Reviews Archives - Page 8 of 45 - Antony Simpson is an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Book Review: The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters

Sunday 31 March 2019 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Peters is a Consultant Psychiatrist, who is a Dean for undergraduate students at Sheffield University Medical School. He is also credited with helping athletes achieve success and has worked with: Sky Pro Cycling team, Olympic Gold medal winners and Liverpool Football Club.

The Chimp Paradox is not a new theory. Peters has taken an old theory and repackaged it, making it more accessible to more people.

The theory goes that within our mind we have three aspects: the computer, the chimp and the human.

The computer stores autopilots (useful beliefs or behaviours), gremlins (destructive beliefs or behaviours that are removable/changeable in the computer) and goblins (destructive beliefs or behaviours that are difficult to remove/change). All of these are based on past experiences. The computer also holds the values and beliefs that we live our lives by.

The chimp is the emotional part of your brain and is wired for survival and procreation. Whenever the chimp perceives a threat he will decide to fight, flight or freeze. The chimp can hijack you and is responsible for often irrational or destructive behaviours.

The human on the other hand is the logical and rational part of you. The problem comes that the chimp responds 5 times quicker than the human. So it is up to the human to learn to manage the chimp and to change the programming of the computer, so that all parts of the brain work towards the same goals without conflict.

Anyone struggling with emotions, emotional intensity or regulation will find The Chimp Paradox useful. The book covers improving: day to day functioning, motivation, health, success and happiness.

Overall Peters should be commended for making the psychological theory more accessible. The Chimp Paradox is simple to understand and includes plenty of real life examples. The only downside to this is that Peters sometimes over explains the obvious.

If you’re into self-improvement, self-help or other similar topics, then you’ll enjoy The Chimp Paradox.

Review soon,

Antony

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Book Review: Wilful Blindness by Margaret Heffernan

Saturday 3 November 2018 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Wilful Blindness is when a person or people chose to deliberately pretend not to know about or ignore ethically dubious acts.

It happens on both a micro and macro scale. It spans all parts of society. It can have devastating consequences to both individuals and communities.

Wilful Blindness was originally a legal term, but once Heffernan heard the term she started seeing Wilful Blindness everywhere.

In our collective history of the past and in how governments and businesses operate today.

Heffernan started talking to people, lots of people, from different professional backgrounds and they all knew what she was talking about. They were all able to give examples of Wilful Blindness in their lives.

In Wilful Blindness, Heffernan identifies the causes and gives examples of the negative consequences of Wilful Blindness. She explains how to expand your mind to be less susceptible to the epidemic of Wilful Blindness.

Heffernan uses psychology to explain human behaviour when it comes to Wilful Blindness and suggests that:

We like people that are the same or similar to ourselves. This can lead to blindness to difference and diversity and the benefits of the challenges that they bring.
Love of people, ideas, money, things, values, can make us blind.
Holding on to deeply held beliefs can mean we miss or ignore evidence that is contrary to these deeply held beliefs.
Everyone’s mind has limits and these limits are stretched to make some very complex organisations, which make it difficult to see the truth or know what’s going on.
We bury our head in the sand. We hope that difficult issues will go away. We even delude ourselves by not looking, acknowledging or talking about issues.
We blame external sources for ethically difficult decisions and justify it to ourselves and other by stating: I was just doing my job.
Cultures, conformity and the craving for acceptance from our peers can make us blind to other, broader or different perspectives.
People that see what others are blind to and do nothing reinforce the status quo. Not only that, but they also imply through omissions that everything that makes up the status quo is acceptable.
Physical distance from a situation or problem can lead to cognitive dissonance and make someone blind.
Money and the removal of ethics from work makes people obey and conform. They are much less likely to notice issues or be brave enough to make a stand.
People who challenge Wilful Blindess have a tough time. But common qualities in these people include: a sense of social justice, they are generally nonconformists, they are often trendsetters, they feel compelled to raise an uncomfortable truth, they have determination, a high level of resilience, they obsess about the truth and the truth others are ignoring, they have an eye for detail and are willing to suffer both personally and professionally to get others to see the truth.

Throughout Wilful Blindness Heffernan presents a compelling argument and engaging narrative, which is enhanced with fully referenced examples. Examples include: child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, problems in BP, the banking crash caused by subprime mortgages and derivatives (2007-2010), the Nazis in World War 2 and post operative child deaths in Bristol.

Overall the book is a fascinating exploration of human psychology and why we often fail to see the obvious. If you’re interested in psychology, self-awareness, leadership or business you should read this book.

Review soon,

Antony

Tech Review: WD My Passport (Yellow) 4TB Portable Hard Drive

Monday 22 October 2018 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Years ago, I bought an Iomega StorCenter Home Media Server.

Iomega was bought out by Lenovo whom only offered limited support for Iomega products. I updated it a few years ago and since its never been able to connect over the Wifi, only by ethernet cable.

Then recently the Server started making hard drive failure sounds. It had all of my downloaded TV series and films on. So I decided it was time to update.

Instead of opting for another media server, I went for a WD My Passport (Yellow) 4TB (photoed above and below). Here’s the My Passport features:

It’s Plug and Play, meaning that it doesn’t require its own power source but is instead powered through USB.
It’s portable.
It is made by Western Digital (WD) whom have an excellent reputation for making high quality hardware products.
It comes in various hard drive sizes: 1TB, 2TB, 3TB & 4TB.
It has a funky design.
It comes in various colours: black, white, blue, red, yellow & orange.
It runs silently.
It is relatively cheap, available on Amazon for just under a £100 for a 4TB model.
It has Built-in 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption meaning that you can set it so that a password is required for access. This feature cleverly allows someone to use the drive on any computer – even one that doesn’t have the WD software installed and without having to install any software.
Auto Backup software is installed. Or you can use other software for backups including Apple’s Time Machine.

I decided because my new drive is portable that I wanted a solid case to protect it when not in use. I found this AmazonBasics Case:

wd-my-passport-yellow-4td-in-amazon-basics-case — I found this great solid Amazonbasics Case for the external hard drive.

If you’re looking for an external and portable hard drive to give yourself more disk space on your laptop or PC, I can highly recommend the WD My Passport (Yellow) 4TB on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

Book Review: The Witch’s Bag of Tricks by Melanie Marquis

Thursday 18 October 2018 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Witch’s Bag of Tricks is not a book for the initiate or new Witch.

It’s a book for the knowledgeable and experienced Witch. Witches who’ve reached a learning plateau and were spells have began to lose their effectiveness. (We’ve all been there.)

In The Witch’s Bag of Tricks Marquis covers:

Magick’s Seven Functions: Giving Energy Initial Purpose, Transforming Energy, Combining Energy, Separating Energies, Containing Energy, Releasing Energy & Redirecting Energy
Increasing your Power Potential
Removing Blocks to Great Power
Discovering Affinities
Spiritual Development
Psychic Spell Work & Psychic Development
Three Aspects of ESP: Perceiving the Whole, Perceiving the Parts & Perceiving the Connections
Magickal Development
The Difference between Charms, Spells & Rituals
Positive Binding Magic
Imitative Magick
Prosperity Magick
Love Magick
Advanced Defense Magick
Principles of Defensive Magic – Containing, Binding, Banishing & Shielding
Mood-Lifting and Luck Magick.

Marquis’ writing style reminded me of one that you would read in a magazine. This made The Witch’s Bag of Tricks feel superficial.

This wasn’t helped by Marquis trying to cover a large number of topics in the one book. There were parts of the book I would have loved Marquis to explore in more detail.

Reading The Witch’s Bag of Tricks was a pleasure. It reinvigorated my love of learning in the Craft – which is no small achievement. It’s great to see a book on the market and aimed at practiced Witches. I hope to find other books like this.

So far I’ve found the following books useful for an experienced Witch: Advanced Witchcraft by Edain McCoy, Witchcraft: Theory and Practice by Ly De Angeles, Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions by Dorothy Morrison.

The Witch’s Bag of Tricks is available to buy on Amazon and at all good bookshops.

Review soon,

Antony

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Reviews

Book Review: The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters

Book Review: Wilful Blindness by Margaret Heffernan

More Content From Antony

Tech Review: WD My Passport (Yellow) 4TB Portable Hard Drive

More Content From Antony

Book Review: The Witch’s Bag of Tricks by Melanie Marquis