I loved reading books about how to make your life better. I adored reading productivity books. There’s a dynamic in this kind of non-fiction literature, depicting a shift from being a productive machine to a fulfilled human being, living in a mindfulness state, fulfilling her sense of meaning. The book in question is on the latter side of the spectrum.
The author describes the Essentialism principles and how to apply them to your life:
- Focus on what’s important for you by setting goals and following them on the daily basis
- Avoid other people prioritizing your life for you
- Find a time to look back, prioritize, and re-establish focus
- Journal your life
- Build habits to support the points above
That lasts for ~300 pages and is spiced with quotes from Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi, with the same topics being exploited repeatedly. You will see references to psychological experiments that were mentioned in hundreds of books before and debunked or called ‘doubtful’ at least. You will find the bullshit bingo of learned helplessness, the Stanford prison experiment, Paretto principle, and other novel stuff.
Genuinely, the whole book could be reduced to the 10/15 page brochure without losing any value of thought in it, the content is a water-down repetative recap of whatever was written on the topic before.
Finishing this book was an unpleasant, tedious experience, and I can not recommend it. 4/10.