Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Surrounded by Idiots

  • The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood)
  • By: Thomas Erikson
  • Narrated by: David John
  • Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,107 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Surrounded by Idiots cover art

Surrounded by Idiots

By: Thomas Erikson
Narrated by: David John
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Psychology of Money cover art
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck cover art
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills cover art
48 Laws of Power cover art
Principles cover art
Tongue Fu!® cover art
Crucial Conversations (Third Edition) cover art
Nice Girls Don't Speak Up or Stand Out cover art
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age cover art
Improve Your Conversations cover art
Mindfulness cover art
Improve Your People Skills: Build and Manage Relationships, Communicate Effectively, Understand Others, and Become the Ultimate People Person cover art
The Ideal Team Player cover art
Triggers cover art
The Like Switch cover art
Communication Skills Training Series: 7 Books in 1 cover art

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin

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.

Narrated by David John, 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!

©2019 Thomas Erikson (P)2019 Penguin Audio

More from the same

What listeners say about Surrounded by Idiots

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    650
  • 4 Stars
    253
  • 3 Stars
    99
  • 2 Stars
    52
  • 1 Stars
    53
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    596
  • 4 Stars
    177
  • 3 Stars
    80
  • 2 Stars
    36
  • 1 Stars
    36
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    508
  • 4 Stars
    209
  • 3 Stars
    97
  • 2 Stars
    41
  • 1 Stars
    60

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Dreadfully banal

I have listened to 30 Audiobooks so far in 2020, and never do I feel moved to write a review - especially a damning one, since effort goes into every book and every book surely has its readers (so what's the point in rubbishing one because it happens not to suit your taste?). But honestly, this book is so genuinely dreadful and banal that I can't help myself. It's completely devoid of any insight - to the extent that I honestly wondered if the book's title was a mickey take, and the author knew he was surrounded by idiots he could persuade to buy anything.

Save yourself the time and money: just Imagine a collection of star sign platitudes, give each collection a colour to simplify them, and then expand at length to try to convince people that there is actually a case to be made for such absurd pigeon-holing.

How it's an international bestseller is literally anyone's guess. Amazing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

150 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Repetitive and simplistic. No Insights or growth

As above.
Not worth it unless you have never heard of the possibility some people have a different perspective or personality to you or others.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

76 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Snake Oil

this book has very little to say, most of it being pseudoscience, and takes far too long to say it. It is also written in a style that feels more like a sales pitch for a tool than an attempt to convey a psychological theory that might be of interest in its own right. Again this is quite possibly because the author is indeed trying to sell the idea that his four personality types have some psychological validity which sadly they don't.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

48 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Useful information poorly presented

The book is is presented in an unabridged format, much to its detriment. There are sections consisting of tables of information, or emails which are read out as if a text to speak engine was set to work.

The overall message becomes repetitive and it’s easy to lose focus in the discussion.

There are some great ideas and insights through the book , although these are often lost due to the style of the writing compounded by the presentation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Must-Read!

The first thing that draws you (at least that drew me) to this book is the title itself. Gotta give an A to whoever came up with it. The book however has much to do with the subtitle than with the title - "The Four Types of Human behaviour".


The author uses the DISC behavioral  assessment tool to categorize human behaviour or personality traits, DISC standing for: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S) and Conscientiousness (C). The tool is based on theories from the psychologist William Marston.


First though, let's address the elephant in the room, human behaviour and humans are unbelievably complex and any attempt to form a categorization is apt to raise a few eyebrows. The author though does acknowledge this, and offers in my opinion a reasonable account of the DISC model.


To make the learning process easier, the author uses colors for the four types of human behaviour: Red, Yellow, Green and Blue. The traits are roughly based on Hippocrates famous personality traits: Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic.


He spends a good amount on each color, highlighting their perceived strengths, observed weaknesses and what stresses them. More importantly he goes into detail on the interaction between each color and the other, how the actions of one color can be perceived by the other, but also how to handle the challenges that come with these differences in a group.


The book brought me a great deal amount of audible laughter in the moments I was reading about a particular color, and suddenly recognition hit as I recalled a person in my life. My memory was taken to instances where I had challenges dealing with a particular person, but now I deeply understood what was at play. More importantly however it opened my awareness to how my behavior can be perceived by others, leaving room for improvement in my interactions.


I can't recommend enough this wonderful book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • SD
  • 27-03-20

Repetitive and self-referencing

Interesting book, but it became incredibly repetitive. If you read just the summary of this book, you will be better off.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Far too simplistic

Maybe it is due to the construct but this is a far too simplistic view on human nature. The examples he uses to support his theory don't sound realistic, they are far too one dimensional. He also is definitive about the behaviour of each colour, not accepting the subtleties of human nature. At some points this book is patronising and a little passive aggressive. In a weird way, having lived in Scandinavia I can see where he's coming from but this theory really doesn't hold water outside of the Northern European cultural structure.

Love the narrator though! He may have channelled the tone of the author a little too well though...he seems very red...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating book

I already knew about the DISC classification but this book is rich in details, examples and situations.
Also you can easily identify your personality type and the challenges you might face.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book for anyone interested in team dynamics!

well written and narrated book (although recommend speeding it up to 1.25% speed, slow talker!)

I feel that it helped me get a higher level understanding of both work/and private relations!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Hadn’t realised that this book has been completely discredited

There were a lot of things that chimed but I think it was confirmation bias.
I was an avid listener for the first several hours but then chanced upon an article about the pseudoscience in this field and this book came top if the list. I’ve not had any patience with it since snd am just ending it with hours to go.☹️

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful