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asangtani's review against another edition
3.0
Somewhat ironically, I lost focus on the book halfway through. I like the overall concept of the book, but the N=1 examples are hard to get through.
miss_canthus's review against another edition
4.0
When I bought this book, I thought it would mainly give tipps on how to zoom in on a task you want to complete in a distracting world. This is not the case. Rather you get a full journey through the operations of the mind and what is important to thrive in getting things done in a bigger perspective. It is really good in helping if you don't know why stuff in your project might not be working but not so if you just want to know how to get into flow. Despite the fact that it didn't match my expectations, I liked reading it and I learned a lot. The mixture of studies mentioned and vivid examples given is great, so reading never gets boring.
And a big plus: Goleman refers to example-actors (eg docters, students, CEOs etc) as "she" just as often as "he". And it never hinders the flow of reading.
And a big plus: Goleman refers to example-actors (eg docters, students, CEOs etc) as "she" just as often as "he". And it never hinders the flow of reading.
jrc2011's review against another edition
3.0
If you expect this book to give you pointers on how to improve your focus - you may be sorely disappointed. Goleman's writing flows like a series of blog posts or podcasts that string together a variety of topics under the rubric of integral systems thinking, neuroscience and loosely "focus."
I enjoyed this as an audio book and admit that I had a bit of a giggle when I realized the book was going off on a Ken Wilbur "holon" kind of tangent which I quite enjoyed about the planet and the environment. Then, in subsequent chapters, he didn't take up the environmental theme in quite the same way.
I recommend you enjoy this as a collection rather than a continuous cloth - don't seek novel information about neuroscience, just appreciate the voice of an empathic intellectual on a range of critical topics.
I enjoyed this as an audio book and admit that I had a bit of a giggle when I realized the book was going off on a Ken Wilbur "holon" kind of tangent which I quite enjoyed about the planet and the environment. Then, in subsequent chapters, he didn't take up the environmental theme in quite the same way.
I recommend you enjoy this as a collection rather than a continuous cloth - don't seek novel information about neuroscience, just appreciate the voice of an empathic intellectual on a range of critical topics.
tiptronicus's review against another edition
3.0
As an antidote to lack of focus, he suggests doing mindfulness. The Hindu and Buddhist origins of this practice is conveniently left out to look secular.
monkeyhippy's review against another edition
3.0
For a book about focus, this was fairly unfocused. It definitely wasn’t what I expected. I learned some things and appreciated thinking about focus in a broader way, but ultimately didn’t really feel like there was a point to this book. You demonstrate your priorities by where you place your attention, I guess? No one needed another book for that.
There’s a fair amount of uninterrogated bias in here too, including anti-fatness and classism. He’s just repeating very common tropes, but… I’d hope for a little more of Mr Emotional Intelligence.
There’s a fair amount of uninterrogated bias in here too, including anti-fatness and classism. He’s just repeating very common tropes, but… I’d hope for a little more of Mr Emotional Intelligence.
tabithar's review against another edition
3.0
The first 1/3 of this book was so good I started talking about it with a friend. I spoke too soon. I have 3 key criticism of this book: 1) loss of focus after the first third 2) lack of practical/executable methods to improve one's personal focus 3) ironic solutions to helping focus in schools.
Ironically, slightly after the first 1/3 the organization and writing seemed to lose focus. The author bounced around seemingly erratically to the point that it made it difficult to force myself to finish. NORMALLY, books I force myself to finish get 2 stars. However, the first 1/3 was really good, hence the 3 star rating.
Based on the text's lack of focus after the introductory portions, it should not come as a surprise that while there are many stories about benefits of focus, there is no clear practical content regarding methods to optimize one's focus. It is vaguely suggested that some video games are in the works and that the practice of memorization can improve focus but that pretty much covers the points made with many less words.
The most cringe worthy of these problems culminated in methods presently being tried in school systems to help children's focus improve. School schedules from the past incorporated shorter periods of class time with more breaks. Additionally, schools used to require memorization of passages of text, multiplication tables, addition facts, etc. These standards have been dismissed in recent years. Based on the text, the expected outcome would be decreased focus for the students that propagated throughout their lives and culture. While the author observes from research that students are struggling more with focus, he seems to miss that there may not be a need to reinvent the wheel to help students focus. Rather than incorporating in more standards and ADDING things to be taught, the solutions might be simply going back to prior methods in which students had breaks worked in with natural changes in curriculum and memorized useful information (rather than adding new tablet based games to their curriculum).
I suggest either reading the first 1/3 and stopping (it definitely goes downhill from there to seemingly like a person chasing rabbit trails with focus as a topic but not an execution) OR...finding a different book to read.
Ironically, slightly after the first 1/3 the organization and writing seemed to lose focus. The author bounced around seemingly erratically to the point that it made it difficult to force myself to finish. NORMALLY, books I force myself to finish get 2 stars. However, the first 1/3 was really good, hence the 3 star rating.
Based on the text's lack of focus after the introductory portions, it should not come as a surprise that while there are many stories about benefits of focus, there is no clear practical content regarding methods to optimize one's focus. It is vaguely suggested that some video games are in the works and that the practice of memorization can improve focus but that pretty much covers the points made with many less words.
The most cringe worthy of these problems culminated in methods presently being tried in school systems to help children's focus improve. School schedules from the past incorporated shorter periods of class time with more breaks. Additionally, schools used to require memorization of passages of text, multiplication tables, addition facts, etc. These standards have been dismissed in recent years. Based on the text, the expected outcome would be decreased focus for the students that propagated throughout their lives and culture. While the author observes from research that students are struggling more with focus, he seems to miss that there may not be a need to reinvent the wheel to help students focus. Rather than incorporating in more standards and ADDING things to be taught, the solutions might be simply going back to prior methods in which students had breaks worked in with natural changes in curriculum and memorized useful information (rather than adding new tablet based games to their curriculum).
I suggest either reading the first 1/3 and stopping (it definitely goes downhill from there to seemingly like a person chasing rabbit trails with focus as a topic but not an execution) OR...finding a different book to read.
theonionboy's review against another edition
3.0
As many other said, this book on focus lacked focus. He talked about a lot of interesting concepts around the idea of focus, but gave little specifically about it. I was hoping for more concrete methods of improving focus, not a discussion of the topic of focus. The fault is more mine for expecting something from this book that it is not. Not a bad book, just lacking practical application for me.