Scan barcode
buer's review
2.0
I’m not convinced that this book is a practical tool for ordinary conversations. Many of the techniques suggested by Vengoechea are impractical for casual conversations and, I think, will only make your friends and family ask you why you’re talking so weird. Additionally, the section about evaluating voice pitch and volume as well as fidgeting or eye contact as signs of confidence and discomfort came off as a little sexist and ableist. Vengoechea tried to mitigate that by explaining getting a baseline for a person before reading too deeply into them, seeing a chart where a low voice is “authoritative and dominant” and a high voice is “unserious and submissive” was very unsettling.
I did find value in some of the exercises, but overall I don’t recommend this book unless you’re prepared to take most of it with a huge grain of salt.
I did find value in some of the exercises, but overall I don’t recommend this book unless you’re prepared to take most of it with a huge grain of salt.
sherif's review
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
The book has good tips on intentional listening and tactics for managing conversations. The target audience is people wanting to use this in professional settings; the interpersonal applications seem secondary. The overall message will stick with me, and maybe that was a good enough reason to stick with it till the end, but man is it slooooow. Long, like they had to hit a word limit. And the writing lacks personality. Feels like a machine learning model trained on all management books wrote it.
priyastoric's review
informative
medium-paced
3.75
This is a very practical book. Lots of tips and strategies for becoming a better listener, many of which I had heard before in other contexts. While much of it is based on her practice of conducting product research based on technology, there are universal ideas that all of us can use to be more empathetic and appreciative listeners both for others and for ourselves.
I featured Ximena Vengoechea in a a post on my blog: https://thisiswhatcomesnext.com/2022/05/29/there-is-no-crying-in-baseball">piece for my website.
I featured Ximena Vengoechea in a a post on my blog: https://thisiswhatcomesnext.com/2022/05/29/there-is-no-crying-in-baseball">piece for my website.
More...