Sam Gosling

I forget exactly where I heard about this book. I suspect it was either on The Happiness Project blog or the Non-Consumer Advocate blog. Either way I read about it, looked it up, and heady with the power of Lansing library's website, immediately placed a hold on a copy and was able to go pick it up a few days later. I love my new library!

Anyway, the book's subtitle is a tiny bit misleading. Of course you could read this book and figure out what other people might think of your stuff, but a more accurate subtitle would be "What you can figure out about other people by snooping through their stuff." I know, not quite as concise, is it?

What I found most interesting in this book were the kinds of conclusions people jump to in judging other people and which ones have a tendency to be correct and which are worthless. Like how people place too much importance on the face-to-face interview in hiring and admissions. Also interesting were the average personality differences between people in different parts of the country or of different political orientations. And the difference between decorations/possessions as outward-focused identity claims versus self-directed emotional regulators.

This was a diverting pop-psychology read. I certainly learned some things. I am glad, though, that I checked it out and didn't run right out and buy it. I don't know exactly what I was looking for in this book, but this ended up feeling just a little... light.… (more)