100 Tricks to Appear Smart In Meetings

I never thought anyone could skewer the office workplace as well as Scott Adams (“Dilbert”) but Sarah does just as sublime a job of it. This book contains many laugh out loud moments. I love the drawings that illustrate the points, which are often as humorous as her various tips. As someone who groans inwardly at the thought of any meeting lasting longer than an hour, I can absolutely relate – in a humorous way – to all Sarah’s suggestions. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys good office humor!

Have you suffered through a meeting that just. will not. end? Have you rolled your eyes internally as someone spews jargon that's been overused to the point of meaninglessness? Have you made fun of a company mission statement that seems to have been produced by bots fed nothing but buzzwords?

This is the book for you!

Each 'trick' is accompanied by a cartoon illustrating how you might accomplish appearing smart without actually paying attention or contributing to a meeting. For example, at random, ask "But will it scale?" or promise to send your further thoughts in email (but don't).

Smart, funny, and not long enough to outstay its welcome (unlike most meetings), this book is a great stocking suffer for the middle managers in your life.

Sarah has a tagline "Funny, because it's true." (Sorry, is that trademarked?) This book had me laughing out loud over and over because, YES, it's SO true. Many of us have unknowingly been following Sarah's advice for years and have built stellar careers on these principles. You'll read a little vignette, and then nod, grin and say "I know that guy... he works here..." Sarah describes small, subtle quirks of human behavior that I'll bet you've seen in YOUR workplace. You should get a couple copies of this little gem -- one for your coffee table at home, and one for your desk. I'm a manager (yes, I've had the mandatory lobotomy) and I'm thinking that a copy of this book will make a nice Christmas gift for each member of my team. Well done Sarah !!

Apparently I have been in meetings with folks that have implemented these techniques....to those of us that actually know what we are doing and talking about..., these techniques do not appear smart..... but should I have the privilege of having thsee students in a meeting, I will happily single them out, and focus all attention on them.....

I actually love sarcasm which is smart humor but this book is just plain stupid. No value whatsoever. And I agree with another reviewer - seems like it was written by a ten year old. Don't waste your time or money.

Sarah Cooper’s blog is the friend that gets the fact that your average workday is full of ridiculous events that are almost impossible to describe. Her new book is the friend that stops by with snacks, and sits on the couch while the two of you make fun of a DVD recording of your average workday.

I have a pre-publication PDF copy of the book, but am buying the hardcopy just for the ability to flip through at random. Like a favorite television show in syndication, you can jump into the book at any point for a quick break. Every page has something you will recognize if you have been through any kind of meeting, and you can make a game of matching what is in the book to your actual experiences. You could make it a game with like-minded friends, with snacks, on the couch.

I do recommend reading the book in small pieces, like her blog, and the break between meetings that makes it possible to get through the day.

'100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings: How to Get By Without Even Trying' by Sarah Cooper is a humorous how to guide that will probably not make you look that smart.

Corporate meetings are often the bane of corporate life. Some meetings are productive, most feel like a waste of time. Fear not, because this book will attempt to help you climb the corporate ladder through meetings with co-workers. With chapter titles like Whiteboard Tactics: 21 Meaningless Diagrams You Can Draw, and How To Make Your Meeting Seem Less Like A Meeting Even Though It's Totally A Meeting, you will likely recognize many of these odd behaviors in meetings you have attended.

It's a pretty funny book because it seems to have been written by someone who has attended a lot of meeting and observed the odd one-upmanship that takes place in them. It seems that human behavior can provide many opportunities for humor.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

If you appreciate a bit of cynical snark towards meetings, networking, conferences and want to appear smart to your colleagues and supervisors, author Sarah Cooper, who has worked at both Yahoo and Google serves up some suggestions. Here are some of my favorites from the book - which can be read in under an hour. You will enjoy finding your own.

Regarding intelligent-sounding comments to make which make you look smarter, but don't have to mean anything:

* Encourage everyone to STEP BACK. Ask "what problem are we trying to solve?"

* Ask "will this scale"? No matter what you're discussing.

* When everyone seems to like an idea, yell out "Ship it!"

* Say "ping me about that tomorrow"

Here's some things you can do to appear smart, likable ....:

* Make fun of yourself

* Leave to get water and ask if anyone needs anything. Bring back lots of snacks and refreshments for everyone. Your foresight makes it look like you really can predict the future.

* Take pictures of the ideas at the end of the meeting

* Always use "sent from my phone" email signature - it makes you look busy and on the go and gets you out of proofreading your messages

Ideas for women in a male-dominated workplace:

* Learn how to talk cars - visit corvette.com, Ferrari.com etc.

* Use quotes from guy movies such as THE BIG LEBOWSKI

* Prank early, prank often

It would be huge fun to try out some of the 100 ideas in this book. Even more fun with some teammates who feel similarly.

As a regular participant in faculty meetings, I'm pretty sure others have already read this book. Now I know how to succeed in meetings! I've gotten by for a while by having one of those "thoughtful" resting faces, where people ask me what deep things I'm thinking about and I'm really thinking about a show I watched last evening or what that spot is on the carpet. Since it seems a lot of success these days is more about appearing smart, and playing the game, more social-striving than actual insight, this book is a dazzling resource for upward mobility.

From using your time and space wisely in meetings, to how best design powerpoint slides ("Put one large word on each slide"), to adept use of the white board, everything is covered. This isn't just limited to meeting time. It also covers prep and post strategies, as well as different settings like a business dinner ("Volunteer someone else give a speech").

Sarah Cooper has clearly been in a lot of meetings with really smart people and took great notes. Well worth getting to anyone new in the business world or as a gift to your office nemesis to show that you know exactly what they're trying to get away with.

When I was in college, my friends and I basically memorized the movie Office Space. We quoted it to each other all the time, even though none of us had ever worked in an office yet. Fast forward to working in an office as a data processor for the longest 12 months of my life, and the humor of Office Space became real. I remember drinking whatever I could find all day long just so I could have an excuse to get up and use the bathroom every 14 minutes.

Cooper's humor is in much the same vein - it dissects the things that puzzle you, frustrate you, and mollify you, and made me say "oh man that is RIGHT on!" at almost every page. One of my favorites is the "Toddler vs. CEO" chart, drawing comparisons that will make you really want to take notes in the next meeting with your company's top honcho just so you can laugh with your friends later. It's obvious that Cooper took her time with this, and while some folks will find it funnier than others (depending on your work experience and your twisted sense of humor) the book brings up aspects of office life you've never even thought about and makes you laugh at them.

I look forward to sharing this with co-workers (probably not my CEO, although I might leave a ghost copy on her desk when no one is around) and trying to stifle my laughter in interdisciplinary meetings.

Me in meetings before this book:
Cringing at what was just said.
Praying no one addresses me.
Thoughts of how I work with morons.
Wondering if I've become a moron too and if I'm just too dumb to realize it.
Waiting for everyone to shut up already.

Me in meetings after this book:
OMG my coworker is doing that thing just like in the book.
Wanting to giggle but holding it in.
Giggling (a tad) out loud and then trying to pass it off as a cough or sniffle.
Realizing that ~95% of all meetings have becomes tropes made by this book.

When I read that Sarah Cooper had turned her short (and hilarious) post, 10 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings, into a book, I thought it was too much of a stretch. 10 tricks? Cool, cool. 100? No way. That's just too many tricks.

But I read this book in a sitting and loved every trick she had to offer. Each one is funny because you know someone who does it. Or you do it. Or you imagine yourself employing it and how it would go over with your colleagues.

The book is broken down into different meeting categories from those pesky "got a minute?" impromptu ones to networking events that everyone hates, all bookended by the Conference Room Playbook that is sure to be an invaluable resource to anyone who works on a team.

But the best part isn't the tips themselves, but the commentary associated with each one that would slip under the radar of someone just skimming the book for real advice. Like if a wannabe pick-up-artist-type wanted to appear smarter at work, he would probably only read the tips and not realize that he's a trash human and coworker. That's the best part.

Anyone who hates meetings will love this. If you want to snarkishly game meetings, this is for you! Often when you buy a humorous business book, it's either short with a couple of jokes repeated over and over or it's padded with anecdotal stories that aren't interesting because you don't care about other people. This has actual comedy gold on almost every page. You can just flip to a random page and find something to use at your next meeting. People will think you're serious and you're guaranteed to be a meeting rock star! What makes this book so funny is how true it is!

Whatever your field of endeavor, if you have a pulse, then you have suffered through meetings. Fortunately, Sarah Cooper throws you a lifeline in 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings. The Meeting Speak Cheat Sheet, alone, is worth the price of the book many times over. Ms Cooper is not just a humorist, but a cultural anthropologist, plumbing the depths of a pointless social ritual that became obsolete with the invention of movable type. The next time you’re stuck in an endless meeting, close your eyes and think of this book—and try not to laugh out loud…I dare you!

As has been shown by countless studies, your leadership potential is directly correlated to how smart you appear in meetings . In this thoroughly researched work, Sarah Cooper provides you with the tools to look like a person who looks smart in meetings. I can only imagine how many meetings she had to attend.

This book is great fun, blending a mix of wit and insight into the corporate world. Cooper’s signature style of comics and painfully true remarks makes you feel like you are in a real meeting. You will laugh as you see the various coworkers who have made your business day just a little bit longer. You might even cringe as you see yourself once or twice.

I recommend that every company populate their conference rooms with copies of this book so the attendees can follow along as mindless meetings consume their souls.

I was provided a copy for review by the publisher

This will be a completely honest review... I was a member of Sarah Cooper's email list where periodically we would get links to her latest material. I LOVED it. So when a book was on the way I was completely excited to see what else was in store. Oddly enough to me it looked like the same material that I got from the email listings. Now don't get me wrong the material is hilarious and in many cases very true. It was nice to see some of these behaviours in live meetings and chuckle to myself. Sadly it just didn't grab me as new material.

This book is so funny....

Cooper laces what seems like good advice with complete nonsense in such a way it's difficult to tell when she's serious and when she is not...

Okay, she's not serious. Not one bit. But, wow... I've been in 30 years worth of meetings and have been subject to most of these (dirty) tricks.

Part Dilbert part Mark Twain. And she even takes her own advice about self-depreciating humor making you appear smart. I'm not falling for it, Sarah Cooper is smart.

Admittedly, I love Sarah Cooper. Before she came out with this jewel of a book, she had been sharing her work through social media. Her cartoons on the pretentious, jargon filled world of start ups and corporate meetings are brilliantly funny, spot on, refreshing, and laugh out loud funny. This book is a brilliant piece of work guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Or if you prefer, the face of the person you give it to. Any of the images in the book would make for a great moment of comic relief in your next presentation. Just buy it and know that any of the techniques she shares will definitely make you look smarter in any meeting. And it might even lead you to becoming your company's next CEO. And if you are a CEO, hand out a copy to everyone in your next meeting just to let them know you're not as humorless as you seem.

Not sure how to make the best conference room entrance so people won't even question your commitment to the agenda? Wondering how to ace the big presentation even if all you did last week was binge watch cats on YouTube? Or curious what faces you should make during important discussions so your gravitas and enthusiasm for the data/marketing plan/strategy/donuts will be obvious? Cooper's got advice for those situations and more ways you can make meetings work for you while you do anything but work, all presented in a neat (giftable) package.

I loved this irreverent how-to book for winning the corporate meeting. Cooper strikes just the right note with witty explanations to accompany each of her 100 tricks and spot-on, cheesetastic illustrations that compliment the serious-but-not-but-totally-serious humor that makes her tips for getting ahead without making an effort so relatable.

Laugh, cry at the futility of the corporate meeting culture, and pretty soon you'll be doing that weird laughing cry thing that might be a little bit awkward on the vanpool into the office. But no matter, you're armed with a hundred ways of owning that morning meeting without any of the hassle of actually putting forth effort. So go. Don't try, look smart, and thank me later for recommending this book to you.

Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The author—a former employee of Yahoo! and Google—applies her experience with meetings to help her readers learn how to seem important in meetings, not do much of anything in them and all the while get ahead in your company. Although it’s all a big joke, there is a whole lot of business reality in what she writes, especially if you’re familiar with shows like “Silicon Valley” or work in a FORTUNE 500 company. Each page is replete with pictures and a snippet of meeting wisdom. For example, #38 is “Reminded everyone that we have limited resources” with the following explanation: “Does everyone already know we have limited resources? Yes. Do you still look smart when you bring it up? Definitely.” My personal favorite is #5: “Repeat the last thing the engineer said but very, very slowly.” The first part of the explanation is: “Make a mental note of the engineer in the room. Remember his name. He’ll be quiet for most of the meeting, but when his moment comes, everything out of his mouth will spring from a place of unknowable brilliance.” Hilarious.

The advice is hysterically funny because it has the double virtue of being true. By the looks of it, Ms.Cooper has suffered for us all (or maybe, suffered us all) like some Office Messiah, to deliver us from the quotidian absurdity of professional work culture -- which she totally decodes in her book -- through the vehicle of humor and rapier wit.

You won't just laugh, you'll get richer. A year ago, I lucked into a random interview with a highly placed executive. He trial-tested a new idea his unit was thinking of, and asked me what I thought. Really, though, he was testing me because it was obvious he was quite fond of the idea. A lesser candidate would have kissed up and expressed awe.

But I was prepared. Unintentionally so. I'd recently read the author's wry online observation that asking, "But, will it scale?" is an all-purpose Einstein-maker. It must have been echoing in the back of my head like a minimized app in the background, because, I asked him, "But, will it scale?" without missing a beat.

Ten interviews and one year later, I was offered a high role in that exec's organization, and an obscenely high salary. What do I do now? Why, I'm making it scale. What else would you expect? (True story.)

Sarah has a way with words, everything in here just proves how time consuming and confusing meetings can be- and for what? I have been following her newsletter and read through her book. Reading her work caused me to visualize every meeting I've been in, to scan the room and wonder if we had been working together. As someone in working in higher education, I can attest to the amount of egos running around. The head nodding strategy was hilarious, as well as the , "let's take a step back" to take control of the controlled chaos (meeting). After reading this I can no longer keep a straight face in meetings when I hear someone so passionately repeat someones input and get all the credit, or sit next to the facilitator to feel influential. Bottom line, if you are stuck in the boring weekly meeting that seems to go nowhere, might as well entertain yourself by using some of these tricks in every meeting.

Sarah Cooper has established herself as a smart observer of corporate life. In this book, she shares her insights into how to make the most of the opportunities office life provides to bring levity and meaning to the sometimes frustrating, sometimes stilted world of business. Anyone who has sat through incessant meetings will appreciate this book - and anyone who hasn't should read it beforehand so they're well prepared!

A humorous book filled with all the balogna we deal with in meetings every day. You will for sure recognize coworkers in some of these sarcastic "tricks". I shared several of them because they were so accurate and laughable. Includes a tear-out poster in the back to unfold and secretly hang in the conference room. Now let's take this offline so I can get back to businessing.

You know that feeling when you are reading an book and all the way through you keep telling yourself how much fun that and that person would have reading it? Well THIS IS THAT BOOK! There are SO MANY MOMENTS where you can barely keep yourself together because you are laughing so hard! This book is A MUST for any office environment. I would argue that even the most boring meeting will now become awesome as you are playing "Bingo" with all scenarios checking out.

What can I say? BUY IT..ENJOY!100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings: How to Get By Without Even Trying

This book is witty, funny, and very relatable if you work in a corporate environment. For the 1 star reviews, I think those readers were expecting something serious where they'd learn deep concepts or secrets of the corporate underground or something. Instead, this is a satire and should be read for entertainment purposes, although, I'm sure there are some actual "tricks" you probably could walk away with that you hadn't used before. Only get this book if you have a sense of humor and enjoy laughing!

Sarah Cooper's book is simply an extension of her wonderful online website and prescient ability to charge through the pomp and circumstance of the modern living. With eloquent prose and a decidedly simple drawing (don't get me wrong, I can barely draw stick figures, this is excellent work) she goes to town on the way we live our lives.

The material is endlessly relatable, no doubt posters will be stuck up in sad cubicles and desks across the United States. If you are a fan of "The Office" BBC (there can really be no higher claim to humor), or are just looking for a way to relax after a long day at the office, this is the book for you.

Disclaimer: I was supplied a free copy for evaluation. I stated that the review I provided would be fair and honest.

I know a lot of authors. The biggest authors, really, with the best words. And they all tell me that this book is simply HUUUUGE. I know what I'm talking about, I do. I appear the smartest, I know all the tricks. I *invented* the tricks. And I say this book makes meetings great again.

P.S. Don't buy the Spanish edition

Seriously, this is like the blog, but longer. Not that long though, I read through it in 20 minutes after dinner. I must admit to skipping most of the section about what to do with your face, and part of the ¿chapter? about diagrams.
Overall, a good laugh. The world could use more of them.

What happens when you mix years of corporate executive experience with ridiculously sharp humor? You laugh out loud while learning!

In 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings, Sarah walks readers through common meeting scenarios, including how to deal with unruly coworkers, what to do if you walk into a meeting utterly unprepared, and how to make your ideas seem like the best ideas ever. Her book is chock full of (ironically) practical presentation of her tips and tricks, which often includes sample diagrams and phrases to get your point across, and the best part is many of them mirrored my real-life meeting experience.

Overall, an entertaining and educational read!

Sarah Cooper is crazy smart, and her book is crazy awesome! I was laughing so hard at work I couldn't keep my composure, so I showed my curious co-worker what I was reading and she was like "wow, that is really good advice! I should read it so I can be smart in meetings too...." I tried to explain that the book was satire, but she didn't get it. So I guess this is a great gift for the sarcastic people in your life, and also for your co-workers who truly want to up their meetings game.

If you like Dilbert, you will like this.
Sometimes totally true.
Sometimes totally false.
Sometimes over-the-top funny.
Sometimes not.
You, as a reader, are in charge of the interpretation of your life experiences and decide the meaning of it all..

I nodded in recognition at the author's tongue in cheek depiction of the silliness of corporate culture. It is a cute book with entertaining graphics and insights. However, while it was mildly amusing, it never was hysterically funny. It lacks that subversive edge so ably conveyed by Dilbert.In small doses, it does generate chuckles but it just runs on too long. Fun for your favorite office drone but not as funny as it should be.

If you have been following her blog/newsletter, you'll like this book. It's not just a collection of old articles (though there are a few). Lots of new material in the same vein. As you read through these pages, you will definitely recognize some jerks you have met in the past. Or maybe you are the jerk you recognize. Hey, jerk, buy this book! :-)

What is there to say about Sarah Cooper that hasn't already been said about Ghandi, Louis C.K., and Tony Robbins? By which I means she brings peace to the world through her wit and motivating wisdom. I was definitely *not* implying that Ghandi, Louis C.K and Tony Robbins had some sort of weird-science love child, raised her in a laboratory, and unleashed her on the world as part of an unholy experiment.

Definitely not that.

Definitely.

Disclaimer: Sarah and I are duvet friends (yes, that's a thing, see Urban Dictionary).