My Book Reviews: Pt6
I wanted to publish some book reviews
I have so many book reviews on my Instagram page: @jakubreads
So, I thought I’d publish some on my Medium … cause why not?
My previous post in this series:
The Dip, Seth Godin
This is the first book I’ve read from Seth Godin. I do not recommend it. It’s way too short, repetitive, and his advice is obvious. Some of the concepts are downright unhelpful. Godin fills the book with a dog-eat-dog philosophy where it’s not worth going into something if you can’t be no. 1 at that task. That is probably what they taught him in business, but it’s definitely not something that will sustain us in the future.
The problems with this philosophy of living are numerous. To upkeep brevity I’ll merely mention the most obvious: in a world that’s growing in talent & resources number 1 will be unachievable. Seth Godin is definitely not number 1 in his business tactics, nor in his writing pursuit. Does that mean he should stop striving? I’m sure he does not plan to.
We need less competition and more cooperation if we are to get along in this market.
Sometimes you have to read things you disagree with to understand what you believe is true. I conclude that this book is a sincere waste of time & a pure money-grab. . . .
I look forward to reading Purple Cow by him in the near future, to understand what the buzz is about.
Winston Churchill: A life, John Keegan
I finally finished reading Churchill’s biography by John Keegan. There were parts of Churchill’s life that I was already familiar with due to other literature. I was intrigued by his story & influence because of his infamous use of language and his witty oratory skills that speechwriters still learn from.
He had unmistakeable moral character flaws, which should go without saying. He was short-tempered, stubborn, unkind, fierce, & elitist (to say the least).
Nevertheless, there’s something to learn from the way he became PM of the UK. Churchill saw the perils of Nazism despite Chamberlain’s purposeful ignorance & Europe’s (mainly France’s) disarmament post — WW1. Even intellectuals & pacifists like Bertrand Russell (who was jailed for being outspoken against WW1) couldn’t foresee the Holocaust, Hitler’s vehement Anti-semitism, & white nationalism.
We owe some — if not most — of our freedom to Churchill, despite his obvious flaws. I believe it’s worth reading about.
The Rise of Victimhood, Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning
I have been noticing a pattern of extreme emotionalism at universities. There are many good reasons to be provoked, understandably. Some are unfortunately not good enough.
One can think of Milo Yiannopoulos and his racial slurs at the actress Leslie Jones, or Ann Coulter and her anti-Islamist sentiment post- September 11. Not to mention the numerous news anchors that display ignorance & political bias to the extreme point of resembling a marketing technique rather than authenticity. Candace Owens doesn’t believe in Climate Change. The list could be endless.
Many are lumped into this group unjustly, however. That is due to victimhood culture.
Maajid Nawaz, a political commentator & moderate Muslim author of the fantastic book “Radical”, was labeled both an Islamist extremist & bigotted against Muslims. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ex-Muslim Harvard University fellow, was deemed not worthy to have genitalia due to being outspoken against jihadism & abusive forms of Islamism (note: not Islam). Sam Harris was labeled “racist” on Real-Time. Charles Murray, a libertarian political scientist, was labeled a white supremacist by the Southern Poverty Law Center for expressing that there MIGHT be IQ differences in ethnicities due to environments & genetics (though they concluded that there was not enough evidence to hold that view).
Dismissing bad ideas is important. But let us be careful not to dismiss completely rational ideas made by moderates & intellectual Giants in some cases.
Psychologists & sociologists are coming out from their ivory towers and saying that this is entirely unhealthy. We’ll need a change. We should start the change by undermining helicopter parenting that socializes people into moral dependency at a young age. More free speech, critical thinking, & rationality.
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I write to keep you thinking and to keep me thankful and reflective. Cheers and until next time,
keep reflecting.
