Seth B

Skip if you’ve read the autobiography

Revisado: 09-20-23

The author is a bit too harsh in his judgment of Franklin’s motives. It’s not in a malevolent way, but it feels like he tries a bit too hard to be objective and in doing so paints Franklin in an unfair light. It honestly reads like a high school level psychoanalysis of a protagonist.

I had to stop abruptly when he said something akin to Franklin never being able to have deep, intimate relationships after he had his falling out with his friend James Ralph. I found it odd since Franklin mentions several times in his autobiography that he had many lifelong friendships cut short only by death. This point is glossed over. Not sure if the author was writing this as he was reading through the autobiography but it felt out of place given how many friends had and also how well liked he was. I guess this was just the author’s way of not trying to praise Franklin too much but it would’ve been better to at least offer some evidence with such remarks.

Speaking of which, the author offered his opinion too frequently. I would much prefer a relaying of the story first and have the analysis towards the end of the chapters, if at all. Let the cake bake a bit before dissecting it. Instead, we got a running commentary on every twist and turn of Franklin’s own words.

Stick to the primary source though by nature it has to be incomplete.

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Not worth it at all — very repetitive

Revisado: 08-07-23

The description says this book is curated and this is sort of true. It’s curated in the laziest way possible — it essentially compiles a list of Naval’s quotes and then for any given topic/chapter it just inserts all the relevant quotes EVEN when they have already been covered by other chapters. What you end up with is cycles of the same quotes over and over and over. Just because something Naval said applies to money, peace and happiness then it will be in the money chapter, the peace chapter and the happiness chapter, word for word. It was jarring at first because I thought I accidentally went back a couple of chapters. But no, that’s just how the book is structured. I guess that was the author’s way of filling the word count quota. Kinda goes against Naval’s own philosophy of keeping out extraneous words.

You’re better off just listening to Naval’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He said all he had to say there.

The narration was ok, but just go on YouTube and search for Naval, it’s all the same stuff and you’ll get to read it

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Sneak peak into a great mind at work.

Revisado: 02-20-23

The book is full of good lessons and overall just a really good listen. The journal style ensures that the story never lingers too long on a single point. There’s episodes of his life that are more interesting than others but it was good seeing all the various emotions and relationships involved in creating a substantial piece of work.

The best lesson I gained from this book is that the most solid thing you can for making creative work a reality is to put in the work. The daydreaming only leads to emotional rollercoasters. Working on things is the best way to solidify the ground under one’s feet.

There’s plenty of other nuggets besides that but that was my main takeaway. A worthwhile read.

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Too many leaps too quickly

Revisado: 11-15-22

The story jumped from a mundane world to a fantastic premise pretty quickly and then the jumps just kept getting bigger and there was no sense to it. Somehow there’s a warehouse bigger than the solar system that’s run by a god-like guinea pig and they need a human to make deliveries for which he’ll get paid just $100k extra. And they have portals that presumably take you anywhere you wish. If they have that kind of technology why do they need a delivery boy?

Needless to say I didn’t make it far enough to get an answer. I don’t mind suspending belief but at least make it make sense.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Mostly about his failed relationship to his first wife; endurance stories are a backdrop

Revisado: 10-28-22

The first part of the book is quite interesting as it talks about how the author found a knack for climbing and progressed through the ranks to do truly inspiring things.

Then he met Beth and the book takes a turn for the worse. Not only does the author foreshadow that the relationship never worked, he spends a significant part of the book detailing all the obvious signs that the relationship would fail. Maybe it was important for him to get it out but it got really tiring hearing all the stuff about their failing relationship and how he couldn’t let her go. If your wife jumps back when you try to kiss her, it’s time to call it quits pal.

I tried to power through this time period, but he just kept on piling up examples of how bad their relation got, so I had to stop listening.

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Worth the price of admission

Revisado: 07-29-22

Nice quick read with good pacing and an unexpected ending. There’s a nice layering of stories here. If you’re looking for something quick yet not shallow, then this is worth your time.

I wouldn’t spend a credit though, get it with cash.

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Good info, a bit long winded

Revisado: 07-26-22

Overall this book was worth the time, but I felt the writing could have been crisper. It sometimes took the author several paragraphs to capture a sentiment that could have been expressed in fewer words if it was better organized.

However, I still think it’s worth reading if you’re interested in the concept because the author does have valuable insights, they just aren’t a great writer yet.

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Great book on the power of checklists

Revisado: 08-11-21

If you are in a field where you deal with complexity on the regular then this book will give you a systematic approach to help keep that complexity in check. Most of the examples deal with the medical world since the author is a surgeon, however it does make forays into other fields such as airlines, finance and engineering and shows how checklists have been able to reduce mistakes in all of these different industries.

I’ve already started implementing most of these in my life and work and it’s made quite a difference. I highly recommend this book.

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Too broad, too shallow, not enough strategy

Revisado: 06-10-20

I can’t remember anything of significance from what I read. There were the two concepts of transaction and innovation platforms but that seems like an arbitrary distinction. Felt more like a legal and ethical review of platforms rather than a book on business strategy.

And when they did showcase winners and losers; the analysis was rather shallow — highlighting obvious things that only hindsight could reveal. I think this is due to the number of companies they surveyed. It was simply too many and their analysis lacked the depth that a deeper dive into a few companies would yield.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Worth reading, ending is just fine

Revisado: 05-20-19

This is a good read. If you like detective novels then this one should keep you thinking and give you enough twists to keep your interest.

Unlike a lot of other reviewers, I actually thought the ending was fine. It was abrupt, sure, but it made sense given the direction the book took midway through. It was the only realistic option. It also tied up all the earlier threads in the story about his wife. If Mammay had found a way to twist out of that ending it would either be fantastic writing or become implausible and drag on forever. Given how many good stories have been ruined by authors not recognizing when the meat is cooked, the latter would have been more likely. In the end, it's a good story told well. Not everything has to be a series. It's worth listening to.

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