Review: The Chimp Paradox
The chimp Paradox is surely one of the best book that I have read in a long time. Not that I am an avid reader, but I have read this book more than once which possibly indicates how good this book is. Before talking about the book, I would like to talk about the problem it tries to solve, at least as per my understanding.
The social hierarchical structure is breaking. We are drifting towards a world where the voice of everyone is or would be heard irrespective of age or status. It’s the idea that is more important than who is saying it. This has resulted in a generation where people are more vocal and opinionated. This is not just limited to social structure but also have been incorporated in organization which has become more flat over a period of time. What is the result of this change?
The social hierarchical structure is breaking. We are drifting towards a world where the voice of everyone is or would be heard irrespective of age or status. It’s the idea that is more important than who is saying it. This has resulted in a generation where people are more vocal and opinionated. This is not just limited to social structure but also have been incorporated in organization which has become more flat over a period of time. What is the result of this change?
In my opinion dealing with people has become more difficult compared to our previous generation. Not that I am complaining and I think that this is a move in the right direction but everyone requires more convincing and explanation and people will not on board to your idea unless they are sure about it. Of course, this includes me as well. This results in more dis-agreements. This is easily visible by the number of divorce rate and people now having a smaller group of friends and the concept of personal space. This is a problem in organizations as well but one of the thing that works well in the organization is that they can solve this problem via ideas and beliefs that employee is evaluated on to channelize employee behavior. One simple example is Amazon's leadership principle where one of the principle is Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit. While the have backbone, part is good, disagree and commit means if a decision is taken you wholeheartedly work to make the decision successful even if you disagree which is a great way solving the problem of 100% agreement. The underlying assumption is that it’s super difficult to get 100% agreement in a flat organizational structure.
So what's the core problem? The problem is that we millennials are use to a world of instant gratification and for most of us patience is not a skill. In my opinion, this has resulted in an overall decrease in interpersonal relationship skills and this is where the book helps. It helps you deal with other PEOPLE and the other person could be as close as your spouse or a stranger on the road.
The great thing about the book is that it breaks the brain in simple virtual regions and it’s very easy to make mental model of the entire book. The brain has entities called human, chimp and computer. All of them and their behavior very familiar to us and hence the overhead of remembering anything is very less. Without diving in more detail, the book would help you deal with other people and would eventually help you in making good peaceful relationship with others. It would help you disagree with people in a more agreeable way J
Kudos to Prof Steve Pete for writing such an awesome book. I would highly recommend everyone to read this book.
So what's the core problem? The problem is that we millennials are use to a world of instant gratification and for most of us patience is not a skill. In my opinion, this has resulted in an overall decrease in interpersonal relationship skills and this is where the book helps. It helps you deal with other PEOPLE and the other person could be as close as your spouse or a stranger on the road.
The great thing about the book is that it breaks the brain in simple virtual regions and it’s very easy to make mental model of the entire book. The brain has entities called human, chimp and computer. All of them and their behavior very familiar to us and hence the overhead of remembering anything is very less. Without diving in more detail, the book would help you deal with other people and would eventually help you in making good peaceful relationship with others. It would help you disagree with people in a more agreeable way J
Kudos to Prof Steve Pete for writing such an awesome book. I would highly recommend everyone to read this book.
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