Hot Topic – You’ll find yourself in the middle of a highly debated issue. Therefore, we use a set of 20 qualities to characterize each book by its strengths:Īpplicable – You’ll get advice that can be directly applied in the workplace or in everyday situations.Īnalytical – You’ll understand the inner workings of the subject matter.īackground – You’ll get contextual knowledge as a frame for informed action or analysis.īold – You’ll find arguments that may break with predominant views.Ĭomprehensive – You’ll find every aspect of the subject matter covered.Ĭoncrete Examples – You’ll get practical advice illustrated with examples of real-world applications or anecdotes.Ĭontroversial – You’ll be confronted with strongly debated opinions.Įloquent – You’ll enjoy a masterfully written or presented text.Įngaging – You’ll read or watch this all the way through the end.Įye opening – You’ll be offered highly surprising insights.įor beginners – You’ll find this to be a good primer if you’re a learner with little or no prior experience/knowledge.įor experts – You’ll get the higher-level knowledge/instructions you need as an expert. While the rating tells you how good a book is according to our two core criteria, it says nothing about its particular defining features. What we say here about books applies to all formats we cover.
We look at every kind of content that may matter to our audience: books, but also articles, reports, videos and podcasts. *getAbstract is summarizing much more than books. For instance, it may offer decent advice in some areas while being repetitive or unremarkable in others. A helpful and/or enlightening book, in spite of its obvious shortcomings. is particularly well structured.ĥ – Solid. A helpful and/or enlightening book that stands out by at least one aspect, e.g. contains uncommonly novel ideas and presents them in an engaging manner.Ħ – Notable. A helpful and/or enlightening book that combines two or more noteworthy strengths, e.g. presents the latest findings in a topical field and is written by a renowned expert but lacks a bit in style.ħ – Good. A helpful and/or enlightening book that has a substantial number of outstanding qualities without excelling across the board, e.g. A helpful and/or enlightening book that is extremely well rounded, has many strengths and no shortcomings worth mentioning.Ĩ – Very good. Often an instant classic and must-read for everyone.ĩ – Superb. A helpful and/or enlightening book that, in addition to meeting the highest standards in all pertinent aspects, stands out even among the best. Here's what the ratings mean:ġ0 – Brilliant.
Books we rate below 5 won’t be summarized. Our rating helps you sort the titles on your reading list from solid (5) to brilliant (10). We rate each piece of content on a scale of 1–10 with regard to these two core criteria. Helpful – You’ll take-away practical advice that will help you get better at what you do. Whatever we select for our library has to excel in one or the other of these two core criteria:Įnlightening – You’ll learn things that will inform and improve your decisions. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.At getAbstract, we summarize books* that help people understand the world and make it better. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness.
But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals.
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