The premise of this book is that all humans are selling something, aka trying to persuade someone to "buy" their goods, point of view, etc. And he tries to illuminate the best ways to sell something under the "ABC's of selling": Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity (he tries really hard to fit the concepts under the ABC frame but those are some weird words to describe selling). Attunement means to be able to relate with someone, to have empathy. Buoyancy means to be resilient in the face of rejection. And Clarity means to have a clear and concise message. All in all the book had some interesting research points, but I don't think it's quite as useful as it tries to be.
The next book I read was the English translation of Marie Kondo's book about cleaning. Though I'm not a naturally clean person, I'm not horrendously messy either. I picked up this book since it was on the NYT bestseller list for a long time. Her main principles are: 1) Declutter your whole house by keeping only things that bring you joy and 2) do it all at one time. But what I found most helpful was her tip on how to fold shirts: vertically. The drawers below used to be filled to capacity (I wish I had a before picture, but oh well), but by just folding the shirts vertically I was able to free up a lot of space!
Yep, read the book from the creator of the HBO show GIRLS, and I'm not ashamed to say I enjoyed it. This is the book that the show main's character Hannah would write. Lots of moments of TMI but at the same time refreshingly honest. Having read some other books by comedic women writers (Tina Fey's Bossypants and Amy Poehler's Yes Please), I would say this book was more interesting than most, though also a little bit more random. Here's an abridged excerpt of one of her lists in the book (she has many):
Things I learned from my mother
1. Luxury is nice, but creativity is nicer. Hence the game where you go into the 10-dollar store and pick out an outfit.
2. The sidewalk isn't really that dirty.
3. Barbie's disfigured. It's fine to play with her just as long as you keep that in mind.
4. If you have a bad feeling about someone, don't worry about offending them. Just run. Polite is how you get your purse stolen.
5. Related: if someone says "I'm not going to hurt you" or "I'm not a creep," they probably are. Noncreeps don't feel the need to say it all the time.
6. Never yell at someone else's child. Just talk shit about them behind their back.
7. It's okay to ignore the dress code if you're an 'artist.' People will think you're operating on a higher plane and feel suddenly self-conscious.
8. If someone doesn't answer your email within six hours, it means they hate you.
9. "Asshole" is not a curse word.
10. It's better to eat little bits of everything than large amounts of one thing.
11. Respect isn't something you command through intimidation and intellectual bullying. It's something you build through a lifetime of treating people how you want to be treated and focusing on your mission.
12. Keep your friends close. Buy your enemies something cool.
13. Family first. Work second. Revenge third.
If you love the ridiculousness of GIRLS, this book will probably entertain you.
