The Complexity of Greatness PDF Download

Author: Scott Barry Kaufman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190240768
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
What are the origins of greatness? Few other questions have caused such intense debate, controversy, and diversity of opinions. In recent years, a large body of research has accumulated that suggests that the origins of greatness are extraordinarily complex. Instead of talent or practice, it's talent and practice. Instead of nature or nature, it's nature via nurture. Instead of practice, it's deliberate practice. Instead of the causes of greatness in general, it's the determinants of greatness specific to a field. The Complexity of Greatness brings together a variety of perspectives and the most cutting-edge research on genes, talent, intelligence, expertise, deliberate practice, creativity, prodigies, savants, passion, and persistence. A variety of different domains are represented, including science, mathematics, expert memory, acting, visual arts, music, and sports. This book demonstrates that the truth about greatness is far more nuanced, complex, and fascinating than any one viewpoint or paradigm can possibly reveal. Indeed, it suggests that the time has come to go beyond talent or practice. Greatness is much, much more.

Author: Dean Keith Simonton
Publisher: Guilford Press
ISBN: 9780898622010
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description
This path-breaking work offers the first comprehensive examination of the important personalities and events that have influenced the course of history. It discusses whether people who go down in history are different from the rest of us and whether specific personality traits predispose certain people to become world leaders, movie stars, scientific geniuses, and athletes. It sheds light on the depth of potential in everyone, yielding important clues as to how we can take advantage of our own individual personality traits. Probing the lives of a range of important figures, the book explores the full range of phenomena associated with greatness, scrutinizing the significance of everything from genetic inheritance, intuition, aesthetic appreciation, and birth order, to formal education, sexual orientation, aging, IQ, and alcohol and drug abuse. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in the people and events that have helped shape the world, including mental health professionals and scholars studying psychological topics in the larger context of science, art, politics, and history. The book also serves as an engaging text for undergraduate psychology courses.

Author: Kenneth O. Stanley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319155245
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Why does modern life revolve around objectives? From how science is funded, to improving how children are educated -- and nearly everything in-between -- our society has become obsessed with a seductive illusion: that greatness results from doggedly measuring improvement in the relentless pursuit of an ambitious goal. In Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, Stanley and Lehman begin with a surprising scientific discovery in artificial intelligence that leads ultimately to the conclusion that the objective obsession has gone too far. They make the case that great achievement can't be bottled up into mechanical metrics; that innovation is not driven by narrowly focused heroic effort; and that we would be wiser (and the outcomes better) if instead we whole-heartedly embraced serendipitous discovery and playful creativity. Controversial at its heart, yet refreshingly provocative, this book challenges readers to consider life without a destination and discovery without a compass.

Author: Daniel Coyle
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 034553669X
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
A manual for building a faster brain and a better you! The Little Book of Talent is an easy-to-use handbook of scientifically proven, field-tested methods to improve skills—your skills, your kids’ skills, your organization’s skills—in sports, music, art, math, and business. The product of five years of reporting from the world’s greatest talent hotbeds and interviews with successful master coaches, it distills the daunting complexity of skill development into 52 clear, concise directives. Whether you’re age 10 or 100, whether you’re on the sports field or the stage, in the classroom or the corner office, this is an essential guide for anyone who ever asked, “How do I get better?” Praise for The Little Book of Talent “The Little Book of Talent should be given to every graduate at commencement, every new parent in a delivery room, every executive on the first day of work. It is a guidebook—beautiful in its simplicity and backed by hard science—for nurturing excellence.”—Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit “It’s so juvenile to throw around hyperbolic terms such as ‘life-changing,’ but there’s no other way to describe The Little Book of Talent. I was avidly trying new things within the first half hour of reading it and haven’t stopped since. Brilliant. And yes: life-changing.”—Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence

Author: Scott Kaufman
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465025544
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
Questioning everything we know about the childhood predictors of adult greatness, a cognitive psychologist, who was told as a child that he wasn't smart enough to graduate from high school, explores the latest research to uncover the truth about human potential.

Author: Scott Edinger
Publisher: AMACOM
ISBN: 0814434002
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book helps managers recognize hidden gems in the workplace and learn how to utilize them for their greatest impact. Think you can spot the leaders in your company? Don’t assume that you can identify them by their positions. What about those employees who consistently step up: the field agent who solves a previously intractable problem; the service rep who thinks outside the box and creates unshakeable customer loyalty. These are more than “good employees”, these are “hidden leaders” and they are critical to an organization’s long-term success. Managers today need to make the most of all their resources—and The Hidden Leader shows them how to identify and cultivate these talented but under utilized employees, who: Demonstrate integrity Lead through authentic relationships Focus on results Work from clear customer purpose Fulfill the value promise of the company Don’t settle for the traditional feedback that tells you these are “good employees” who deserve a pat on the back and a 3 percent increase at the end of the year. These hidden leaders will soon be pulled out by another organization giving them the opportunity they deserve. Supported by real-world examples of hidden leaders in action--and QR codes readers can scan for instant access to online assessments--The Hidden Leader helps managers discover these secret saviors and enable them to deliver even greater value to customers.

Author: William Ophuls
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781479243143
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
*Immoderate Greatness* explains how a civilization's very magnitude conspires against it to cause downfall. Civilizations are hard-wired for self-destruction. They travel an arc from initial success to terminal decay and ultimate collapse due to intrinsic, inescapable biophysical limits combined with an inexorable trend toward moral decay and practical failure. Because our own civilization is global, its collapse will also be global, as well as uniquely devastating owing to the immensity of its population, complexity, and consumption. To avoid the common fate of all past civilizations will require a radical change in our ethos-to wit, the deliberate renunciation of greatness-lest we precipitate a dark age in which the arts and adornments of civilization are partially or completely lost.

Author: Stephen R. Covey
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471128261
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
In the 7 Habits series, international bestselling author Stephen R. Covey showed us how to become as effective as it is possible to be. In his long-awaited new book, THE 8th HABIT, he opens up an entirely new dimension of human potential, and shows us how to achieve greatness in any position and any venue. All of us, Covey says, have within us the means for greatness. To tap into it is a matter of finding the right balance of four human attributes: talent, need, conscience and passion. At the nexus of these four attributes is what Covey calls voice - the unique, personal significance we each possess. Covey exhorts us all to move beyond effectiveness into the realm of greatness - and he shows us how to do so, by engaging our strengths and locating our powerful, individual voices. Why do we need this new habit? Because we have entered a new era in human history. The world is a profoundly different place than when THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE was originally published in 1989. The challenges and complexity we face today are of a different order of magnitude. We enjoy far greater autonomy in all areas of our lives, and along with this freedom comes the expectation that we will manage ourselves, instead of being managed by others. At the same time, we struggle to feel engaged, fulfilled and passionate. Tapping into the higher reaches of human genius and motivation to find our voice requires a new mindset, a new skill-set, a new tool-set - in short, a whole new habit.

Author: Robert Jordan
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0812517725
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 743

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Book Description
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and pass. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow. For centuries, gleemen have told of The Great Hunt of the Horn. Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages. And it is stolen. THE WHEEL OF TIME Book One: The Eye of the World Book Two: The Great Hunt Book Three: The Dragon Reborn Book Four: The Shadow Rising Book Five: The Fires of Heaven Book Six: Lord of Chaos Book Seven: A Crown of Swords Book Eight: The Path of Daggers Book Nine: Winter's Heart Book Ten: Crossroads of Twilight

Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 014190349X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
From the bestselling author of Blink and The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success overturns conventional wisdom about genius to show us what makes an ordinary person an extreme overachiever. Why do some people achieve so much more than others? Can they lie so far out of the ordinary? In this provocative and inspiring book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at everyone from rock stars to professional athletes, software billionaires to scientific geniuses, to show that the story of success is far more surprising, and far more fascinating, than we could ever have imagined. He reveals that it's as much about where we're from and what we do, as who we are - and that no one, not even a genius, ever makes it alone. Outliers will change the way you think about your own life story, and about what makes us all unique. 'Gladwell is not only a brilliant storyteller; he can see what those stories tell us, the lessons they contain' Guardian 'Malcolm Gladwell is a global phenomenon ... he has a genius for making everything he writes seem like an impossible adventure' Observer 'He is the best kind of writer - the kind who makes you feel like you're a genius, rather than he's a genius' The Times