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Surrounded by Idiots
- The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood)
- Narrated by: David John
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Categories: Relationships, Parenting & Personal Development, Personal Development
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A must read... for everyone. Very insightful.
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Top read!
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Some people are exceptionally manipulative. They can convince anyone about anything and lure them with their charm. They enjoy controlling others and will do anything to get what they want. Sound familiar? The bad news is that you can’t really escape them. But here comes the good news: you can beat them at their own game.
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Content fails to match the title.
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WOW! A much needed explanation. Thank you 😊
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Kerry Daynes has worked with some of the most complex and challenging criminals in prisons and secure hospitals as well as the victims of crime. A large part of her day job is spent delving into the psyche of convicted men and women to try to understand what lies behind their actions and how to set them on the path to becoming law-abiding citizens. Welcome to the life of a forensic psychologist. No two days are the same. The people you work with are wildly unpredictable, sometimes frightening and often deeply frustrating.
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Yay, totally human, flaws and all
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner get your back up?
You are not alone.
After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and best-selling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people.
Originally published in Swedish in 2014 as Omgiven Av Idioter, Erikon’s Surrounded by Idiots is already an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, of which over 750,000 copies have been sold in Sweden alone. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow) and provides insights into how we can adjust the way(s) we speak and share information.
Narrated by David John, Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication and advice on when to back away or when to push on and when to speak up or indeed shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and influence those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension.
And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!
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What listeners say about Surrounded by Idiots
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Routini
- 27-02-20
Dreadfully banal
I have listened to 30 Audiobooks so far in 2020, and never do I feel moved to write a review - especially a damning one, since effort goes into every book and every book surely has its readers (so what's the point in rubbishing one because it happens not to suit your taste?). But honestly, this book is so genuinely dreadful and banal that I can't help myself. It's completely devoid of any insight - to the extent that I honestly wondered if the book's title was a mickey take, and the author knew he was surrounded by idiots he could persuade to buy anything. Save yourself the time and money: just Imagine a collection of star sign platitudes, give each collection a colour to simplify them, and then expand at length to try to convince people that there is actually a case to be made for such absurd pigeon-holing. How it's an international bestseller is literally anyone's guess. Amazing.
101 people found this helpful
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- Doug Major
- 10-09-19
Repetitive and simplistic. No Insights or growth
As above. Not worth it unless you have never heard of the possibility some people have a different perspective or personality to you or others.
51 people found this helpful
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- Rich
- 11-03-20
Snake Oil
this book has very little to say, most of it being pseudoscience, and takes far too long to say it. It is also written in a style that feels more like a sales pitch for a tool than an attempt to convey a psychological theory that might be of interest in its own right. Again this is quite possibly because the author is indeed trying to sell the idea that his four personality types have some psychological validity which sadly they don't.
31 people found this helpful
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- J Collins
- 27-10-19
Useful information poorly presented
The book is is presented in an unabridged format, much to its detriment. There are sections consisting of tables of information, or emails which are read out as if a text to speak engine was set to work. The overall message becomes repetitive and it’s easy to lose focus in the discussion. There are some great ideas and insights through the book , although these are often lost due to the style of the writing compounded by the presentation.
22 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 31-10-19
rubbish
a big con 5his one, would NOT recommend boring as drying paint I cant even think of fifteen words to write the review with..
19 people found this helpful
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- SD
- 27-03-20
Repetitive and self-referencing
Interesting book, but it became incredibly repetitive. If you read just the summary of this book, you will be better off.
13 people found this helpful
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- John Maboko
- 01-03-20
A Must-Read!
The first thing that draws you (at least that drew me) to this book is the title itself. Gotta give an A to whoever came up with it. The book however has much to do with the subtitle than with the title - "The Four Types of Human behaviour". The author uses the DISC behavioral assessment tool to categorize human behaviour or personality traits, DISC standing for: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S) and Conscientiousness (C). The tool is based on theories from the psychologist William Marston. First though, let's address the elephant in the room, human behaviour and humans are unbelievably complex and any attempt to form a categorization is apt to raise a few eyebrows. The author though does acknowledge this, and offers in my opinion a reasonable account of the DISC model. To make the learning process easier, the author uses colors for the four types of human behaviour: Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. The traits are roughly based on Hippocrates famous personality traits: Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic. He spends a good amount on each color, highlighting their perceived strengths, observed weaknesses and what stresses them. More importantly he goes into detail on the interaction between each color and the other, how the actions of one color can be perceived by the other, but also how to handle the challenges that come with these differences in a group. The book brought me a great deal amount of audible laughter in the moments I was reading about a particular color, and suddenly recognition hit as I recalled a person in my life. My memory was taken to instances where I had challenges dealing with a particular person, but now I deeply understood what was at play. More importantly however it opened my awareness to how my behavior can be perceived by others, leaving room for improvement in my interactions. I can't recommend enough this wonderful book.
13 people found this helpful
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- Prime Addict
- 26-06-20
Far too simplistic
Maybe it is due to the construct but this is a far too simplistic view on human nature. The examples he uses to support his theory don't sound realistic, they are far too one dimensional. He also is definitive about the behaviour of each colour, not accepting the subtleties of human nature. At some points this book is patronising and a little passive aggressive. In a weird way, having lived in Scandinavia I can see where he's coming from but this theory really doesn't hold water outside of the Northern European cultural structure. Love the narrator though! He may have channelled the tone of the author a little too well though...he seems very red...
8 people found this helpful
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- Madison Paz
- 03-10-19
Fascinating book
I already knew about the DISC classification but this book is rich in details, examples and situations. Also you can easily identify your personality type and the challenges you might face.
6 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-08-19
Great book for anyone interested in team dynamics!
well written and narrated book (although recommend speeding it up to 1.25% speed, slow talker!) I feel that it helped me get a higher level understanding of both work/and private relations!
6 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 21-08-19
wrong title, liked the book a lot, learned a lot
read all but was hoping to learn how to deal with idiots not different people
1 person found this helpful
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- Clara
- 17-11-20
Interesting but not implementable
It was interesting to hear the differences in people but I found it as non implementable.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-09-20
Very useful for any adult!
Very good insight for people. It indeed helped me to look at everyone on a more understanding level on how they function. Suggestion- Questionnaire could have been provided as a pdf though
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- L
- 13-04-20
Words for your soul
To be so enlightened at peace with yourself This is my moral compass and the level to which I aspire to strain for.