The Guinea Pig Diaries

During a recent trip to the library, I spied this book out of the corner of my eye under Staff Picks. Just look at that cover. I had to read it.

The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs

I pride myself on my nutritional experiments. Seems I’ve been thinking way too small. Writer A.J. Jacobs is much more imaginative. In this book, he did experiments where he spent a month as if he were George Washington, living by his 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation. Another month he practiced Radical Honesty, where he had no filters on what he thought and what he said. My favorite chapter was The Unitasker, where he went to great lengths to perform only a single task at a time. This includes wearing a blindfold while talking on the phone, to prevent his eyes from engaging in another task.

This book was very funny. If you are looking for a quick enjoyable read, check out The Guinea Pig Diaries. I hadn’t really thought too much about extending my personal experiments into social experiments, although in a future post I will share a body language trick I developed to make strangers walking past you on the street more likely to smile.