The Deadliest Species

“We” are the deadliest species of all. But you might know that already! Sweeping all those animals to extinction was crucial for our survival and we wouldn’t have survived at all if our ancestors would have done anything different from what they did (30,000 years ago).

The author paints quite a picture in the book, “Sapiens” on how we killed millions of species which inhabited the world before the cognitive revolution took place. It doesn’t look nice nowadays as it was brutal and inhuman. But the world back then wasn’t a nice place too, it was hostile and sparing those species meant risking our survival. They basically it what they had to do in order to survive.

Filed under: Book learning, Daily posts Tagged: anideaaday, sapiens

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Most of the books which I have read used to have direct application meaning I could apply whatever I read from the book my daily life and also write about it. In Sapiens things are much different, I am reading stuff that has happened 20,000 years ago. The author has described people with many different cultures who roamed the world thousands of years ago. It’s a kind of fun to read about and there is a lot to learn about the humankind in general but none of that stuff is shareable in a way that other people can learn from and apply it (like other books).

In that sense, “Sapiens” is a very different from the books which I have read earlier and I have very less to share on day to day basis. Right now the author is explaining why giants like mammoths and other animals in Australian megafauna vanished from the earth’s surface and how “we” became the new masters of the land. It’s a great story which we already know (thanks to our geography classes in high schools) but what the author is doing here is sharing the minute details of those incidents.

Filed under: Book learning, Daily posts Tagged: anideaaday, sapiens

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Started Reading the Book: Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind

Finally Completed the Book, “59 Seconds”

I finally completed the book, “59 Seconds” by Richard Wiseman. It was one of those books which have given me much knowledge about human psychology, and that too in a plain natural language meaning I understood it well.

It was one of the books which I have written most about in my blog while reading and now that the book is completed I am feeling nostalgic and I already have planned to read other books by Dr. Richard because of his simple writing style.

The book basically consists of many short and simple techniques on dealing with people, dealing with our own self, how to beat procrastination, how to do more and stuff like that. Very simple and practical techniques that can be understood and applied by all. I personally am applying several techniques and although it’s too soon to tell I have an intuition that they are working already.

Filed under: Book learning, Book Reviews, Daily posts Tagged: 59 seconds, anideaaday, Richard wiseman

The door in the Face

The other technique which is related to “Getting the foot in the door” is “The door in the Face”. It is exactly what it sounds like. Demanding so much more from someone that the other person is bound to refuse, and then settling for a moderate deal. I have an intuition that this technique must be better than the first one but then every technique has its own place.

You new-found force can have strong influence on the weak-minded, so be careful to use it only for good

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Again, these techniques are not something which is extraordinary and amazing but knowing and applying them at appropriate places can make all the difference. The author, Richard Wiseman even warned the readers by quoting Obi-Wan Kenobi, by saying, “You new-found force can have strong influence on the weak-minded, so be careful to use it only for good”

Filed under: Book learning, Daily posts Tagged: 59 seconds, anideaaday

Boggle: To Distract the Conscious

Getting the Foot in The Door

Finding Benefits

Time to time we all face an unfortunate incident or several unfortunate incidents depending on our situation and we feel extremely terrible about it, so much so that we do not even want to talk about it with anyone else because of the memories they bring.

No one can undo the past, all we can do is ease the pain. By now you must have heard of or experienced that a pain shared is a pain halved and that method has stood correctly in many cases.

Dr. Richard has shared a similar idea with a subtle change in it. He says (and I find it correct for myself) that every unfortunate incident brings something with it meaning it strengthen us in some way or to put it more appropriately it brings some benefits with it. However, it requires extra analysis to find any benefits because they are not obvious. Writing down those benefits or sharing them with others have a profound impact on our life. It has the power to ease our pain to a whole different level and it changes our perspective of looking at our miseries.

Filed under: Book learning, Daily posts Tagged: 59 seconds, anideaaday, Richard wiseman

Two Guys in A Room Analogy- Part 2

Yesterday I talked about the two guys in a room analogy. When I first read about it I was dying to know how to get the shy guy to work (i.e. use my subconscious). In real life too our conscious mind almost always shadows the subconscious and I have been finding out the answers to get to our subconscious for a very long time.

This time a more practical approach have been discovered. Dr. Richard Wiseman in his book shares that if we want to get ideas from the shy guy we have to keep the other guy busy in some other activities. This approach is the opposite of what we actually do.

This approach says that if you have a very difficult challenge at hand and you are stuck somewhere, take a step back and indulge yourself in some other activities, take your mind off of the problem at hand and do something totally different. This will keep your conscious mind busy with the new problem at hand which is actually a disguise to keep the conscious mind busy. While the conscious mind is busy in solving the toy problem, your subconscious would be at work to find the most optimal solution of your first problem which was your actual problem.

Filed under: Book learning, Daily posts Tagged: 59 seconds, anideaaday, book learning, Richard wiseman