How to Become an Expert on Anything in Two Hours

by Gregory Hartley

In almost any field, the ability to connect with others immediately through knowledge of a particular subject area is vital to gaining trust, solidifying rela­tion­ships, and getting ideas across. Convincing others that you "know what you're talking about" can help win clients, gain allies, make sales, and much more...but tricks and shortcuts like peppering conversation with jargon or ran­dom facts can seem transparent at best, and often work against your intent.This field-tested book gives readers a comprehensive process for quickly taking in small amounts of information in a given area and knowing how to use it to convey familiarity. The book enables impression-conscious readers fast, targeted research * inject information at exactly the right moments * read human behavior to determine when others are "buying" one's expertise * ask the right types of questions to suggest a knowledge of one's subject * termi­nate the interaction at the right timeThis book allows readers to generate amazing rapport with anyone by honing in on the one subject that interests them their own area of expertise.

Genres: Business, Psychology, Self Help, Personal Development, Communication, Education

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Gregory Hartley's expertise as an interrogator first earned him honors with the United States Army. More recently, it has drawn organizations such as the Defense Intelligence Agency, Navy SEALS, Federal law enforcement agencies, and national TV to seek his insights about "how to" as well as "why." He resides near Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews

[كِـنزة بلقـاسم · Rating 1 out of 5]

زبدة القول

في عالمنا العربي يتجه الراغبون في التأليف الساذج للروايات ... أما عند الغرب فمن هبّ ودبّ يؤلف في التنمية البشرية



مراجعة الكتاب

متى يفيدك الكتاب؟
إذا كنت ستقوم بالقاء خطبة أو ستقدم لوظيفة أو عندك اجتماع في عملك فالكتاب سيفيدك بنسبة 10% ... أما إذا كنت تبحث عن الخبرة في كل شيء كما يقول الكتاب فالكاتبان كاذبان وأنت لن تستفيد ... هناك كتب مفيدة أكثر من هذا في هذا المجال (مجال الخطابة والالقاء) ككتاب فن الخطابة لديل كارنيجي ،أو
سحر الكلمة لابراهيم الفقي ،فن الالقاء الرائع لطارق السويدان -على الأقل هي كتب تتكلم عن الموضوع من النافذة الواسعة بطريقة مباشرة ،دون لف ودوران

ما محتوى الكتاب ؟
الكتاب يتكلم عن كيفية الاستفادة من فترة زمنية محددة تتمكن فيها من الاستعداد لمواجهة الناس ، أو للبحث عن موضوع معين من خلال الأنترنيت ... يعني مثلا طلب منك رئيس عملك القاء كلمة عن التغذية الصحية ... تستطيع في ساعتين أن تصبح ملما بالمعلومات من خلال البحث على الأنترنيت..أيضا عوض طلب استشارة قانونية ابحث عنها بنفسك ...وغيرها من الأمثلة الشبيهة بهذه

ماهي أهم النصائح؟

-ابحث عن معلومات في الموضوع الذي تحتاجه
- الق الخطبة قبالة المرآة وتعلم لغة الجسد
- تكلم بثقة كأنك خبير بما تقول
- في حالة طرح سؤال حرج ، افتح نقاشا جماعيا أو اجعل السائل يبحث بنفسه لتكون لك مهلة للبحث أيضا (كما يفعل المعلمون في المدارس حتى لا يقولوا لا أعرف والتلاميذ يعرفون أن المعلم لا يعلم ويكابر)
جميعنا يعرف هذه النصائح ، فهل سنستفيد من كتاب يعلمنا ما نعرف ؟؟؟
جعلني الكتاب أفكر في تأليف كتاب شبيه له وأسميه : كيف تصبح طباخا بارعا في دقيقتين ؟
وأجعل الفصول كالتالي : كيف تسلق بيضة ؟؟ كيف تقلي بيضة ؟؟ كيف تدهن جبنا على قطعة خبز ؟؟ كيف تسخن عشاء البارحة ؟؟؟ -_-

إنّا لله وإنا إليه راجعون
لا حول ولا قوة إلاّ بالله

[Arwa Saraireh · Rating 1 out of 5]

الملل بهيئة كتاب 📑، 😥😥😥

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Gregory Hartley applies his knowledge of successful interrogation practices to teach his readers how to prove themselves experts on any subject with only two hours’ lead time (which he points out should be used for intense research, not for puffing up with hot air). The premise of his book is largely contingent on somewhat of a re-definition of the term "expert." The point is not to prove that you know everything, but rather to deliver appropriate knowledge in a timely manner to the people who need it. This point of intersection is the home of the expert.

With my background in rhetoric, I can’t help reading this book as somewhat of a rehashing of many tried-and-true rhetorical concepts. There is little in this book that Aristotle couldn’t have told you, but Hartley puts it in terms that modern readers are likely to understand and better appreciate. He talks about the boardroom, the dating scene, the after-work party, and other contexts that resonate with today’s readers, and he never once refers to Greek or Latin rhetorical constructs. But in the end, his message is much the same: being an expert means being able to artfully persuade those around you that you have the information they need and want. And then he tells you how to do it.

Much of the material repeats what Hartley has already described in I Can Read You Like a Book, which details the specific methods interrogators use to read body language and learn more about those they interrogate. Hartley seems to ride the coattails of that book in establishing the framework for this text. And as in his previous book, Hartley devotes a lot of his text to personal anecdotes and to his own best practices without giving thorough advice on how to accomplish the same. For readers that learn well by example, this method is probably sufficient, but for others Hartley’s teaching methods may fall short of practical instruction. At the end of the day, his book is really mainly helpful advice. Success with his methods will only come to the individual through trial and error.

That said, his lighthearted prose and frequent injections of humor make the book highly accessible and a pleasure to read. Though he’s not likely to make many friends going after religion as skeptically as he does (for instance), I appreciate his open and no-holds-barred skepticism of all truths we hold to be self evident. Part of becoming an expert, he reminds us, is learning to question existing authority and practical and efficient ways. Also, Hartley has endeared himself to me forever by quoting Robert A. Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

That about sums it up.

[Ghaida · Rating 3 out of 5]

إذا كنت في صدد إلقاء خطاب، التقديم لوظيفة أو اجتماع عمل مهم، هذا الكتاب لك.

هذا الكتاب منصب على كيفية الاستفادة من مساحة زمنية محددة لتستعد بشكل جيد وتستثمر الكثير في فهم احتياجات الآخرين (جمهورك)
وفي الفصل الثالث دروس عن لغة الجسد لفهم جمهورك.

الكتاب لا يعني عنوانه حقاً، بل هو الطرق او الخطوات لتحويلك إلى خبير في أي موضوع تريده من خلال :
بحثك عن معلومات عن الموضوع
فهم الجمهور
استراتيجيات عرض معلوماتك
خطط لإنقاذك عند تدهور النقاش

قرأته في قرابة الأسبوع، لطيف.

[Rihab · Rating 3 out of 5]

يدور كتاب حول كيفية الاستفادة من فترة زمنية محددة حتى تتمكن من الاستعداد لها
كتاب ربما يكون مهما لمن سيلقي خطب او سيتقدم للوظيفة او اجتماع
النصائح التي جاء بها الكتاب
-بحث عن معلومات
-فهم الجمهور
-استراتجيات لعرض معلوماتك
- خطط لانقاذك عند الوقوع في مأزق

[Steven Veach · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I was planning on doing public speaking or working as a manager and needed to have expertise, maybe this book would serve my purpose. I would say the author and I have very different definitions of what an expert is. I thought this book would provide techniques to "hack" the research process - getting the skinny background on various topics for my books. Instead, it was about people and trying to pass yourself off to others as an expert. I don't care what others think about me, I just want my stories to be realistic and believable. Doesn't mean this was a bad book, just not what I was thinking it was.

[Any Expertizer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hy!

Read here more about how to be an expert fast: https://anyexpertizer.wordpress.com/

Content:

Why: the bottom line
Is it worth your time to become an expert? The prestige and privilege associated with being considered an expert seem clear, but doesn't getting there involve a lot of work? Yes, it's worth your time. Society rewards experts in all kinds of ways.
No, it doesn't take a lot of work if you adopt the process and strategies we describe in this book. What you will learn here is an ideal skill set for someone who wants to manage people effectively, as well as anyone who needs to forge strong relationships quickly. A good manager is an expert on everything. That person understands, "I don't have to know what you know or do what you do to ask relevant questions. I need to know just enough to ask good questions that you can't answer, questions that push you to do things that improve your performance." Or if you're a sales professional, the relevant questions you ask make your prospect conclude that you understand the problems she needs to solve.
In my world of interrogation, I use questions and tidbits of information to convince the source that I know enough to be taken seriously and to make him comfortable so that he will talk to me. I create an ally through the way I use information. In some cases, "ally" means nothing more than a common understanding that we're both soldiers and we're both professionals. I don't presume that I'm going to turn the source into a buddy, but I use information to establish common ground. If I know the same things he knows, then maybe I believe the same things he believes. That common ground gives me more credibility with him than if I came in yelling
obscenities and threats. I use whatever facts and images I think will constantly remind him that he's part of the same thing that I am: a military outfit, a family, the human race. In this acute situation, I do what is takes—through a combination of planning and preparation and knowledge of human nature—to be an expert in his eyes.
Many military interrogators have no more than a high school diploma, but they must walk into interrogation rooms around the world and ask questions of experts with very little preparation time. In part, the reason the successful ones can carry this off is a basic understanding of language, behavior, and motivation. This is what the expert/manager does, for example, and the result is the creation of a bond that makes people want to work for him. Alternatively, he could use his corporate stature to boss people around, showing that he's someone who doesn't care about his employees and demonstrating that by not even trying to connect with their subject areas.
Why would a company want to keep managers like that? Think of the damage they can do. Let's say you have a couple of these committed non-experts running a service business with a force of skilled employees doing installations and repairs on equipment.
The payout to them is $1 a minute if you include both salary and benefits, and there are 1,500 people who receive this amount. If each of them spends three minutes a day complaining about their lousy managers, the company loses $4,500 a day, or more than $1 million a year. Looks to me as though being an expert means job security—for lots of people.

How: you're human and so are they
The ability to become an expert in two hours depends first on your knowledge of yourself, and then on your knowledge of human nature. The part of human nature that matters the most is how people perceive themselves and how they relate to others. What is an expert? Stupid jokes aside, what does "being an expert" mean to you? You must have some description in your head, because it is at the core of why you picked up this book.
We all look for someone who's savvier than we are. It's natural for us to believe that there's someone out there who is smarter, stronger, sexier.
What makes someone who seems smarter, in effect, better than you? Is it your belief that the person has demonstrated more knowledge than you? Or is it something else? In this book, we will help you to answer those questions for yourself and give you a system for developing genuine expertise that has a foundation in
human inclinations.
Anyone can pretend to be an expert; in American society, we call people who do this con men. You will not learn how to be a con artist by reading this book. You will learn how to become an expert.
Here's my definition of expert: Think of a complex video game. It wouldn't exist without a skilled programmer, but a 12-year-old aficionado will play it more skillfully than the computer wizard
who constructed the line-by-line code. The programmer is the technician; the 12-year-old is the expert. The kid's ability captures the intersection of technology and humanity. This programmer
may enter a conversation about the game feeling as though he has the upper hand until he cannot answer when the 12-year-old asks, "When I pressed these two buttons and moved the joystick, why didn't the guy's head blow off?" Without question, in order to become an expert, you need to know how to research, what to research, and how to communicate with precision in the time allotted to you. At the same time, your tool kit must include the ability to do the following:
- Make a connection. The combination of human connection and value of information imparted is what separates expertise from robotic repetition of facts.
- Read your audience. You need to know when someone is buying your information and when he is not.
- Rescue yourself from disaster. Tapping into personal interests, asking certain types of questions there are many rescue techniques that depend on your knowledge of human nature.
- Terminate the conversation at the right time. Everyone knows that a half-hour's worth of information delivered in an hour has lots of holes in it.
This book is built on the ability to apply some basic communication tools relied on by first-class interrogators. We will give you those tools and exercises to perfect their use.
In this book, I step you through the process of grasping essentials about human nature, identifying different types of people, assessing to what extent you must plan and prepare for those different types of people, and then presenting yourself as an expert. As a bonus, we give you a solid course on ways out if you find yourself being challenged and put in a corner.
By the way, if you're an idiot, don't try this.

[Ahmed Haamed · Rating 5 out of 5]

فى أسطورة حساء الحجارة، يصل شخص غريب إلى بلدة تعانى من المجاعة، وهناك لم يعرض عليه أى شخص أى طعام؛ فهم لا يملكون سوى القليل. جلس هذا الغريب فى وسط ساحة البلدة وأشعل نارا ووضع فوقها إناء معدنيا كبيرا ملأه بالماء، ثم أخرج حجرا نظيفا من حقيبة حريرية أنيقة ووضعه فى الماء. بعد قليل أخذ غرفة من الماء ليتذوق حساء الحجارة، ثم قال: "مممم، لذيذ! لكن لوتمكنت من إضافة الكرنب إليه لأصبح رائعا". عندها ذهب إليه أحد القرويين ومعه ثمرة كرنب صغيرة للغاية كان يدخرها لنفسه ووضمها فى الإناء. استمر الرجل الغريب فى تذوق الحساء والتلذذ مع التعليق على وجود شئ ناقص حتى ضم إلى الإناء لحما مملحا وجزرا وبطاطس وبصلا. بعد الانتهاء من إعداد الحساء قام الغريب بمشاركة الجميع فيه، وتعجب سكان البلدة من روعة مذاقه، وعرضوا عليه شراء "الحجر السحري".
عندما تستخدم هذه الإستراتيجية ستلعب دور صاحب الوصفة وليس الطاهى؛ أى ستدخل إلى غرفة ومعك خبرة الإنصات وخلق علاقات ترابط بين المعلومات التى يقدمها لك الأخرون. إن مهمتك كخبير هى حث هؤلاء الناس على الشعور بالثقة الكافية ليشاركوا في إعداد الحساء، وهذا شكل من أشكال بناء التحالف في أعلى مراتبه لأنه قائم على تحفيز المشاركين. إن كل شخص يتذكر مشاركته، ولكن تظل أنت مركز الحدث.
يقول مؤلف قصص الخيال العلمي روبرت إيه. هينلين: "يفترض بالبشر أنهم قادرون على تغيير حفاض والتخطيط لغزو، وذبح حيوان، والإبحار بسفينة، وتصميم مبنى، وكتابة قصيدة، وإعداد ميزانية، وبناء جدار، وتجبير عظام، وإراحة المحتضر، وتلقى الأوامر، والتعاون، والعمل بمفردهم، وحل المعادلات، وتحليل المشاكل الجديدة، وتسميد الأرض، وبرمجة الكمبيوتر، وطهو وجبة لذيذة، والقتال بقوة، والموت بشجاعة. أما التخصص، فهو للحشرات فحسب"

[Zahraa ALhalawachee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Practice a lot of trials and adventures in life does not diminish the gravity of things that might come up in life, but helps us to think deeply in the options available to us when the falls Not taken into account.


How to become good at anything in just two hours
Is a book of fact turns and spins and does not present a clear picture at the end of the book I think you'll find useful if you decided to run for the Presidency of the State someday ^^ or when your job as an investigator In a personal or public interrogations ^ _ *
We as ordinary people we can’nt apply everything at once, but definitely we can take advantage of a step or more each apply instinctually and one needs extensive training In particular using body language to our advantage, it is one of the most complex and need a lot of practice .
In the end it was nice to know a lot from the way that could save me one day

[Terri Fleming · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I am not generally prone to read books like this it was recommended to me by a colleague. There is some wisdom and logic I found in this book that I can translate for my students. But I wouldn’t recommend it as a “be all end all” to anyone.

[Darya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is interesting but the title is slightly misleading. It should be smth like how to present yourself as an expert and get ready with this in less than two hours. Other than this, the book is quite interesting and the information is practically useful for anyone.

[Mohamed Hosni · Rating 3 out of 5]

يغلب علي الكتاب اسلوب المحقق الذي يكون دائما في موقع قوة يسهل عليه ان يكون قائدا

[Fatema]

كتاب تنمية أعجبني أسلوب الكاتب

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever else this may be, it's possibly the most helpful public speaking book I've read, even if that isn't the focus of it.

[Doaa Ali]

زفت