An intriguing but uneven treatise on serendipity.
In this nonfiction book, a successful entrepreneur contends that people should embrace chance, which necessarily shapes their lives.
According to Tank, humans are hardwired to depreciate the role of randomness in their lives, and correspondingly exaggerate the extent to which they control their own fates. The illusion of this mastery of personal destiny is a consoling comfort, the reassurance that while unanticipated disasters befall others, one can adequately prepare. But chance in fact asserts itself constantly in people’s affairs, the author contends, and is permanently woven into the fabric of human existence. Unpredictable events can change people definitively—Tank calls these moments “catalysts”—and often such experiences are not the stuff of great drama, but rather are deceptively quotidian. For example, Stephen Hawking, the eminent physicist, did not see his struggle with ALS as the decisive factor that fashioned his character, but rather his engagement to his future wife, which filled him with a life-affirming purpose. The author furnishes numerous, richly detailed examples of catalysts—the book includes captivating profiles of diverse figures such as actor Charlize Theron and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, whose success seemed to depend on fortuity. Still, the work’s chief argument mainly offers a dose of common sense, that humans do not enjoy Godlike control over the future and so should embrace randomly delivered serendipity: “Catalysts are beyond our control. So we might as well enjoy the ride.” Tank regales readers with clearly written summaries of the science that seems to support his argument, but they won’t need an introduction to crisis theory to know that unforeseen events, even disastrous ones, can later support the establishment of fortitude and even a more profound happiness. Despite all the science skillfully corralled in its favor, the book’s argument remains familiar.
An intriguing but uneven treatise on serendipity.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Tank Books Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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