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A review by sbright421
Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life) by Thomas Erikson
informative
fast-paced
3.0
While this book had a lot of useful information in it, and it did change the way I see people in my life not because I'm judging them more but because they have a certain way that makes them tick, this book was weird in the sense where it needed more detail but also could've been 100 pages shorter. The first half of the book is like reading a personality test that you could've taken in 10 minutes online. I found it very repetitive, and the profiles Erikson builds in the first 100 pages seem relatively simple. There's too many examples, and entire chapters could've been omitted. Then when you get to the second half and it talks about how to manage each of the colors in a business setting, and the grand reveal is that half the advice for each color is almost exactly the same - giving concrete examples in writing is something for every color for example! If there are so many similarities between the colors, the subtitle maybe should just be "... how to communicate with anybody in business [and in life]".
It was interesting reading about how my blindspots definitely come out as a Red/Yellow. It served as a reminder that it's okay to sit back and let other people have a shot at the spotlight (a yellow deficiency of mine) and that I need to work on identifying my emotions (particularly my negative ones, anger to be exact) so that I don't let them well up and allow myself to really sit in them when talking to other people (my red deficiency). It was a fast-paced reminder that it takes all four colors to make effective teams, and it's my job as an individual to be aware of my strengths and weaknesses to be a good teammate.
Again though, this book is a repetitive and relatively detail light read, so as I got to the last 30 pages or so I almost just skipped it because I felt it getting ridiculous.
It was interesting reading about how my blindspots definitely come out as a Red/Yellow. It served as a reminder that it's okay to sit back and let other people have a shot at the spotlight (a yellow deficiency of mine) and that I need to work on identifying my emotions (particularly my negative ones, anger to be exact) so that I don't let them well up and allow myself to really sit in them when talking to other people (my red deficiency). It was a fast-paced reminder that it takes all four colors to make effective teams, and it's my job as an individual to be aware of my strengths and weaknesses to be a good teammate.
Again though, this book is a repetitive and relatively detail light read, so as I got to the last 30 pages or so I almost just skipped it because I felt it getting ridiculous.