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heyangel01's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
gracejarvisohno's review against another edition
3.0
This was a really well-written and interesting exploration of positive thinking and self-help and a bunch of the ideas the author put forward were new to me. However, I think a lot of the techniques described have the same lack of nuance that is the problem with the traditional cult-like self-help thinking and are hard to apply to a mentally ill brain.
ptrmsschrs's review against another edition
5.0
THE Self Help Book for people who hate Self Help Books
If you are anything like me and hate the thousands of books that are being published every year and that tell you how to become a millionaire in a year, how to get to the top of the corporate ladder without breaking a sweat and how to become the most popular person in your town, then you should definitely read this book. It is a brilliant antidote to everything described before.
Oliver Burkeman draws from a number of sources (psychology, philosophy - the stoics feature prominently-, economics, Buddhism, ...), so these ideas you will read about are not his original ideas, but he does know how to apply to several aspects of your personal life that you will find very interesting.
As a matter of fact I can honestly say that reading this book (and having re-read some of the chapters several times), has helped me a lot in dealing with everyday frustrations and hassles.
It certainly deserves it five stars (and a bit more).
If you are anything like me and hate the thousands of books that are being published every year and that tell you how to become a millionaire in a year, how to get to the top of the corporate ladder without breaking a sweat and how to become the most popular person in your town, then you should definitely read this book. It is a brilliant antidote to everything described before.
Oliver Burkeman draws from a number of sources (psychology, philosophy - the stoics feature prominently-, economics, Buddhism, ...), so these ideas you will read about are not his original ideas, but he does know how to apply to several aspects of your personal life that you will find very interesting.
As a matter of fact I can honestly say that reading this book (and having re-read some of the chapters several times), has helped me a lot in dealing with everyday frustrations and hassles.
It certainly deserves it five stars (and a bit more).
rachelteresacrawshaw's review
5.0
This is a must read for any one who has been taken in by the positive thinking industry and realised that it doesn't work. Or for anyone who is interested in the psychology of happiness. Burkeman looks at the lives of people who embrace life without succumbing to the Goal setting, positive thinking, law of attraction bombardment that comes from the self help industry, and shows real scientifically proven evidence as to why positive thinking often leads you to be more unhappy, rather than being the life cure that self help gurus are so fond of administering to all regardless of life situation.
popestig's review
2.0
I found this to be an annoying read.
The author starts off by showing where positive thinking fails and then loosely props up a kind of oppositional "negative way" by way of quotes, personal anecdotes/experiences, name-dropping, and grabbing elements of philospophers and interviews and cramming them into a narrative.
He may be right in his assertions, but he doesn't back it up with anything solid, he doesn't properly spell out what exactly he is proposing and he doesn't test out if he is right. If this is the antidote, he is relying on people supplying a lot of confirmation bias when they read this. Perhaps in this way the title is well chosen?
tracydurnell's review
3.0
Introduction to several different philosophies - zen buddhism, stoicism, etc - that's interesting yet superficial.