So often in life, we get stuck in a cycle of response. We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems. Cops chase robbers, doctors treat patients with chronic illnesses, and call-center reps address customer complaints. But many crimes, chronic illnesses, and customer complaints are preventable. So why do our efforts skew so heavily toward reaction rather than prevention?

Upstream probes the psychological forces that push us downstream—including “problem blindness,” which can leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst. And Heath introduces us to the thinkers who have overcome these obstacles and scored massive victories by switching to an upstream mindset. One online travel website prevented twenty million customer service calls every year by making some simple tweaks to its booking system. A major urban school district cut its dropout rate in half after it figured out that it could predict which students would drop out—as early as the ninth grade. A European nation almost eliminated teenage alcohol and drug abuse by deliberately changing the nation’s culture.

Several million years ago, natural selection equipped us with binary, black-and-white brains. Though the world was arguably simpler back then, it was in many ways much more dangerous. Not coincidentally, the binary brain was highly adept at detecting risk: the ability to analyze threats and respond to changes in the sensory environment—a drop in temperature, the crack of a branch—was essential to our survival as a species.

Since then, the world has evolved—but we, for the most part, haven’t. Confronted with a panoply of shades of gray, our brains have a tendency to “force quit:” to sort the things we see, hear, and experience into manageable but simplistic categories. We stereotype, pigeon-hole, and, above all, draw lines where in reality there are none. In our modern, interconnected world, it might seem like we are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges we face—that living with a binary brain is like trying to navigate a teeming city center with a map that shows only highways.

In Black-and-White Thinking, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton pulls back the curtains of the mind to reveal a new way of thinking about a problem as old as humanity itself. While our instinct for categorization often leads us astray, encouraging polarization, rigid thinking, and sometimes outright denialism, it is an essential component of the mental machinery we use to make sense of the world. Simply put, unless we perceived our environment as a chessboard, our brains wouldn’t be able to play the game.

Using the latest advances in psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, Dutton shows how we can optimize our tendency to categorize and fine-tune our minds to avoid the pitfalls of too little, and too much, complexity. He reveals the enduring importance of three “super categories”—fight or flight, us versus them, and right or wrong—and argues that they remain essential to not only convincing others to change their minds but to changing the world for the better.

DESIGNING YOUR WORK LIFE teaches readers how to create the job they want—without necessarily leaving the job they already have.

“Increasingly, it’s up to workers to define their own happiness and success in this ever-moving landscape,” they write, and chapter by chapter, they demonstrate how to build positive change, wherever you are in your career.

Careers are changing; they are no longer linear and there’s no such thing as a ‘job for life’. Squiggly careers, where people jump constantly between roles, industries and locations, are becoming the new normal.

Squiggly careers are filled with opportunity and excitement, but they can also be ambiguous and overwhelming if we don’t know how to make the most of them.

In The Squiggly Career, personal development experts Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis reveal 5 skills you need to master and teach you how to:

· Identify your Values
· Play to your Super Strengths
· Address your Confidence gremlins
· Design your support solar systems (Networks)
· Explore your Future Possibilities

Packed with insights about the changing-face of work, exercises to aid your growth, and tips and inspiration from highly successful people, this book will help you be happier, and ultimately more successful in your career.

In Future-Proof Your Business, applied futurist Tom Cheesewright will reveal industry techniques and tools to help you:

You want to go freelance. You want to make your career work for you, on your terms and determined by your own definition of success. You want autonomy, flexibility and variety.

But where do you start?

In The Freelance Bible, award-winning entrepreneur and freelancer, Alison Grade, guides you through absolutely everything that you need to know to start your successful self-employed life.

From the host of the award-winning MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast, an indispensable handbook for becoming the creative force of your own life.

While most self-help books offer quick fixes, Everything is Figureoutable will retrain your brain to think more creatively and positively in the face of setbacks. In the words of Cheryl Strayed, it’s “a must-read for anyone who wants to face their fears, fulfill their dreams, and find a better way forward.”

There’s no such thing as a ‘free’ market
Globalization isn’t making the world richer
We don’t live in a digital world – the washing machine has changed lives more than the internet
Poor countries are more entrepreneurial than rich ones
Higher paid managers don’t produce better results

We don’t have to accept things as they are any longer. Ha-Joon Chang is here to show us there’s a better way.

From the author of The Blind Side and Moneyball, The Big Short tells the story of four outsiders in the world of high-finance who predict the credit and housing bubble collapse before anyone else. The film adaptation by Adam McKay (Anchorman I and II, The Other Guys) features Academy Award® winners Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo and Marisa Tomei; Academy Award® nominees Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling.

This book is a masterclass in the craft of writing and poetry from one of Britain’s most celebrated poets and educators, T.S. Eliot Prize nominee Anthony Anaxagorou.

Taking readers on a personal journey through his early life and school years, through to his relationship with literature, education poetry and writing, this book is filled with tips, anecdotes and publishing advice for anyone interested in getting their work seen. From Anthony’s first slam win to the evolving British poetry scene, this book will provoke readers into thinking about their writing more carefully – be it a poem, short story or novel – and help them finally get their book out into the world.

This book is essential reading for taking your work to the next level, and is introduced with an inspirational foreword by Sunday Times bestselling author, Candice Carty-Williams.
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Designed to inspire and encourage readers to unlock their potential and provoke change, the How To series offers a new model in publishing, helping to break down knowledge barriers and uplift the next generation.

Is it possible to create real change? How can we as individuals help to solve some of the biggest issues of today? How can we overcome injustice and inequality wherever we are? Where does power sit, and how can we get it?

In a world where everyone is trying to monetise their side hustle and the five-to-nine is as valuable as the nine-to-five, building your brand is a necessity. But how can you work out what your brand is? How can you make it relevant, and how can you give it real longevity?

This indispensable, step-by-step guide will help you understand all the key considerations as you build solid foundations for your brand to thrive and grow. Complete with creative tasks and shared personal insight from two creative strategists who have worked with some of the world’s most renowned brands, How to Build It will set you on the road from nowhere to everywhere.

Introducing the new How To series from #Merky Books: unlock your potential with our short, practical guides.

Designed to inspire and encourage listeners to unlock their potential and provoke change, the How To series offers a new model in publishing, helping to break down knowledge barriers and uplift the next generation.