Scan barcode
A review by graciegrace1178
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy
4.0
If you're looking for a pat on the back and a push to just go do the thing you've been procrastinating on bc it's mildly-to-extremely terrifying, this is for you. Target audience: 3V-1s and 3V-2s.
PT: self-development and motivation books, books that have been on my TBR for too long
WIL
1) For someone who just needs a motivational boost before a big interview or presentation, this is great. Really awesome book and full of fun, bite-sized tidbits about how motivation works and WHY certain tactics are so effective. (But... continued in WIDL 3)
2) Cuddy's got a natural and decently infectious enthusiasm about her! Love that! Always a great quality in an audiobook reader and a presenter on motivation.
3a) Emphasis on boldness. Oh, I do quite like this. I love that she structures this around the idea that one can BECOME bold, not that one is lacking particular qualities (e.g. confidence, strength of will, etc.).It's about building up from a baseline, not about catching up or trying to fill in a quality that one "should" already have. It's a kind way of approaching self-development and encouraging motivational skills.
3b) It's also not about reducing qualities one might have an abundance of, or at least it doesn't spend too much time on that. Talking about having a lot of anxiety and trying to bring down levels of anxiety tends to be a common trend in a lot of these sort of books, and that can be, well, anxiety-inducing. Cuddy instead switches the language and makes this about BEING bold and GAINING bold qualities and not so much about reducing anxiety/suffering. It makes the transition to boldness smoother and less of an existential burden. (Anxious readers might see: "reduce anxiety with these10 steps" which can lead to overthinking in the vein of: "If I'm losing my anxiety, I'm losing a part of myself. Oh god oh god I can't afford that loss of self because then I'll be nOTHING; I'll have NO personality." Cuddy takes the more modern approach of explaining that it's all part of a self-development and growth journey which then allows readers the more soothing self-message of: "I can develop this part of myself and learn and grow!! I won't be losing myself; I'll find more parts of myself along the way.")
4) genuinely inspiring. That last part especially. It's always cool to hear about other people chasing their dreams!
WIDL
1) (continuation of WIL 1) ...it's not super great technically. The science is a bit lacking and even a little misleading at times. Sure this was published in 2015 and we've come a long way since then, but even in 2015, neuropsychologists and psychoneuroendocrinologists knew that there was more to motivation than a simple breakdown of testosterone and cortisol. Sure, that's a quick way to look at it, but that reductionist viewpoint reinforces some pervasive pop-psych ideas. And that's my segue into WIDL 2:
2) (extracted from reading progress notes) It's worth considering that the dual-hormone hypothesis (high testosterone and low cortisol) might only be associated with positive/beneficial leadership qualities because there is a pre-existing societal expectation that high testosterone and low cortisol WILL produce good leaders. Basically, I don't think it's of *evolutionary* origin that high T/low C= a good leader. I think there could be roots in social history. The issue I take with this is that readers will come out of this associating testosterone with success, and that then gets funneled down the line into some rather obnoxious ideas about women's inferiority due to a "lack of testosterone." Reductionism in pop-psych and self-development books can be problematic!! Maybe Cuddy made a disclaimer about this; if she did, I missed it. And Cuddy, if you did make that disclaimer, I apologize for this. But I do wish you had made a LOUDER disclaimer.
3) (extracted from reading progress notes) Testosterone and cortisol are valuable data points, but taking them in isolation with that particular questionnaire is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You gotta take estrogen, dopamine, serotonin, GABA, norepinephrine, epinephrine, glutamate, histamine, tyrosine, etc. Also, what about myelin strength?? There is so much that is out of scope here that these data points seem useless. Especially in the context of the previous info about the anatomy of motivation.
PT: self-development and motivation books, books that have been on my TBR for too long
WIL
1) For someone who just needs a motivational boost before a big interview or presentation, this is great. Really awesome book and full of fun, bite-sized tidbits about how motivation works and WHY certain tactics are so effective. (But... continued in WIDL 3)
2) Cuddy's got a natural and decently infectious enthusiasm about her! Love that! Always a great quality in an audiobook reader and a presenter on motivation.
3a) Emphasis on boldness. Oh, I do quite like this. I love that she structures this around the idea that one can BECOME bold, not that one is lacking particular qualities (e.g. confidence, strength of will, etc.).It's about building up from a baseline, not about catching up or trying to fill in a quality that one "should" already have. It's a kind way of approaching self-development and encouraging motivational skills.
3b) It's also not about reducing qualities one might have an abundance of, or at least it doesn't spend too much time on that. Talking about having a lot of anxiety and trying to bring down levels of anxiety tends to be a common trend in a lot of these sort of books, and that can be, well, anxiety-inducing. Cuddy instead switches the language and makes this about BEING bold and GAINING bold qualities and not so much about reducing anxiety/suffering. It makes the transition to boldness smoother and less of an existential burden. (Anxious readers might see: "reduce anxiety with these10 steps" which can lead to overthinking in the vein of: "If I'm losing my anxiety, I'm losing a part of myself. Oh god oh god I can't afford that loss of self because then I'll be nOTHING; I'll have NO personality." Cuddy takes the more modern approach of explaining that it's all part of a self-development and growth journey which then allows readers the more soothing self-message of: "I can develop this part of myself and learn and grow!! I won't be losing myself; I'll find more parts of myself along the way.")
4) genuinely inspiring. That last part especially. It's always cool to hear about other people chasing their dreams!
WIDL
1) (continuation of WIL 1) ...it's not super great technically. The science is a bit lacking and even a little misleading at times. Sure this was published in 2015 and we've come a long way since then, but even in 2015, neuropsychologists and psychoneuroendocrinologists knew that there was more to motivation than a simple breakdown of testosterone and cortisol. Sure, that's a quick way to look at it, but that reductionist viewpoint reinforces some pervasive pop-psych ideas. And that's my segue into WIDL 2:
2) (extracted from reading progress notes) It's worth considering that the dual-hormone hypothesis (high testosterone and low cortisol) might only be associated with positive/beneficial leadership qualities because there is a pre-existing societal expectation that high testosterone and low cortisol WILL produce good leaders. Basically, I don't think it's of *evolutionary* origin that high T/low C= a good leader. I think there could be roots in social history. The issue I take with this is that readers will come out of this associating testosterone with success, and that then gets funneled down the line into some rather obnoxious ideas about women's inferiority due to a "lack of testosterone." Reductionism in pop-psych and self-development books can be problematic!! Maybe Cuddy made a disclaimer about this; if she did, I missed it. And Cuddy, if you did make that disclaimer, I apologize for this. But I do wish you had made a LOUDER disclaimer.
3) (extracted from reading progress notes) Testosterone and cortisol are valuable data points, but taking them in isolation with that particular questionnaire is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You gotta take estrogen, dopamine, serotonin, GABA, norepinephrine, epinephrine, glutamate, histamine, tyrosine, etc. Also, what about myelin strength?? There is so much that is out of scope here that these data points seem useless. Especially in the context of the previous info about the anatomy of motivation.