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The Four Tendencies

the Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too)
Aug 01, 2018BookEMonster rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This book is interesting, but it's a little too sure of itself. "Tendency"? Maybe. Rubin's world is filled with people that have enough resources to do whatever they need to do- or rebel, or slack off. There isn't much reality for anyone that isn't upper middle class and NYC-level urban. The most telling part of the book was her luncheon with investment bankers. It's very easy to be an "upholder" when all of the dreary, tedious tasks of day to day life can be handled by the maid and the secretary. Conversely, there are plenty of "upholders" that don't have the resources to fulfill all of their obligations. Rubin is a world away from a cleaning woman that rides hours of public transit to a minimum wage job and lives paycheck to paycheck. I didn't feel the book was a waste of time, and I did learn some new ways of coping with the four tendencies when they clearly manifest in co-workers or family members, but this book is not to be taken too seriously. (And if one were to take it very seriously, a much harsher eye would be needed, especially politically: The Upholder is the "Good German" of Nazi Germany. The Rebel is the destructive Rioter with no solutions or sense of community. The Obliger has no self or backbone and therefore has no convictions at all. The Questioner is unable to respond with clarity or alacrity in critical, history defining moments.) In sum: These tendencies can be found in all people, at all times, in varying degrees.