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926 reviews for:
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday
3.86 AVERAGE
926 reviews for:
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday
3.86 AVERAGE
If you are in doubt whether to read this book or not, just pass, time can be better spent elsewhere.
Were this my first Ryan Holiday's book, it might have gotten a little higer score. But its my second, so this score feels appropriate.
And it's hard to actually tell them apart. Title is different, but structure is the same, generic advice with random anegdotes is the same, underlying theme is the same. I feel like he just shuffled the chapters of his last book and gave them different titles.
Chapters themselves are really shallow, you would have to really try hard to pull out any value out of them. From complete contrary advice, Demosthenes and Thomas Jefferson approach to public speaking, nonsensical, Jobs telling a company "You can do it." and they just did, to downright bad advice. And if you can do that, you are already way past the need for this book. Not to mention that the entire book can be reduces to a sentence - use hardships to grow as a person instead of avoiding them.
Were this my first Ryan Holiday's book, it might have gotten a little higer score. But its my second, so this score feels appropriate.
And it's hard to actually tell them apart. Title is different, but structure is the same, generic advice with random anegdotes is the same, underlying theme is the same. I feel like he just shuffled the chapters of his last book and gave them different titles.
Chapters themselves are really shallow, you would have to really try hard to pull out any value out of them. From complete contrary advice, Demosthenes and Thomas Jefferson approach to public speaking, nonsensical, Jobs telling a company "You can do it." and they just did, to downright bad advice. And if you can do that, you are already way past the need for this book. Not to mention that the entire book can be reduces to a sentence - use hardships to grow as a person instead of avoiding them.
"This book was an obstacle" - random goodreads review die mijn gevoel perfect verwoordt.
Practical advice grounded on the wisdom of the stoics
Ryan Holiday distills the wisdom of the great Stoic tradition (Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and others) in a very readable, practical, and inspiring volume. A book to be read again and again, highlighted and annotated, and used as operating system for life — at any time.
Ryan Holiday distills the wisdom of the great Stoic tradition (Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus and others) in a very readable, practical, and inspiring volume. A book to be read again and again, highlighted and annotated, and used as operating system for life — at any time.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
A good basic all-around motivational text. but it doesn't delve too much into concrete actions one can take to develop perseverance and grit. It also relies heavily on anecdotes, which get tiresome after a while. Still, it's a quick read, and the e-book version is cheap.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
The work of Ryan Holiday genuinely changed my life, and I reread this book frequently as a result.
informative
A book illustrating stoicism using modern language and historical examples.
Inconsistent and unreliable. Some of the principles are well written. Others are bland and rote, with few examples and less meat. Some of the examples point to highly unethical people who did far more harm than good or who came to bad ends, or who simply shot themselves in the foot. One would think good examples of stoicism would include people who took it up as a way of life, rather than inconsistent practicioners who tossed away gains for stupid reasons later, or who didn't ask themselves the big questions in the first place, but stubbornly plowed through to reach questionable goals using tactics that got others hurt or killed, or took credit for others' work.
The ending comes across as weird, too, with kind of a "nobody ever teaches this stuff today and that's why these darn kids are such losers" tone, while giving examples of younger people who are modern stoics...okay, whatever.
Learning more about stoicism = interesting and possibly helpful. Trying to sort out what had meaning and what was due to some kind of strange bias = I'll look for a different book.
Do not recommend.
Inconsistent and unreliable. Some of the principles are well written. Others are bland and rote, with few examples and less meat. Some of the examples point to highly unethical people who did far more harm than good or who came to bad ends, or who simply shot themselves in the foot. One would think good examples of stoicism would include people who took it up as a way of life, rather than inconsistent practicioners who tossed away gains for stupid reasons later, or who didn't ask themselves the big questions in the first place, but stubbornly plowed through to reach questionable goals using tactics that got others hurt or killed, or took credit for others' work.
The ending comes across as weird, too, with kind of a "nobody ever teaches this stuff today and that's why these darn kids are such losers" tone, while giving examples of younger people who are modern stoics...okay, whatever.
Learning more about stoicism = interesting and possibly helpful. Trying to sort out what had meaning and what was due to some kind of strange bias = I'll look for a different book.
Do not recommend.
informative
reflective
medium-paced