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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
There was a lot to like here, though how to practically implement it seems such a stretch as to be impossible.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Bits and pieces from here and there, a bunch of stories and some name-dropping. Still, I expected it to be worse.
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
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.
I was hoping this book would touch on 'how to find your passion', but instead it was just an argument on why it's so important to find your passion & the accompanying tribe that go with it, which I do not need any convincing of. It was full of examples of people whose passions have been freakishly clear from a young age - this is the exception and while cool, not at all helpful or interesting for the rest of us who are trying to find our 'Element' and didn't burst forth from the womb with it stamped on our foreheads.
slow-paced