100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings

You know those subtle tricks your coworkers are all guilty of? The constant nodding, pretend concentration, useless rhetorical questions? These tricks make them seem like they know what they’re doing when in fact they have no clue. This behavior is so ingrained, so subtle, and so often mistaken for true intelligence that identifying it, calling it out, or compiling it into an exhaustive digest has never been attempted. Until now.

Complete with illustrated tips, examples, and scenarios, 100 Tricks gives you actionable ways to use words like “actionable,” in order to sound smart. Every type of meeting is covered, from general meetings where you stopped paying attention almost immediately, to one-on-one meetings you zoned out on, to impromptu meetings you were painfully subjected to at the last minute. It’s all here.

Open this book to any page and find an easy-to-digest trick with an even easier-to-digest illustration, guiding you on:
• how to nail the big meeting by pacing and nodding
• most effective ways to listen to your coworkers while still completely ignoring them
• the key to making your presentations “interactive.”

If you hadn’t noticed these behaviors before, you will see them now—from your colleagues, your managers, and soon yourself. Each trick is a mirror to the reality of what happens in meetings, told in the form of hilariously bad advice—advice that you might just want to take. But probably not. But maybe.

"Sly satire that will bring endless joy to anyone who has ever endured the drudgery of corporate life." —Dan Lyons, writer for HBO's Silicon Valley and New York Times-bestselling author of Disrupted