Natasha Smith

Incredibile resource from an incredible coach

Revisado: 01-18-22

I’m Mattia’s sibling and a fellow coach, so I’m obviously bringing in some bias—but I know I’m not the only one who’ll benefit enormously from listening to The Longer Road. So many resources out there overlook the real implications of trauma, while Mattia is both trauma-informed and incredibly intersectional in their approach. If you need a friend and guide in your healing work, this is a NECESSARY resource.

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Horrifically triggering & misogynist

Revisado: 02-10-21

This is an atrocious book. While the author sometimes disagrees with the awful bullshit she spouts, it's not worth it. Gems like describing how the insult "She's so skinny she has to wear snowshoes in the shower" has now become a compliment, indirectly referring to an eating disorder as "disgusting," and (jokingly?) referring to women as the "weaker" sex are all in poor taste. This book is far more harmful than helpful.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Fairly generic

Revisado: 04-18-19

I was hoping for more. There was nothing here that really surprised or intrigued me, maybe because I've read a lot of personal finance books. Some good reminders, delivered in a mostly-okay format, for those who are fairly new to all this.

When I'm reading a book that tells you how to find new furniture on sale, rather than suggests buying used furniture, I know it's targeted toward people who have more money than me. It's not as out-of-touch as some books—she certainly tries to be relatable—but it seems aimed toward people who have not had to learn the basics about money, because they've always had a safety net when they fuck up. I guess I'm more interested in the psychology of money than a lot of what's offered here.

This book also doesn't lend itself well to audio format. There are places where you'd just glance over a chart or list, or read the info that's relevant to you. It gets pretty tedious to listen to. Plus, there's the annoying "this is what this is, and this is what it's, YOU GUESSED IT, called" trope. For instance: your employer matching your 401k is called, oh god the suspense, a 401k match. The cutesiness might work in book form, but it gets really old on audio.

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As I should have expected...

Revisado: 12-29-18

Gretchen tends to take good concepts and turn them into mediocre books. The Four Tendencies framework is super helpful, especially for me - a rebel - since it helps me understand how to motivate myself, and to understand how other people function differently.

But.

Gretchen is an upper-class, thin white woman. She writes from a place of privilege, with no acknowledgment of it. Her examples seem mostly drawn from people who live similar lives (hetero, married people who are often parents) and the whole book feels very...clueless at times. She offers her opinions about celebrities, research articles, and external situations where she's really just guessing ("I bet they had this tendency, and that's why!"). I'd have been so much more interested if she conducted her own research beyond some general surveying.

90% of the book seemed to be stories about either weight loss or a spouse's epiphany about their spouse. As a body-positive advocate, all the weight loss talk really turned me off. And she so frequently seems to write off the tendencies as a series of individual quirks we have no control over. Not once does she address how the tendencies develop, or how we might strengthen responsiveness to inner or outer expectations.

How do obligers discover what they really want? How do questioners know when they have enough information? There are so many paths she could have explored and didn't. Instead, we get some useful information in a repetitive package. It's a bit better than her other books, but I still don't think I'd be able to get through it a second time. I'd have preferred the Cliff's notes.

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esto le resultó útil a 98 personas

Systematic—but way more than "10 minutes a day"

Revisado: 08-06-18

I was enjoying this book thoroughly when, much of the way through it, I stopped and tried to calculate how much time you would actually have to spend on a daily basis to keep up with the system. It's difficult to calculate exactly, but even in the tiny studio apartment I was living in, I knew ten minutes couldn't possibly be enough time: there are daily tasks and rotating tasks to complete each day of the week, not to mention the less-frequent tasks. I thought the idea was that once the system is in place, you're only supposed to need 10 minutes a day to keep it up. But I'd probably spend 10 minutes on a single load of laundry, and here's the rest of what you're supposed to do each day:

❏ Make beds—make your bed and teach the others in your home to make their beds, too
❏ Check floors—sweep/vacuum as needed with a broom, vacuum, or microfiber floor duster
❏ Wipe counters—wipe kitchen counters down after meals and check bathroom counters
❏ Declutter—pick up clutter during the day and in the evening
❏ Do laundry—complete one load of laundry from start to finish every day

With that said, I like the book and system overall, and I appreciate the companion PDF. While it doesn't cover splitting chores with roommates, it does give a good basis for the conversation. I'd say to expect a total of 30-60 minutes per day, depending on your preferences and the size of your place, but I mostly felt silly for believing that any system could hold up to the promise of this book.

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Out of touch with those from poverty background

Revisado: 10-25-17

This book is an upper-class perspective that's accessible to the middle class (for the most part). No one who makes under $75,000 a year - which I believe she refers to as the median American income, although I was under the impression that was about $59,000 a year - is really considered. Mainly, this is high-powered white feminism in action. If you were raised with minimal financial literacy because your parents never expected you to have to earn an income, you will probably find it helpful.

Mostly, it focuses on building your net worth. If you're worried about how you're going to feed your kids next week, you earn minimum wage, or your budget is stretched to its gills to cover the basics, you'll find little that resonates with you in this book. Not because none of the advice is ever helpful, but because the perspective is SO out of touch for those raised in poverty.

I also can't take anyone seriously who categorically defines "good debt" and "bad debt" in the way she does. She never cautions against taking student loans (like when they might be a liability) or discusses how to navigate them at all, although she does go through the potential pitfalls of house-buying and mortgages (again, helpful if your parents never explained this stuff to you). I'm not saying it's a terrible book; I think it's actually quite nice for what it is. I like DailyWorth. I like Amanda. And I can see why this book might appeal to many. I actually enjoyed the part about building a business you can potentially sell instead of just freelancing. Her stories are lovely.

But I grew up going to food banks and never made more than $10,000 in a year until last year, in my late 20s. I have to take so much of the book with so large a grain of salt that it's difficult to actually stay focused. Really, Amanda, you realized in your twenties that you could save SO MUCH MONEY by moving from New York to Philadelphia, because Philly real estate was soooo cheap in comparison? ...Yes, different cities have different costs of living. You'd have to be raised very deep in a Manhattan bubble for this to ever surprise you. Never once does she acknowledge her privilege or talk about the realities of poverty, because she simply isn't familiar. Her examples often have half-million dollar homes, earn $10,000 a month, or otherwise are out of sync with many of us. She focuses on net worth, a valuable conversation for people who are living beyond their means and dealing with credit card debt brought on by unnecessary lifestyle choices. But a luxurious conversation for many. A little awareness would have helped me enjoy this book more - like a clear acknowledgement that it's focused on upper-class issues.

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esto le resultó útil a 20 personas

Great, other than the weird attempt at a British accent

Revisado: 06-06-16

I picked this up via Kindle Unlimited after Strom's "Almost Like Love." It isn't a sequel, but picks up with a different couple where the other leaves off. I enjoyed the character development, the romance, the background of theater and Shakespeare, and the story as a whole. It's light and occasionally predictable, but it isn't one-dimensional, either. We come to understand Simone through her deepest fears and losses as well as her joys and wit.

My only complaint was with the narrator's awkward attempt at Zach's British accent. She pulls off a great Irish accent when the time comes, but I couldn't get over the stiffness of the way she voiced Zach. It wasn't quite irritating enough to switch to the text version, and once I got used to it I didn't mind too much - it's just difficult to be enamored with him when he sounds so silly.

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A moving story

Revisado: 12-06-10

Annie looks back on her past, using interviews to fit the pieces together and reflect on her experience. The piece allows us to understand anorexia, acknowledging it as a legitimate disorder. The story is woven seamlessly, with musical elements and other motifs that emerge and intensify the emotional depth. I recommend this piece, especially to those who have struggled with eating disorders or would like to understand those who do.

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