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dougiewougie's review against another edition
4.0
It started out strong and finished in the camp of humanism.
ejmiddleton's review against another edition
4.0
There was a lot to like here, though how to practically implement it seems such a stretch as to be impossible.
sawyerbell's review against another edition
4.0
Thought provoking and inspiring. Would have liked some practical tips on how to implement some of the ideas, particularly ideas on how to find or build a tribe. A good read for anyone interested in exploring ways to create a more meaningful life; a must read for all educational policy-makers and teacher-trainers.
grantkeegan's review against another edition
4.0
I was assigned The Element in class without any previous knowledge of it or the author, except for a very enjoyable TED talk from Ken Robinson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc&t=613s. I was skeptical at the beginning of the book. The idea of The Element didn’t convince me, as I thought the book would focus on the overly optimistic ideas of “You can do anything” and “Follow your dreams” we see so much on pop psychology nowadays. But as I kept reading and understanding Robinson’s ideas, I fell in love with the concepts he was presenting.
The Element is a book that combines research in psychology and observations of human nature to determine what is it that makes people excel in particular things. Throughout the book, Robinson’s main idea centers around how every person has one or several innate passions where they excel the best at, which he calls “the element”. He also argues that sometimes these elements fall outside what the education system or society views as “normal”, or “what one has to be doing”. I share this point of view, but I also recognize that it can be hard for certain people to recognize what their element is in the beginning of their life.
Robinson does a great job including examples of people with various elements. He tells the stories of writers, artists, musicians, and people who overcame difficult challenges to illustrate his points. I loved reading about these people and understanding how they lived their lives in order to accomplish great things. The ones that stuck the most to me were Bob Dylan, Matt Groening, Paul McCartney, and Ridley Scott. I think these stories were presented in a great way that highlighted the purpose of each chapter.
One of the few criticisms I can point out is that some of these stories suffer from survivorship bias, but I doubt that is what Robinson intended. Because overall, this is a great read that left me a lot to think of, and helped me focus on my own elements, and the best ways to reach them. R.I.P. Ken Robinson, the world will always remember what he did for education through his ideas, books, and speeches.
Final Score: 78/100
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The Element is a book that combines research in psychology and observations of human nature to determine what is it that makes people excel in particular things. Throughout the book, Robinson’s main idea centers around how every person has one or several innate passions where they excel the best at, which he calls “the element”. He also argues that sometimes these elements fall outside what the education system or society views as “normal”, or “what one has to be doing”. I share this point of view, but I also recognize that it can be hard for certain people to recognize what their element is in the beginning of their life.
Robinson does a great job including examples of people with various elements. He tells the stories of writers, artists, musicians, and people who overcame difficult challenges to illustrate his points. I loved reading about these people and understanding how they lived their lives in order to accomplish great things. The ones that stuck the most to me were Bob Dylan, Matt Groening, Paul McCartney, and Ridley Scott. I think these stories were presented in a great way that highlighted the purpose of each chapter.
One of the few criticisms I can point out is that some of these stories suffer from survivorship bias, but I doubt that is what Robinson intended. Because overall, this is a great read that left me a lot to think of, and helped me focus on my own elements, and the best ways to reach them. R.I.P. Ken Robinson, the world will always remember what he did for education through his ideas, books, and speeches.
Final Score: 78/100
For more reviews and other cool content follow me on:
kbelcher1992's review against another edition
3.0
There were some interesting tidbits in here but this seems like a great book to read a summary about. Overall probably still worth reading if you've already hit other big self-improvement books.
prof_shoff's review against another edition
3.0
These types of deep thought books aren't really my style; I likely wouldn't have read it without a publisher sending me a copy and having seen Robinson speak at a conference. I certainly like his ideas on creativity, engagement and passion, and his personable style of presenting the ideas is quite inviting. Still, the need to package these ideas into an uppercase noun doesn't appeal to me: too cheesy, too amateur.
nickolette's review against another edition
Bits and pieces from here and there, a bunch of stories and some name-dropping. Still, I expected it to be worse.
abbyelizabeth's review against another edition
3.0
I read this as part of the community read for work, but also as I was contemplating a career change myself. Robinson makes so many great points about the lack of creativity in our current education system. As a musician and artist, I found myself identifying with so many featured in the book, even though I did excel at traditional school subjects, the creativity was seen as an "extra" - not something to make a career of. I'm glad that I didn't listen and am on the path to a career in the arts.
emleonard's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
nostalginaut's review against another edition
4.0
I picked this book up some time after seeing Sir Ken Robinson's TED talks and being so inspired that I wanted to hear more of what he had to say. The book starts off with a lot of familiar material if you've seen his TED appearances, too; in fact, pieces of it are almost verbatim what are in his presentations. Nevertheless, it remains inspiring.
The interviews he includes are wonderful and diverse, as well - from musicians to actors to artists to academics of all kinds, explaining the troubles they encountered on their journey to find their "Element", and how they finally did it. All very encouraging.
Somewhere about halfway through, the book loses some momentum, but the interview material and inspirational stories later on keep it afloat; then again, with such a strong beginning, it'd be hard to follow up with an entire book of the same stuff (and that would be admittedly boring, I guess). I'm sure it would've been much better if I'd've read it in one sitting, instead of at a snail's pace over (sadly) a few months. Would revisit, though - and I strongly recommend it to all teachers.
The interviews he includes are wonderful and diverse, as well - from musicians to actors to artists to academics of all kinds, explaining the troubles they encountered on their journey to find their "Element", and how they finally did it. All very encouraging.
Somewhere about halfway through, the book loses some momentum, but the interview material and inspirational stories later on keep it afloat; then again, with such a strong beginning, it'd be hard to follow up with an entire book of the same stuff (and that would be admittedly boring, I guess). I'm sure it would've been much better if I'd've read it in one sitting, instead of at a snail's pace over (sadly) a few months. Would revisit, though - and I strongly recommend it to all teachers.