Surrounded by Idiots

The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life)

By: Thomas Erikson

Narrated by: David John

A runaway best seller in Sweden that has sold more than a million copies worldwide, Surrounded by Idiots shares a groundbreaking new method of understanding the people around you that will change how you interact with everyone from your coworkers to your spouse.

Author Thomas Erikson explains that there are four key behavior types that define how we interact with and perceive the people around us. Understanding someone’s pattern of behavior is the key to successful communication. Erikson breaks down the four kinds of behavior types - Reds who are dominant and commanding, Yellows who are social and optimistic, Greens who are laid-back and friendly, and Blues who are analytical and precise - and explains how to identify and interact with each type of person. Instead of being bogged down with overly technical categorizations, the simple four-color system allows you to speedily identify a friend or coworker and adjust how you speak and share with them.

Surrounded by Idiots is full of practical information for interacting with people based on their color, including the strengths and weaknesses of all the profiles, how to give positive and negative feedback to each, and the best way to word an email when writing to someone with a different profile.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Text copyright by Thomas Erikson; Foreword copyright by David Bonnstetter (P)2019 Penguin Audio

White collar

I’ve been in, what society labels as blue collar job my whole life. This book, in my opinion, is geared for the white collar, sales positions and such would probably benefit the most. The concept is a bit generalized. Putting people into 4 different categories. Not sure if it’s gonna be applicable in my situation as far as understanding peoples behavior.

7 billion divided by 4

While I tend to think that humans are more complex creatures than 4 colors can explain (and having worked for almost 2 decades in a company that really believed this), this is a very interesting way to see the world. The author brings interesting elements to build the case and indeed, these characteristics really apply to real life. I think certain aspects of cultural background and walks of life may dictate one’s “color” - this might be a blind spot for the analysis. So a “culture map”, “body keeps the score” or “languages of love” may be an additional layer to help precision. That is my blue/yellow point of view!

understanding people

Excellent in helping you understand how different people do what they do. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. I am a blue, red combo. My husband is a green. We get along 90% of the time. I learned a lot.

More Theory Than Substance

This book wasn’t for me. While the concept of categorizing personalities into colors is interesting, it felt more theoretical than factual. It also contradicts itself by saying people don’t fit into a mold while still grouping them into rigid categories. Not a terrible read, just not my cup of tea.

A must read (listen)

I loved this book, I've been wanting to read it for a while and it was better than expected. I'm al ready recomending it everywere.

Read or listen with an open mind when thinking you've identified yourself, it can only help you be better and about others it will help you understand why people around you are the way they are, even your family.