Blinkist Summary Book

2021-10-03 06:39:44 Sapiens
Part of 2/26


A note to readers: this Blink was redone especially for audio. This is the reason why the text version might differ from the audio version. If you’re trying to decide whether to listen or to read we highly recommend listening!
Although not the first humans Homo sapiens came to replace all other human species on Earth.  
We humans are pretty special: we completely dominate the planet and we’ve even moved beyond the Earth’s boundaries to explore and possibly colonize space.
How have we been able to do so much? In order to find out we must go back to the start to the evolution of our human species.
Humans first appeared about 2.5 million years ago in East Africa evolving from a genus of great apes known as Australopithecus . These early humans such as Homo rudolfensis and Homo erectus eventually migrated abandoning East Africa for more promising environments. Adaptation to these new habitats led them to evolve into even more forms of Homo including Homo neanderthalensis in Europe Open / Comment

2021-10-03 06:39:43 Sapiens
Part of 1/26


What’s in it for me? Immerse yourself in humanity’s 300 000 year journey.
Spread both your arms out as wide as you can and let the distance between your two hands represent the history of the Earth. How much of this distance would human history take up? One arm up to the elbow maybe? A hand? A finger? Not even close. If you wanted to see the space taken up by humanity you’d need a powerful microscope.
And yet although we have been around for an incredibly short amount of time we have achieved so much. No other species has come close to dominating the planet to the degree that we have. So how has this all been possible?
In these blinks we will explore those key elements in human history – from the development of language to the creation of money – that have made us who we are today.
In these blinks you’ll discover
why farming actually made people worse off;
why writing was invented to chase up lapsed debts; and
why the last decades have been the most peaceful in history. Open / Comment

2021-10-03 06:39:43 Sapiens
Part of 0/26

Sapiens (2015) traces the evolution of our species – from the rise of our most ancient ancestors to our current place in the modern technological age. How have we a species of hairless tailless ape managed to completely dominate the entire planet? These blinks show you the developments and trends that have allowed Homo sapiens to rise to the top. Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:40:00 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 19/21

lem she is seeking validation. She wants her partner to listen and show that he understands. So an immediate solution might be misinterpreted as a rejection of her anguish rather than an attempt to help. It would be better to listen to her carefully.
You could also follow this advice. If you are very upset during a dispute try to take a break to calm down. Strong emotions tend to distort your thinking so you will likely say or do something you might regret. Fortunately a cool-down period may help.
Some marriage counselors even advise couples to monitor their pulses during a quarrel. A pulse rate that overshoots the person’s average rate by more than 10 bpm indicates that the person is getting too emotional to think rationally and needs a rest period.
The final piece of advice is: if you have to criticize someone be specific and offer a solution. By picking an incident and pointing out exactly what should have been done differently and what was done well you'll make yourself clear an Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:40:00 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 18/21

on. They are convinced that there is not much they can do about their success anyway. If you want to be successful try to avoid this thought process.
 
You can use emotional intelligence in all kinds of settings from the office to your love life.
You may now know quite a bit about emotional intelligence. But you may also be asking yourself – how can I use this knowledge practically?  
Here is some advice that can help you use your emotional intelligence in your everyday life.
The first piece of advice is: you can avoid misunderstandings in a relationship if you take into account the different ways that men and women deal with emotions. Typically girls are raised to talk about their feelings and connect through intimate talk while boys learn to minimize feelings that might make them appear vulnerable.
For example if a female partner complains about a problem the male reaction might be to instantly offer advice. But this could be wrong; often when a woman complains about a prob Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:39:59 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 17/21

left out but it’s possible that he didn't want to bother me because he knew I was busy drawing up the annual accounts.” In this way you’ll feel less upset.
If you want to improve your empathy you can try to mirror another person's body language. This is helpful because body language doesn't solely express emotions – it also evokes them. So for example by mirroring another person's tense posture you may induce tenseness in yourself.
If you want to enhance your ability to self-motivate and think more positively follow this advice:
The way you explain your successes and failures has an impact on your ability to motivate yourself. To become self-motivated start thinking like this: people who can convince themselves that failures are due to something they can change don’t give up so easily. They continue to try because they believe that a successful outcome depends on their own actions.
In contrast those who attribute a setback to some permanent personal deficit are likely to give up so Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:39:59 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 16/21

prone to blindly acting on impulse.
Several very diverse societal factors shape a future community's well-being but obviously emotional intelligence is among the more influential ones.
 
There are several ways to boost your emotional intelligence.
As we have learnt that emotional intelligence can lead to a fulfilled life you may now be asking if it is possible to boost it.
The answer is yes and a series of exercises can help you achieve this.
If you want to enhance your self-awareness and self-management you can practice using inner dialogues. This will assist you in identifying and naming your feelings.
For example if your friend tells everyone but you about his marital problems you may feel upset. But inner dialogue can help you resolve this. You should ask yourself “Why am I hurt? Because my best friend confided his marital problems to everyone but me.“
Now having identified this feeling and its cause you can dampen its power. You could instead tell yourself “I may feel Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:39:59 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 15/21

ional competence. Children who grow up in an environment surrounded by emotionally intelligent people will also display high levels of it. This was confirmed by a study that showed that children of emotionally intelligent parents are better at regulating their own emotions show lower stress levels are better liked by their peers and described as more socially adept by their teachers.
It’s perhaps not surprising that a child’s own emotional intelligence is also related to its welfare. Children with deficits in self-awareness empathy or impulse control are at risk of developing mental health problems and tend to have more problems at school.
All this evidence shows that the emotional intelligence of children is central to the future of our communities. The children of today are the parents managers and politicians of tomorrow. In short many will have a big impact on future society and it would help any community if the people in charge were empathic good at resolving conflicts and not Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:39:55 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 14/21

hasis on emotional skills in the typical school curriculum.
 
The future of American society will depend on its children’s emotional intelligence.
While high emotional intelligence makes people happy and healthy poor emotional intelligence can have society-wide negative effects. For example the tripling of the US teen murder rate between 1965 and 1990 can be linked to diminishing emotional intelligence.
There is strong evidence that suggests that deficits in emotional intelligence can cause delinquency – a major factor in increasing crime rates.
For example studies show that violent teen delinquents find it difficult to control their impulses and also find it hard to read other people’s facial expressions – deficiencies which are also found in adult sex offenders. Drug addicts also display emotional intelligence problems. For example heroin addicts have difficulty regulating anger even prior to their addiction.
There’s little doubt that a child’s welfare is determined by emot Open / Comment

2021-10-02 06:39:55 Emotional Intelligence
Part of 13/21

Managers who are more socially adept also tend to be more persuasive.
What’s more emotional intelligence can also help us lead healthier lifestyles.
This can be seen by looking at stress. When we go through stressful periods our hearts are put under immense strain because our blood pressure is raised. This leaves us at risk of cardiac arrest.
Stress can also weaken your immune system as demonstrated by a study that suggested that people under stress are significantly more likely to catch a cold.
However emotional intelligence can help us avoid the dangers of stress. This is because if you learn to mitigate stressful feelings like anxiety and anger you'll reduce those feelings' harmful effects on your health. For example in a clinical study people who had already suffered one heart attack were coached to manage their anger which significantly lowered their risk of further attacks.
Given the great impact of emotional intelligence on success and health there is remarkably little emp Open / Comment