Scan barcode
A review by mandirigma
The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It by Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney
3.0
This book was very well-researched and most of the information was pretty fascinating. The chapters on relationships, the brain's inner demon, and the Pollyanna principle were probably the most useful for readers, and as a self-help book, the main takeaway seems to be to limit your exposure to negativity and just generally be aware of the negativity bias.
Some of the middle chapters -- the ones on parenting, the workplace, and online reviews -- felt like they belonged to different books, and they seemed almost counterintuitive to the book's thesis. Tierney and Baumeister could write another book entirely on how business leaders can apply this stuff to their companies (applied to your own life, the advice is basically, "don't mess up in an interview"). But I was mostly concerned with some of the case studies they included with regards to education in minority communities. I'd take the section on parenting with a grain of salt.
Also, this book kind of straddles a fine line between "Things are not as bad as we think they are" and "Everything is totally fine!" and it's hard to know where very real issues like climate change and the rise of fascism fall here. The Crisis Crisis chapter is *sort of* about this, and it helps put things in perspective, but the takeaways from that chapter basically involve asking politicians and the entire media landscape to change, and are not very encouraging.
Some of the middle chapters -- the ones on parenting, the workplace, and online reviews -- felt like they belonged to different books, and they seemed almost counterintuitive to the book's thesis. Tierney and Baumeister could write another book entirely on how business leaders can apply this stuff to their companies (applied to your own life, the advice is basically, "don't mess up in an interview"). But I was mostly concerned with some of the case studies they included with regards to education in minority communities. I'd take the section on parenting with a grain of salt.
Also, this book kind of straddles a fine line between "Things are not as bad as we think they are" and "Everything is totally fine!" and it's hard to know where very real issues like climate change and the rise of fascism fall here. The Crisis Crisis chapter is *sort of* about this, and it helps put things in perspective, but the takeaways from that chapter basically involve asking politicians and the entire media landscape to change, and are not very encouraging.