The first thing I realized after reading this book is that self-help books are not for me. With that caveat, I’ll proceed with my book review.

At its core, Mark Manson’s book is supposed to be about hope. Except, it talks about everything else but that. Manson touches upon a wide range of subjects, from philosophy and religion to the world wars and artificial intelligence.

I will give him credit for the fact that he maintains consistency throughout the book - He establishes a concept and then draws various examples from real life to help us understand how things work. For instance, he talks about fake freedom and the trend towards life hacking of late, which amounts to reaping rewards of a commitment without actually committing. He argues that real freedom, on the other hand, comes from sacrifice and victory over our desires instead of endless material transactions.

While Mark’s style of writing and the way he puts his point across might appeal to some people, it just didn’t quite sit well with me. One of the reasons was I felt he was trying to touch too many topics to provide the reader his streamlined vision. The other was the fact that he was re-hashing time tested axioms, which have been part of Eastern philosophy for millennia. Adding cuss words doesn’t make one a “new age” philosopher.

While I did learn some interesting trivia, overall, large parts of the book didn’t stick with me, and it was a tedious task to complete it. Certainly not my cup of tea.

Originally published here.