Information Wars
2019
by Richard Stengel
Information Wars, by former Time editor and Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel, provides a first-hand account of the challenges faced by the U.S. in combating the rise of global disinformation, which played a significant role in the 2016 election.
Disinformation is not a new phenomenon, but social media has amplified its reach and effects. Stengel's narrative, both dramatic and enlightening, takes readers through the front lines of the global information war during the last three years of the Obama administration. As the single person in the U.S. government responsible for addressing ISIS's messaging and Russian disinformation, Stengel's insights are crucial for understanding the current landscape.
The book delves into regions such as Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, featuring key figures including Putin, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Mohamed bin Salman. It examines how ISIS utilized social media to instill terror and how Russia's disinformation campaign during the annexation of Crimea became a template for future operations, including interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Information Wars is an urgent call to action, emphasizing the need for democratic societies to develop effective strategies to counteract the growing threat of disinformation and protect the integrity of their institutions.
Indistractable
Indistractable provides a framework that will deliver the focus you need to get results. International bestselling author, former Stanford lecturer, and behavioral design expert, Nir Eyal, wrote Silicon Valley's handbook for making technology habit-forming. Five years after publishing Hooked, Eyal reveals distraction's Achilles' heel in his groundbreaking new book.
In Indistractable, Eyal reveals the hidden psychology driving us to distraction. He describes why solving the problem is not as simple as swearing off our devices: Abstinence is impractical and often makes us want more. Eyal lays bare the secret of finally doing what you say you will do with a four-step, research-backed model. Indistractable reveals the key to getting the best out of technology, without letting it get the best of us.
Inside, Eyal overturns conventional wisdom and reveals: Why distraction at work is a symptom of a dysfunctional company culture—and how to fix it; What really drives human behavior and why "time management is pain management"; Why your relationships (and your sex life) depend on you becoming indistractable; How to raise indistractable children in an increasingly distracting world.
Empowering and optimistic, Indistractable provides practical, novel techniques to control your time and attention—helping you live the life you really want.
Talking to Strangers
2019
by Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers--and why they often go wrong .
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn't true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news.
He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland---throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.
How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn't true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news.
He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland---throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.