THINK AGAIN BY ADAM GRANT BOOK REVIEW & SUMMARY

In this video I’m excited to provide my review 
and summary of the book Think Again by Adam Grant,  
and I also have a free pdf giveaway for you which 
I’ll talk about towards the end of this video. Hi  
this is Supreet, I’m an engineer-turned-leadership 
trainer. I upload weekly videos about books,  
personal growth and meditation. so here’s 
my review of think again by adam grant!  
it is very well written, it flows smoothly 
from part one which is individual rethinking  
to part two interpersonal rethinking to part three 
collective rethinking. in the book adam writes  
“when i write a book i like to enlist my own 
challenge network i recruit a group of people  
who are my most thoughtful critics and that 
i ask them to tear each chapter apart”. it is  
evident that adam did that with this book. the 
acknowledgement section shows that many people  
were consulted to improve the book. this book 
is a labor of love for sure. this book is for  
anyone who wants to rethink on an individual 
level or at a collective level or help others  
to rethink. it will be especially appealing for 
you if you are an analytical person like me,  
who likes to think about thinking, and rethinking, 
and rethink about rethinking! it has

ideas  
that can help entrepreneurs, managers, leaders, 
parents and mostly just anyone with an open mind.  
i should mention that although i have read more 
than 100 self-help books, this is the first book  
that i have read on the topic of rethinking. many 
concepts are explained using graphs and being  
a person with a scientific background, i love 
graphs! i think graphs are super cool! it has lots  
of great stories including two stories from nasa. 
stories involving astronauts and space station  
are always fun for me. at the end there is a 
section called actions for impact where he has  
summarized all the practical takeaways for you 
in just a few pages. i am all about the practical  
application of self-help books. if a book just 
makes you feel good or motivated in the short  
term, what’s the point? i think that it would be 
a good idea to revisit these practical actions  
at the end of the book if you don’t have time 
to reread the whole book. the only thing that  
i wasn’t a fan of was the weird way he wrote the 
epilogue at the end. but that is so so minor that  
i would still give this book five stars. if you 
want to buy the book, the amazon links are in  
the description below. if you don’t want to buy 
the book, think again! if you’re getting value  
out of this video, smash that like button! thank 
you! now i will give you my summary of this book.  
this book is an invitation to let go of the 
knowledge and opinions that are no longer  
serving you well, and also to anchor yourself in 
a sense of flexibility rather than consistency.  
most of us including myself take pride in our 
knowledge and expertise and in staying true  
to our beliefs and opinions. that makes sense 
in a stable world where we get rewarded for  
having conviction in our ideas. but the problem 
is that we live in a rapidly changing world  
where we need to spend as much time rethinking 
as we do thinking. rethinking is a skill set  
but it is also a mindset. we often prefer the ease 
of hanging on to old views over the difficulty of  
grappling with new ones. we favor the comfort of 
conviction over the discomfort of doubt. we laugh  
at people who still use windows 95 yet we still 
cling to the opinions that we formed in 1995.  
we listen to views that make us feel good instead 
of ideas that make us think hard. questioning  
ourselves makes the world more unpredictable. 
it requires us to admit that the facts may have  
changed and that what was once right may now 
be wrong. reconsidering something we believe  
deeply, can threaten our identities, making it 
feel as if we’re losing a part of ourselves.  
adam says that as we think and talk, we 
often slip into the mindset of a preacher,  
a prosecutor or a politician. the risk is that 
we become so wrapped up in preaching that we’re  
right, prosecuting others who are wrong, and 
politicking for support, that we don’t bother  
to rethink our own views. instead of taking on 
the role of a preacher, prosecutor or politician,  
adam encourages us to consider acting like 
a scientist. if you’re a scientist by trade,  
rethinking is fundamental to your profession. you 
are paid to be constantly aware of the limits of  
your understanding. you’re expected to doubt what 
you know, be curious about what you don’t know  
and update your views based on new data. but 
being a scientist is not just a profession,  
it’s a frame of mind, a mode of thinking 
that differs from preaching, prosecuting  
and politicking. adam grant is an organizational 
psychologist. so i learned lots of interesting  
things about psychology from this book. for 
example the dunning-kruger effect, which says that  
it’s when we lack competence that we’re most 
likely to be brimming with overconfidence. i  
definitely know a few people like that! Dunning 
quips, “the first rule of Dunning Kruger club  
is that you don’t know that you’re a member 
of that club”. another concept of psychology  
that i learned and found fascinating is called 
motivational interviewing or persuasive listening,  
which is a technique to help change someone’s 
mind. when we’re trying to open other people’s  
minds, we can frequently accomplish more by 
listening than by talking. how can you show an  
interest in helping people crystallize their own 
views and uncover their own reasons for change? a  
good way to start is to increase your question to 
statement ratio. motivational interviewing starts  
with an attitude of humility and curiosity. 
we don’t know what might motivate someone  
else to change but we’re genuinely eager to find 
out. the goal isn’t to tell people what to do,  
it is to help them break out of overconfidence 
cycles and see new possibilities. our role is  
to hold up a mirror so they can themselves see 
more clearly, and then empower them to examine  
their beliefs and behaviors. that can activate a 
rethinking cycle in which people approach their  
own views more scientifically. but be careful 
not to use this technique manipulatively.  
psychologists have found that when people 
detect an attempt at influence, it can backfire.
motivational interviewing requires a genuine 
desire to help people reach their goals. i  
am definitely going to try this on my kids and my 
husband! i love the story of the vaccine whisperer  
where a motivational interviewer was able to 
change a mom’s mind in favor of vaccinating her  
kids for measles. this woman came from a village 
of anti-vaxxers and was very adamant about her  
beliefs. the vaccine whisperer changed her mind 
not by giving her any logic or facts or arguments,  
but mostly by listening and being curious 
about her reasons against vaccination.  
a key turning point for the woman was “when the 
vaccine whisperer” and this is her own words  
“told me that whether i choose to vaccinate or 
not he respected my decision as someone who wanted  
the best for my kids. just that sentence 
to me was worth all the gold in the world”  
said the woman. a big practical takeaway for me 
as a parent was never ask your kids what they want  
to be when they grow up. they don’t have to define 
themselves in terms of a career. a single identity  
can close the door to alternatives. instead of 
trying to narrow down their options, help them  
broaden their possibilities. they don’t have to be 
one thing. they can do many things. there are so  
many other nuggets of wisdom in this book which i 
couldn’t fit in this video, but i have compiled my  
top 10 quotes from this book in a pdf that you 
can download for free by going to the link in  
the description below. I’m curious what was your 
top take away from this video? Comment below! If  
you’re interested in my book reviews and summaries 
of other books, you can check out my “Book  
reviews/takeaways” playlist in the description 
below. See you in the next video, Keep growing!

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