You Think That's Bad
You Think That's Bad

Author: Jim Shepard

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-03-22

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0307595560

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Following Like You’d Understand, Anyway—awarded the Story Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award—Jim Shepard returns with an even more wildly diverse collection of astonishingly observant stories. Like an expert curator, he populates the vastness of human experience—from its bizarre fringes and lonely, breathtaking pinnacles to the hopelessly mediocre and desperately below average—with brilliant scientists, reluctant soldiers, workaholic artists, female explorers, depraved murderers, and deluded losers, all wholly convincing and utterly fascinating. A “black world” operative at Los Alamos isn’t allowed to tell his wife anything about his daily activities, but he can’t resist sharing her intimate confidences with his work buddy. A young Alpine researcher falls in love with the girlfriend of his brother, who was killed in an avalanche he believes he caused. An unlucky farm boy becomes the manservant of a French nobleman who’s as proud of his military service with Joan of Arc as he’s aroused by the slaughter of children. A free-spirited autodidact, grieving her lost sister, traces the ancient steps of a ruthless Middle Eastern sect and becomes the first Western woman to travel the Arabian deserts. From the inventor of the Godzilla epics to a miserable G.I. in New Guinea, each comes to realize that knowing better is never enough. Enthralling and unfailingly compassionate, You Think That’s Bad traverses centuries, continents, and social strata, but the joy and struggle that Shepard depicts with such devastating sensitivity—all the heartbreak, alienation, intimacy, and accomplishment—has a universal resonance.

Risk
Risk

Author: Dan Gardner

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Published: 2009-02-24

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 1551992108

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In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell, Gardner explores a new way of thinking about the decisions we make. We are the safest and healthiest human beings who ever lived, and yet irrational fear is growing, with deadly consequences — such as the 1,595 Americans killed when they made the mistake of switching from planes to cars after September 11. In part, this irrationality is caused by those — politicians, activists, and the media — who promote fear for their own gain. Culture also matters. But a more fundamental cause is human psychology. Working with risk science pioneer Paul Slovic, author Dan Gardner sets out to explain in a compulsively readable fashion just what that statement above means as to how we make decisions and run our lives. We learn that the brain has not one but two systems to analyze risk. One is primitive, unconscious, and intuitive. The other is conscious and rational. The two systems often agree, but occasionally they come to very different conclusions. When that happens, we can find ourselves worrying about what the statistics tell us is a trivial threat — terrorism, child abduction, cancer caused by chemical pollution — or shrugging off serious risks like obesity and smoking. Gladwell told us about “the black box” of our brains; Gardner takes us inside, helping us to understand how to deconstruct the information we’re bombarded with and respond more logically and adaptively to our world. Risk is cutting-edge reading.

So you think you've had a bad day
So you think you've had a bad day

Author: Rulon Ball

Publisher: Page Publishing Inc

Published: 2022-05-04

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1640829741

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The title of this book is taken from one of the hilarious stories in the book. All of the stories are written about events that have happened to me and others. The clogged drain story is about a secretary who was constipated and took a laxative, then went to work not feeling well. When she sits down on the great white throne, it practically explodes under her. The skunk story will make you wish you had a pet skunk that doesn't stink. My uncle's mule story is so unique and funny you might fall off your chair. Each one is unique and was chosen because it was extra funny or was in some way exciting or otherwise interesting. The Alzheimer's story really gives you food for thought. There are no everyday, run-of-the-mill experiences. Every one of them will either make you laugh, make you cry, or give you something interesting to contemplate. You'll enjoy the shoplifting story. It makes you ask, "Are there really people like that?" Yes, there really are! To avoid confusion about the name Lauren, let me explain. My mother named my older brother, Lauren, after her older brother, Lauren, Jesse's brother. Then I named my middle son, Lauren, after my older brother, Lauren. Therefore, there are three generations of Laurens mentioned in this book. Hope you don't get too confused.

The Scout Mindset
The Scout Mindset

Author: Julia Galef

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-04-13

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0735217556

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"...an engaging and enlightening account from which we all can benefit."—The Wall Street Journal A better way to combat knee-jerk biases and make smarter decisions, from Julia Galef, the acclaimed expert on rational decision-making. When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. In other words, we have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset. From tribalism and wishful thinking, to rationalizing in our personal lives and everything in between, we are driven to defend the ideas we most want to believe—and shoot down those we don't. But if we want to get things right more often, argues Galef, we should train ourselves to have a "scout" mindset. Unlike the soldier, a scout's goal isn't to defend one side over the other. It's to go out, survey the territory, and come back with as accurate a map as possible. Regardless of what they hope to be the case, above all, the scout wants to know what's actually true. In The Scout Mindset, Galef shows that what makes scouts better at getting things right isn't that they're smarter or more knowledgeable than everyone else. It's a handful of emotional skills, habits, and ways of looking at the world—which anyone can learn. With fascinating examples ranging from how to survive being stranded in the middle of the ocean, to how Jeff Bezos avoids overconfidence, to how superforecasters outperform CIA operatives, to Reddit threads and modern partisan politics, Galef explores why our brains deceive us and what we can do to change the way we think.

What If There Is Nothing Wrong with You
What If There Is Nothing Wrong with You

Author: Susan M. Henkels

Publisher: Smh Publishing

Published: 2018-08-31

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 9780692188545

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Dissolving and dismantling your belief that something is wrong with you and replacing that with what is. Redefining a new interpretation of right and wrong

It's Not as Bad as You Think
It's Not as Bad as You Think

Author: Brian S. Wesbury

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-11-09

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 047023833X

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An upbeat antidote to the gloom and doom forecasts of the financial future Just about everyone is worried about the economy and markets. And the fear is that they will stay down for a long time. But a few brave voices say that the gloom and doom forecasts are just too pessimistic. Reality is that entrepreneurs don't give up. History is pretty clear, every time the economy is thought to be done, worn out, finished, it bounces back and heads to new highs. In fact, the economy and the markets-counter to conventional wisdom-have started to improve in the first half of 2009. Even housing is showing some signs of life. With It's Not as Bad as You Think, Brian Wesbury, ranked as one of the top economic forecasters by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, shows you that while the financial future may be hard to predict, it will ultimately be profitable over the long haul. In this easy-to-follow and engaging forecast of the future, Wesbury takes a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly-and debunks the pouting pundits of pessimism to show you how to prosper now and in the future. An optimistic look at the economy and the markets written by one of today's foremost financial forecasters Presents a roadmap to seek opportunities in all the panic Shows you how to analyze economic indicators and government policy to grow your wealth so you don't lose by hiding under the bed A breath of fresh air, Wesbury's objectivity and optimism provide welcome relief to the daily bad news stories, as he sets us all up to capitalize on tomorrow's great possibilities.

Drive
Drive

Author: Daniel H. Pink

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2011-04-05

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1101524383

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The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

A Bad Case of Stripes
A Bad Case of Stripes

Author: David Shannon

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Published: 2016-08-30

Total Pages: 38

ISBN-13: 1338113151

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It's the first day of school, and Camilla discovers that she is covered from head to toe in stripes, then polka-dots, and any other pattern spoken aloud! With a little help, she learns the secret of accepting her true self, in spite of her peculiar ailment.

Like You'd Understand, Anyway
Like You'd Understand, Anyway

Author: Jim Shepard

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2008-08-12

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0307277607

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Following his widely acclaimed Project X and Love and Hydrogen—“Here is the effect of these two books,” wrote the Chicago Tribune: “A reader finishes them buzzing with awe”—Jim Shepard now gives us his first entirely new collection in more than a decade. Like You’d Understand, Anyway reaches from Chernobyl to Bridgeport, with a host of narrators only Shepard could bring to pitch-perfect life. Among them: a middle-aged Aeschylus taking his place at Marathon, still vying for parental approval. A maddeningly indefatigable Victorian explorer hauling his expedition, whaleboat and all, through the Great Australian Desert in midsummer. The first woman in space and her cosmonaut lover, caught in the star-crossed orbits of their joint mission. Two Texas high school football players at the top of their food chain, soliciting their fathers’ attention by leveling everything before them on the field. And the rational and compassionate chief executioner of Paris, whose occupation, during the height of the Terror, eats away at all he holds dear. Brimming with irony, compassion, and withering humor, these eleven stories are at once eerily pertinent and dazzlingly exotic, and they showcase the work of a protean, prodigiously gifted writer at the height of his form. Reading Jim Shepard, according to Michael Chabon, “is like encountering our national literature in microcosm.”

So You Think You’Re Having a Bad Day?
So You Think You’Re Having a Bad Day?

Author: Matthew Braga

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2013-03-12

Total Pages: 91

ISBN-13: 1475976666

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Bad days are just part of life. But for the characters highlighted in Matthew Bragas short story collection, their bad days are just a little bit worse. A husband who wants nothing more than to reconnect with his wife after realizing their marriage is in a slump finally finishes a long-awaited backyard project, only to discover that no matter how much he thinks he knows, sometimes he is not in chargeor in control of anything. When a wife is ill in bed, her husband quietly creeps around the house hoping not to disturb her, but after they have a disastrous meeting in the bathroom, he heads outside where something unanticipated comes downright on her prized flower garden. When a couple moves into a new house, a stray cat soon makes it known that he is smarter than humans. Finally, a little boy who struggles with his difference discovers that he can do anything he wants if he has friendsand a good dream. So You Think Youre Having a Bad Day? is a lighthearted collection of humorous vignettes with an important message that even the worst of days are survivable.