Barking Up The Wrong Tree turns standard success advice on its head by looking at both sides of many common arguments, like confidence, extroversion, or being nice, concluding it’s really other factors that decide if we win, and we control more of them than we think.
Self-deprecating humor is a great way to start pretty much anything: a talk, a Youtube video, a relationship, a standup comedy routine, and, in case of today’s author, even a blog. When Eric Barker studied Japanese in college, he learned on the first day of class that his last name means “idiot.” What most would’ve taken as offense, he took as the perfect icebreaker.

So today, after almost a decade of blogging, the URL of his blog still reads “I am an idiot” in Japanese: bakadesuyo. Eric’s writing is rooted in the Stoic principle to learn more about yourself as long as you live. Hence, much of his posts are dedicated to making scientific research accessible to the general public in ways that balances both sides of an issue, like confidence, motivation, extroversion.

One value we can already deduct from Eric’s behavior is patience. He waited until 2017, eight years, to publish his first book, Barking Up The Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong. It’s a distilled collection of his biggest and most surprising lessons.

Here are my favorite 3:

Good grades often lead to mediocrity.
Extroverts make more money, but introverts are better experts.
The amount of hours you work matters, it’s an undeniable fact.

If you feel lost in a sea of confusing success advice, here’s a more balanced perspective that helps you consider your own wants and needs!

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