Changing Minds

Yes, its true. I've read this book. Picked up in the airport to pass time on the plane. Ostensibly about ways to change someone's mind about something, it actually reads more as a series of anecdotes about the way various people ( mostly "VIPs" ) have changed their own minds about things.

In a way its almost reads as a a pop-sci book for business managers. ( I can't quite put my finger on why I feel that way, perhaps just based on the particular stories he relates. )

Overall probably the most interesting thing in the whole book is his theory of multiple intelligences - the idea that there isn't just one number that (re: the bell curve) that you can rank people's intelligence against. Then again I suspect (hope?) that's a commonly held -- though perhaps not often articulated -- sentiment.

He's a good writer with apparently lots of published work so I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he has some really engaging books out there. This one was just fine, but not, on the whole, super-exciting, nor incredibly thought provoking.

0 comments: