Customer Reviews

Cheap Psychological Tricks: What to Do When Hard Work, Honesty, and Perseverance Fail

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

 

 

This book offers some fairly lighthearted means of improving your life via psychological tricks, each presented in its own mini-chapter. Some of these tricks are amazing, some are fairly obvious (listening to other people's problems gives you a new perspective on your own.)

Unfortunately, the chapters concerning interactions with others are frequently a bit simplistic and naive: people aren't automatons. The large number of references to articles in Psychology Today is probably the best guide to the quality and scope of this book.

It covers: insomnia, dealing with your boss, children, depression, relationships, sex, etc. It's a book you're likely to give to someone else to read as soon as you're done.

The best part first: this is a fun book. It has straight-forward tips on dealing with 62 different situations, all of which are...more or less...founded in psychology research.

But...

It's not particularly good for providing *general* information as implied by the sub-title ("What to Do When Hard Work, Honesty, and Perseverance Fail"). For readers interested in those issues, wider reading is necessary.

The title holds true. Sometimes hard work is overlooked and the kinder you are the worse you feel you are treated. The advice in this book helps to put everything in perspective in a very straight and to the point fashion. From avoiding feeling dizzy in an amusement ride to keepnig the flame in your love life; the pointer are little lessons to remember your entire life. A book to cherish, for you will read it many times over.

These "Cheap Tricks" have great worth. Actually, the information in this book is quite valuable. It's about using knowledge of brain function to one's advantage in everyday life. Dr. Buff's style of writing is absent of mumbo-jumbo. He has a practical, common-sense approach to science, mixed with great humor, charm and fun-facts. This is the kind of book your friends will ask to borrow and not return. It happened to me.

Call me manipulative, but you can't accuse this book of the same quality. I was expecting something telling me how to do some down-and-dirty "social engineering"...but...alas, no. It did give me a few tips/tricks that were cool, but it was hokey ... on how to make people feel better and garbage like that. Nothing to make someone insecure about their looks all day...or how to make someone trust you with a few carefully placed words. It doesn't even cover simple things like surveying people, and how to determine body language. Not worth the buy, AT ALL. If you can borrow it from a friend, it's fun for a couple minutes.

I bought all three of his books thru Amazon. Oy vay! What a load of rubbish! No tricks even though the cover says there's tricks in the book. Bah. Just a load of common sense psycho-babble is here. The stuff is so generic you can find it on Google. If there were buttons for negative stars, I'd give it a -5 and tell you to KEEP your money and look elsewhere!

I made my friends read this after I got done. I couldn't put it down and I'm not even a big psychology fan.