You The Owners Manual Radio Show

Have you seen the Gwyneth Paltrow movie, SLIDING DOORS? It features the inimitable Gwyneth, playing Helen, freshly fired from her corporate job, stumbling into a train station, still in shock. The movie parallels the life-altering consequences of Helen missing her train home.  Brian Klaas moves the “sliding doors” theory one step further in FLUKE: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (on sale Jan 23). In it, Klaas demonstrates how linear ideas of progress are (at best) outmoded and suggests that “embracing the unpredictable” is not only more realistic—but is ultimately the key to happiness. Using history, evolutionary biology and chaos theory, Klaas shows how “letting go” is not only better for mental health, it can also be an empowering tool for success. The core argument of the book is that our world—and our lives—are more swayed by the accidental than we imagine. As people accustomed to recognizing patterns, we often wrongly weave unrelated data points together into a more pleasing tapestry. Tha