Customer Reviews

59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot (Borzoi Books)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is an easy and enjoyable book to read - the kind that you can dip in and out of, picking up interesting tips along the way. For each topic, Wiseman discusses a number of research experiments (both his own and ones done by others) and then gives a number of concrete suggestions on how you can quickly implement these findings (although 59 seconds is often a stretch). And why the title of this review? Because one of the things I learned from reading this book was the fact that if you've just had a caffeinated drink, you are far more likely to be swayed by someone else's opinion!

The book is based on the premise that quick techniques can sometimes be surprisingly effective at helping us to change and explains (based on research studies) which ones work and which don't. Some examples that I found interesting were:

- a simple five day writing exercise that can lift your mood for several weeks

- how to create the perfect plan to achieve almost any goal

- how spending money on experiences is a far more effective way to make yourself happy than spending it on things

- how punching a pillow to relieve anger actually increases your anger, while sitting quietly and thinking about how you benefited from the experience has the opposite effect

- conversational techniques that can build instant rapport on a first date

- exercises to stimulate the unconscious mind that lead to better decision making

- simple tests to assess your child's emotional intelligence.

Like Quirkology: The Curious Science of Everyday Lives, the book also has lots of facts that seem to have been included just because they're interesting. So we learn that people with bumper stickers are more aggressive drivers, that having a photo of a baby in your wallet significantly increases the chance of it being returned if you lose it, that your initials can influence your life expectancy and that adding plants to an office increases the number of creative ideas that employees will have.

The chapter list gives a good indication of the subjects covered in the book:

1. Happiness

2. Persuasion

3. Motivation

4. Creativity

5. Attraction

6. Stress

7. Relationships

8. Decision Making

9. Parenting

10. Personality

Depressed? Overweight? Angry? Failed every which way but loose? No accident, my friend, but help is here. Pour a cup of tea, grab a comforter and thank god.

I have some grounding in the study of psychology and much of its clinical research over the past 20 years, and know that Wiseman knows whereof he speaks. In addition to my academic study, I've so many books on these subjects that at a garage sale starring my self-help library, someone asked me if I was a psychiatrist. No, I said, I'm just nuts.

Yes, it's true that Wiseman offers jokey (and political) asides that might annoy some readers, but that is nothing compared to the enormously helpful distillation of psychological research offered here and the ease of application to one's own life.

The book is well organized, well written and lucid. It explains in lay terms why common and familiar "self-help" directives simply don't work, have never worked and are really no more than endlessly reiterated (and successfully marketed)myths. He then prescribes remedies that not only work fast, but have been proven by scientific study to provoke lasting change. Some are counterintuitive, some make immediate sense, all are easier than I had any right to expect.

I was quite surprised, not only by how quickly Wiseman's recommendations work, but by the holding power of the changes that ensue. Good work, good book, badly needed and it's about time.

I have already used this book to rid myself of a very stubborn and bad habbit. It works ! If you follow the techniques in the section called "Motivation", you will too. I particularly like the Gabriele Oettingen technique called "double-think", which is to think of an optimal future for yourself in some are (eating less, etc.) and then picturing where you are now, but then holding both images in your mind. Then you come up with two reasons you would be better if you were in your "optimal" place, and two things holding you back. I found this technique particularly powerful in ridding me of a habit. It reminds me of the "Stockdale technique", which was developed by Vietnam POWs in Vietnam. Stockdale noticed that the POWs who were the first to succumb to despair were those too optimistic, and who only pictured their homecoming. Those who pictured coming home, but also pictured where they currently were and fully realized how tough it would be were far more resilient and were able to make it out at far higher rates. So, hopeful thinking can not only be ineffective, it can be counterproductive.

I was excited to learn of and have an opportunity to read a book with a good reputation for applying scientifically secure principles to the project of life improvement. I wish that all of the popular literature marketed to the self-help audience would take a similar approach.

I was pleased to see that this author makes an effort to deliver on the promise of science based advice. There are several nuggets of good and helpful information, paired with brief descriptions of representative research behind it. I would weakly recommend it to certain of my friends on that basis.

Unfortunately, these nuggets of helpful information were embedded in a formulaic and un-engaging prose style. The author struggles with humor: the famous example is a joke at the expense of George Bush and his American supporters which manages to be off-putting to several Amazon reviewers without much pay-off in the way of chuckles for others.

As the author relates his advice and the research on which he bases it, each vignette is constructed along the same lines so that the each new chapter is predictable and boring.

The author at times seems to encourage readers to behave in a manipulative and boorish fashion, for instance to offer small bribes to secure large favors in the near future. That this may work for achieving a short-term goal does not make it laudable practice to encourage as part of a self-help program.

Speaking of program, I'm afraid there isn't any. Small, somewhat helpful nuggets of information are offered cafeteria style. A prospective parent reading the chapter on parenting will be offered two or three useful suggestions that they might be able to employ consistently over time. That parent will not find enough information or vision to stroll confidently into their new role.

More unfortunately still, the author skimps on details. Instead of qualifying his advice in terms of a broad array of relevant research, Wiseman offers one or two very brief synopses of a one or two supporting papers and leaves it to the reader to guess the rigor of the methodology and the results of other research that might be relevant to the same question. The footnotes to original scholarship will not aid the average reader much in deciding the quality or applicability of any particular nugget of advice.

I appreciate this book on several levels.

The first, and most important to me, is that all of the advice has scientific studies to back it up. There are plenty of advice books out there who will tell you to do this or that, because it was something that worked for the writer, or it was something that just felt right to them, etc. etc. To me, someone who's been so inspired in their life to write a book without having read an advice book themselves doesn't really seem like the best person to be getting advice from. I'm much more comfortable putting into practice advice that's been drawn out of scientific studies, where every-day people are the test subjects, and the author has presented all of those studies for us to explore ourselves if we so choose (instead of just relying on hearsay).

The second is that the advice is straight forward and practical; there are simple steps to take to make huge changes. It really would only take a few seconds a day to try out the advice in the book, and you'll see changes in yourself and how others respond to you.

And finally, it's an easy read and not repetitive in nature. There are plenty of other advice books out there that will give you 400 pages to reiterate what could be summed up in a paragraph or two; this book is just the opposite. Even if you're not in it for the advice, it's still a fascinating read. I've been inspired to look to the appendix and find out more about several of the studies listed in the book.

In the end, I learned a lot from this book, not just what actions to practice more in my own life, but so much about human nature as a whole.

Richard Wiseman took the trouble to glean from hundreds of research articles easy-to-apply tools and techniques to help the reader improve in various areas of life, from relationships, to creativity, to decision making and more. For the most part I think that his advice is valid and rings true as I have read a good number of these suggestions elsewhere. For example, the appropriate way to praise children is heavily documented in Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Robert Cialdini covers in depth proven techniques of persuasion in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials).

I have doubts about the validity of some of the studies, however. Take Wiseman's section on the relationship between index and ring finger length and masculinity. This may be an indication of a general tendency in that area but my recent reading of two other works - Wrong: Why experts* keep failing us--and how to know when not to trust them *Scientists, finance wizards, doctors, relationship gurus, celebrity CEOs, ... consultants, health officials and more and The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong - make me wonder about a) the validity of the study and b) in particular how the interplay of genetics and environment is accounted for in the results of this particular finding. Finally, there is also the recent backlash against the WEIRD phenomenon in social science studies where the majority of these studies are conducted on a unique population--Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic-- and usually college students at that. How does their experience transfer to the larger population? Another example is the notion that a potted plant on my desk will make me more creative. Will this work for the long run or just until I get tired of seeing the same plant and frustrated with taking care of it?

These criticisms aside, this book does offer many tips that should help readers improve in many aspects of their lives. I plan to re-read the book to have these techniques at my disposal.

You'll have to read the author's explanation at the beginning for why this book is rather obscurely titled. Nevertheless, the basic idea is very good: as we all know, there is a lot of junk to be found in the "self-help" section of bookstores. Which is too bad, considering that psychological and cognitive science research is advancing steadily and discovering all sorts of things that work (or don't work) when it comes to modifying human behavior and improve our lives. Wiseman takes on obviously pertinent topics, such as happiness (whatever that is), persuasion, motivation, creativity, attraction, relationships (obviously), stress, decision making, parenting and personality. In each case he goes back to the primary literature and presents the reader with what actually works, as opposed to what self-appointed self-help gurus tell you works (often without a trace of evidence, seemingly pulling notions our of their behind). The Mozart effect to turn your child into a genius by simply listening to music? Sorry, doesn't work. Releasing stress by kicking and screaming? Bad idea, it only makes you more angry. Playing hard to get on dates? Counterproductive. And so on and so forth. It's an invaluable book full of actually useful advice, even though at times it reads a bit too much like a list. If you can, catch the author give a live talk, it will be both informative and entertaining.

Finally a self help book that gives you the research and let's you figure out how to use it youself. Very well written with the right mix of facts and humor. I picked up a copy at the train satiation in London for a trip to Brussels and I'm glad I did. The only problem is that the quality of the binding was poor and started to fall apart. I was looking on Amazon to find a hard cover copy, but no luck. I hope this book doesn't fall through the cracks. It deserves more attention in my opinion.

This is an absolute must read! What Dr. Wiseman has done is put together some of the most helpful findings that have come out of the field of Psychology. It is just as Simon Singh's blurb on the front cover says: "At last, a self-help guide that is based on proper research. Perfect for busy, curious, smart people." The subjects are Happiness, Persuasion, Motivation, Creativity, Attraction, Relationships, Stress, Decision Making, Parenting and Personality. Each Chapter is very straightforward - the research, the findings and then what you should remember - it's really very easy to read.

I have given this book 5 stars because of the shear breadth of information Dr. Wiseman was able to put into it. He has distilled and packaged most of the crucial information you might find in some of these books: Happiness: The Science behind Your Smile, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials), Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (Revised & Expanded Edition), How We Decide, Covert Persuasion: Psychological Tactics and Tricks to Win the Game, The Art of Seduction, Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior or Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are. I really thought this book was the most helpful of this entire lot of books - highly recommended!

This is not your typical psychobabble with tons of boring "real life" individual stories of people's problems. It is an effective, up-beat book on how to get the best in life and without the cliche's. The studies are there to reinforce each point, but they don't overpower the messages. One of the best self-improvement books I have ever read. And I have read alot as I have a graduate degree in the psychology field.