Showing results by author "Instaread" in All Categories

Power depends on the relationships between a person and those he or she seeks to control. Powerful people must cultivate their appearances to earn respect and eliminate doubt. They must practice selective honesty, misdirection, and an excess of secrecy to gain a tactical advantage. Timing is central to maintaining power, as is the ability to adapt. The array of strategies available when seeking power include mirroring the opponent’s actions and controlling the opponent's options for action.

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham, with commentary by Jason Zweig, is a thorough guide to the principles of portfolio creation, cost management, stock and bond picking, and stock ownership for the defensive, long-term investor....

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is a thorough examination of several case studies about how habit formation and habit change impact daily life. It details the experiences of individuals, corporations, and organizations to illustrate how habits are made and why, how they can be changed, how habits of all kinds are used in businesses to attract customers or manage employees, and the devastating results of a poorly managed habit.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is a book in the New Thought tradition that theorizes thought is the most powerful force in the universe....

Frankl and his family were imprisoned in concentration camps during the war. Frankl was held in several camps before he was liberated from the last in 1945. During his time in the camps, Frankl witnessed the extreme cruelty of camp guards and the prisoners who were given special status by them, also known as Capos. He also witnessed the cruelty of the prisoners to each other as they underwent the three stages of reaction to their imprisonment.

With Instaread Summaries, you can get the summary of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter, summarize, and analyze it for your convenience. This is an Instaread Summary of Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

In The God Delusion, philosopher Richard Dawkins evaluates popular arguments for the existence of God. The idea that God is not an object that can be accessed and reviewed using human reason is rejected. Instead, evidence that proves with at least 51 percent certainty is presented to prove that God does, in fact, not exist, casting reasonable doubt on the efficacy and usefulness of belief in God.

Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government offers a critique of conventional wisdom surrounding popular theories of democracy. Authors Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels argue that the public, journalists, and political scientists rely on a group of common-sense understandings of democracy. The authors collectively refer to these beliefs as the "folk theory" of democracy.

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Afghan American novelist Nadia Hashimi tells an intergenerational story of two Afghan women whose lives are different but connected. Rahima, a teenage girl, lives in 21st-century Afghanistan. In the wake of Taliban rule, Afghanistan's government is divided and the culture is fractured. Shekiba, Rahima's great-great-grandmother, lives in early 20th-century Afghanistan, under a monarchy.

A group of old school friends meet to catch up. They end up discussing the unexpected, unforeseen changes to their lives, and one friend offers to tell a story about adapting to change. The story he tells involves four characters, two mice named Sniff and Scurry, and two "Littlepeople" named Hem and Haw. All of them are in a maze, looking for cheese, which they need to survive. For the "Littlepeople", cheese also has a larger, metaphysical connotation in the sense that it also makes them happy - their Cheese is thus spelled with a capital C....

The lives of two teens, a French girl and a German boy, improbably intersect at the end of World War II in All The Light We Cannot See. Before the war, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, who has been blind since childhood, lives comfortably in Paris with her father, Daniel, who is the key master for the natural history museum. She loves to visit the museum and learn, especially about mollusks, or snails.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert is a book of motivational passages, anecdotes, and quotes meant to inspire others to embrace creativity in whatever form is most natural for them. By exploring creativity through real-life experiences and words of encouragement, they learn to face what holds them back from embracing inspiration and activating their creative nature, also known as finding big magic....

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo helps people discard unnecessary items, reorganize their possessions, and properly store items in a home. The procedures Kondo developed for organization and decluttering are called the KonMari Method. Those who follow these Japanese methods of organization can experience the magic of tidying and the ways it can transform a person’s life.

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory is a novel that follows more than 30 years in the life of Margaret Tudor. Starting in 1501, when she's 11 years old, the story traces Margaret's movements between England and Scotland, where she struggles to maintain her grip on power after the death of her husband, the king.

Blue Ocean Strategy is the 2015 update to the classic business strategy text of the same name originally published in 2005. The text offers a practical handbook to business students and entrepreneurs who wish to rise above the fray of the competition, become pioneers in previously uncharted market territory, and gain access to impressive growth opportunities and an untapped customer base.

Liar's Poker is the story of the investment banking firm Salomon Brothers during the tenure of CEO John Gutfreund, lasting from 1978-1991, and to a lesser extent, a description of the wider financial world of the 1980s. The growth of Wall Street firms like Salomon Brothers was boosted by government deregulation, which allowed for the growth and creation of risky mortgage-backed securities and high-yield junk bonds during this period.

Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology is actress/celebrity Leah Remini's memoir of her life in the Church of Scientology, her gradual disillusionment with the church, and her eventual decision to leave it permanently - all against the backdrop of building a successful acting career. Leah grows up in fairly impoverished circumstances as the child of a broken home in Brooklyn. Her father, who is chauvinistic and verbally abusive to Leah and her sister, separates from Leah's mother, Vicki Marshall.

Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie introduces listeners to the Gallup-designed survey that identifies a person's unique leadership strengths. Many leaders try to improve their skills by emulating other leaders, but in reality the most capable leaders are the ones who use their existing talents to provide what teams need.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is a psychological thriller that tells the story of three women and how their lives intersect. Rachel Watson is an alcoholic. Rachel often drinks to excess and experiences blackouts. She was fired from her job because of her drinking. Afraid to tell Cathy, her roommate, the truth, Rachel continues to take the train from Ashbury to Euston each workday morning and back again, as if she were still employed.

Most companies rely on manipulations to attract customers and employees; they use short-term motivators that do not inspire or encourage loyalty. Customers who are not inspired will stop buying the product as soon as the company cannot keep up the manipulative strategies, and employees are less motivated and less productive when they are not inspired.