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So Smart But...: How Intelligent People Lose Credibility - and How They Can Get it Back ReviewFirst of all, let me say that I come to this book from the perspective of an Information Technology (IT) professional. In other words, I come from a large pool of people who are often seen as So Smart But... I firmly believe that this book will be of exceptional value to those of us in the IT community. While there are issues with the book (is any book perfect?) that I point out in this review, this should not detract from the tremendous benefit that it will bring to your career and life as a person working in any technical specialty (legal, health care, engineering, computer technoloty, etc.).
The author of So Smart But... does a phenomenal job of pointing out the need for better communication skills through credibility and what I call "entire communications" - it's more than just your words, tone and body language that we hear about so often. I have to disagree with the reviewer who said that the figure on page 20 seems unrelated to the text. It is very obviously related to the text; however, the review may mean to suggest that a lot is left to the reader in the way of interperting the meaning of the numbers in the image. I think the author is attempting to say that these various "breadth" factors are worth a certain amount in the decision process. To be sure, we would need clarification from the author. Indeed, this is one of my "howevers".
The other "however" is that the author starts by setting the bar VERY high and then proceeds to almost reach it or maybe even reach it. The problem is that, when I set the bar high, I have to leap over the bar in a big way or many will think I've failed. I'm sure the author understands this, but the book seems to have reached the bar only.
This bar is set in the Introduction when the author states, "So Smart But... intends to be the answer to your demand, 'Tell me something I don't know!' I would not be pleased if you, the reader, reacted to So Smart But... by saying, 'It's common sense.' Believe me, everything here should make sense, but it shouldn't be common sense." Here is the mistake: "everything here... shouldn't be common sense." Most readers will interpret that as, "I am about to read ALL new information." The problem for the author is that most of his readers will not be people who need the book... it will be people who read these types of books because they are self-improvement junkies. It it near impossible to surprise us self-improvement addicts.
That said, there were many places where the book made me say, "Hmmm...". One area was an insight of opposition. In other words, the author tells the story of a training attendee who mocked his use of the phrase "he goes" instead of "he says" or "he said". The author says he stated:
"I told the man that he should speak with more energy, and he goes, 'It was...'"
To this attendee, I go, "Perfect grammar does NOT make a good communicator. In fact, it usually leads to VERY poor communications. You must communicate in a way that connects to your audience. I'm sure most of the people that day were not only fine with it, but enjoyed the casual style of speaking." I've learned, after more than 1200 days of training, that you can't please every one, so on "I go".
In addition to this insight, there were MANY amazingly good tips and techniques throughout the book. My measure of a communication skills book is based on whether the author quotes the false information that only 7% of your message comes from your words. This is thrown around in a lot of communication skills books and is a legend based on shoddy investigation of thorough research (the original research was thorough and the investigation of that research by most modern authors is shoddy). Albert would not be happy to know that people have now twisted his research so. Thankfully, this book does NOT misrepresent, or even use, this statistic. In fact, pages 94 and 95 show a very proper respect for language.
Overall, the book definitely taught me some things I didn't already know. That's a positive, in my book, since I've read at least fifty book on communications skills over the years. Good job Mr. Weiner. In your next book (paperback version?), you might consider taming down the promise in the introduction; however, I hope your readers can overcome this issue because the book is actually very well worth reading.
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