The Up Side of Down
Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mia Barron
-
By:
-
Megan McArdle
About this listen
For fans of Drive, Outliers, and Daring Greatly, a counterintuitive, paradigm-shifting new take on what makes people and companies succeed.
Most new products fail. So do most small businesses. And most of us, if we are honest, have experienced a major setback in our personal or professional lives. So what determines who will bounce back and follow up with a home run? If you want to succeed in business and in life, Megan McArdle argues in this hugely thought-provoking book, you have to learn how to harness the power of failure. McArdle has been one of our most popular business bloggers for more than a decade, covering the rise and fall of some the world' s top companies and challenging us to think differently about how we live, learn, and work. Drawing on cutting-edge research in science, psychology, economics, and business, and taking insights from turnaround experts, emergency room doctors, venture capitalists, child psychologists, bankruptcy judges, and mountaineers, McArdle argues that America is unique in its willingness to let people and companies fail, but also in its determination to let them pick up after the fall. Failure is how people and businesses learn. So how do you reinvent yourself when you are down? Dynamic and punchy, McArdle teaches us how to recognize mistakes early to channel setbacks into future success. The Up Side of Down marks the emergence of an author with her thumb on the pulse whose book just might change the way you lead your life.
©2014 Megan McArdle (P)2014 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
How to Know a Person
- The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
- By: David Brooks
- Narrated by: David Brooks
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.” And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them?
-
-
A book he was ready to write
- By Adam Shields on 11-17-23
By: David Brooks
-
How Innovation Works
- And Why It Flourishes in Freedom
- By: Matt Ridley
- Narrated by: Matt Ridley
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. Forget short-term symptoms like Donald Trump and Brexit, it is innovation itself that explains them and that will itself shape the 21st century for good and ill. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen, hard to summon into existence to order, yet inevitable and inexorable when it does happen.
-
-
Bad scholarship and bias that overwhelms his facts
- By RickyF on 07-01-20
By: Matt Ridley
-
One Giant Leap
- The Untold Story of How We Flew to the Moon
- By: Charles Fishman
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling, "meticulously researched and absorbingly written" (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission. It’s a story filled with surprises - from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today.
-
-
The Apollo Program in Historical Context
- By Nat on 06-19-19
By: Charles Fishman
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Quit
- The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
- By: Annie Duke
- Narrated by: Annie Duke
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Quit, Duke teaches you how to get good at quitting. Drawing on stories from elite athletes like Mount Everest climbers, founders of leading companies like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, and top entertainers like Dave Chappelle, Duke explains why quitting is integral to success, as well as strategies for determining when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em, that will save you time, energy, and money.
-
-
LOTS of FILLER and the message sometimes gets lost
- By JLSeattle on 12-04-22
By: Annie Duke
-
I Swear
- Politics Is Messier than My Minivan
- By: Katie Porter
- Narrated by: Katie Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Never having run for office before, Katie Porter charted a new path in 2018 when she was elected to Congress as a Democrat in historically conservative Orange County, California. Underestimated as a single mom and chided for her progressive values, Katie defied expectations. Then, using her signature whiteboard, she began to take CEOs and corrupt government officials to task in Congressional hearings. The videos went viral, introducing Americans to her no-bullshit style, and making her a coveted guest on cable news and late-night television.
-
-
Truly Genuine Storytelling
- By LReeves on 04-25-23
By: Katie Porter
-
How to Know a Person
- The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
- By: David Brooks
- Narrated by: David Brooks
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.” And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them?
-
-
A book he was ready to write
- By Adam Shields on 11-17-23
By: David Brooks
-
How Innovation Works
- And Why It Flourishes in Freedom
- By: Matt Ridley
- Narrated by: Matt Ridley
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. Forget short-term symptoms like Donald Trump and Brexit, it is innovation itself that explains them and that will itself shape the 21st century for good and ill. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen, hard to summon into existence to order, yet inevitable and inexorable when it does happen.
-
-
Bad scholarship and bias that overwhelms his facts
- By RickyF on 07-01-20
By: Matt Ridley
-
One Giant Leap
- The Untold Story of How We Flew to the Moon
- By: Charles Fishman
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling, "meticulously researched and absorbingly written" (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission. It’s a story filled with surprises - from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today.
-
-
The Apollo Program in Historical Context
- By Nat on 06-19-19
By: Charles Fishman
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Quit
- The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
- By: Annie Duke
- Narrated by: Annie Duke
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Quit, Duke teaches you how to get good at quitting. Drawing on stories from elite athletes like Mount Everest climbers, founders of leading companies like Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, and top entertainers like Dave Chappelle, Duke explains why quitting is integral to success, as well as strategies for determining when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em, that will save you time, energy, and money.
-
-
LOTS of FILLER and the message sometimes gets lost
- By JLSeattle on 12-04-22
By: Annie Duke
-
I Swear
- Politics Is Messier than My Minivan
- By: Katie Porter
- Narrated by: Katie Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Never having run for office before, Katie Porter charted a new path in 2018 when she was elected to Congress as a Democrat in historically conservative Orange County, California. Underestimated as a single mom and chided for her progressive values, Katie defied expectations. Then, using her signature whiteboard, she began to take CEOs and corrupt government officials to task in Congressional hearings. The videos went viral, introducing Americans to her no-bullshit style, and making her a coveted guest on cable news and late-night television.
-
-
Truly Genuine Storytelling
- By LReeves on 04-25-23
By: Katie Porter
-
Tribes
- We Need You to Lead Us
- By: Seth Godin
- Narrated by: Seth Godin
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tribes are groups of people aligned around an idea, connected to a leader and to each other. Tribes make our world work, and always have. The new opportunity is that it's easier than ever to find, organize, and lead a tribe. The Web has enabled an explosion of all kinds of tribes - and created shortage of people to lead them. This is the growth industry of our time. Tribes will help you understand exactly what's at stake, and why YOU can and should lead a tribe of your own.
-
-
Get to the point!!!
- By Katie on 02-26-09
By: Seth Godin
-
Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be
- By: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Steven Pressfield
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are you losing your "war of art"? Are you being defeated by a tendency to procrastination, self-doubt, fear, distraction, and perfectionism? Are you self-sabotaging your loftiest artistic entrepreneurial dreams? The antidote is in nine words: Put your ass where your heart wants to be. Can you shift your artistic identity—your "ass"—from the shallow, fearful, superficial ego to the wise, loving, fearless self? Can you commit to your dream for the long haul and for keeps? Steven Pressfield delivers the tough-love inspiration to help you make this life-altering transformation.
-
-
Motivational speech?
- By Monty on 01-30-23
-
Leading Change
- By: John P. Kotter
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The pressures on organizations to change will only increase over the next decades. Yet the methods managers have used to strengthen their companies—total quality management, reengineering, right sizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnarounds—routinely fall short. In Leading Change, Kotter identifies an eight-step process that every company must go through to achieve its goal, and shows where and how people—good people—often derail.
-
-
A Key Resource for Any Change Leader
- By Marty on 10-24-12
By: John P. Kotter
-
The Innovator's Dilemma
- When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
- By: Clayton M. Christensen
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His work is cited by the world's best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic best seller - one of the most influential business books of all time - innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right - yet still lose market leadership. Christensen explains why most companies miss out on new waves of innovation.
-
-
This book is best read, not heard
- By Andrea Rudert on 09-09-17
-
I Hate the Ivy League
- Riffs and Rants on Elite Education
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people.
-
-
Great content but don’t bother purchasing if you have heard the podcasts
- By katieKo on 10-23-22
By: Malcolm Gladwell
-
Adapt
- Why Success Always Starts with Failure
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking work, Tim Harford shows us a new and inspiring approach to solving the most pressing problems in our lives. Harford argues that today’s challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt. Deftly weaving together psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, and economics, along with compelling stories of hard-won lessons learned in the field, Harford makes a passionate case for the importance of adaptive trial-and-error....
-
-
Hidden Agenda
- By Lawrence on 05-20-13
By: Tim Harford
-
Filthy Rich Politicians
- The Swamp Creatures, Latte Liberals, and Ruling-Class Elites Cashing in on America
- By: Matt Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Filthy Rich Politicians, Lewis embarks on an investigative deep dive into the ridiculous state of modern American democracy—a system where the rich get elected and the elected get rich. One of the brightest conservative writers of his generation, Lewis doesn’t just complain: he articulates how Americans can achieve accountability from their elected leaders through radically commonsense reforms. But many of these ruling-class elites have a vested financial interest in rejecting the reforms so desperately needed to rebuild Americans’ trust in the institutions that once made our nation great.
-
-
Long on (biased) anecdotes; short on solutions
- By NOLA Darling on 07-24-23
By: Matt Lewis
-
Grounded
- How Leaders Stay Rooted in an Uncertain World
- By: Bob Rosen
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grounded proposes a new approach that's designed for actual humans who must grapple with these forces. This new paradigm speaks to our better selves. Based on the author's "Healthy Leader" model, it focuses on the six personal dimensions that fuel- and refuel - the world's top leaders: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, vocational, and spiritual health.
By: Bob Rosen
-
Think Like a Freak
- The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain
- By: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
- Narrated by: Stephen J. Dubner
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics changed the way we see the world, exposing the hidden side of just about everything. Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems. The topics range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain.
-
-
Very little new material - deceptively short
- By Joshua on 05-15-14
By: Steven D. Levitt, and others
-
Give and Take
- A Revolutionary Approach to Success
- By: Adam M. Grant PhD
- Narrated by: Brian Keith Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: Passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But in today’s dramatically reconfigured world, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. In Give and Take, Adam Grant, an award-winning researcher and Wharton’s highest-rated professor, examines the surprising forces that shape why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom.
-
-
Give ‘Til it Helps - Your Company
- By Cynthia on 04-15-13
-
Ego Is the Enemy
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their images with sheer, almost irrational force, I've found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition." (From the prologue)
-
-
Disappointing. Thin, weak reading.
- By Robert on 09-08-16
By: Ryan Holiday
-
The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business
- By: Josh Kaufman
- Narrated by: Josh Kaufman
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Josh Kaufman founded PersonalMBA.com as an alternative to the business school boondoggle. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. Now, he shares the essentials of entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations, productivity, systems design, and much more, in one comprehensive volume. The Personal MBA distills the most valuable business lessons into simple, memorable mental models that can be applied to real-world challenges.
-
-
Not an MBA, But A Damn Decent Experience.
- By Cori on 01-20-13
By: Josh Kaufman
Related to this topic
-
Willful Blindness
- Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril
- By: Margaret Heffernan
- Narrated by: Margaret Heffernan
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margaret Heffernan argues that the biggest threats and dangers we face are the ones we don't see - not because they're secret or invisible, but because we're willfully blind. A distinguished businesswoman and writer, she examines the phenomenon and traces its imprint in our private and working lives, and within governments and organizations, and asks: What makes us prefer ignorance? What are we so afraid of? Why do some people see more than others? And how can we change?
-
-
How Not to Be the Blind Leading the Blind
- By Cynthia on 06-29-13
-
The Why Axis
- Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life
- By: Uri Gneezy, John A. List
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Uri Gneezy and John List are like the anthropologists who spend months in the field studying the people in their native habitats. But in their case they embed themselves in our messy world to try and solve big, difficult problems, such as the gap between rich and poor students and the violence plaguing inner city schools; the real reasons people discriminate; whether women are really less competitive than men; and how to correctly price products and services. Their field experiments show how economic incentives can change outcomes.
-
-
Some Interesting Insights But Poor Science
- By Harold Toomey on 06-09-23
By: Uri Gneezy, and others
-
Ahead of the Curve
- Two Years at Harvard Business School
- By: Philip Delves Broughton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2004 Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join 900 other would-be tycoons on the Harvard Business School's plush campus. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the school's success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business: leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance.
-
-
On one breath.
- By Atkins on 05-17-22
-
Third World America
- How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream
- By: Arianna Huffington
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation - that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did. It's the dark flipside of the American Dream - an American Nightmare of our own making.
-
-
Sad... but with a ray of hope
- By Maciej on 10-20-10
-
Adapt
- Why Success Always Starts with Failure
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking work, Tim Harford shows us a new and inspiring approach to solving the most pressing problems in our lives. Harford argues that today’s challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt. Deftly weaving together psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, and economics, along with compelling stories of hard-won lessons learned in the field, Harford makes a passionate case for the importance of adaptive trial-and-error....
-
-
Hidden Agenda
- By Lawrence on 05-20-13
By: Tim Harford
-
Arguing with Idiots
- How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Glenn Beck, Pat Gray, Steve "Stu" Burguiere
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper-sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.
-
-
Great Book
- By Stacy on 09-22-09
By: Glenn Beck
-
Willful Blindness
- Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril
- By: Margaret Heffernan
- Narrated by: Margaret Heffernan
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margaret Heffernan argues that the biggest threats and dangers we face are the ones we don't see - not because they're secret or invisible, but because we're willfully blind. A distinguished businesswoman and writer, she examines the phenomenon and traces its imprint in our private and working lives, and within governments and organizations, and asks: What makes us prefer ignorance? What are we so afraid of? Why do some people see more than others? And how can we change?
-
-
How Not to Be the Blind Leading the Blind
- By Cynthia on 06-29-13
-
The Why Axis
- Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life
- By: Uri Gneezy, John A. List
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Uri Gneezy and John List are like the anthropologists who spend months in the field studying the people in their native habitats. But in their case they embed themselves in our messy world to try and solve big, difficult problems, such as the gap between rich and poor students and the violence plaguing inner city schools; the real reasons people discriminate; whether women are really less competitive than men; and how to correctly price products and services. Their field experiments show how economic incentives can change outcomes.
-
-
Some Interesting Insights But Poor Science
- By Harold Toomey on 06-09-23
By: Uri Gneezy, and others
-
Ahead of the Curve
- Two Years at Harvard Business School
- By: Philip Delves Broughton
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2004 Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join 900 other would-be tycoons on the Harvard Business School's plush campus. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the school's success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business: leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance.
-
-
On one breath.
- By Atkins on 05-17-22
-
Third World America
- How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream
- By: Arianna Huffington
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America's middle class, the driver of so much of our economic success and political stability, is rapidly disappearing, forcing us to confront the fear that we are slipping as a nation - that our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer opportunities and face a lower standard of living than we did. It's the dark flipside of the American Dream - an American Nightmare of our own making.
-
-
Sad... but with a ray of hope
- By Maciej on 10-20-10
-
Adapt
- Why Success Always Starts with Failure
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking work, Tim Harford shows us a new and inspiring approach to solving the most pressing problems in our lives. Harford argues that today’s challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinions; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt. Deftly weaving together psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, and economics, along with compelling stories of hard-won lessons learned in the field, Harford makes a passionate case for the importance of adaptive trial-and-error....
-
-
Hidden Agenda
- By Lawrence on 05-20-13
By: Tim Harford
-
Arguing with Idiots
- How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Glenn Beck, Pat Gray, Steve "Stu" Burguiere
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper-sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.
-
-
Great Book
- By Stacy on 09-22-09
By: Glenn Beck
-
A Bigger Prize
- How We Can Do Better Than the Competition
- By: Margaret Heffernan
- Narrated by: Margaret Heffernan
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the cranberry bogs of Massachusetts to the classrooms of Singapore and Finland, from tiny start-ups to global engineering firms and beloved American organizations like Ocean Spray, Eileen Fisher, Gore, and Boston Scientific, Heffernan discovers ways of living and working that foster creativity, spark innovation, reinforce our social fabric, and feel so much better than winning.
-
-
Margaret Heffernan is brilliant!
- By Eric Willingham on 06-09-16
-
No, They Can't
- Why Government Fails - But Individuals Succeed
- By: John Stossel
- Narrated by: John Stossel
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The government is not a neutral arbiter of truth. It never has been. It never will be. Doubt everything. John Stossel does. A self-described skeptic, he has dismantled society's sacred cows with unerring common sense. Now he debunks the most sacred of them all: our intuition and belief that government can solve our problems. In No, They Can't, the New York Times best-selling author and Fox News commentator insists that we discard that idea of the "perfect" government - left or right - and retrain our brain to look only at the facts, to rethink our lives as independent individuals - and fast.
-
-
Great Book, Must Listen
- By dan on 04-27-12
By: John Stossel
-
The Plateau Effect
- Getting From Stuck to Success
- By: Bob Sullivan, Hugh Thompson
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Plateau Effect is a powerful law of nature that affects everyone. Learn to identify plateaus and break through any stagnancy in your life - from diet and exercise, to work, to relationships. The Plateau Effect shows how athletes, scientists, therapists, companies, and musicians around the world are learning to break through their plateau - to turn off the forces that cause people to “get used to” things - and turn on human potential and happiness in ways that seemed impossible.
-
-
Heath
- By Oliver Nielsen on 07-22-13
By: Bob Sullivan, and others
-
Predictably Irrational
- The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
- By: Dan Ariely
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a series of illuminating, often surprising experiments, MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities.
-
-
Good lessons, mediocre science?
- By William Stanger on 02-24-09
By: Dan Ariely
-
Pound Foolish
- Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry
- By: Helaine Olen
- Narrated by: Lyn Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the past few decades, Americans have spent billions of dollars on personal finance products. As salaries have stagnated and companies have cut back on benefits, we've taken matters into our own hands, embracing the can-do attitude that if we're smart enough, we can overcome even daunting financial obstacles. But that's not true. In this meticulously reported and shocking audiobook, journalist and former financial columnist Helaine Olen goes behind the curtain of the personal finance industry to expose the myths, contradictions, and outright lies it has perpetuated.
-
-
The dark side of my industry
- By jfoxcpacfp on 06-15-13
By: Helaine Olen
-
The Behavior Gap
- Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money
- By: Carl Richards
- Narrated by: Carl Richards
- Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do we lose money? It's easy to blame the economy or the financial markets - but the real trouble lies in the decisions we make. As a financial planner, Carl Richards grew frustrated watching people he cared about make the same mistakes over and over. They were letting emotion get in the way of smart financial decisions. He named this phenomenon - the distance between what we should do and what we actually do - "the behavior gap". He found that once people understood it, they started doing much better.
-
-
Average across the board
- By michael on 01-23-18
By: Carl Richards
-
The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
-
-
Textbook Perfect Discussion of the Problem
- By Cynthia on 07-28-12
By: David K. Shipler
-
Super Crunchers
- Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
- By: Ian Ayres
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, number crunching affects your life in ways you might never imagine. In this lively and groundbreaking new audiobook, economist Ian Ayres shows how today's best and brightest organizations are analyzing massive databases at lightening speed to provide greater insights into human behavior. They are the Super Crunchers.
-
-
Great book on
- By Jon on 01-31-08
By: Ian Ayres
-
Kids These Days
- Human Capital and the Making of Millennials
- By: Malcolm Harris
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows "what's wrong with millennials". Glenn Beck says we've been ruined by "participation trophies". Simon Sinek says we have low self-esteem. An Australian millionaire says millennials could all afford homes if we'd just give up avocado toast. Thanks, millionaire. This millennial is here to prove them all wrong.
-
-
A devastating dream of revolution
- By Kevin Tierney Jr on 11-23-17
By: Malcolm Harris
-
Where Does It Hurt?
- An Entrepreneur's Guide to Fixing Health Care
- By: Jonathan Bush, Stephen Baker
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bold new remedy for the sprawling and wasteful health care industry. In this provocative book, Jonathan Bush, cofounder and CEO of athenahealth, calls for a revolution in health care to give customers more choices, freedom, power, and information, and at far lower prices.
-
-
No critical thinking
- By Steve from MD on 07-31-14
By: Jonathan Bush, and others
-
Success and Luck
- Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy
- By: Robert H. Frank
- Narrated by: Robert H. Frank
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How important is luck in economic success? No question more reliably divides conservatives from liberals. As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hardworking. But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much. In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine.
-
-
Not what is advertised
- By Andre on 04-18-17
By: Robert H. Frank
-
The Conservative Heart
- How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Conservative Heart, Arthur C. Brooks contends that after years of focusing on economic growth and traditional social values, it is time for a new kind of conservatism - one that helps the vulnerable without mortgaging our children's future. In Brooks' daring vision, this conservative movement fights poverty, promotes equal opportunity, celebrates earned success, and values spiritual enlightenment. It is an inclusive movement with a positive agenda to help people lead happier, more hopeful, and more satisfied lives.
-
-
Outstanding recitation of conservatism!
- By GLENNO on 08-06-15
By: Arthur C. Brooks
What listeners say about The Up Side of Down
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Susan
- 08-20-15
Everyone should read this book
What did you love best about The Up Side of Down?
The information in this book is useful in the classroom, in the work environment, in personal budget planning and in life in general. It was useful and inspiring.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- George Sheldon
- 09-19-18
M. McArdle is a star. Dares to think; can write.
This is fundamentally a story about learning. Valuable personally and also interesting from a policy wonk perspective. The tone of the narrator is OK to good. The story is excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marie
- 11-02-14
Perfect is the enemy of the good
I totally recommend this book to parents, people starting a business, heck everyone.
The author uses personal and other anecdotal stories to tell a bigger story of how we are forgetting that we learn from our mistakes and not making mistakes or the effort to prevent mistakes does us no favors. One was that of bankruptcy. In America you can start a business, fail, go bankrupt, and later try again (hopefully learning from the 1st effort). In other countries you only get to fail once, with sad results for the country as a whole.
The narration coupled with the story made this audiobook a good listen. it was informative and a little entertaining.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 02-08-21
Changed My For The Better
I don’t think I will view my life in quite the same way again. That’s for your time spent failing Mrs. McArdle!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ernest
- 09-16-14
Some good ideas. No miracles.
Any additional comments?
Not enough answers and solutions. The book uses several examples I have read before and some new ones. There are some good recommendations on how to view different situations. I am glad I listened to this book but I had hoped for some new ideas on dealing with problems. If you have read several books on this subject, don't expect a lot of new information. On the other hand it is a good overall picture of how to deal with and view failures. If you are new to this subject matter this book is a good choice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ellen
- 10-10-18
Great news! We have freedom to try and even fail.
Loved the balanced, expertly argued approach to taking a risk, and being ok with the outcome. Thanks, Megan!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cynthia
- 09-15-14
Successful Failures
'm not a 'B-School graduate'. My undergraduate degrees is in Business Administration. It's from a prestigious private university. I could have chosen to go on to get a Master's from the same place. Instead, I chose to get a Juris Doctor, and I've been a litigator ever since.
Do I want to manage people? Unless it's a trial team assembled on an ad hoc basis, I would rather clean tile grout with a toothbrush. I still love the theory of business management. I've been following it for the last quarter century. I work for a Major Company (you've heard of it) and I get to watch how the theories come and go, from the managed point if view.
Some trends are a flash, or so radical they won't happen for at least a generation - but it Is fun to watch management try the ideas. Adam Grant's "Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success" (2013) is an example. Nice idea, but it didn't work for the Soviet Union (1922 - 1991) and it's not working now. It might eventually - but the world's leading economy, the United States, and it's business leaders aren't at the tacit socialism Grant proposes.
Megan McArdle's "The Upside of Down: Why Failing Well Drives Our Success" (2014) discusses a "trend" that's working well, from the perspective of the managed worker: learning from failure. I'm using "trend" in quotes because it sounds like a facile lesson, but it's really not. It's also not new - "Billion Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years" (2008) is a wonderful book on the same subject by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui.
After discussing Old Coke/New Coke (THE quintessential B-mistake), "The Upside of Down" and "Billion Dollar Lessons" talk about different failures; the ways to approach and analyze them; and their causes.
McArdle distinguishes an accident as "while there's lots of things you could have done differently, there's nothing you should have done differently" (Chapter 5 on Audible) and "failure" as a "mistake, performing without a safety net." It's a good way to distinguish them. McArdle emphasizes that a lot of mistakes are the result of large, well funded research that carefully asks exactly the wrong questions, or asks the right questions in the wrong situation.
"The Upside of Down" is thought provoking, but there's an issue that I'd like to see addressed more fully: how to create an atmosphere where employees aren't subtly - or sometimes even overtly - required to hide mistakes, especially those that can compound and result in failure. After all, even one of the world's most successful investors, Warren Buffett, reported an $873,000,000 investing mistake to shareholders May 1, 2014. Referring to a bad investment, Buffett said, "Most of you have never heard" of the company, he wrote. "Consider yourselves lucky; I certainly wish I hadn't." What a no-nonsense way to share a problem without sharing the blame.
The Audible narrator was fine, but the editing was rough - there were some long pauses.
[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jules
- 10-16-14
Insanely Inspiring
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I LOVED this. Not only is the book awesome, the narrator is the epitome of awesomeness. The content and real life experiences of people are super interesting and made me feel like I could do anything. In order to be great you have to fail at some things first and that's ok. Awesome read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ray
- 05-21-14
Good Book
First of all, this isn't a self-help book (fortunately). Rather it is an interesting look at some solid research with the author's own failings as a minor backdrop.
Some of her examples seem to go a little far afield to make the point, but she manages to tie it all up pretty tightly before she's done. That a successful life requires a little friction isn't entirely new of course, but nothing in the book is tired or rehashed and all in all the reader walks away with some pretty good insight.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wayne
- 11-24-15
The importance of failing well to success
There are a lot of possible ways to express the premise of The Up Side of Down. The one I like best is, "success is unlikely unless you first risk, and likely experience, failure". Failure is a great teacher. The concept is hardly new, but Megan McArdle provides so great examples from personal lives and businesses. McArdle is a journalist with an MBA degree. She currently writes a business and political opinion column each weekday for Bloomberg View. She has worked for the Economist, The Atlantic, and several other publications.
I first became of familiar with McArdle's work when two months after 9/11/2001 she worked to help clean up the WTC site and blogged about it in the evenings. I have followed her career since. She is responsible for Jane's Law of US politics; "The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane." She was blogging at the time under the pen name Jane.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful