J
Added to listIntelligencewith 76 books.
I'm not usually sensitive to repetition, and often see books of this nature talked about as repetitive when I feel their examples are broad and varied. This book is an exception. Many concepts are repeated with relatively little variation, many times. However, I believe this is intentional due to the intent of this book.
The core concept here (and of the cognitive behavioral therapy approach it's built to explain/complement) is to replace harmful patterns of thought with healthier counters and to short circuit harmful loops. Repetition is necessarily part of that, and there's some evidence* that reading the book itself constitutes a moderately effective treatment for depression. Because I believe the repetition and punching you in the face with the "obvious" at times are deliberate and for valid reasons, I wouldn't dock the book for it, but for me personally, I would have liked it edited down slightly.
*https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20803165/
I'm not usually sensitive to repetition, and often see books of this nature talked about as repetitive when I feel their examples are broad and varied. This book is an exception. Many concepts are repeated with relatively little variation, many times. However, I believe this is intentional due to the intent of this book.
The core concept here (and of the cognitive behavioral therapy approach it's built to explain/complement) is to replace harmful patterns of thought with healthier counters and to short circuit harmful loops. Repetition is necessarily part of that, and there's some evidence* that reading the book itself constitutes a moderately effective treatment for depression. Because I believe the repetition and punching you in the face with the "obvious" at times are deliberate and for valid reasons, I wouldn't dock the book for it, but for me personally, I would have liked it edited down slightly.
*https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20803165/
He really makes these stories come alive. While the bones are broadly consistent with the mythology to the extent I'm familiar with, he does add modern sounding dialogue, along with asides and his on excellent voice as a narrator. I've read a reasonable amount of Greek mythology and enjoy a lot of the history, and this is the best I've seen at making me feel connected to the stories. He really does a good job of drawing attention to how many linguistic and cultural influences this mythology has without making it dull or dry.
He really makes these stories come alive. While the bones are broadly consistent with the mythology to the extent I'm familiar with, he does add modern sounding dialogue, along with asides and his on excellent voice as a narrator. I've read a reasonable amount of Greek mythology and enjoy a lot of the history, and this is the best I've seen at making me feel connected to the stories. He really does a good job of drawing attention to how many linguistic and cultural influences this mythology has without making it dull or dry.
I think there are some decent ideas here. I doubt I'll end up exactly using his proposed approach, but a lot of the core concepts seem reasonable and grounded in how we actually work. Even many places where I disagree raise some interesting points to consider in how I want to handle my own.
One point where I disagree with him fairly strongly is his emphasis on "don't keep everything". In a digital world, for almost anything but video content, the cost to keeping the full content of references (and indexing to make available in a "deep dive full text search" scenario) is too low not to do. I'm much more interested in a hierarchical approach where high level references and tools are extremely refined, and perhaps to multiple levels, but at the very bottom, the ultimate source of truth is preserved. Even when some single point is significant to me in one moment, and is what I want to immediately bring back to mind, access to the broader context is too valuable to throw away. Keeping a library or the chunk of the web that's relevant to you archived is no longer prohibitive, and isn't the same as trying to wade through that big library in physical books. (Though in that older scenario as well, I would still want the physical books to refer back to when needed.)
I additionally fundamentally disagree that gathering information purely for the sake of gathering and organizing information isn't valuable. Organizing and reorganizing is key to learning, understanding, and making connections, whether you turn it into an output product or not. I'm perfectly OK that much of the information I gather may never be used for anything. Saving it because I want to save it is sufficient reason. That said, as with many of the other things he says early that I've had a kneejerk "no" reaction to, when he elaborates further there's a bit more nuance. The "driven by action" focus in terms of how your organization system works does seem reasonable, and his approach to iterative improvement and building better habits of organization make sense. Additionally, while I don't like his "only what you do with it matters" stance at points, I do think he does a good job demonstrating how to go from information gathering to productivity, and the value of structuring information in a way that encourages and facilitates re-use.
If you want an actionable approach that focuses on moving forward instead of retroactively digging through every file across a dozen computers to find the perfect place for everything, this is a reasonable place to start. He gives concrete examples of how he uses every step, illustrates different but similar ways that other successful people have attacked the core concept the chapter is covering, and explains why he does things the way he does. You don't need to copy him exactly, but most people should be able to grab some elements to improve your process.
I think there are some decent ideas here. I doubt I'll end up exactly using his proposed approach, but a lot of the core concepts seem reasonable and grounded in how we actually work. Even many places where I disagree raise some interesting points to consider in how I want to handle my own.
One point where I disagree with him fairly strongly is his emphasis on "don't keep everything". In a digital world, for almost anything but video content, the cost to keeping the full content of references (and indexing to make available in a "deep dive full text search" scenario) is too low not to do. I'm much more interested in a hierarchical approach where high level references and tools are extremely refined, and perhaps to multiple levels, but at the very bottom, the ultimate source of truth is preserved. Even when some single point is significant to me in one moment, and is what I want to immediately bring back to mind, access to the broader context is too valuable to throw away. Keeping a library or the chunk of the web that's relevant to you archived is no longer prohibitive, and isn't the same as trying to wade through that big library in physical books. (Though in that older scenario as well, I would still want the physical books to refer back to when needed.)
I additionally fundamentally disagree that gathering information purely for the sake of gathering and organizing information isn't valuable. Organizing and reorganizing is key to learning, understanding, and making connections, whether you turn it into an output product or not. I'm perfectly OK that much of the information I gather may never be used for anything. Saving it because I want to save it is sufficient reason. That said, as with many of the other things he says early that I've had a kneejerk "no" reaction to, when he elaborates further there's a bit more nuance. The "driven by action" focus in terms of how your organization system works does seem reasonable, and his approach to iterative improvement and building better habits of organization make sense. Additionally, while I don't like his "only what you do with it matters" stance at points, I do think he does a good job demonstrating how to go from information gathering to productivity, and the value of structuring information in a way that encourages and facilitates re-use.
If you want an actionable approach that focuses on moving forward instead of retroactively digging through every file across a dozen computers to find the perfect place for everything, this is a reasonable place to start. He gives concrete examples of how he uses every step, illustrates different but similar ways that other successful people have attacked the core concept the chapter is covering, and explains why he does things the way he does. You don't need to copy him exactly, but most people should be able to grab some elements to improve your process.
