Shift By Dr. Ethan Kross

 

Credit: Shift, Managing Your Emotions By Ethan Kross

 

Overview

A myth-busting, science-based guide that addresses the timeless question of how to manage your emotional life using tools you already possess—from the bestselling author of Chatter. Whether it’s anxiety about going to the doctor, boiling rage when we’re stuck in traffic, or devastation after a painful break-up, our lives are filled with situations that send us spiraling. But as difficult as our emotions can be, they are also a superpower. Far from being “good” or “bad,” emotions are information. When they’re activated in the right ways and at the right time, they function like an immune system, alerting us to our surroundings, telling us how to react to a situation, and helping us make the right choices. 

But how do we make our emotions work for us rather than against us? Acclaimed psychologist Dr. Ethan Kross has devoted his scientific career to answering this question. In Shift, he dispels common myths—for instance, that avoidance is always toxic or that we should always strive to live in the moment—and provides a new framework for shifting our emotions so they don’t take over our lives. Credit: Penguin Random House.

Like: The Button That Changed The World

 

Credit - Like: The Button That Changed The World

Reeves (The Imagination Machine), chairman of the corporate think tank BCG Henderson Institute, and Goodson, founder of the data analytics company Quid, join forces for a stimulating inquiry into the creation and consequences of the “like” button. They trace the button’s unlikely path to digital ubiquity, describing how in the mid-2000s, news aggregator Digg.com’s distillation of feedback into “digg” and “bury” options foreshadowed the thumbs up/down binary, and how Mark Zuckerberg refused to introduce a like button to Facebook until 2009 because he worried it would undermine his site’s share feature. Exploring the like button’s neurological effects, Reeves and Goodson note studies finding that both liking someone else’s post and receiving likes on social media boosts dopamine levels, which the authors attribute to the evolutionary impulse to share information and reward others who do the same. The authors don’t shy from their subject’s darker side, lamenting that it enables data brokers to track and sell information on individuals’ preferences, and that it may contribute to political polarization by feeding algorithms that create online echo chambers. Credit: Like: The Button That Changed The World.