I got stuck with Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance as well. I bought the book because I heard people praising it, but to me it was just a struggle to read. Didn't manage to finish it.
I did find it boring and repetitive about it's hierarchy of Quality at top. But you could try an audiobook version of it, which helped me finish it and did glean something from it. I'd never have been able to with finish an actual paper version.
It's something I think is worth reading at a certain point in your life (younger, say below 25) or if you find you have poor abilities to stay organized and be productive.
Its core concepts can be distilled to 5-10 bullet points, and some of the original edition didn't age well (do you still use a rolodex?). The edition I have was updated to be a bit more general regarding tooling.
I'll put it in the same camp as some books on lean/agile software development: If you haven't learned it yet, they're useful reads. If you have, it may give you a better vocabulary to discuss it with others or think about it for yourself. But if you've already learned it (or other approaches), the value of the time spent reading versus the gain may not be worth it.
I like don't think i got it. I read the whole thing was so drudgerous i liked the bits about the motorcycle and his son that was easy reading but all the stuff about the university was so dull. in fact the motorcycle stuff was dull to but it was peaceful.
Sapiens. Someone gave it to me as a gift. I opened it at random and the first thing I read was the old chestnut about agriculture being a bad deal, because hunter-gatherers have an easy life.
I'd recommend you give it another try. I'm actually 3/4th through Homo Deus, while an acquaintance finished Sapiens and we talked about it. It seems there's some overlap between them. But i found a bunch of new ideas, some recycled ones. It's unlikely you'll find anything groundbreaking in there, but you might find a good logical explanation of things in a consistent and well articulated manner and touch on some things you kinda knew but never really though about.
Ofcourse there's a target audience of liberal, atheists. Since i think his simple dismissing of God, the orthodox religious people might find objectionable.
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Why think ahead, plan and make an effort to attain a goal when you can just go with the flow, really really believe and want, and let the universe take care of the rest. Then the author takes this "moral" and beats you over the head with it over and over again. Can't think of another book that left such a lasting negative impression on me.
I have always thought Coelho's books sucked but never had the chutzpah to read any. I remember a girl talking to me about the Alchemist and trying to convince me it didn't suck and that I had to read it to form an opinion. I went and described the book to her and she said "So you've read it!" and I said "No, that's my point."
Coelho's books are like pornography. It may give a glimpse to febrile teenagers into the world of sex, but easily mislead these teenagers into thinking: "So I guess this is what sex is like in real life". They may spend a lifetime stuck on that kind of content. Think of all the readers we have lost to that shitty style. It's fascinating, but you could say: "Where does the sun go when it sets and what does it owe to the wolves? No one knows, but the wolves howl in the dark and, my friend Karkadan, the moon notices." and stick a Paulo Coelho to it and nobody will be the wiser.
Deep Work by Cal Newport - just a mashup of random cliches. Felt like I got duped into reading one of these "ebooks" by Internet Marketing types.
Utopia Is Creepy by Nicholas Carr - this one I haven't read. Probably the only non-fiction book I couldn't bring myself to finish. Super chaotic, I don't know about the other 2/3, but it seemed to literally be random blog posts compiled into a book. And given the book's premise, it just felt too hypocritical.
The Checklist Manifesto. I had hoped it was going to be... I dunno, a guide to making better checklists and getting stuff done. It was however just a very long love letter to checklists, and why they are great, through a bunch of real world examples dealing with doctors and airline pilots. Didn't walk away with anything actionable.
Four Hour Work Week. Guy spends endless amounts of time bragging about his life and how any time he tries anything for the first time ever he's magically the best in the world at it.
It reads like one of those late-nite TV ads they used to have for get rich quick scams.
I've had the same opinion of him as a snake-oil salesman. Most of his stuff is over-exaggerated. For Chess he says start at the end game and master that first like that's all there is to it. Whereas most people would recommend a multitude of things like do puzzles, read a good book and actually play a lot more classical games etc. Your biggest problem starting out is actually controlling your blunders. For swimming he recommends total immersion swimming, which if found slightly better, but you have to actually do a lot more research and find out a lot more by yourself and also there's differences between salt-water(sea) and freshwater(lakes/rivers). But i still found Terry Laughlin technique to be a good way to start and have some concrete goals to practice, but without a coach i still feel stuck and haven't got my breathing technique down for long swims.
For language he gives you like 6 sentences to learn about grammar to get familiar with sentence framing and frequency lists and that's that.
What i did find him good for was finding people, books and experts to use as a starting point for my own research. I did find Tools of Titan more interesting, but i still think it qualifies as productivity porn. I barely remember one single thing that i've imbibed into my daily life that i already didn't come across from trial and error.
I really enjoyed it, because of my age i only got half the references but enjoyed looking them up. Going to check out the movie this week. but i wouldn't recommend it to someone who doesn't like video games.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 53.5 ms ] threadZen and the art or motorcycle maintenance: That was just plain boring. I felt like falling asleep on 400 pages
I had my suspicions, but I was not sure. Thanks for saving my time :)
Its core concepts can be distilled to 5-10 bullet points, and some of the original edition didn't age well (do you still use a rolodex?). The edition I have was updated to be a bit more general regarding tooling.
I'll put it in the same camp as some books on lean/agile software development: If you haven't learned it yet, they're useful reads. If you have, it may give you a better vocabulary to discuss it with others or think about it for yourself. But if you've already learned it (or other approaches), the value of the time spent reading versus the gain may not be worth it.
Thanks for the advice :D
Ofcourse there's a target audience of liberal, atheists. Since i think his simple dismissing of God, the orthodox religious people might find objectionable.
It motivated me to get things done ... right in the middle of the book and I never finished it. That was years ago.
Coelho's books are like pornography. It may give a glimpse to febrile teenagers into the world of sex, but easily mislead these teenagers into thinking: "So I guess this is what sex is like in real life". They may spend a lifetime stuck on that kind of content. Think of all the readers we have lost to that shitty style. It's fascinating, but you could say: "Where does the sun go when it sets and what does it owe to the wolves? No one knows, but the wolves howl in the dark and, my friend Karkadan, the moon notices." and stick a Paulo Coelho to it and nobody will be the wiser.
The guy ships product, though.
Utopia Is Creepy by Nicholas Carr - this one I haven't read. Probably the only non-fiction book I couldn't bring myself to finish. Super chaotic, I don't know about the other 2/3, but it seemed to literally be random blog posts compiled into a book. And given the book's premise, it just felt too hypocritical.
It reads like one of those late-nite TV ads they used to have for get rich quick scams.
For language he gives you like 6 sentences to learn about grammar to get familiar with sentence framing and frequency lists and that's that.
What i did find him good for was finding people, books and experts to use as a starting point for my own research. I did find Tools of Titan more interesting, but i still think it qualifies as productivity porn. I barely remember one single thing that i've imbibed into my daily life that i already didn't come across from trial and error.
A better books is: "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy"