Supercommunicators

Welcome to my Supercommunicators book summary!

Supercommunicators are Superboring.

One-Sentence-Summary: Written for the mass market, Supercommunicators is a disappointing effort from the author of The Power of Habit—a book I do recommend—offering elementary insights useful only to those entirely new to communication.

I’ve paused reading Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg. Current page: 77

booboo real-time book rating: ★★☆☆☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 14%)

Relevant Blog Post: How to Inject Creativity into your Conversation

With sentences like this, “When someone says something and they laugh afterward-even if it wasn’t funny-it’s a hint they’re enjoying the conversation” (p. 69), one who’s graduated from elementary school has already absorbed this truth.

This blog will contain both my summary and review of the book Supercommunicators.

The idea presented in Chapter 1, is worth consideration. Duhigg suggests there are three conversations that can potentially be happening at any one time:

• What’s this really about? (decision-making)
• How do we feel? (emotional)
• Who are we? (social)

If two people are speaking on different threads, miscommunications happen. So I thought to some of my recent conversations:

• Guy sitting next to me on the plane – Mostly put into a “Who are we?’ social context finding out about each other and out travel plans.
• Talking to the receptionalist at the gym – A “What’s this really about” trying to decide if I should join.

Most of my conversations, the girl I met on the walk home, the couple I chatted with during dinner, are social.

The problem with the book is that limited useful info was given beyond this framework besides obvious insights.

As I read the book, you will find my in-progress Supercommunicators review and book summary notes below.

“Miscommunication occurs when people are having different kinds of conversations.” (p. 21)

DEEP Questions

Interestingly, the below concept, which is helpful, is not actually inteh book. I found it in a YouTube video summary probably made with AI. So I will cover the more interesting topic and skip what DEEP stands for in Supercommunicators.

When forming questions, like

“How was your weekend?”

Change them by focusing on:

Dreams

Elevated Experiences

Passions

A better question asking the same thing: “What was the highlight of your weekend?” (elevated experiences)

Turn “Hows working for X company?” into “What’s your favorite thing about your job/wokring for X company?” (passions)

You are reading my book review and summary by Charles Duhigg. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.

YouTube Video Summary of Supercommunicators

I decided to watch two YouTube summary video’s of the book and although the broad concept is a good one, it’s a basic one. Some of the complaints on negative reviews were about the examples. I noticed this in the jury trial from Chapter 2, but these videos tell me the author uses speed dating for an example of supercommunicators. Anyone who has been to a speed dating event knows the type of people who attend these events are not supercommunicators.

The Matching Principle is interesting and something I do with my Airbnb property management business. The example given is then when a customer complained of a missing button on her shirt, the owner agreed in tone and dissatisfaction and said they’re find who was responsible and fire them immediately. The lady said she’d be happy if he fixed the button. Similarly, when a guest complaints about anything, no matter if I think it’s insignificant, I agree that it’s unacceptable, and let them know that I have already scheduled a meeting with my team, cleaner, or whoever was responsible tomorrow to go over the process.

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.

New Words

Nimbus (noun) – halo surrounding a human or supernatural being (the cloud shape looked like a Greek god with a nimbus)

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Charles Duhigg for writing Supercommunicators!

Date Started: Monday, April 28, 2025

Date Finished: