Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Weblink
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.c …

INFECTIOUS GENEROSITY

Chris Anderson

The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading

From the bestselling author, media pioneer, and curator of TED, an inspiring book about one of humankind's defining but overlooked impulses, and how we can super-charge its potential to build a hopeful future.
Recent years have been tough on optimists. Hopes that the Internet might bring people together have been crushed by the divisiveness of social media. But as head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world's boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them and the unique insights he gained from how online sharing transformed TED into a global beacon of transformative ideas, he believes there's a pathway back from outrage to optimism. It all comes down to reimagining the role that one of the most fundamental human virtues - generosity - can play in our connected era. What if generosity could become infectious generosity?

Anderson shows how the same technologies that have bred negativity can also be mobilized as an exponential force for good, to create chain reactions of generous behavior. Every day, remarkable stories of individual acts of kindness have sparked remarkable ripple effects when shared online, achieving a level of impact never before possible. This book captures some of the most inspiring such stories, revealing their potential to solve problems and make people happier in the process.

Gifts of time, talent, connection, and kindness have always been part of what it is to be a good human. But today they can be catalyzed to have world-changing, self-replicating impact. In Infectious Generosity, Anderson offers readers a playbook to fine-tune these actions, to take generosity from invisible to transformative. Infectious Generosity invites readers, as well as companies, investors, and organizations, to give more to the world than they take from it, and to wholeheartedly embrace new forms of infectious generosity. Doing so isn't merely a test of character - our entire future may depend on it. This book shows the way.

Chris Anderson has been the curator of TED since 2001. His TED mantra - "ideas worth spreading" - continues to blossom on an international scale, with some three billion TED Talks viewed annually. He lives in New York City and London.
Available products
Book

Published 2024-01-23 by Crown

Book

Published 2024-01-23 by Crown

Comments

Brazil: Globo; China: Citic Press ; Hungary: HVG ; Italy: Egea S ; Japan: Eiji Press ; Korea: Bookie Publishing House ; Poland: Fundacka Wandy Pratnickiej; Portugal: Edicoes Almedina; Romania: SC Publica; Taiwan: China Times; Thailand: Amarin ; Turkey: Boyner ; Ukraine: Laboratory; Vietnam: First News ; world Spanish: Centro Libros ; British & Commonwealth: Ebury

Profound and compelling. This book is a masterpiece, and an important one. I want everyone I know to read this - and everyone I don't know, too.

This book is the first page-turner ever written about human generosity. Truly inspiring! It will change the way you see the world around you.

An inspiring, timely book about ways to bring out the best in people rather than focusing on the worst... a joyful road map away from a polarized, selfish society to the hopeful, humane place where we should be.

Chris Anderson's TED Talk in support of Infectious Generosity is now live, with more than 75,000 views in the first 4 hours! Read more...

A beautiful book - lucid, warm, intelligent, and persuasive.

Warning: Reading this book may give you an irresistible urge to get up and take action. Infectious generosity has the potential to spread far and wide, and radically change the world. Yes, we all know that philanthropy can be an excuse for tax evasion and dubious business models. But we should also remember that the great movements of the past - from the abolitionists to the suffragettes - relied on the generosity of ambitious philanthropists. Chris Anderson shows how the privileged today can follow in their footsteps and end world hunger, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, modern slavery, extreme poverty and so much more. This is simply a wonderful book.

This book was a much-needed gift to my weary and news-battered heart. In a time when we are constantly being told that we are more divided and combative than ever, and that the future will bring only more calamity and despair, Chris Anderson presents an inspiring body of evidence to support the tremendous and transformative power of generosity - that most beautiful of human impulses. Infectious Generosity is a combination of inarguable data and incredibly moving stories. How wonderful to learn that seemingly small and humble acts of kindness can create exponential whirlwinds of benevolent impact, and that generosity is just as contagious as any virus! I flew through these pages with an increasing sense of joy, and was left inspired and hopeful. I hope millions read this book.

The book is truly excellent. Concise and profound. It's going to have a big impact on the key issue of our times.

Bill Gates's Summer list selection Read more...