One sentence summary
Adam Grant’s book “Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know” encourages us to reevaluate our successes and how we think about our knowledge, challenging us to think outside of traditional categories and understand the true power of knowledge.
Book genre
Non-fiction business/philosophy/self-help book.
Main topic of the book
The main topic of the book is how to think and act differently in order to unlock the full potential of the human mind.
Key ideas
- Reversing Thinking: Adam Grant invites readers to take advantage of the power of reversibility thinking — the ability to think both about what’s going right and wrong, and to apply this to our lives.
- Values: Understanding the importance of our values and defining what is important to us, can give us clarity and determination when facing difficult problems.
- Diversity: Grant examines the issue of diversity in detail in the book. He highlights the importance of different perspectives and backgrounds with regards to unlocking potential and building a successful career.
- Tolerance: Learning to be tolerant of different opinions can help us become more open-minded in our thinking and prevent us from becoming too rigid in our reasoning.
- Growth Mindset: A mindset of growth and learning to identify and embrace opportunities rather than clinging to set values, can help us move forward.
Main parts of the book and a short summary
The book consists of nine chapters that cover essential topics related to knowledge and learning. In the first chapter, Grant examines the power of knowing what we don’t know and the importance of asking questions and being curious. He then goes on to explore the concept of reversibility thinking, which is the ability to think holistically about the problem at hand and not just focus on one side of the issue. Further chapters discuss values, diversity, challenging assumptions, risk-taking, and failure. The final chapter focuses on exploring the advantages of incremental progress and taking small steps to really understand an idea or a problem.
Key takeaways
- Explore what you don’t know – both from the outside and from within.
- Reevaluate assumptions and look outside of traditional categories to uncover new ideas.
- Create an environment of diversity and use the power of differing perspectives to your advantage.
- Be tolerant of different opinions and view failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.
- Focus on understanding and breaking up complex tasks into small steps to build knowledge and progress.
Author’s background and qualifications
Adam Grant is an American organizational psychologist and best-selling author. He is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has won multiple teaching awards and is all-time best rated professor by MBA students. He has published six books and numerous articles in top academic journals, as well as appeared on Oprah, the Today Show, The Colbert Report, and other media outlets.
Target audience
The target audience for this book is professional workers, particularly those in positions of leadership who are trying to build successful teams and unlock the full potential of their organizations.
Publisher and first publication date
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know was published by Viking Books in 2020.