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Clearly for the Dr. Oz crowd

Revisado: 05-08-22

I've been looking for a logically coherent, statistically supported, and well-organized book on nutrition for many years. Unfortunately, this field is a magnet for people who like to pontificate their opinions about society's dietary habits without much academic rigor. I had hoped that this book could buck the trend, but, it does not.

As one would expect, it starts with an ego-building origin story for the author that never seems to go anywhere or reach a meaningful conclusion. Lots of puffery with little clear justification. This would be fine, except that it eventually fades into repeated claims that "eating healthy is important" and promises that she will teach us how to eat better. This never seems to really happen though.

Yes, there are a few things mentioned (use the whole animal, eat organ meat, no vegetable oil, etc), but, these details constitute a miniscule share of the book. Most of the book, by far, is cherry-picked studies, overly-detailed and interpretation heavy anecdotes, and wordy, meaningless, repetitive complaints about how "our diets are bad".

It is also full of new age pseudoscience. Theres an entire chapter suggesting that, through epigenetic processes, improved diets can make our faces more perfect and beautiful by closer approximating Phi ratios. Other reviews accuse the author of eugenics, and while I won't go that far, it is all very odd.

Anyway, I'll just wrap this up by saying that this book is not going to persuade anyone who has a healthy degree of skepticism or critical thinking skills. I don't necessarily think all of the authors opinions are wrong -- most of them are pretty basic and unoriginal, not controversial -- but there's little to nothing about her presentation of these ideas that makes them stand out from the crowd. It's just one more "nuhuh, this is how nutrition works"-esque book for the pile.

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Excellent!

Revisado: 11-14-21

Another great book by Jonathan Haidt. This is by far the best inspection into the left and right American political values that I've found.

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Frat Boy Philosophy at its Finest

Revisado: 10-28-21

In this case, you can entirely judge the book by its cover. The author tries very hard to portray himself as a player, but he isn't very convincing. It's all very hokey.

There are a lot of silly tropes/rules for dating in here. I think that there are some nuggets of truth, such as women preferring leaders, and confidence, but it's so drenched in mysogeny, manipulation, and frat boy philosophy that it just isn't worth reading. I cringed a lot listening to this guy try to sound like a "player", in his lingo.

I really get the impression that they author thinks he knows a little more than he actually does about women, or for that matter, about people in general.

Just read Models instead. Mark Manson is self-aware enough to offer decent advice.

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Couldn't get past the first chapter.

Revisado: 10-22-21

The author comes off as passively hateful and judgemental right out of the gate, and doesn't make any early efforts to substantiate or defend her views about white people, cis males, or western economic systems.

Frankly, I've never read a book which started with this much thinly veiled bitterness, non-constructive jabs, and antagonistic phrasing, which later turned out to be worth reading. So, I'm cutting my losses here. It has a serious Red Pill vibe, dressed up in a millennial leftist costume.

And I say that as someone whose Audible library is mostly touchy-feely books about trauma, eastern religion, self-love, and other deeply important things that are, apparently, not well understood by my "aggressive, elitist" demographic. To the author, if you're reading this, please consider trying to practice the inclusiveness you preach.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

Got weird fast

Revisado: 10-15-21

This was mostly a decent, if not very in depth, introduction to random topics in language use with an emphasis on phonetics. I didn't think there was nearly enough detail to be useful, but, it may be a good "gateway book" to the topic for those who have no background in it.

There's one chapter that focuses on language use in politics, which starts out fine, but then just gets cringeworthy. There are extensive sections where the author forgets to even try to make it seem relevant.

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An autobiography, not a useful guidebook.

Revisado: 10-08-21

The description of this book very, very clearly suggests that it is a practical guide to improving one's speech and articulation. It is not. It is essentially "I am a proud African american woman from the projects", followed by 10 hours of humble-bragging.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Not wrong, but, bitter and non-constructive.

Revisado: 07-02-21

The book actually started off okay, but, quickly regressed into a thinly veiled tantrum. I actually felt bad for the guy.

To start, I will say that I agree with him factually on most things he says. The struggle is real. The anger is real. The frustration is real. The disdain for Peter Pan syndrome teachers, the stress that comes from dealing with bureaucrats who don't understand their own job, the inability to form a deep, fulfilling connection to most people, etc. It's real. He's not just a narcissist. This isn't self-aggranadizing BS. This isn't some other social issue masquerading as genius. He absolutely nails the pain of being an intelligence outlier. It's hard a hard thing to understand if you haven't lived through it. Having to reason with people whose behavior you understand better than they themselves do is a special kind of insanity.

That being said, I think the author has a lot of growing up to do. My gripe with the book isn't his portrayal of the issues and challenges, but rather, his attitude and general outlook on the world. Everything ends up in a bitter tirade against someone. As an example, at one point, I recall him joking about wanting to "break the pretty little face" of an HR "ditz" who dared to ask him a behavioral question. I realize his gripe is less with the person and more with the system, but still, he just never manages to take the narrative anywhere constructive. Hes offloading a lot of pain, and it clouds his point.

There was definitely a phase in my life where I held this exact worldview. I get it. And ironically, despite his multiple slights on the fine arts, I think Aaron would make a world class poet. He really needs to find a free-form creative outlet for his emotions somewhere, and somehow, if his perspective on life is ever going to mature. And he could probably read some developmental psychology textbooks too.

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Wow

Revisado: 06-05-21

This is an incredibly insightful collection of research into the lives and habits of "gifted" people. If you're on the lonely end of that bell curve & are looking for some insight into your own habits and thoughts, I highly recommend Living with Intensity.

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Mostly about politics

Revisado: 04-03-21

As someone who is very into the self-improvement genre, I was expecting to love Brene Brown. But, I left this book very, very disappointed.

As other reviews have mentioned, this book was very much not as advertised. The first 20 minutes were great, with the author discussing not fitting in with her emotionally distant family, etc. But it very quickly turned into a rant about how the author feels about political discourse across American political parties.

I don't disagree with her, but, that's just not what I was expecting, or needing from this book. And I don't think I'm the only reader to feel this way. There are other much more nuanced and researched books out there about dehumanization in political rhetoric, so, I kind of struggle to understand what exactly the purpose and point of this book actually is.

I also felt that she was a little egotistical/defensive in a few places... Not overwhelmingly so, but her attitude towards a lot of the things she struggled against (clients who didn't want her to curse, etc) just seemed so... overly angry? Overly abrasive? The words aren't clear in my mind right now, but, I didn't get the impression that I wanted to take emotional or personal advice from her.

Anyway, I'm going to read her more popular books before dismissing her. This may just be a bad first impression.

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Trying way too hard to brand concepts

Revisado: 03-30-21

Book is about 2 hours of content and 3 hours of the author talking up the content, and giving silly names/acronyms to simple ideas. There's nothing wrong in it, and it might be worthwhile for someone new to the genre. But it was very, very clear that the author was more interested in selling his book/system/website/courses than in actually writing a solid, concise, useful book.

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