My 3 Takeaways from "Barking Up The Wrong Tree" by Eric Barker
🔖 Summary in 3 Sentences
This book tells a lot of interesting stories. Through a different kind of perspective, it makes you think about who you are, and what you going to achieve in life. Helps you reflect and realize what's important for you.
🧑🏻 Who Should Read It?
Thinker.
🔑 My 3 Key Takeaways
Be Givers, not Takers.
Givers are found at the very top and very bottom.
The author tells a very interesting story to explain why you need to be a Giver, not Taker. There's a popular economic theory called Prisoner's Dilemma. A competition is held for computer algorithms to play Prisoner's Dilemma against each other, and see which strategy can produce the best outcome. And the winner is the algorithm that always does good, and only does the opposite when the opposition takes advantage of it. With this strategy, it will attract the other Givers or Matchers (someone who only does good to you when you do good to them) to come to you; while punishing Takers (someone who takes advantage of others).
Learn to forgive.
Remember the thing that made tit for tat even better? Occasionally forgiving. It prevented death spirals.
The improvement for the algorithm mentioned above is occasional forgive. We might think that we only do good to Givers and Matchers; while always defending against the Takers is a good strategy. But the result shows that occasional forgive is a better strategy because it will prevent the death spiral. Other than that, forgiving is an important trait to learn not just to forgive others, but also to forgive yourself. Someone who always holds tight on the past cannot move forward.
Self-starters are rare.
If you're doing awesome work, people more successful than you will notice and want to help you. Talented, resourceful self-starters are rare.
Getting a mentor is very important, but what makes a busy mentor take their time off to invest in you? You need to start yourself, do everything you can before you find them. A mentor is not a babysitter. When they see the grit and hard work you put in, they are more likely to help you, because they see their old self in you.
💭 Afterthought
I like the writing of this author. He brings different stories to strengthen his point. Everything got 2 sides, and you need to think it through rationally to get a clear picture of it. This book discusses a lot of topics like "Does nice guys finish last?", "Do quitter never wins?", "Work-life balance?" and a few more. After reading through the whole book, it helps you to make your decision on those topics.
If you're interested, you can subscribe to Eric Barker's blog for more articles from him.
🛍 How to Buy?
I bought this Kindle e-book on Amazon for RM8.46.
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