It’s an enjoyable read, but bad advice for this particular problem.
In Oliver’s world everyone is suffering because they’re avoiding thinking about the things that are important, and need to deeply examine their values. That’s true, I suppose. But some people are also struggling because they can’t keep their life straight enough to go to the dentist (got a root canal coming up, after I finally went back) or pay their bills on time, and working for a living at well paid job they’re good at is torture because they simply don’t know how to operate in a regimented corporate environment with agile boards and stand ups and reporting progress every day.
It’s a frustrating read because it is written as if everything Oliver says is natural and relatable, when often it isn’t. Of course we look down on those who have hobbies (what weird ass British nonsense is this?) of course we receive constant emails from random members of the public (nope, not really a problem for me.) It often didn’t read to me that Oliver believes these things effect the “real world.” They can. People really struggle.
After all that, I actually would say sure, OP should get the book. An enjoyable mix of pop-psychology, pop-philosophy, and a few actual productivity tips. But it’s bad advice to OP without caveats. People should know what they’re buying.
Haven't read it, but I've seen the typical stages of life (birth, kid, school, work, grandparent) drawn as a grid of cells to demonstrate the concept and it's immediately quite powerful seeing how few there are and how far along we are.
In Oliver’s world everyone is suffering because they’re avoiding thinking about the things that are important, and need to deeply examine their values. That’s true, I suppose. But some people are also struggling because they can’t keep their life straight enough to go to the dentist (got a root canal coming up, after I finally went back) or pay their bills on time, and working for a living at well paid job they’re good at is torture because they simply don’t know how to operate in a regimented corporate environment with agile boards and stand ups and reporting progress every day.
It’s a frustrating read because it is written as if everything Oliver says is natural and relatable, when often it isn’t. Of course we look down on those who have hobbies (what weird ass British nonsense is this?) of course we receive constant emails from random members of the public (nope, not really a problem for me.) It often didn’t read to me that Oliver believes these things effect the “real world.” They can. People really struggle.
After all that, I actually would say sure, OP should get the book. An enjoyable mix of pop-psychology, pop-philosophy, and a few actual productivity tips. But it’s bad advice to OP without caveats. People should know what they’re buying.