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59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
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59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
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59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
Audiobook8 hours

59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot

Written by Richard Wiseman

Narrated by Jonathan Cowley

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

A psychologist and best-selling author gives us a myth-busting response to the self-help movement, with tips and tricks to improve your life that come straight from the scientific community.

Richard Wiseman has been troubled by the realization that the self-help industry often promotes exercises that destroy motivation, damage relationships, and reduce creativity: the opposite of everything it promises. Now, in 59 Seconds, he fights back, bringing together the diverse scientific advice that can help you change your life in under a minute, and guides you toward becoming more decisive, more imaginative, more engaged, and altogether more happy.

From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, resilience to relationships, Wiseman outlines the research supporting the new science of "rapid change" and, with clarity and infectious enthusiasm, describes how these quirky, sometimes counterintuitive techniques can be effortlessly incorporated into your everyday life. Or, as he likes to say: "Think a little, change a lot."


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 29, 2009
ISBN9780307707550
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59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
Author

Richard Wiseman

Richard Wiseman, Ph.D., currently holds Britain’s only professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology. He is the author of four bestselling books: The Luck Factor, Quirkology, 59 Seconds, and Paranormality. He lives in the UK.

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Reviews for 59 Seconds

Rating: 3.7760870156521738 out of 5 stars
4/5

230 ratings18 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Started reading in ebook, and enjoyed it so much that I actually bought a copy. (At Borders in downtown Seattle at 30% off, FWIW.) Condenses lots and lots of psychology research that I've read elsewhere combined with plenty that was new to me. For the practical person, includes exercises, quizzes, tips...which was why I wanted a copy, since those bits were tough to read on my phone, and I wanted to write in the margins! A quick read in an engaging tone. Each chapter covers a different area of human psychology (motivation, relationships, happiness, etc), looks at the most current research on what works and doesn't, and then makes specific recommendations for how to use that research in your own life. Liked it a lot, planning to reread it, probably fairly regularly.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This does exactly what is says on the cover, no more no less. Divided into various sections (such as happiness, dating, persuasion) Wiseman uses behavioural studies to knock the most widespread self help myths on the head and provide practical (and very quick) options. So forget positive visualisation you also need to visualise setbacks, forget saying how intelligent your kids are, praise their effort instead. I just picked this up based on his Quirklogy book which heartily I recommend. This book is for those who want a quick tips or has found nothing else has worked. It's not a book for psychology buffs or those with difficult problems. It did though give me the brilliant term "social loafing" making it utterly worth reading.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Finally read the whole thing, and it is worth more than 5 stars. On HappinessFirst, he talked about happiness, and getting people to like you, all based on researches and studies. Self-help books are rubbish because they are based on either common sense (which is already not too bad) or completely nonsense (which is based on woo woo). Franklin effect is very useful. I always thought if I do people favors, they would like me more. WRONG. Actually, I have to ask for favors, simple and easy to do one, and people would like me more. So, it turned out I like a lot of people by giving out favors, without them liking me back because I didn't ask for favor. There are a lot of useful tips. Like smile more and it would affect your mood. Like adding humor when negotiating and you get better result. Likability affect how successful you are in life by giving you a better chance to get the job after interview, and people like to assist you in making life easier. Bystanders affectsKitty Genovese was stabbed and killed in UK, with by standers watching but give no assistance to this poor woman. This incident triggered studies on how people behave and how they could turn away from person that need assistance. Studies shown when there are only one individual, the person would feel more responsible toward the person in trouble. But if there are a lot of other people around, the responsible become diffused and it is less likely to have anyone who would come forward to help the person in need.So, in case you need help. Target on a single person who might offer you help, and turn this person from a bystander into a real human being. Positive thinking bullshitThink positive might not lead to success. I know that already. What I didn't know, and learned from the book, is that when persons visualize, they put less affords into achieving their goals, that make the results less likely to be positive.So, Professor recommend that we think of a goal, make plan, tell some friends about it, and then write down the progress and give some interim rewards for achievement. Tell friends about your goal not only lessen your chance of backing out, but also lead to friends helping you. Also, give interim rewards would motivate your intermediate success to achieve your goal. Double thinkThe concept is introduced by 1984 novel, but it works to improve the chance of achieving goals.First, visualize and write down the positive reward of achieving your goal. Then, visualize and write down the obstacle in achieving this goal. Don't stop here. Write down a second positive reward of achieving your goal followed by further obstacle. Then elaborate on each point. It is making a person think of the positive reward while facing the reality of how to go about achieving goal, and it works. Losing weigh or cut down on drinkingI don't need to do either. I dislike dieting, and I dislike getting drunk so I don't drink much.But this chapter goes on and on about eating habit that I already had that help a person to eat less.First, persons actually don't know how much they really eat. Study shows that person would ask this question, "Have I finish my food in front of me?" So, if you put less food in front of a person, this person would eat less. The same goes for drinking less. Study shows that a person would judge how much is in a drink by the depth of the drink. So, if the glass is tall and thin, then this person would be fooled into thinking there is more to the drink than it is. Even bartenders would do this. Study show that bartenders tend to pour 20% more drink into fat wide glass than tall thin glass. Good to know.On Losing weighOn reduction of food in take. The advise is to slow down your eating.But this book recommend another speed that based on study. Eat at a normal rate at the start, and low to half the eating rate on the second half of your meal. I do that a lot. I usually feel hungry when I eat, so I eat at more normal fast rate. But then, my urge to talk during a meal kicks in, and I start to slow down to half speed. This speed is the best for a person who want to lose weight by eating less.Also, placing food out of arm reach would reduce the chance of snaking. No wonder I snake so much. I have them all at arm length. Another good to know fact. Woman breasts affect on man's brainThe part about women breasts and men brains, speed dating tips and all that, would worth the value of buying this book if he or she managed to get a date out of it. Drinking experimentGiving 2 groups of persons, and gave them tests to do to see if they have symptoms of being drunks. Both groups show symptoms even if only one group is drinking and persons in the second group are only drinking non-alcoholic drinks. Why? If you believe you are drinking, your mind and body could be tricked into acting drunk. Good Advise for couplesGood advise for couples. The excitement is gone from relationship? No problem. Just tied your wrists and feet with each other and run some obstacle, you will feel much better about each other afterward. Also, there is no love at first sight. But prolong staring into another person eyes would generate the feeling of love and affection. Should try it some time.Relationship adviceThis chapter talks about opposite couples relationships. I do wonder if it works the same way with not so typical relationship, the only kind I know. Positive and negative comments, if comments ratio is 5 to 1, with 5 positive outweigh 1 negative, then the couple is more likely to stay together.It only reinforce the understanding of human, that most could not take criticism even if it is true. Decision Making and How to tell a person is lyingOnly a few pages each. If you think and think over a decision, and might regret a decision made, even your decision could be the best, you are still going to get anxiety over it. Tell me something I don't know.For telling lies, I've watched "Lie to Me" and already know the basic. Big FiveBig 5 personality. Pretty good to get to know yourself. Not something new.Index and Ring fingers ratioThis is pretty interesting. I read it somewhere else, but didn't realize how much this finding is supported by research. So, if your Index finger is longer, is more masculine. If you really like to know about tips to happiness, but only have 59 seconds to read. Skip to the Conclusion and all 10 best advise is there for you to take up. For best result. Read the whole thing. It is really a nice read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting and amusing, keep boring friends with relevant snippets.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is quite an interesting book. It's easy to dip in and out of and full of interesting ideas. It won't revolutionise the way you live, but it might give you a few ideas. All in all this is quite an interesting light hearted read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I don't have a lot of respect for self-help books in general. My feeling is that they tend to be based around platitudes, wishful thinking, and a desire on the author's part to make a quick buck, often with a generous helping of psuedoscience in the mix. Richard Wiseman doesn't talk about them in terms anywhere near that strong, but he does point out that, according to scientific research, a lot of the most beloved ideas embraced by self-help gurus are incorrect. So in this book, he looks what the experimental evidence says about how human psychology actually works and offers some quick and simple self-help tips and exercises based on that.Which sounds like a great idea to me, but I did have some mixed feelings about the execution. Wiseman does has some decent bits of advice for dealing with certain specific situations and for altering your general approach to achieving your goals. (Examples: If you need help, ask people one at a time rather than appealing to a big group, because people in crowds tend to mill around waiting for someone else to step forward. And if you want your kids to be successful, praise them for trying hard when they do well, rather than telling them that doing well means they're smart. They'll be more likely to try hard and do well next time, too.) A lot of the self-help exercises seemed a bit contrived and gimmicky to me, though. And while altering your behavior based on ideas with some scientific support is obviously better than doing so based on ideas that are clearly wrong, a lot of the experimental conclusions here seem to be a bit iffy, offering interesting suggestive indications rather than concrete proof. The human mind, after all, is extremely complex, and altering tiny details in how you conduct experiments on it can lead to big differences in results. Wiseman does acknowledge that, but not quite as much as I'd like.If you're interested in learning where lots of self-help books go wrong, though, or in reading about interesting, quirky little psychology experiments, this one is worth a look.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Author Richard Wiseman is not a fan of self-help books but this is a self-help book with a difference. Every piece of advice is based on scientific research. Chapters include such topics as: happiness, persuasion, motivation, stress, decision making, parenting, relationships and creativity.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book does exactly what it says. Sensible, evidence backed ways to improve your life.What it also does extremely well is also show how evidence and a rational approach just doesn't "feel" as good as wishing for stuff, learning super powers and being able to control other folk minds. Perhaps this is simply because the author respects and values us as readers rather than treating us as marks. If you live in the real world and would like to do it slightly better then read this book.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Really didnt like this book.2/3 of the book is fluff - meaning that each topic is introduced by the author telling the reader where the test and research was done, followed by the details of the testing and research followed by the conclusion. nobody cares.1/3 is practical information.When i finished the book, I realized that the author actually has a summary at the end book (around the last 10 pages). My suggestion- read the book in a store or get it out of the library.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A self-help book, with actual research. An interesting premise given some of the wilder stuff on the shelves at the local bookstore. The book is divided up into chapters concentrating on an aspect of personality that people generally want help with (decision making, relationships, stress, and so on).You get 4 or 5 linked studies on the various topics, most of which show that the mass market has got it wrong (The Mozart effect section is particularly damning). With 59 second fixes. A few of these are way more than 59 seconds, as you need to do them over a couple of days or weeks (That said most are 59 seconds a day).It looks pretty useful, and really who can resist the "pet frog" technique ?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Think of your typical self-help book. Now remove all the pseudo-scientific unproven babble and replace it with documented information complete with references to actual scientific studies. Add an entertaining, conversational writing style and more than a dash of humor and then you have this book. Not perfect by any means, but very good
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    "Think a little, change a little" would have made a more apt subtitle. There's some interesting stuff in this book but it really doesn't deliver on its promise. It's far too scattergun and quite a bit of it felt like padding. Still it is worth a look and you'll probably - as I did - come away with a few useful tips that will help you through this thing we call life.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book about research and techniques you can apply on the go
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Many things I already knew. A good review. Enjoyed listening.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    He really digs into the research behind how people think and how to achieve goals. Lots of reader activities with descriptions, suggestions and analysis from similar research projects done at the academic level. Plowed through this book pretty quickly and took copious notes. Academic research written in a way pretty much any one can understand.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting, often counter-intuitive, exploration of how to make improvements in your life -- in relationships, work habits, self-improvement. Fun to read, practical advice.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The next time you are trying to be creative in a meeting, gently lean forward and pull against the table. When the going gets tough, cross your arms to help perseverance in the face of failure, and if that doesn't work. lie down. If anyone accuses you of being lazy, quietly explain that you are employing your locus coeruleus in the war against rigid thinking.This book was written by a scientist who decided to look into the scientific basis for the techniques recommended by the self-help industry.There are some interesting findings from the cited scientific studies, and a lot of the techniques mentioned in this book really do seem to provide a big reward for not too much effort. I really should try some of the techniques from the chapter on happiness, as it seems as though it is easy to increase your happiness even though a large proportion of how happy you are is innate.Another thing I have problems with is procrastination and the studies apparently show that if you force yourself to do spend just a few minutes on the task you have been putting off, a kind of subconscious 'must finish this task anxiety' takes over, so that even if you stop part-way through the task you are less likely to procrastinate when it is time to get back to it. So it seems that I should listen to my usual thoughts telling me to 'just do something' when overwhelmed by the number of tasks on my to do list at work.I was looking forward to finding out how a pet frog could help you to convince anyone of anything, but more interesting in the end was the discovery that you can make charity boxes up to 200 percent more effective by painting them red, labelling them 'every penny helps' and placing them anywhere except Birmingham. As for motivation, the often recommended technique of visualising your desired outcome has actually been shown to be counter-productive. It seems that by visualising yourself having succeeded, you convince your subconscious that you are half-way to your goal already, so you end up making less effort.Having watched the Derren Brown series in which he primed people over the course of a few weeks to do certain things without them even knowing that they had been selected for the show, I know how much people can be affected by things they don't even consciously notice. When it comes to creativity, something as seemingly unconnected to the task in hand as the subject of a picture on the wall can drastically increase the creativity of the ideas generated.Many of the items in this book make a lot of sense, but I was surprised to read that people would generally rather take a £50k job where they would earn more than their colleagues over a £60k job where they would earn less than their colleagues. Surely the second job would give you more scope for pay rises as well as a higher starting salary? I guess a lot of people must be more concerned with status than I am.The final section on Personality includes a quick and easy personality test.My results are:Openness - HIGHConscientiousness - LOWExtroversion - LOWAgreableness - HIGHNueroticism - HIGHI borrowed this book from the library to read for a book club, but I have already bought my own copy for future reference. The subjects covered are so wide-ranging that you may well be able to donate all your other self-help books to a charity shop and never buy another one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Many people are attracted to self-improvement and self- development, but don’t have a lot of time to devote to elaborate and time-consuming techniques. This book is about how to change in 59 seconds with psychologically proven quick and dirty strategies that won’t take a lot of time to implement. Wiseman deals with almost everything under the sun found in the self-help section- from improving goal setting, through getting better at lateral thinking to good selling and dating techniques. And, he promises they are all based on the solid scientific research.Here are the highlights of what interested me:Techniques that work:• Write things out – both when you’re unhappy and when you’re happy. If you want to be happier, write what you are thankful for for a few minutes every day.• Write if you want to change– set your goals and keep a journal• Go for experiences (and share them with many others) but not for possessions. (Unless they are books, of course :)• Give and help people and ask them to help you!• If you’re prone to losing wallets, put a picture of a smiling baby behind the plastic cover. 35% of those wallets were returned beating the wallets with a happy family, a puppy and an elderly couple respectively.Techniques that don’t work:• Visualization may backfire since we may get frustrated with a huge discrepancy of the ideal we want to attain and the reality• Positive thinking- does not lead to solving problems• Trying not to think about something (As Dostoyevski observed in Winter Notes on Summer Impressions , ‘Try to pose yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you’ll see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute)• More money- people whose life basic needs are covered, don’t get happier with more money.• Gossiping about others- in a funny psychological paradox people will assign the traits you’re criticizing to you, so say positive things about other people.