If everyone in the world read this book, the world would instantly become a better place. Mental models, while never perfect, are very powerful tools, and Grant has come up with a compelling, research backed view of what makes some people successful, and others less so.Grant divided the world into givers, matchers, and takers. Through a lot of research, Grant determined that the most successful and the least successful people are often givers, that takers often do well but not over the long term...

The concept is good in that it tries to prove that givers are ultimately more successful than takers. However the numerous examples that are used to prove the same point again and again is extremely off putting. its like the author is showing off his knowledge of trivia. He has commented on how givers should avoid being taken advantage of, but the pearls of wisdom are interspersed with boring examples, so making it difficult to cut to the chase.

Had some interesting and inspirational anecdotes, part of which resonated with my own experience. Also had a few nice ideas that seem worth trying out, e.g. reciprocity rings.Main criticisms: felt that at times, the book was bending a bit too much to take whatever perspective ended up painting "givers" as the best group of people. Also saw some claims which I felt weren't entirely supported by the state of existing research. Much of the book also seemed to be built around anecdotes, as well as s...

This book explores how we give and take as the title implies. We are all a combination of givers, takers or matchers, but have a dominate preference. You already have a feel for this in your daily activities, but his helps to quantify it and shows you why you should strive to be more a giver who has there own long term interests at heart as they help the world. Excellent book.

Absolutely fascinating insights presented by THE Adam M. Grant! With this book, Adam Grant will ask you the incisive question about your profile and the ones you collaborate with: Do you demonstrate the style of a giver, a matcher or a taker? For instance, ´takers are attracted to dominance…as they strive to be superior to others´ (Grant 2013: 130). Yet, ´when our audiences are skeptical, the more we try to dominate them, the more they resist´ (Grant 2013: 130). Matchers value reciprocity by ´pl...

After I read the NY Times profile on Adam Grant last year, this book has been on my list. The idea that giving and being generous with your time will help you get ahead in life seemed sort of interesting. Now that I'm in social work school, I think that most of his argument is bullshit, and is written for business/finance/wealthy people in general. Grant writes from a place of incredible privilege (white, male, educated, wealthy, heterosexual, you name it), and the premise of the book is that by...

For me this book was groundbreaking. It is second of the top five books I will recommend (after Blink by Malcolm Gladwell) to everyone to read.You will relate with this book if you are (or if you know) a person who does for people without thinking much about yourself (himself/herself). Prof Grant has termed them as givers. The book is laded with examples from numerous fields such as business, startup, publishing, movies, legal, sports and many more. Prof Grant will make sure you stay glued to th...

Note to self: only read nonfiction in Kindle from now on so I can share my notes and highlights on Goodreads. It's a pain having to type up all these notes!!Apologies to readers of this "review" - it's not actually a review, more a collection of notes and insights from the book for my future reference. Adam Grant divides the world into three groups:Takers - usually burn bridges by constantly asking for favors and not giving back. Seen as selfish and therefore people respect them less. Have littl...

I thought this book was terrific. The gist is that there are three kinds of people in this world:- takers -- those who selfishly exploit every situation to their advantage- givers -- those who give to others without much regard for themselves- matchers -- those who play a tit-for-tat game and match the giving styles of the people they deal with (i.e. they are takers when dealing with other takers and givers when dealing with other givers).The author claims that while it seems like takers would b...

I know I wouldn't have chosen to read this book if it hadn't been one of the summer reading options for my job, but I'm so glad I did. I just loved it.Grant's writing style, telling people's stories to illustrate his philosophy, was a perfect fit for me. There are studies and there are numbers, but it's definitely more about the stories.And, while I didn't find the concept of a world divided among givers, takers and matchers revolutionary, I did appreciate applying that philosophy to professiona...

Learning how to be a giver without being a doormat is a basic life skill every human on earth should learn - it benefits others and it benefits you. Highly recommended.

This is unscientific self-help under the guise of science. It's fine, it's helpful, but there is no formula or even an attempted test for whether someone is a giver or a taker. The basic takeaway here is don't be an asshole because if you're an asshole, you will lose in the end. But people are not always one thing or another. A lot of people are assholes in certain contexts and not others. Also, some "giving" is just the Dale Carnegie variety of social manipulation, which is basically just about...

In traditional old-school reciprocity, people operated like matchers, trading value back and forth with one another. We helped the people who helped us, and we gave to the people from whom we wanted something in return. But today, givers like Adam Rifkin are able to spark a more powerful form of reciprocity. Instead of trading value, Rifkin aims to add value. His giving is governed by a simple rule: the five-minute favor. “You should be willing to do something that will take you five minutes or