More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Started reading
March 17, 2017
a wide fusion of negativity and positivity.
Your hope, in fact, acknowledges negativity with clear eyes.
they also find ways to cultivate good feelings—
You might say the behavior of these high-performing teams was always fresh and creative.
It has a clear order. It’s just a very complex order.
in negative, self-absorbed advocacy.
none of the butterfly’s complex and generative dynamics
and almost no tendency to question or focus outward.
fixed-point attractor.
Only one structure— the one depicting high-performance teams— held complexity and infinite flexibility.
they capture differences in kind, not just in degree.
who were most open
what a synergistic group of open minds
When positivity was high, team members were more responsive to one another.
Below this number, you reach ruts (limit cycles) and deadlocks (fixed-point attractors).
Above this number, the butterfly pops out, with all its glorious complexity.
Among flourishing marriages, positivity ratios were about 5 to 1.
The consistency here is extraordinary. For individuals, marriages, and business teams, flourishing— or doing remarkably well—
comes with positivity ratios above 3 to 1.
tipping point
the effects of positivity are subtle,
at times I find no effects whatsoever.
Below 3 to 1, positivity may well be inert,
Positivity may need to accumulate and compound to a certain degree before it reaches the crucial tipping point.
the broaden-and-build effects of positivity
we divided people by their ratios,
below 3 to 1, the bars indicating good outcomes— like broad thinking or built resources— hovered near zero.
For them, positivity forecast both openness and growth.
you may well wish to steer clear of positivity ratios above 11 to 1.
more is not always better.
Optimal not "more ever more"
Problems may well occur with too much positivity.
A book about positivity also endorses negativity. Perhaps not all negativity, but rather appropriate negativity.
find a better, more considerate way to behave.
So knowing that positivity is life-giving doesn’t mean that negativity needs to be forever banished.
the uncanny balance between levity and gravity.
Appropriate negativ ity delivers the promise of gravity.
consilience,
The stakes in terms of human welfare are too high for me to rest easy in the belief that clever theory or fancy math alone can provide the answers we so desperately seek.
your task is to remember yesterday.
only yesterday.
it’s always a surprise test.
it helps to do this process in steps.
circle
underline
count the number of circled positivity items rated at 2 or higher.
count the number of underlined negativity items rated at 1 or higher.
to locate your negativity land mines and positivity wellsprings:
to the activities and circumstances that bring you down and lift you up.
You can instead mentally assess your emotions at key turning points in your day.
may help you develop more awareness of the emotional texture of your days.
