Luke W

A disappointing waste of time.

Revisado: 10-22-24

I was confused about who this book is for... Right from the title, it's clearly not for MAGAs or it would be less inflammatory. But it's also not for Democrats, or it would contain at least a semblance of rational political analysis of Trump's rise and political impact. Instead, we get 10 hours of a boisterous long-form tweeter eagerly insulting the new Republican base while also completely misunderstanding—or just lying about—every core Democratic policy position. Instead of political theory, we get crass jargon and mockery aimed in all political directions. The book reads like the author's need to justify (probably to himself) a lifetime of support for the juvenile reaganomic platform that got us here in the first place. In one particularly laughable segue, he blames the mass of gullible redhats on US's "failed educational system," while totally (and unironically) ignoring the responsibility of his own party who made degrading, deprecating, and defunding education a central tenet for the past 40 years. In another, he equates Trump's sycophantic MAGA mob to Obama's cabinet while avoiding the diametric differences in policy goals, professional qualifications, ethical values, and simple adult behavior. In the end, this book turns out to be only for other people like the author... displaced old-school Conservatives who haven't had to mature philosophically or emotionally since the mid '80s.

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Mostly well-written but largely pointless. Narrative goes almost nowhere.

Revisado: 06-14-24

Pretty bummed after hearing good things about this book. The framing device feels lazy and cheap, taking up pretty huge chunks of the book without adding any helpful details. It also spoils things I think could have been left to discover in the regular flow of the narrative. Which, by the way, goes basically no where... not only is it not a complete story, it's 92 chapters (28 hour) for not even a complete Act I, dropping dead in the middle of an arc! To make an analogy, it's much more like the first episode of a miniseries than the first film in a trilogy. The writing is decent from a technical and character standpoint, but it feels like he just discovered a bunch of new words and uses them everywhere. I'm also sick of the surprise skills... the main character frequently encounters new challenges, but almost always is able succeed by claiming to have learned the skills needed years ago, without any warning or foreshadowing. Very cheap "deus ex" vibe that happened over and over and over. Overall pretty disappointing experience and I would've stopped and gotten a refund if I'd known what the whole book was like. Really quite lame.

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Excellent content, poor delivery.

Revisado: 03-22-24

This is vital information that anyone with experience or family members on cults (including Qanon/MAGA) will benefit from. Unfortunately, this particular presentation is lacking in several key ways. First, the author is obviously an intelligent and thoughtful researcher, but he is not a narrator and should not have tried. Second, the book is full of lists, summaries, and recounted conversations, making it very clunky and awkward as an audio book. And last, it's been very poorly edited including incomplete sentences, cuts in the middle of words, and mistakes from the speaker that were not edited out. Wish I'd just gotten the actual book, would've been 10x better!

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Disappointing compared to the previous title; tons of rehashinv and virtually no added value.

Revisado: 02-29-24

Really not worth reading if you've already gone through Extreme Ownership. While there are many valuable leadership qualities discussed in some detail and nuance, 80% of this book is wasted potential. I expected some growth and maturity, not just in the business principles but how they are presented. Yet it feel like the authors ratcheted up the macho, burly, "good guys bad guys" rhetoric that belies an emotional maturity not much more advanced than school boys playing in the yard. They spend the vast majority of the book bragging about their time in combat and even retelling many of the same stories from Extreme Ownership. In a few instances, it feels like whole sections were copy-pasted from their previous book! Clearly they just want to write a memoir for the Seals instead of a serious book on corporate leadership. Overall a super disappointing experience. And hire some actual narrators, for goodness sake.

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Misleading title. Far too technical to appeal to the curious lay person.

Revisado: 02-23-24

I've read a bit of Lawrence Krauss, so I was excited to dive into another one of his books. Unfortunately, only about half this book is as engaging and approachable as his other works, or his talks I've seen. Most of the middle and late sections of the book would be better characterized as a History Of Physics textbook than as any kind of popular science literature. I have a master's in engineering and found it nearly impossible to follow his explanation of elementary particles, spins, fields, and condensates. Perhaps it works in writing, where you can reread sections easily and flip back and forth for reference. But the audio experience is severely hampered and totally missed the mark for me.

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Great content, horrible production.

Revisado: 07-20-23

I don't know how much the audiobook might differ from the original writings, but the narrator is not only super dry and bad at vocal inflection, but the individual segments are not well set up or organized in any way. It's a fairly mind numbing slog through what would otherwise be fascinating and thought provoking philosophical journeys. Really disappointed in this production, couldn't even finish it.

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Valuable insights, poorly structured, bad narrator

Revisado: 02-28-23

The contents are good and I don't disagree with the arguments. But what seems to be the central thesis—politics devoid of economics—is relegated to a single chapter and a few paragraphs in the epilogue. There are so many long-winded meandering musings that this comes off as an extended WaPo opinion piece. For example, what should have been a few paragraphs while discussing Kansas's unique culture is instead an entire chapter focused on off-catholic cults with membership in the dozens. This book should have been entirely restructured and the discussion of politics and economics expanded. Oh, and It would be nice to have a narrator who knows how to pronounce elite (it's not "ay-leet") and doesn't pause after every hard consonant... drove me crazy!

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Vital subject, but poorly organized

Revisado: 09-12-20

This is a vitally important subject and provides some really valuable perspectives that are often missed in typical American education. Unfortunately it's also incredibly scattered both in terms of timeline and subject, vaguely broken into ~40-yr chunks but really bouncing all over the place. Incredibly difficult to follow, really needs to be rethought and reorganized in a more structured and focused fashion. Arguments seemingly pop out of nowhere, often with no context, justification, or evidence, and then get glossed over as we move on to the next argument.

Compare to something like The Dictator's Handbook which tackles a similarly sprawling concept, yet establishes and then sticks to a very structured organization. One story at a time in measured fashion, that then brings them all together at each point.

The author and editor(s) need to re-examine and restructure this book in order to engage people more efficiently.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas

Better technical writing, but less philosophical.

Revisado: 07-22-19

This book is better than it's prequel in terms of creative and technical writing, including less repetition and better foreshadowing. But overall the story moved far slower, had fewer thematic elements of value, and presented fewer chances for philosophical thought and political/moral discourse. It was, however, really nice to get to know both primary and secondary characters better and watch them progress and grow.

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Creative old school sci fi that gets old fast.

Revisado: 06-14-19

Want to read a three-part sci-fi story that requires you to have a Latin dictionary nearby at all times? Then this is the book for you! actually it's a pretty good story that sets up a cool world and illustrates power dynamics between knowledge and faith. unfortunately the first of the three parts is the strongest, with the quality and imagination sloping off until it appears there's nothing left worth saying. The imagery is strong and the world is compelling, but it's definitely old school sci-fi that's a sexist as it is racist without ever realizing there was a better way.

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