28. The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference - Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval

Most of us are too busy to realize it: but paying attention to the smaller things in life can improve your effectiveness in professional and personal situations. That's the crux of this quick, simple read by two marketing businesswomen. They talk about how small things like face to face contact instead of emailing all the time can really do wonders for your professional and personal relationships. A New York Times journalist said that Facebook is like an "endless cocktail party where everybody shows up at a different time and slaps a yellow post-it note on the refrigerator." Thaler and Koval make the point that this type of internet and technology phenomenon is a huge reason why social phobia has become the third most common mental illness in the U.S.
They also mention something that psychiatrist Edward Hallowell calls ADT - "attention deficit trait." From some research, I found that ADT is different from ADD because it is the result of the modern workplace "where the constant and relentless chatter coming from our computers, phones and other high-tech devices is diluting our mental powers." [That is exactly what I was saying when I noticed my vocabulary decreasing after I got my Blackberry and got on Twitter. Yet another reason for this read-a-thon ... I have to counterbalance for my Generation Y addictions!] I need to find a book by this guy - but in the meantime, here's a great article about ADT: http://news.cnet.com/Why-cant-you-pay-attention-anymore/2008-1022_3-5637632.html
The authors make other great points like discussing the principles behind remembering to take a moment to thank someone for a job interview, taking baby steps in accomplishing your goals, and doing random acts of kindness like escorting an old man to a room he's looking for (I did that once last year - and the man turned out to be the judge in my final trial for trial practice!). Like Expect to Win, I didn't think this was a ground-breaking book ... but sometimes it's good to be reminded of these principles, and this book does so in a positive, articulate, and easily readable way.