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A review by grantkeegan
The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything by Ken Robinson
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: