Finally a book of the kind I was looking for: data, data, data on cognitive psychology experiments - and not boringly presented.
OK, some of the stuff might be presented in a slightly watered-down fashion and perhaps exaggerated, but one can always go check.

The catchy title is just an excuse for a book dense with facts. ( )

Finished 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot by Richard Wiseman (3/5).

Books in the self help genre tend to promise quick fixes grounded in little evidence (and, not uncommonly, contradicting actual evidence). Psychological literature sometimes has validated advice, but much of it, not surprisingly, requires a large investment of time and effort. Wiseman wanted to share the scientifically validated but easy to apply tips that people could use to improve their lives.

The number of quick tips which have evidence behind them are few and lack the miraculous impact self help books promise. In this single volume, Wiseman covers many of the stable topic of self help -- happiness, persuasion, motivation, creativity, attraction, stress, relationships, decision making, parenting, and personality. It works out to only about 30 pages per topic (compare that to the shelves of self help books on each topic).

You can read the book if you want more background, but here's a taste[1]:
- Listing things you are grateful for or things that have gone well increases happiness
- Acts of kindness, even small ones, increase happiness. Donate, give blood, buy a surprise gift.
- Placing a mirror in front of people when they are choosing food reduces consumption of unhealthy food
- Plants in the office seem to boost creativity. Possibly by reducing stress and improving moods
- Write about your deepest feelings about your relationships to increase the odds of the relationship lasting. Writing tends to remind people of all the good things about the relationship.
- People lie less over recorded communication media (like email).
- When speaking, liars tend to have less detail, use more ummms and aaahs, and use less self reference words (I, me, my)
- Praise a child's effort, not their ability.
- Visualize yourself working through the process of achieving your goal rather than the actual success. Visualization from a third person perspective seems to be more effective.
Some criticisms: The first is specific to the quality of this as an audio book. Many of the "In 59 seconds" summaries at the end of each chapter involve forms or checklists. These make for tedious listening, and it's not very useful to just have them in audio. It would have been nice for the audio book to come with supplementary material for all of these forms.

I don't know if it's the author or the research community, but the chapters on relationships and attraction seem to exude a subtle sexism. Almost all of the tips and studies mentioned describe men as active agents and woman as passive agents. This active/passive division was not the conclusion of some study (and, therefore, worth considering even if I don't like the result). Rather, they were baked into the setup of the studies. For example, a couple of studies focused on how various factors such as a man's confidence or a woman's breast size affected behavior in a night club (results were not surprising). In each of these studies, regardless of what was being varied, the researchers decided to use a setup where men were always the approachers and woman the approached. This was, to put it mildly, annoying.

Finally, this is a book that you should read for its content, not the quality of its writing. It's not bad, but it can be formulaic.

Since I tend to prefer books categorized as "psychology" over those categorized as "self help", many of these tips were not new to me. However, if you want a concise look at the science of improving your life, this book fulfills that goal.

[1] Dear Amazon/Audible, when I buy the audio version of a book, it would be really nice if I were allowed full text capabilities on the
Search Inside version when it exists. Pretty please? ( )

Ever wanted to change your life? Well,this book provides you with simple, cheap, scientifically proven techniques to do so. The author, inspired by a friend who explained that what she needed was something what would work in minutes, not weeks or months, inspired the book. The author explains things quickly and provides documentation for all his findings. ( )

Most people would like to be more creative, more persuasive and more attractive. For years, gurus and 'life coaches' have urged people to improve their lives by changing the way they think and behave, but scientific research has revealed that many of their techniques, from group brainstorming to visualization, are ineffective. Fortunately, psychologist Richard Wiseman is on hand to provide fast-acting, myth-busting scientific answers to a huge range of everyday problems. From job-hunting to relationships, and from parenting to self-esteem, personal and professional success may be less than a minute away. This title helps to: find out why putting a pencil between your teeth instantly makes you feel happier; discover why even thinking about going to the gym can help you keep in shape; and, learn how putting just one thing in your wallet will improve the chance of it being returned if lost.

A very pleasant change - despite the quick fix title, this is a "self-help" book based on research. For those unwilling to wade through the whole thing, he condenses it into 59 second bytes; which happen to be at the end of each chapter.

And, then, if even flipping to the end of each chapter is too much, the end of the book summarizes (most of) the main points. So that I can remember them, here they are. He devotes a paragraph to each, but out deference to the 59 second mentality, these are only the paragraph headings.

- Develop a gratitude attitude
- Be a giver
- Hang a mirror in your kitchen (to reduce overeating)
- Buy a potted plant for the office
- Touch people lightly on the upper arm (to increase likelihood of agreement)
- Write about your relationship
- Deal with potential liars by closing your eyes and asking for an e-mail
- Praise (children's) effort (not their ability)
- Visualize yourself doing, not achieving
- Consider your legacy (What would you want said at your funeral)

That's it in 59 seconds or so. ( )