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zhzhang's review
3.0
I feel I haven't got anything out of it. But three chapters, the first, second and last chapters still have touched my heart.
bootman's review against another edition
5.0
I read this book about a year ago when it first came out and loved it. For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been taking care of our older cat, and things aren’t looking too good. Books are often where I turn to better understand things, and I remembered this amazing book. Philosophy makes us think and look at situations in ways we may have never considered. This book covers a variety of topics on the hard things we all face as part of the human condition, and I highly recommend it.
bootman's review
5.0
I read this book about a year ago when it first came out and loved it. For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been taking care of our older cat, and things aren’t looking too good. Books are often where I turn to better understand things, and I remembered this amazing book. Philosophy makes us think and look at situations in ways we may have never considered. This book covers a variety of topics on the hard things we all face as part of the human condition, and I highly recommend it.
cmcrockford's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.25
Some fine pop science/philosophy, though I think I'm much more of an existentialist than Setiya, even if I agree with him most of the time. (I appreciated the Diogenes shout-out near the very end.) Definitely a good addition to my recent reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, and War
Minor: Stalking
rick2's review
3.0
It’s fine. There’s some interesting ideas. I’m sure as a course or lecture this would’ve been better. And maybe it’s the fact that I’ve discovered that caffeine pills are a thing, and I don’t think my heart rate has dropped below 120 for the last few weeks, but I find myself incredibly impatient with this book spending way too much time talking about things that didn’t seem to drive it forward.
Reading philosophy is such a treat when you can understand it. But reading people discuss reading philosophy is it’s own special circle of hell. Some thing to bear in mind, I guess.
In an ideal world, I get all of my modern philosophy from strange hermits residing in the woods, whatever odd man cave/faraday cage Jaron Lanier lives in, or from beautiful women who reside in ponds distributing political science philosophy, as well as swords
Reading philosophy is such a treat when you can understand it. But reading people discuss reading philosophy is it’s own special circle of hell. Some thing to bear in mind, I guess.
In an ideal world, I get all of my modern philosophy from strange hermits residing in the woods, whatever odd man cave/faraday cage Jaron Lanier lives in, or from beautiful women who reside in ponds distributing political science philosophy, as well as swords
smrankin5's review
4.0
This book was a bit tough for a non-philosopher to read, but many parts of it were so helpful for me.
Mostly the chapter about failure. "The foundational myth of failure is that it's our own fault...We can be at fault for failure, but the chaos of contingency in life reminds us that control is never absolute and often limited".
Also the discussion around Telic and Atelic activities. Those that has a terminus, and those that don't. That the value lies in the process, not the project. To me this spoke to spending time doing work you don't enjoy, working hard at the expense of your health, happiness, fulfillment with the hope that their will be a reward at the end. The only thing is, you have little control over whether that reward comes at the end. It is very human ideal that we have more control than we do. It made me relook at my life in a really profound way
"There is no way to eliminate failure in every form and no point pretending that results don't matter. But we can reframe how we live our lives so that our failures are less central"
"Learning how to live a better life, one less mortgaged to success and failure, attuned not just to project but to process"
Mostly the chapter about failure. "The foundational myth of failure is that it's our own fault...We can be at fault for failure, but the chaos of contingency in life reminds us that control is never absolute and often limited".
Also the discussion around Telic and Atelic activities. Those that has a terminus, and those that don't. That the value lies in the process, not the project. To me this spoke to spending time doing work you don't enjoy, working hard at the expense of your health, happiness, fulfillment with the hope that their will be a reward at the end. The only thing is, you have little control over whether that reward comes at the end. It is very human ideal that we have more control than we do. It made me relook at my life in a really profound way
"There is no way to eliminate failure in every form and no point pretending that results don't matter. But we can reframe how we live our lives so that our failures are less central"
"Learning how to live a better life, one less mortgaged to success and failure, attuned not just to project but to process"