the LGO journey

reading from the fall

To be honest, I did not do a lot of the assigned reading from the fall. Although I love reading, I was balancing trying to be a good boyfriend with spending a ton of hours with school work. I have always prioritized people that are close to me even if it will hurt my grades a little. This doesn’t really bother me because I know I love learning.

Getting to the point, I am getting around to doing some of the reading from the fall. One of the best decisions was reading Influence by Robert Cialdini. This was one of the best books I have ever read. Hands down. It discusses a lot of our irrational flaws as humans. Paired with predictably irrational, these two books should be required reading for anyone with ambition after college. Here are a couple of counterintuitive notions (maybe not, depending on how you think) from Cialdini:

People react to how you appear. If you are good looking, or make attempts to look more professional, people will trust you. For example, twice as many people followed a stranger across a crosswalk when he was wearing a suit as compared to regular clothes. Same thing works for security officers dressed like police. We trust them for now reason.
People are much more likely to react favorably to a message being delivered if it is spoken during the consumption of a mean. This does not work if the message is said before or after the meal, it must be during.
Explained how door to door salepeople success, giving you free services that force you to “feel bad” and reciprocate with purchasing something you really don’t want.

The great thing about this book is it make you become more aware of your personal vulnerability. Contrary to most people, I look forward to failing because I realize I am human hence, irrational and mistake-prone. Its how we learn from our errors and realize why we are thinking the way we do that gives allows us to continually learn and grow throughout our lives.

The lesson here is some of the reading recommended through school is pretty cool, no matter when you actually end up reading it.

22 May 2011 · Comments