Just finished reading Essentialism by Greg McKeown.
For me this was a very “front loaded” self-help book (one of my least favorite kinds). Most of the advice that the book has to offer is revealed in the introductory chapters. What fallows, then, is just a bunch of examples of how the advice can be applied and the different little tweaks you might need to make to your life to apply the practice of essentialism.
As self-help books go, this wasn’t bad. It suffered from the “too many examples” trope. Some of the examples presented in the book were about people I don’t respect, which made it difficult to take the lessons from the examples seriously.
I’m sure Big Bad Firm CEO is able to lead an “essentialist” lifestyle, but I also know that the dude’s a cunt, and life is just generally easier if you’re a cunt (especially if you’re a rich one).
All that being said, there were many perfectly valid points and my complaints are 100% about how the advice was given, not the advice itself.
Running through the list of people I know and interact with on a regular basis I think this book would definitely provide some valuable insights that would improve their lives. And having watched many YouTube videos that summarize the points made in this book I can confidently say that “the book is better”.
Despite all the “here’s a conversation I had with an industry leader” stories that annoy the fuck out of me, I learned a lot from the book that isn’t always mentioned in the videos.
Basically, the book about essentialism includes a lot of non-essential stories. But if the goal of the book is to teach a lesson instead of just providing a long list of “do this not this” advice, then the stories might actually be somewhat essential to the cause.
So yeah.
Essentialism by Greg McKeown: 7/10
Would recommend.