This book takes an empathetic approach and gives bite size approaches and allows you to have kindness and patience with yourself when dealing with life. This is so necessary for everyone to read in life. Highly recommend. Especially loved the reflection to true life to humanize my feelings and relate. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Loved this audiobook - thought I as a great summary of a wide range of research, laid out recommendations mostly clearly, and had interesting anecdotes. Going to buy copies for my work and family.

I'm always looking for ways to enhance my knowledge and perspective in diverse thinking. This is a great book to do so. While I listened to the audiobook, I wish I would have had the real book in front of me because I wanted to highlight and underline and add tabs to go back to. In fact, I liked it so much that I am proposing for a company read!

Diversity, diversity, diversity. Why is this so difficult to understand? On every level of our existence in society this crucial element is evident. The more diverse the information and opinions, the more accurate and positive the outcome.

Matthew Syed begins with the ignored (or underestimated) warnings that led to the horrific events of 9/11. The information was ignored, misunderstood, misinterpreted... no matter how you categorize it, the intel was there. What wasn't there was a diverse group of analysts able to interpret, understand, and predict what was coming.

Syed carefully and brilliantly explores examples that run all through our society- where we were successful with diverse, forward thinkers and unfortunately, where we failed repeatedly. No one person, or group of people can be all-knowing. Diversity in background, culture, religion, experience, knowledge and creativity build an unbeatable team. There is no 'one way' to look at something, and no 'single path' to the final, undeniable truth. We must always examine every angle, every possible scenario, and every possible outcome if we want to be successful in simple tasks and great missions such as security and health. There is never such a thing as too much information. The best, or right answer, always rises to the top when we have a completely diverse group of people and ideas to shine the way.

I hope the right people will read this book (everyone should, ) and use this important knowledge to benefit us all.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for and honest review.

I found this book to be successful in treading the line between academic and genuinely engaging. Syed makes compelling points about the inherit value of both diversity and structures that encourage all voices to be heard. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who has a leadership role within an organization or creates and manages teams.

I have seen a lot of people comparing this book to "Range" by David Epstein and I would agree that there are many commonalities that lead this book to feel a bit redundant at times. Nonetheless, I did find this book engaging and I appreciated that the focus of this book was more about how the outsider mindset was valuable to groups and not just valuable within the individual.