Business & Investing

This is the eBook version of the printed book.

Every day, we all size up each other: It's one of the most important things we ever do. Making Sense of People provides the scientific frameworks and tools we need to improve our intuition, and assess people more consciously, systematically, and effectively.

Leading neuroscientist Samuel H. Barondes explains the research behind each standard personality category: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. He shows readers how to use these traits and assessments to do a better job of deciding who they'll enjoy spending time with, whom to trust, and whom to keep at a distance. Barondes explains:

• What neuroscience and psychological research can tell us about how personality types develop and cohere.
• The intertwined roles of genes, nurture, and education in personality development.
• How to recognize troublesome personality patterns such as narcissism, sociopathy, and paranoia.
• How much a child's behavior predicts their adult personality, and how personality stabilizes in young adulthood.
• How to assess integrity, fairness, wisdom, and other traits related to morality.
• What genetic testing may (or may not) teach us about personality in the future.
• General strategies for getting along with people, with specific tactics for special circumstances.

Kirkus Reviews

A succinct look at personality psychology.

As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at the University of California, Barondes (Molecules and Mental Illness, 2007, etc.) has spent years studying human behavior, and this book reflects his systematic, scientific approach for personality assessment. The average person isn't likely to have time to research a difficult boss or potential love interest, but the author supplements intuition with a useful cornerstone for gauging human behavior: a table of the "Big Five" personality traits, among them Extraversion vs. Introversion and Agreeableness vs. Antagonism. To learn how to apply the Big Five, Barondes supplies a link for a professional online personality test, in addition to a basic introduction of troubling personality patterns—e.g., narcissism and compulsiveness. While genetics may play a heavy hand in influencing personality, Barondes writes, it's awareness of a person's background, character and life story that is paramount in unearthing reasons for adult behavior. Readers might like to see the author weave more everyday examples into the text—his exercise in fostering compassion by imagining an adult as a 10-year-old child is a gem—but there is plenty here to ponder.

Those looking for traditional "self-help" advice won't find it here, but this book clearly lays the groundwork for deeper human interaction and better life relationships.

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.  

Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Money: some people just seem to know how to get it -- and keep it! What's their secret? What do they know that the rest of us don’t? They know the "rules of money": the "golden behaviors" that create wealth and make it grow. Anyone can learn the rules of money. You could learn them by spending years watching rich people up close... or you can learn them all right now, with Richard Templar’s The Rules of Money, Expanded Edition. Templar -- author of The Rules of Life and many other best-sellers -- has brought together 107 easy wealth-generation techniques you can start using instantly! Now updated and expanded with 9 brand new rules, Templar's rules address everything you need to know about money: how to think wealthy, get wealthy, get even wealthier, stay wealthy, and share your wealth. You'll find great up-to-the-minute advice on saving, spending, and investing, and enjoying your money, too. You'll discover why your money beliefs might be holding you back; how to see wealth as a friend, not the enemy; how to make money without compromising your ethics; avoid envy; make a plan; get your current finances under control; master deal-making and negotiation; discover opportunities nobody else sees, and much more. Templar's bite-size advice isn't just fun to read -- it's easy to use, too!

• How to set up shop on Amazon and generate worldwide sales volume with no up-front cost, risk or advertising.
• Run your Amazon store from home, a warehouse or a walk-in store-or outsource everything to Amazon's fulfillment center.
• Find bargain inventory; target niche markets for big profits.
• Get tax deductions and write-offs for business use of your home.
• Use Amazon as a stand-alone business or a lead generator for an existing busines.
• Pay lower sales commissions on Amazon.
• Sell your inventions, crafts or intellectual property on Amazon.
• Guard against scammers and rip-off artists.
• Automate your business with easy-to-use tools

A brand new collection of critical thinking strategies for better decisions and greater success …now in a convenient e-format, at a great price!

3 great books help you think more clearly about any problem—and transform better thinking into better results—in business, and in life!

Three remarkable books help you think more clearly, flexibly, effectively—and transform better thinking into better personal and business performance! Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life offers practical tools for becoming a better thinker in every aspect of your life: in your career, and as a consumer, citizen, friend, parent, and lover. Richard W. Paul and Linda Elder reveal the core skills of effective thinking, helping you analyze your own thought processes, identify weaknesses, and overcome them. The Truth About Making Smart Decisions brings together 50 powerful "truths" about making better decisions: real solutions for the tough challenges faced by every decision-maker, in business and in life. You'll discover how to systematically prepare to make better decisions...how to get the right information, without getting buried in useless data...how to minimize your risks, and then act decisively...how to make better group decisions...profit from mistakes...and a whole lot more. Finally, Now You're Thinking!: Change Your Thinking...Revolutionize Your Career...Transform Your Life draws on an incredible story of survival in wartime to introduce a model of critical thinking that will help you recognize how your emotions are shaping your actions, evaluate arguments more effectively, and draw conclusions that lead you directly to better life decisions.

From world-renowned leaders in the promotion of effective thinking, including Dr. Richard Paul, Dr. Linda Elder, Robert E. Gunther, Judy Chartrand, Stewart Emery, Russ Hall, Heather Ishikawa, and John Maketa.