Surrounded by Idiots
Sophisticated
Complex
Insightful

Surrounded by Idiots The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood)

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner get your back up? You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people. Originally published in Swedish in 2014 as Omgiven Av Idioter, Erikon’s Surrounded by Idiots is already an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, of which over 750,000 copies have been sold in Sweden alone. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way(s) we speak and share information. Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication and advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or indeed shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and influence those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension. And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!
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Reviews

Photo of Michael Clark
Michael Clark@mcf
3 stars
Jan 14, 2025

interesting, but slow

+3
Photo of Aashvi
Aashvi@ash_h
3 stars
Aug 3, 2024

Kinda bland but good psych

Photo of Erik Horton
Erik Horton@erikhorton
3 stars
Jul 6, 2024

Leans into a bit of junk science and says how things are without nuance. It's still a good book if you want to try and empathize more, reducing people to combination of colors is understandable.

Photo of shadee
shadee@shadeeqa
4 stars
Mar 21, 2024

My first ever self help book I finished!

This will be a book ill pick up again from time to time when im figuring how to talk to people i Have to talk to🙏 Overall learned alot about my myself and how to communicate effeCtiveLy with people who we think are ‘idiots’ because (quoting through the book) The ‘idiots’ still deserve respect. The writing had humour in it so it was as if you were reading roasts about you worst traits in yourself which is good for a reality check

+1
Photo of Sophia Arlt
Sophia Arlt@sophsarchive
3 stars
Mar 15, 2024

Was good because easy to read! And interesting topic

Photo of Simone Felisati
Simone Felisati@felox210
3 stars
Jan 30, 2024

Probably too generalist at categorizing people but touches on a lot of interesting aspects of human personalities. Anything that helps understanding other people around ourselves is a good read.

Photo of Carlos Becker
Carlos Becker@caarlos0
2 stars
May 21, 2023

Waste of time

Photo of finja scharnhorst
finja scharnhorst @finja
3.5 stars
Jan 10, 2023

really interesting but the author repeated himself often

Photo of Farah Ain
Farah Ain@farah
4 stars
Feb 11, 2022

Interesting, informative, straightforward, and humorous. It's my first time reading a book about behaviour types and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it! Looking forward to reading something similar to this again.

Photo of Lauren
Lauren @lauren_pybus
2 stars
Jan 18, 2022

This was interesting, but I think only understandable due to having prior knowledge of the system that is talked about throughout. It has helped my understanding if the topic but at some points it was a bit slow

Photo of Kelly Westraat
Kelly Westraat @kelly
4 stars
Jan 9, 2022

It was very interesting to understand the different types of human behaviour. Would definitely recommend The author did repeat a lot however the repetition felt like little reminders 😊 Overall a good book

+4
Photo of Talitha Febriani
Talitha Febriani@talithafebriani
4 stars
Oct 18, 2021

definitely interesting to learn about why people are the way they are the first few chapters are very intriguing and fun to read , but it kind of got boring midway and i started to just skim through the rest of the book

Photo of Luca Stromann
Luca Stromann@l-s
3.5 stars
Apr 28, 2025
Photo of Fstellam
Fstellam@bfg
3 stars
Jan 15, 2025
Photo of Natascha Dallige
Natascha Dallige@nadal
5 stars
Nov 7, 2024
+1
Photo of Katharina Rother
Katharina Rother@kathana
3 stars
Oct 31, 2024
Photo of sophie
sophie@sophieee
4 stars
Jul 5, 2024
+2
Photo of DeEdra
DeEdra@dbaugnon
4.5 stars
May 29, 2024
+1
Photo of YuCheng Kuo
YuCheng Kuo@yuchengkuo
4.5 stars
Jun 16, 2023
+2
Photo of Jacky
Jacky@jackyyy
1 star
Jun 9, 2023
Photo of Matilda Liljestrand
Matilda Liljestrand@matildasofia
4 stars
Dec 28, 2022
Photo of HsinJu
HsinJu@hsinju
4 stars
Dec 26, 2022
Photo of Lenis Phoa
Lenis Phoa@lnpnqn
5 stars
Apr 10, 2022
+2
Photo of Gigi V
Gigi V@barksandvino
3 stars
May 2, 2024