It seems that we are living in the same world concurrently, experiencing similar events alongside those around us. However, we often feel despair as we notice how differently these events are perceived and interpreted based on each individual‘s preconceived frame of thoughts and biases. Understanding others is one of the most challenging tasks we face, but as social beings, we must strive to do this continuously in order to connect with one another.
Thomas Erikson invites readers to explore the mechanism behind different thought and behavior processes outlined in various personality profiles. He advises against labeling others as “idiots”, as this stems from a lack of understanding. To facilitate a more intuitive and quicker comprehension of various human behavior, he categorizes them into simplified 4 types, arranged on a quadrant defined by 2 axises: one representing introverted versus extroverted traits and the other distinguishing between task-oriented and relation-oriented traits. The combinations of these axes results in four personality types: the dominant Red, the social Yellow, the friendly Green, and the analytical Blue.
The author examines the pros and cons of each personality profile and provides insights on how we can adapt ourselves to interact better with others. In extreme cases, he suggests avoiding certain personality types to prevent inefficient dynamics in business settings.
The book is filled with practical advice, vivid anecdotes, and entertaining insights, making it an engaging read, which makes it so fun.
The book appears to be a huge bestseller, having sold over two million copies worldwide, yet, strangely, it has not been translated into Korean. After finishing the book, I understood the reason for this. Koreans tend to prefer more specific types of personality analyses, such as MBTI, so this book may not meet their preferences.
One issue I found uncomfortable in this book is that the author could have used the pronouns ‘they/their/them’ instead of ‘he/his/him’ to prevent minorities from feeling marginalized. We should always be more diligent and sensitive when writing generalized descriptions.
전세계적으로 200만부 이상 팔린 베스트셀러라는데 유독 한국에서만 인기가 없다. 번역도 되지 않았다. 인간 성격 유형을 내향적/외향적, 업무적/관계적 두 축을
근거로 4분면으로 나눠 네가지 성격유형으로 분류, 비지니스 세팅에서 서로 어떻게 보완해서 인간 관계를 풀어나가야 하는지 분석한 재미있는 책이다.하긴, 우리나라에서는 MBTI라는 16가지 성격유형 훨씬 재미있는 툴이 인기있어 번역해도 팔리지 않을 책이겠다라는 생각이 들긴 한다.
As we all know, when you‘re young you are full of great ideas. So I asked the only question I could think of: "Who hired all these idiots?"
I knew, of course, that he had hired most of them. What was worse was that Sture understood exactly what I had implied. What I implicitly asked was: Who is actually the idiot here?
Sture threw me out. Later on, I was told that what he really wanted to do was fetch a shotgun and shoot me.
This incident got me thinking. Here was a man who would soon retire. He was obviously a proficient entrepreneur, highly respected for his sound knowledge of his particular line of business. But he couldn‘t handle people. He didn‘t understand the most critical, complicated resource in an organization-the employees. And anyone he couldn‘t understand was simply an idiot.
Since I was from outside the company, I could easily see how wrong his thinking was. Sture didn‘t grasp that he always compared people to himself. His definition of idiocy was simply anyone who didn‘t think or act like him. He used expressions that I also used to use about certain types of people: "arrogant windbags," "red-tape jackasses," "rudebastards," and "tedious blockheads." Although I never called people idiots, at least not so they could hear me, I had obvious problems with certain types of people.
