Take a photo of a barcode or cover
931 reviews for:
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday
3.86 AVERAGE
931 reviews for:
The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday
3.86 AVERAGE
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
An excellent introduction and really a modern day treatise on stoicism.
This book is basically a bunch of stories of other great people that everyone knows about. It;s about taking action. About not feeling sorry for yourself. But the only way to accomplish this, by the author's suggestion is basically to "just DO it." ....Uhmm ok? If I could just DO something, I wouldn't need to read the book. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't that good, either. It's a quick read, though, which is very nice. If you need some help out of a rut, I wouldn't tell you to not give this book a shot. But don't be surprised if you're slightly disappointed.
Does excellent job of reframing perspective around challenges and positioning you to come out on top. Leverages ancient philosophy for very practical purposes, filled with modern examples of applications.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Repetitive and not well written. I heard the author on a podcast and this book was recommended by my boss. I expected so much more.
5/10 - This came highly recommended to me by a B&N employee and I was excited because I really do like Ryan Holiday but this was filled with so much fluff I could never get a real message from it. Felt like it could’ve been a short blogpost.
I was really excited to read this book to learn more about stoicism and check out Ryan Holiday's work but I do have mixed feelings.
I highlighted many phrases on my e-reader and took a lot of lessons from it. The tough love vibes are kind of refreshing, but I also found it a bit difficult to relate or see how to practically apply what he's talking about.
Most of the stories he references are men. Often using sports or war. I would have liked to see more relatable, modern examples. He also mentions but skirts around the topic of systems which create circumstances beyond our control, but insists there there is a way around them. So why not gives us examples of:
- a woman facing down the patriarchy in her career
- a person of color overcoming subtle, everyday racism
- a handicapped person dealing with a world that is literally not built for them
Having read some of Robert Greene (Ryan Holiday's mentor), I see the similarities in their writing in terms of style, but also demographics. It sounds like the book was written by a privileged, white American man. I follow Ryan on social media and honestly he seems nice, but this feeling just oozed throughout the entire book for me.
I'm planning to read his other books, and I hope to see that his research methods evolved with time. Surely he can afford to hire research assistants with diverse viewpoints, or asks different communities to source material for him to be more representative and therefore bring stoicism to an even larger audience.
I struggled a bit with the pacing as it's chopped up into many mini-chapters. It felt too repetitive to sit down and read a large chunk at a time. But if I read only 1 chapter per day, it would have taken way too long. It feels like a mix between Robert Greene and those marketing bros who turn their blog articles into books.
I look forward to checking out his other work to see if my opinion evolves, but I was exposed to some great ideas that are helping me in my everyday life :) It is worth a read, but I think there might be other books on stoicism that are more up my alley.
I highlighted many phrases on my e-reader and took a lot of lessons from it. The tough love vibes are kind of refreshing, but I also found it a bit difficult to relate or see how to practically apply what he's talking about.
Most of the stories he references are men. Often using sports or war. I would have liked to see more relatable, modern examples. He also mentions but skirts around the topic of systems which create circumstances beyond our control, but insists there there is a way around them. So why not gives us examples of:
- a woman facing down the patriarchy in her career
- a person of color overcoming subtle, everyday racism
- a handicapped person dealing with a world that is literally not built for them
Having read some of Robert Greene (Ryan Holiday's mentor), I see the similarities in their writing in terms of style, but also demographics. It sounds like the book was written by a privileged, white American man. I follow Ryan on social media and honestly he seems nice, but this feeling just oozed throughout the entire book for me.
I'm planning to read his other books, and I hope to see that his research methods evolved with time. Surely he can afford to hire research assistants with diverse viewpoints, or asks different communities to source material for him to be more representative and therefore bring stoicism to an even larger audience.
I struggled a bit with the pacing as it's chopped up into many mini-chapters. It felt too repetitive to sit down and read a large chunk at a time. But if I read only 1 chapter per day, it would have taken way too long. It feels like a mix between Robert Greene and those marketing bros who turn their blog articles into books.
I look forward to checking out his other work to see if my opinion evolves, but I was exposed to some great ideas that are helping me in my everyday life :) It is worth a read, but I think there might be other books on stoicism that are more up my alley.
Full of wisdom. Found myself highlighting and underlining huge parts of the book. I can only hope to have absorbed the magnificent contents.