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My favorite book of 2020

Revisado: 03-11-20

The 2020 year has just begun, and I already know that this is almost certainly going to remain as my favorite book all the way through until the end of the year.

Great job, Epstein!

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Summary deceptively short & > 1/3 of audiobook was advertising

Revisado: 11-08-19

I thought the summary was fairly good until I realized that the last 7-minutes of the 19-minute audiobook was merely advertising for the publisher! Do not waste your time!

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Important book, misguided policy proposals

Revisado: 07-27-19

Mr. Hassan is indeed an expert in his field and no doubt has helped a great many people. I will only comment on his failure to understand the nation state as a cult by the very same definitions that he gives for all other cults. Nobody anywhere has signed the so-called social contract, and everything the state does comes about by undue influence: violence or threats of violence. Therefore, sadly, Mr. Hassan’s policy proposals are misguided as a result. Further, Mr. Hassan rightly recognizes a great many cases in which the US government failed to act to stop one group or another from infringing on the rights of others (cases of harassment by members of Scientology for ex.) or when the government outright violated the rights of others itself (MK Ultra, for example). Yet for some reason he thinks that exactly the same rights-violating government should be sought out as a supposed trustworthy actor to save us all from relatively much less dangerous cults.

Having said all of this, I still enjoyed the book a great deal. It is an important work for understanding the cult mindset and human influence. I am very glad to have finally read (or listened to) it — perhaps almost as glad to have read Robert Cialdini’s book Influence, and that is to say a lot.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

In my top 3 favorite books

Revisado: 05-08-19

This book taught me to find spontaneous order in more places than I ever thought possible.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Very good!!

Revisado: 08-25-16

What did you like best about this story?

I now have a clearer understanding of a topic for which I was fairly ignorant. Thanks to the author!! Great read.

Any additional comments?

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

Great refresher

Revisado: 01-19-16

Any additional comments?

I am an advanced speaker of Spanish but a non-native. For me this audiobook served as a great refresher for the 1,000+ verbs it covers.

There are several ways to us most verbs, so this audiobook really was great practice. Although I did already know the majority of the verbs, there were many times that I caught myself thinking "Ah, I didn't know that I can also use that verb in that particular way." Or "Oh yeah, I know that verb. I need to use it more when I'm speaking Spanish in order to diversify my vocabulary." There were also many times that I clicked the "Go back 30 seconds" button in order to contemplate what I had just heard and try to commit the previous sentence(s) to memory. Repetition is important, so I recommend other listeners also do this.

All in all, this was an excellent audiobook. I am considering also buying the print edition of the book so that I can go through the material again for further practice.

Note:
I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

EXCELLENT

Revisado: 12-28-15

If you could sum up Pimsleur Spanish Level 5 in three words, what would they be?

Challenging. Helpful.

Any additional comments?

The product couldn't have squeezed any better material for the number of hours that the course lasted. I took advanced Spanish courses at university years ago and needed a refresher since I do not speak as frequently as I used to. Pimsleur Spanish level 5 was the first Pimsleur course I've ever used, and I was particularly impressed with quality of content and the pace. Audio courses from other companies I've used in the past were dreadfully slow. Pimsleur's Spanish level 5 progressed perfectly. Lastly, the reading exercises at the end were also nice. I printed the PDF available on Audible.com along with the audio program and studied it at my own pace. It was a great refresher of the audio course.

Request: I would personally like to see Pimsleur develop Spanish level 6 and Brazilian Portuguese levels 4, 5 & 6. I understand that Pimsleur expects to release Brazilian Portuguese level 4 on November 8, 2016, and I have already setup a reminder on my digital calendar for that time. I hope that it will become immediately available at Audible.com so I won't have to wait.

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Great book!

Revisado: 05-01-15

Any additional comments?

The book:
As for The Culture Map as a book, I found it to be well-written and very useful. Erin Meyer is very knowledgeable and experienced, and her analysis matched much of what I have learned from other respected sources. She not only draws from much of the cultural research, but she also uses a lot of examples either from her own experiences or from experiences of others.

My only minor criticism is that at a few points she presents the visual figures in the book admitting that she based the data for them off of research collected from respected sources (Hofstede model of cultural dimensions, for example) and tweaked them a bit based her on own experiences and her own surveys. It is important that she uses research of others - so good so far. I'm also glad that she tweaked the data to match her own findings - still good. But she doesn't explain just exactly how her own findings were from the other models used, doesn't mention how much weight she assigns to her own data versus others, etc. In other words, we don't know what methodology she used to tweak the data. My own experience in doing business all over the world tends to validate her analysis, so it appears to be sound. Nonetheless, in order to let the reader check her data she could have presented how exactly her own findings were slightly different than others.

The narration:
I read the other reviews for this audiobook and noted that other listeners have said that the narrator was either racist or borderline racist because of her poor impersonations of accents of people from various countries.

I had no problem finishing the book. The narrator's accent impersonations were pretty bad, no doubt. (Her Brazilian Portuguese accent, for example, sounds distinctly like a bad Mexican Spanish accent). I am a very well-traveled individual, so I am as qualified as anyone to recognize when the accents are off-target. However, her poor impersonations merely reflected her own lack of exposure to many peoples of the world, and in no way whatsoever were her impersonations necessarily racist. She did her best to imitate accents that she just hadn't been exposed to. The other reviewers that call the narrator racist do so by arguing that the book's purpose was to foster understanding among the many different peoples of the world and the narrator presents the people she impersonates in a stereotypical manner, yet these reviewers fail to acknowledge or understand that most people in the world are unable to impersonate a wide range of accents accurately. Those reviewers don't care to learn anything about the narrator and who she is, but they are perfectly happy to put her into a little box and stereotype her as "racist." Hmm...

I found the narrator's voice is very pleasant to listen to and would have no problem listening to more audiobooks from her in the future.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Outstanding!

Revisado: 07-23-14

Any additional comments?

Marc Levinson finally wrote the book that was long-overdue to be written. Professors often tell students that the shipping container revolutionized business platform around the world, but until now, they weren't been able to explain exactly *how* this came about. Before shipping standardization, international trade was not much to speak of by comparison since loading and unloading merchant ships with non-standardized items such as baskets, barrels, cages, bags, etc. would take several days and many bodies. The vision and implementation was driven by entrepreneurs like Malcom McLean, among others. The idea was to be able to take a container off of a truck or rail car, effortlessly place it onto a ship, quickly remove it from the ship and place it onto another truck or rail car (intermodal freight transport). Along the way, McLean and his competitors fought against protectionism from the railroads, trade unions and various governments, but ultimately, the demand for standardization became strongest during the Vietnam War as the US government desperately sought a more efficient means to transport goods.

The Box is both exciting and very well-written. Anyone remotely interested in international trade, business, logistics or related fields should consider The Box a must-read!

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esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

I loved this book!

Revisado: 07-22-13

Would you listen to Brain Rules for Baby again? Why?

Yes! My son was just born. I took so many notes on the Audible iPhone app and will either "read" this book again sometime in the next year (on 1.5 speed, since I've already finished it) or around the time of my next child's birth.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Any additional comments?

As a new parent that normally prefers to read social psychology (as it pertains to adults), I doubted I would enjoy this book very much. But the book surpassed my expectations by far and is now one of my favorite books on human behavior. Why? Because instead of just explaining how the brain works (like other books I've read and liked), from this book I get to know how it develops!

John Medina is obviously very intelligent, but from his lively narration and story telling, the reader/listener gets to like him as a person. He is very entertaining.

Sincerely, this book prepares me for childhood. I know when and how to set rules, how to punish when necessary, what parenting styles have been scientifically demonstrated to be more effective and how to create a happy, healthy and intelligent baby.

I look forward to reading Medina's other book, Brain Rules.

Hey Dr. Medina! (I'm sure you'll read your reviews), I look forward to reading your future books under the following titles:
- Brain Rules for Kids
- Brain Rules for Teenagers

I will need them!

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