A review by rick2
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley
3.0
It’s good… I think it’s a really decent model for talking about conflict, but I don’t think it has enough nuance to really make an impact. Essentially drawing the line into positive conflict and negative conflict is a positive step into a better level of sophistication around conflict. But it’s way too simplified. I think this model is probably helpful for talking with other people about conflict to an extent.
But the huge but here is that I don’t see someone reading this book and fundamentally changing the way that they interact with conflict.
First, enough with the jargon, the author mentions the word “understory“ nearly every chapter. Fire bringer, and other such nonsense words are popular and annoying. Sprinkled in the book like rat turds that you can discover while reading. The jargon detracts from the book and essentially creates its own little world where the author can solve the problems related to that but they don’t seem too heavily tied to the world I live in.
Second, The author picks her examples in a really weird way. We end up spending a lot of time with this guy who is a lawyer and runs for city Council and does a terrible job. But when she’s talking about global or larger conflicts we seem to skim over the details. Pointing to a few notable similarities and ignoring the details.
I think at the core of this book is a plea to treat other people with more humanity. Listening to them, seeing them for the complex humans if they really are. However the book falls short of really helping one to bridge that gap beyond consistently telling you to listen better
But the huge but here is that I don’t see someone reading this book and fundamentally changing the way that they interact with conflict.
First, enough with the jargon, the author mentions the word “understory“ nearly every chapter. Fire bringer, and other such nonsense words are popular and annoying. Sprinkled in the book like rat turds that you can discover while reading. The jargon detracts from the book and essentially creates its own little world where the author can solve the problems related to that but they don’t seem too heavily tied to the world I live in.
Second, The author picks her examples in a really weird way. We end up spending a lot of time with this guy who is a lawyer and runs for city Council and does a terrible job. But when she’s talking about global or larger conflicts we seem to skim over the details. Pointing to a few notable similarities and ignoring the details.
I think at the core of this book is a plea to treat other people with more humanity. Listening to them, seeing them for the complex humans if they really are. However the book falls short of really helping one to bridge that gap beyond consistently telling you to listen better