews

Radical Candor

by Ron Potter April 1, 2018

Ron’s Short Review: Anything less than Radical Candor leaves issues unsaid and unexamined. This builds on the concept of Psychological Saftey which is a key to team success.