‘Job Therapy: Finding Work that Works for You’, by Tessa West
Are you unhappy at work? It’s a question many of us will, at some point, ask ourselves. Yet in management writing, the everyday mundanity of office dissatisfaction is sometimes overlooked, subsumed by the get-go of practical advice.
That’s something Tessa West, New York University professor of psychology, wants to change. Her latest book asks readers to dig deeper to identify what’s ailing them in the office, and to analyse their emotional responses and misperceptions rather than jumping to action.
The book is structured around several career diagnoses. Readers might be suffering because they are a “runner up” forever missing out on promotions; or because they’ve “drifted apart”. They might be an “under-appreciated star” slogging successfully without getting appropriate rewards.
It’s a well-worn method for West whose previous book, Jerks at Work, also focused on archetypes, albeit ones we’d rather not be identified with. The approach makes the book accessible, though some may find the analysis under each of the headings feels a touch meandering and repetitive.
Job Therapy does include practical guidance, with activities and multiple-choice questions. But it urges readers to really probe what is going on, breaking down work ennui into constituent parts. This therapeutic approach to delegating tasks, replying to emails or managing a team feels fresh. Like therapy, it may also be uncomfortable, involving asking difficult questions about status, relationships, or overinflated perceptions of oneself.
This a self-help book. It is concerned with how the reader can tackle their own misery, rather than the structural reasons work might make us unhappy. Still, for those in a rut West’s no-nonsense recognition of office woes, and her honest, practical approach to tackling them, may be unusually helpful. Bethan Staton
‘On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything’, by Nate Silver
When Nate Silver arrived in the Bahamas to play in the PokerStars Players Championship last January, he was relaxed — despite the $25,000 buy-in. But at the table his body was amped up, his chest pounding every time he had to make a decision. “Somehow I was processing this experience on two entirely different levels: my conscious mind already felt calm, but my body didn’t,” he writes.
That physical response to high-stakes scenarios isn’t a liability; it can be productive. For poker players and traders alike.
Silver shot to stardom as a modern magician in election forecasting — he predicted Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, and in 2012 when his website FiveThirtyEight correctly forecast the results in every state — but the gambling world, he admits, is where he feels most at ease. And On the Edge takes us there, a space Silver calls “the River”. The poker term denotes a “sprawling ecosystem of like-minded people” spanning “low-stakes poker pros [to] venture-capital billionaires”.
To understand how these increasingly powerful risk-takers — dubbed “Riverians”, in contrast to risk-averse “Villagers” — think, Silver meets them at crypto parties in Miami after the first Bitcoin surge and secret VC conferences in Utah. Their mantra? Optimise your way to maximum “expected value”.
Drawing from 200 interviews, Silver’s book excels when it cuts across disciplines. One eye-opening section reveals why compulsive slot machine gamblers do not want to win. Quoting the cultural anthropologist Natasha Schüll, Silver explains that winning a jackpot forces them into the real world. “Like suddenly, they’d have to pee real bad or feel some cramps,” she recounted to him.
The River is not for the faint-hearted, but embracing risk — plus the euphoria and anxiety that entails — goes to the book’s core message: “the Riverians are winning”. Georgina Quach
‘10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People’, by David Yeager
Ask business leaders about corporate life today, and one issue comes up again and again: the challenge of managing Gen Z. So much ink has been spilled on this that it is difficult to make the subject fresh. But by drawing on science and management theory, David Yeager cuts through the noise.
The younger age groups in the title will — I hope — not comprise a significant part of any workforce. But this doesn’t make the book irrelevant. Yaeger argues that brains are pretty similar between the ages of 10 and 25, rapidly changing and adapting, motivated by status, and prone to turning experiences into existential questions. Understanding these features creates an illuminating, empathetic lens through which to view the world as a younger person might.
Straight-talking anecdotes about flubbed feedback or job allocations being taken personally accurately capture instances when it seems colleagues are talking different languages, and the frustration that results. A central framework is the mentors’ dilemma — the challenge of criticising the work of junior colleagues, so they can improve, while also motivating them.
At times the book feels a little derivative, with lessons familiar from many management tomes. But this is balanced by practical, targeted advice on managing young people, from recognising their sensitivity to authority to gently encouraging the “manager in their head”. The last few dozen pages take this further, with activities to reflect and plan tangible actions.
For readers tired of generalisations that haunt much of current discourse around generations, Yaeger’s book offers a refreshing take on under-25s. Some older readers may even recognise something of themselves in the habits of the young — and glean some helpful advice on improving their own work practices, too. Bethan Staton
‘Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI’, by James Muldoon, Mark Graham and Callum Cant
Artificial intelligence is a marketing concept, an umbrella term used to capture technologies that vary widely, according to Feeding the Machine. This book attempts to demystify the complex language surrounding these systems by rooting their design and consequences in humanity.
Driven by hundreds of interviews with individuals on the front lines of this technological revolution, Feeding the Machine emphasises the technology’s pitfalls, such as perpetuating bias and generating inaccurate information, as well as the human costs of labour involved in training these machines to work.
Three academics from the University of Oxford and the University of Essex Business School use findings from hours of investigative fieldwork and research to break down what is new and different about generative artificial intelligence, and how it has attracted exaggerated claims of power and productivity.
The book’s narrative style is easy to read and engaging. It is told through the stories of real people working in AI, contrasting the glamorous lives of the engineers and investors with the gruelling hours worked by moderators of content or operators working in warehouses alongside automated machines.
Readers should come away from this book alive to the sectors and jobs most vulnerable to generative AI, like artists and actors, as well as the disparity between the west and the global south, where access to AI services are limited, and jobs associated with the technology have poor pay and conditions. It communicates this in accessible language and is a call to arms to take control over our digital futures: build worker power, hold big tech accountable, and create a better understanding of how these systems work. Cristina Criddle
‘The Power of Instinct: The New Rules of Persuasion in Business and Life’, by Leslie Zane
Every day we are all trying to sell something — a business, a product, a cause or an idea. But while many among us are marketers in our own way, not all of us succeed in the way we would like. One reason for this, argues Leslie Zane, could be that we rely on outdated strategies about how we make choices.
A brand consultant and behavioural expert, Zane explains that understanding how brands develop in the brain can help us build start-ups, promote political candidates or advance social causes, making an impact faster than we might expect. Decisions, she says, are based neither on logic nor emotion. They are instinctive, driven by memories and associations stored in our minds. Understanding the rules governing this instinctive decision-making helps us tackle challenges and seize opportunities more effectively.
The author sets out a science-backed approach to uncover the origins of our ideas, understand why we make choices, and become more tolerant, understanding and empathetic. This practical guide for marketing to the unconscious mind features real examples from McDonald’s to Taylor Swift. It highlights that the brain is not a tidy database: it doesn’t consult an internal list, but draws on associations in our neural pathways.
The book provides more than an inside look at the marketing industry or the latest trends in psychology. It offers a deep understanding of and guidelines for engaging with the hidden forces that shape our world. Leo Cremonezi
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