The Wisest One in the Room, How You Can Benefit from Social Psychology's Most Powerful Insights, by Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross, Free Press 2015
Gilovich and Ross begin by noting that wisdom, unlike intelligence, demands insight into people - their hopes, fears, passions, and motivations. To be wise, they maintain, one must be psych-wise. This requires the ability to make sound judgments and choices, to derive the right lessons from experience. To prove their insights, the authors draw on political, and individual powerful stories. But, much as I hoped to see a solid bridge leading from personal challenges to big illustrative social psychology stories, it was hard to make the jump. Although the examples are great reading, like Chapter 6, "The Happiest One in the Room, " or Chapter 7, "Why Don't We Just Get Along," they are not all transferable.
Here's an example:
A revered rabbi and an equally revered imam climb to the top of Mount Sinai, where they are given the privilege of asking God one question.
The question they agree to ask is the obvious one: "Will there ever be peace between Jews and Arabs?" God pauses, sighs, and finally answers: "Yes, but not in my lifetime."
Well, yes that's quite funny, but looking at our current Middle East conflicts, and wondering how the partition of Palestine, and the end of the Ottoman Empire, and the discovery of oil, along with the steady rise of jihad now endanger world survival, it's easy to become impatient for more.
The final chapter includes advice on climate change and global warming? Again, hard to make the jump from the kind of personal challenges outlined in their Chapter 6 drunk, DUI and paralysis story, But the Epilogue covers an excellent review of the phenomenon of Nelson Mandela, his wisdom and the strength he brought to his role in the creation of a different South Africa. Mandela offered Afrikaners a different vision of their future. Definitely would have liked more of this very positive, individual transformation story.