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“All other things being equal, your people skills (or lack of them) become more pronounced the higher up you go. In fact, even when all other things are not equal, your people skills often make the difference in how high you go.”
― What Got You Here, Won't Get You There
― What Got You Here, Won't Get You There
“In this book we’ll argue that the Egyptians in Tahrir Square, not most academics and commentators, have the right idea. In fact, Egypt is poor precisely because it has been ruled by a narrow elite that have organized society for their own benefit at the expense of the vast mass of people. Political power has been narrowly concentrated, and has been used to create great wealth for those who possess it, such as the $ 70 billion fortune apparently accumulated by ex-president Mubarak. The losers have been the Egyptian people, as they only too well understand.”
― Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
― Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
“When you start a sentence with “no,” “but,” “however,” or any variation thereof, no matter how friendly your tone or how many cute mollifying phrases you throw in to acknowledge the other person’s feelings, the message to the other person is You are wrong.”
― What Got You Here, Won't Get You There
― What Got You Here, Won't Get You There
“Countries such as Great Britain and the United States became rich because their citizens overthrew the elites who controlled power and created a society where political rights were much more broadly distributed, where the government was accountable and responsive to citizens, and where the great mass of people could take advantage of economic opportunities.”
― Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
― Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
“cognitive dissonance. It refers to the disconnect between what we believe in our minds and what we experience or see in reality. The underlying theory is simple. The more we are committed to believing that something is true, the less likely we are to believe that its opposite is true, even in the face of clear evidence that shows we are wrong. For example, if you believe your colleague Bill is a jerk, you will filter Bill’s actions through that belief. No matter what Bill does, you’ll see it through a prism that confirms he’s a jerk. Even the times when he’s not a jerk, you’ll interpret it as the exception to the rule that Bill’s a jerk. It may take years of saintly behavior for Bill to overcome your perception. That’s cognitive dissonance applied to others. It can be a disruptive and unfair force in the workplace.”
― What Got You Here, Won't Get You There
― What Got You Here, Won't Get You There
Bryan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Bryan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
975 books
|
54 friends
232 books
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82 friends
635 books
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120 friends
732 books
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92 friends
435 books
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80 friends
229 books
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96 friends
93 books
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24 friends
395 books
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32 friends
More friends…
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