Thank you for this review. You are certain true to form in being an essentialist in your suggested approach for others to take with regard to the book. I tend to agree with you in being skeptical of works that quote Gladwell as if he were an "authority". I've always felt he is somehow is a little too slick, a little too packaged, and if this account of the 10K hours and violinists is accurate, it's not just Gladwell misusing this research; several other authors are as well.
On Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 4:09:16 PM UTC-7, SRhyse wrote: > > I actually just got done reading this one today! > > You'd be hard pressed to find many who would disagree that most of the > things we do aren't massively impactful, but the author massively > underplays the actual difficulty of know which things are going to be > better to do than others in the moments we decide between them, and the > degree to which we can ever really know which things are going to be better > choices than others. Like in his example of the hiring practices of some > esoteric sounding companies, he goes through their hiring criteria as > 'would this person be a perfect fit to work here?', which is pretty vague, > and comes after a section where the author just went into how we all need > to be less vague with our criteria for things. > > Overall I enjoyed it, and if you've never read a 'do less' book, it isn't > a bad one. But I didn't feel like the author contributed much to fleshing > out his ideas beyond the nice sound-bites scattered throughout the books > and quotes on doing less that at times were just there to take up space. > > It seemed like he was reaching pretty hard for real world examples that > supported his ideas too, at times resorting to made up ones like Isaac > Newton having been at play when he say the apple falling from the tree that > inspired his theory of gravity -- that's a myth -- or talking about the > Erikson study Malcolm Gladwell popularized into the 10k hour rule -- which > is another load of bull, there was a massive, thousands of hour range in > the time it took the violinists to excel, and that was after they had > already been preselected for being among the most talented violinists in > the world by virtue of having been admitted into various programs like the > one the study examined (Erikson himself is very against Gladwell having > made something of his work that it actively disproves). Honestly at this > point, a good shortcut to test an author's credibility is whether or not > they seriously quote anything Malcom Gladwell wrote, mentioning it here > again mostly to name drop and say those violinists seemed to sleep a little > more on average than others -- which itself is a stretch, as I recall there > were like 10 or so in the study. Throughout the book he mostly name drops > people and corporations he's quoting or has talked to in an effort to > persuade you on the basis of seeing him as an authority as well, which is > historically considered the weakest basis for argument there is. > > True to the book's message, it's one that could have worked better with a > lot less in it. Most of the backing he provides for it doesn't hold up, but > it is full of nice sayings and maxims on either side of his message that > give good perspective on why it's not a good idea to do too much and why it > can be a better idea to, as he puts it continually throughout the book as > its message, embark on the "disciplined pursuit of less but better." > > Most of the value of the book is in reading its table of contents, and his > scattered 'an essentialist does this, a nonessentialist does that' lines > throughout the work. The rest of it in my opinion is better off skipped, > true to form with the message of the book, as that's the vital few of it. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/34e7f91e-a3e0-4a53-98bd-bd1e2a4d9b18%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
