Review: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The title and the cover of the book have initially made me rather suspicious - I was not up for another self-help book with rather obvious "how-to" strategies for influencing people.

I was very positively surprised. Although I don't find the metaphor of "weapons of influence" a very good one (just like the term "compliance practitioners" - i.e. the ones using those "weapons"), the essence of the book is quite profound. It is the book on social psychology - and on why we make certain choices in interactions with the other people (particularly, when we make decisions fast, without too much considerations).

What influences our everyday decisions (sometimes in manipulative way when performed on us with someone else's goals in mind):

• Reciprocation: we feel entitled to return a favour (can be well used in negotiations)
• Commitment and consistency: we feel we have to appear consistent in our choices (the-foot-in-the-door-technique can well be used in corporate sales)
• Social proof: we mostly act in accordance to what is socially acceptable to do - and when unsure, we look at the others for clues (can be well utilised being a leader - to endorse and promote certain set of behaviour)
• Liking: we cooperate with the ones we like more and the ones who appear more similar to us (can be utilised in corporate sales to strengthen an image of similarity)
• Authority: we obey to someone's wishes more readily when they have some traits of authority for us (titles, clothes, expetise etc)
• Scarcity: we treat things as more attractive when they appear scarce to us

There was a lot of good research from the field of social psychology and some good (sometimes, sadly, horrifying) real-life stories cited there - to illustrate how these factors impact our decisions. Most of those stories and research are very revealing and well-placed.

Overall, a rather easy, a thought-provoking and well-researched read.

Review: Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting book explaining many of historical and contemporary conflicts as well as various countries' economic development all across the globe - Russia, China, USA, Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Middle East etc. It is a simplification of reality - since it focuses on determinism of geography of various regions. But then again, it opens up your eyes as of why navigable rivers, mountain ranges and fertile lands (or absence of those) have been so important to economic and political development here and there. There were many aha! moments for me, although international relations is a topic I used to study quite a bit.

It's rather balanced, albeit still particular point of view on the global state of affairs. Applying somewhat playful term "prisoners of geography" to countries is in many instances an over-simplification which can lead to dubious conclusions (like being almost defendant of the fact that Russia needs to have expansionist foreign policy in order to protect itself - all due to its geography, of course). The geographical position of USA leads to a reassuring (or disturbing - depending on a reader's point of view) conclusion that USA is to behold its global supremacy, despite the rise of China and Asia overall.

The maps themselves are nothing more than the slices of the political world map with some highlighted topographic elements - I expected to find something more original.

Nevertheless, it's an easy and enjoyable read, helping to give some background to the global events around us.