Hubbard
Added to listAudio Fitwith 6 books.
Added to listConsideringwith 6 books.
A fantastic analysis of our current situation. Whether or not you agree with the author's conclusions, the insights into how we ended up in a state of affairs where almost half people living in rich countries are convinced their job does not contribute anything to humanity whatsoever and would be better done away with are worth reading. The issue's looked at from both economic and cultural/historic perspectives and backed up by data where available. There were areas where it was admitted more research needed to be done in order to really confirm or deny some of the author's suspicions, but I find this acceptable (even positive) compared to omitting or otherwise glossing over the details. This book had me revisiting several assumptions I'd grown up believing by default from the standard American capital playbook, just because everyone else did, and it was viewed as somewhat distasteful for someone without a PhD or other fancy credential to question them ("What do you know?"): the efficiency of the market and its correlation (or lack of) with social value, less discussed motives of political groups, where the value of work "comes from", and what the point of working even is (or if it varies among people). It was refreshing to read something with a somewhat out-of-the-norm perspective compared to what we're taught on how society should work and what we should value, especially since many writings of the sort are often half-baked and not all that thorough. This was not that at all, and certainly can't be dismissed out of hand like so many others.
One minor qualm I had is that a lot of interesting and often relevant information was buried in the footnotes, which were at the back of the book. I imagine the editor was trying to keep things "on track", but I could have done with less flipping back and forth.
I really hope you read this book.
A fantastic analysis of our current situation. Whether or not you agree with the author's conclusions, the insights into how we ended up in a state of affairs where almost half people living in rich countries are convinced their job does not contribute anything to humanity whatsoever and would be better done away with are worth reading. The issue's looked at from both economic and cultural/historic perspectives and backed up by data where available. There were areas where it was admitted more research needed to be done in order to really confirm or deny some of the author's suspicions, but I find this acceptable (even positive) compared to omitting or otherwise glossing over the details. This book had me revisiting several assumptions I'd grown up believing by default from the standard American capital playbook, just because everyone else did, and it was viewed as somewhat distasteful for someone without a PhD or other fancy credential to question them ("What do you know?"): the efficiency of the market and its correlation (or lack of) with social value, less discussed motives of political groups, where the value of work "comes from", and what the point of working even is (or if it varies among people). It was refreshing to read something with a somewhat out-of-the-norm perspective compared to what we're taught on how society should work and what we should value, especially since many writings of the sort are often half-baked and not all that thorough. This was not that at all, and certainly can't be dismissed out of hand like so many others.
One minor qualm I had is that a lot of interesting and often relevant information was buried in the footnotes, which were at the back of the book. I imagine the editor was trying to keep things "on track", but I could have done with less flipping back and forth.
I really hope you read this book.
I read this book after reading The Easy Way to Quit Smoking by the same author. I almost didn't - after all, I figured (correctly) it would be more or less the same ideas, just applied to a different substance - but I'm glad I did. Since I don't smoke but do (did, actually) drink caffeine in the form of coffee and tea, reading this was much more relatable in a way that was surprisingly impactful. There's something different about thinking "I get it, you just apply those ideas to this other thing" compared to having those distinctions presented to you directly in a way that forces you to either reject or grapple with each of them as they come in a form of mental argument with the book. I've stopped drinking caffeine two or three times before for a period of a month, but always went back to it. This book gave me the psychological tools to provoke me into being more mindful of what compels me to drink these substances, objectively consider whether or not I truly "want" to overall, and whether it's truly worth doing so for the rest of my life.
It's not a long book by any means and was easy to get through. Most of my review for the smoking one applies to this as well. (https://hardcover.app/books/allen-carrs-easy-way-to-stop-smoking/reviews/@hubbard?referrer_id=6499)
I read this book after reading The Easy Way to Quit Smoking by the same author. I almost didn't - after all, I figured (correctly) it would be more or less the same ideas, just applied to a different substance - but I'm glad I did. Since I don't smoke but do (did, actually) drink caffeine in the form of coffee and tea, reading this was much more relatable in a way that was surprisingly impactful. There's something different about thinking "I get it, you just apply those ideas to this other thing" compared to having those distinctions presented to you directly in a way that forces you to either reject or grapple with each of them as they come in a form of mental argument with the book. I've stopped drinking caffeine two or three times before for a period of a month, but always went back to it. This book gave me the psychological tools to provoke me into being more mindful of what compels me to drink these substances, objectively consider whether or not I truly "want" to overall, and whether it's truly worth doing so for the rest of my life.
It's not a long book by any means and was easy to get through. Most of my review for the smoking one applies to this as well. (https://hardcover.app/books/allen-carrs-easy-way-to-stop-smoking/reviews/@hubbard?referrer_id=6499)
An epic of a story: long, heavily detailed, and with huge emphasis on character building. If you're just looking for something to engage you in a story for nothing more than story's sake, it's a great book, however, it's such a sprawling saga I found myself a bit lost at times, wondering almost what the "point" of it all was, the plot reminiscent of a run on sentence... Perhaps I missed things - it's so long, I almost certainly did - but it seemed like there was a sense of meaning and/or purpose lacking from the story, leaving me feeling a little hollow at the end. There's a lot of trauma and gut-wrenching parts that leave you hating the thoughts of some of these imaginary characters, but I can't say I really felt the opposite was as true; there are heroes, but none as captivating in a good way as the evil of the enemies was repelling, which I guess made it hard to get really invested in it all.
I might check out the TV show just to find out what happens, but I can't say I'm feeling to inclined to push my way through the rest of the books.
An epic of a story: long, heavily detailed, and with huge emphasis on character building. If you're just looking for something to engage you in a story for nothing more than story's sake, it's a great book, however, it's such a sprawling saga I found myself a bit lost at times, wondering almost what the "point" of it all was, the plot reminiscent of a run on sentence... Perhaps I missed things - it's so long, I almost certainly did - but it seemed like there was a sense of meaning and/or purpose lacking from the story, leaving me feeling a little hollow at the end. There's a lot of trauma and gut-wrenching parts that leave you hating the thoughts of some of these imaginary characters, but I can't say I really felt the opposite was as true; there are heroes, but none as captivating in a good way as the evil of the enemies was repelling, which I guess made it hard to get really invested in it all.
I might check out the TV show just to find out what happens, but I can't say I'm feeling to inclined to push my way through the rest of the books.
~~ Fyi, I made it about halfway before abandoning this book, so take this "review" with that in mind ~~
The emotion of awe is an interesting area to research, and the book had some cool insights into why we feel it as well as other fun psychology tidbits. The best part, though - the author's synthesis of thousands of awe-inducing experiences collected from around the world and the 8 common themes they boiled these down to, termed the "8 wonders of life" - came right at the beginning and I gradually lost interest from there. There seemed to me to be relatively frequent inconsistencies or stretches-of-the-truth in the interpretation of some of the studies' results, and other parts were just less rigorous than I'd hoped - it's definitely less so than something similar like The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. Much of the book is filled with short excerpts of the thousands of stories, which can be enjoyable to read in their own right (and some indeed left me awed at times, too), but I was kind of hoping for a more theoretical treatment of the topic throughout, and this felt a little more like "feel good science" that's dumbed itself down a tad too much in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience and sacrificed its integrity in the process.
~~ Fyi, I made it about halfway before abandoning this book, so take this "review" with that in mind ~~
The emotion of awe is an interesting area to research, and the book had some cool insights into why we feel it as well as other fun psychology tidbits. The best part, though - the author's synthesis of thousands of awe-inducing experiences collected from around the world and the 8 common themes they boiled these down to, termed the "8 wonders of life" - came right at the beginning and I gradually lost interest from there. There seemed to me to be relatively frequent inconsistencies or stretches-of-the-truth in the interpretation of some of the studies' results, and other parts were just less rigorous than I'd hoped - it's definitely less so than something similar like The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. Much of the book is filled with short excerpts of the thousands of stories, which can be enjoyable to read in their own right (and some indeed left me awed at times, too), but I was kind of hoping for a more theoretical treatment of the topic throughout, and this felt a little more like "feel good science" that's dumbed itself down a tad too much in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience and sacrificed its integrity in the process.
An epic of a story: long, heavily detailed, and with huge emphasis on character building. If you're just looking for something to engage you in a story for nothing more than story's sake, it's a great book. However, it's such a sprawling saga I found myself a bit lost at times, wondering almost what the "point" of it all was. Perhaps I missed things - it's so long, I almost certainly did - but it seemed like there was a sense of meaning and/or purpose lacking from the story, leaving me feeling a little hollow at the end. There's a lot of trauma and gut-wrenching parts that leave you hating the thoughts of some of these imaginary characters, but I can't say I really felt the opposite was as true; there are heroes, but none as captivating in a good way as the evil of the enemies was repelling, which I guess made it hard to get really invested in it all.
I might check out the TV show just to find out what happens, but I can't say I'm feeling to inclined to push my way through the rest of the books.
An epic of a story: long, heavily detailed, and with huge emphasis on character building. If you're just looking for something to engage you in a story for nothing more than story's sake, it's a great book. However, it's such a sprawling saga I found myself a bit lost at times, wondering almost what the "point" of it all was. Perhaps I missed things - it's so long, I almost certainly did - but it seemed like there was a sense of meaning and/or purpose lacking from the story, leaving me feeling a little hollow at the end. There's a lot of trauma and gut-wrenching parts that leave you hating the thoughts of some of these imaginary characters, but I can't say I really felt the opposite was as true; there are heroes, but none as captivating in a good way as the evil of the enemies was repelling, which I guess made it hard to get really invested in it all.
I might check out the TV show just to find out what happens, but I can't say I'm feeling to inclined to push my way through the rest of the books.