Surrounded by Idiots

I would say that this book was indeed very informative. I learnt more about myself and the people surrounding me. There were also humor when describing the various colors n i loved the fact that the author brought real-life scenarios when giving his explanations.

I went in not knowing the book was about the DISC system. Because I had briefly studied the system as part of my coaching training I was already familiar with the concepts. Nonetheless I thought it was a good idea to get a refresher.

Overall the book made it easy for anyone to understand the DISC system, but for all the mentions of people being most likely multicolored, I think the author didn't do enough of explaining instances of multicolor and how that affects their behavior. How does a green-blue differ from blue-green? What determines their “base” color and does a person's palette ever change? Does being aware of the colors shift people's behavior?

Overall I think the book is too superficial to give the DISC system justice, if it's worth any. The 4-grid system seemed too simplistic in this painting, and becomes too vague when everything can be explained away by “case-by-case basis”.

I learned a little, but not enough. Maybe that's proof that I'm a true blue with a dash of red.

I wish that this book hadn't been as propped up by anecdata. There is interesting stuff here and it was so masked by all the “stories.”

Even with remembering well the disclaimers and warnings from the beginning, this book still feels like a veiled way to stereotype people in immutable categories. Based highly on anecdotes, I had a constant feeling of a person trying to vent their anger and frustrations accumulated from work, but I expected a more science-based approach. Also, ideas are not new at all - dividing people in introverts and extroverts is not quite the latest thing in town. And for the axis of task oriented vs relation oriented, I don't know how new it is as an idea on the main market, but personally I picked that idea up in “Culture map”, so overall there was nothing new to pick up, as a high level idea. Writing feels gimmicky and clickbait-y, full of tricks to draw your attention, but at a deeper point, when you finish and analyze the ideas behind, they are not as valuable as expected. Maybe this is another way to be friendly and familial in tone, but it is not my cup of tea at all. I don't feel like an easily offended person, but when reading the “bad” sides of each type of person, lots of times it felt like he's just saying “these people are stupid”, then “those other people are also stupid” etc.
High ideas are not new, and small details are of little value, as they feel too anecdotical and too personal in order to keep a decent degree of objectiveness.
Claims to aid in the interactions at work, in the business world. That's only for managers to decide how much this book did help them to manage people better.
Pretty near sighted to finish this and keep shoving people in one of the 4 categories. People have many colors and are influenced by many factors, ergo they might side with all colors throughout their lives, on one moment or another. I admit I remember his mentions that no one is purely 1 single color. but I am afraid that with this sort of book, people reading them in a hurry and forgetting that 1 disclaimer, will be tempted to fit anyone in 1 of these 4 categories, which is unfair.