Kristofer Jarl

Golden hammer archetype and religious mix

Revisado: 04-28-21

Pressfield builds a weak case that if everyone pushed themselves to work with their creative craft, nothing bad would ever happen. The holocaust would not have happened. Famine and disease would disappear. Cancer, for some strange reason, ALWAYS goes into remission, as long as people do what they like.

Why? He is a bit vague on that point, but it seems to boil down to God and some other holy stuff.

I guess the agitated tone in which he reads the text suits his message, but I feel I'm being preached to by an angry televangelist, which I don't enjoy, so it receives no more than two stars.

Please find inspiration, please commit to your craft, but please don't waste your time and money on this book.

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Why did I wait so long?

Revisado: 02-18-21

I've been a long fan of Hans, and it saddened me deeply when he passed away. And I have waited with this book until I felt ready. Perhaps I shouldn't have.

This book is not a through-and-through easy read. While I was already aware of most of the information in this book from Hans' papers and lectures, it still challenged some of my beliefs and biases. It's rarely a pleasant thing, but as Hans, Ola and Anna shows us in this book, it's necessary for us to challenge our beliefs, lest we fall prey to ignorance.

I hope Ola and Anna can carry the torch in this vein in the future. It's important work in this age of binary thinking and identity politics.

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Religious hokey-pokey not worth your time

Revisado: 02-18-21

First off: Be wary of anyone who needs to tell you their full resume, who they know and how important they are before getting to the actual information. This book is name-dropping galore.

Second: Be wary of anyone who says they are in possession of a great secret, but they won't tell you what it is. (Spoiler alert: The secret is desire, grit, determination or, as it is often depicted in this book, bone-headed stubbornness).

Grit and determination are valuable traits for anyone who wants to get ahead in life, I still can't recommend this book. Take the story of the author's son; While I find it inspiring and uplifting that he found a way to beat his deafness, it was not sheer will or desire who did it for him. It was a hearing aid.

Saying that any deaf person can become a hearing person if he or she only desires it enough is quite insulting. It implies that anyone who is deaf just lacks determination.

And that's the problem with this book. It implies that you can achieve anything (and I do mean anything) by just wishing for it. You only have to wish (or pray) hard enough. And if you still don't get what you wish for, it must be your own fault for not wishing hard enough.

Don't read this book. There are several good options for those who want to develop grit and overcome hardship, without turning to supernatural nonsense or victim-blaming.

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Not his best work (or at least not performance)

Revisado: 11-18-20

I've read most, if not all, of Chris' books, and I've enjoyed them all. This one was not a favourite of mine.
The story is decent, and the characters are (mostly) relatable. But where it really goes down the drain is the narration.

Chris' style of narration is great... for his other books. This is more of an edutainment kind of book, written as a fictional story, with characters going through (somewhat contrived) trials and tribulations. They experience difficult emotional events, and the story deserves to be told in a way that reflects that.

But alas, no. It's read in the exact same style as all his other books, with Chris' staccato lecturing style narration. I'm sorry, it doesn't work. He should have found a different narrator for this one.

If you want to see where this style of narration works, go listen to any other book from the same author.

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One of my favourites this year

Revisado: 11-18-20

This is one I will come back to. I rarely listen to books more than once, but I have a feeling I will give this another go. Perhaps even soon.
Ozan makes the stories exciting, and the reader is encouraged to apply the thinking into his/her own life. Which I very much appreciate. Strong recommendation on this one.

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Needs rework to become an audio-book

Revisado: 11-18-20

Numbers, digits, numbers, digits, numbers, numbers, numbers... it never ends!

I love this kind of material. And I love numbers and mathematics. So it may seem a bit confusing that I give this book such a low score. So let me explain the three things I dislike about this book:

1. EVERY number is read in its entirety.
You're forced to listen large sections that all sound like this: "threemillioneighthundredfiftyeightthousandsixhundredandsixtythree people in nineteensixtyfour compared to fourmilliononehundredandsixteenthousandfourhundredandthirtyone people in nineteenninetynine..."
No narrator in the world can save that kind of snoozefest. (And the narrator is really good otherwise)
This kind of content may work when you read it in a physical book, but as audio, it just doesn't work. It should be shortened to "three point eight million in 1964 compared to four point one million in 1999", then it might work without putting people to sleep.

2. Too much time is spent on baby-boomers, too little time on Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z. The author is a baby-boomer himself, but he really should try to reach outside that demographic a little more.

3. Again, close to the author's home base. He spends vast amounts of time talking about his own part of the USA, and then briefly skims past all the other parts (and doesn't mention the rest of the world at all)

In short, if you're interested in this kind of material, I strongly suggest you read the physical book. Or an e-book. But skip the audio version.

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This is my five-star this year

Revisado: 11-18-20

Straight up, I don't give many five-star reviews. This year, I haven't given any so far.

Until now.

Alan's story is terrible and gripping. It makes me want to jump into the story and comfort the poor little boy.
The story, horrifying as it is, is beautifully told. Alan's voice is, as usual, soothing and mesmerising at the same time.

I'm truly grateful to Alan for sharing his story, despite how much I wish it never had to be told, or lived.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Repetitive, contradictive and incorrect

Revisado: 10-13-20

This is just about the worst listen ever. It contains NO useful information on how to trade. And I do mean that. It's hours and hours of repeating a few nonsense phrases that will NOT make you a better trader.

I daresay it even contains as much false information as correct, since basically every statement that is made is contradicted in the next few paragraphs. Save your time and money.

And by the way. Don't believe all those five-star reviews. If you read them, you will realise they are generic copy-paste reviews from click farms.

Look elsewhere, and good luck with your trading.

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esto le resultó útil a 7 personas

A bit washed out. No fires being lit.

Revisado: 09-17-20

This is a bit difficult to review. I can't find anything with this book that is factually inaccurate, which of course is a good thing. There may be a few hand-wavy moments here and there, and a few unsubstantiated claims. But hey, it's a self-help book, that's pretty much what this genre is all about.

That being said, this is a self-help book that makes me feel... nothing. I'm not inspired to change my life or habits in any meaningful way. Nor am I excited to dive deeper into any of the topics that Darren touches upon. The whole story is being delivered in a pretty dull and uninspired way. This goes for both the narration and the content.

For any book, that's not a very good grade, but for a self-help book, it's pretty bad indeed. I would suggest you give it a try, and if it helps for you, then all the more power to you. It didn't do anything for me.

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Well researched, well told

Revisado: 09-17-20

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. It is very well researched, and it covers a vast landscape. It contains deep dives into technical, political, military, historical, personal and psychological aspects, and most of them are well covered.
I'm from a technical background, and I'm surprised that it contained such thorough coverage of how a virus and digital vulnerabilities work.
But I also think that the research and presentation of the political and military facets were equally impressive. This makes the book an exciting read for most people, technically inclined or not.

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