The Art of The Good Life by Rolf Dobelli (also, a Book Review)

The Art of Good Life — Clear Thinking for Business and a Better Life by Rolf Dobelli is an excellent book. Keeping the traditions of his previous book, The Art of Thinking Clearly, this book too has 52 chapters — one for each of the weeks in a calendar year. It is an art to be able to capture a story, research and concluding remarks in 3–4 pages. It took me about four hours to read the book with each chapter taking about 3–4 minutes to read. If you are picking up a habit to read this year, I suggest starting with Rolf Dobelli will do you a lot of good. Despite being a quick read, the insights from the majority of the book stick.

If you’ve read Daniel Kahnemann or Rolf Dobelli or Greg Gigerenzer or Dan Ariely before, then it sticks even better. It is worth pointing out that unlike some of the other authors (and researchers), a lot of Rolf Dobelli’s work is derivative and not original. Rolf Dobelli weaves something for the Buzzfeed generation between an alternative view of the world and statistical psychological studies. Unlike Daniel Kahnemann’s diagnostic style or Dan Ariely’s positive style or Greg Gigerenzer’s prescriptive style, a lot of Rolf Dobelli’s advice is grounded in sheer practicality and cynicism. There is no magic, law of attraction or happy endings story. The crux of his books is that odds are stacked against you from your genes, surroundings and your own cognitive biases. A happy ending needs you to work hard and have lot of luck going your way.

I liked most of the chapters. However, my favorite ten chapters were:

1. Mental Accounting
2. The Focusing Illusion
3. The Circle of Competence
4. The Secret of Persistence
5. The Tyranny of a Calling
6. The Book of Worries
7. The Opinion Volcano
8. Envy
9. Prevention — this was my favorite chapter of the book
10. If You Run Your Own Race, You Can’t Lose

Most of the chapters are crisp. Hence, unlike my previous reviews, I am not going to talk in detail about them. However, I will note my key lessons from the book:

• Tax up your expenses. If you are eyeing that great dress that has the net price of $x and you pay an income tax of 30%, the actual price of that dress is $1.3x — that’s the amount you need to earn to be able to afford it.
• Be mindful of your negative emotions. This advice is surprising coming from a largely cynical book. Watch your negative emotions and don’t let them trick you into taking a decision you don’t want to take. Mindfulness helps.
• Know when and where not to play. Rarely have I seen an example better described than when Rolf Dobelli quotes Dylan Evans description of professional backgammon player by the name of J.P. in his book, Risk Intelligence. “He would make a few deliberate mistakes to see how well his opponent would exploit them. If the other guy played well, J.P. would stop playing. That way, he wouldn’t throw good money after bad. In other words, J.P. knew something that most gamblers don’t: he knew when not to bet.” He knew which opponents would force him out of his circle of competence, and he learned to avoid them.
• Use the right idols to drive your own change. The most efficient way to steer your personal development is to use your idols. So be careful how you choose the people you admire.
• Avoid situations where you have to change other people. You can’t change other people — not even your partner or children. The motivation for personal change must come from within.
• Prevention is better than the cure. Would Titanic have been this big a success if the captain hadn’t increased the speeds and steered the ship away from the iceberg in time? We systematically overemphasize the role of heroes while underemphasizing the role of people who help society and individuals from veering into catastrophe. They are the true heroes, the truly wise: competent GPs, good teachers, sensible legislators, skillful diplomats.
• Take preventive measures on catastrophic risks. I recommend spending fifteen minutes a week focusing intently on the potentially catastrophic risks in your life. Then forget all about it and spend the rest of the week happy and carefree. What you’re doing in those fifteen minutes is called a pre-mortem and it helps you make choices that avoid the catastrophe.
• You are not as important as you think you are. If you died today, in less than 10 years you will not be a subject of discussion even among the majority of people who know you. The more important you think you are, the more enemies you will make. If you stress your own importance, you do so at the expense of other people’s, because otherwise it would devalue your relative position. Once you’re successful if not before, other people who are equally full of themselves will shit on you. Not a good life.
• Focus on your input, and not the output. Our input we can control; our output we can’t, because chance keeps sticking its oar in. (This one comes straight from the Bhagavad Gita).

All in all, a good book. And, in keeping with my rating philosophy of rating books that I enjoyed reading and took back more than one key lessons from as 5/5, I rate this book by Rolf Dobelli as 5/5 too. To finish this review, here is another practical takeaway for all those who are suffering from the Steve Jobs aka outsiders syndrome:

Keep one foot firmly planted in the establishment. That way you’ll secure all the advantages of club membership. But let your other foot wander. I know that sounds like a bit of a challenge, flexibility-wise; in practice, however, it works well. Make friends with outsiders. It’s easier said than done. Here are the rules for getting along with them: 1) No flattery. Just be genuinely interested in their work. 2) Don’t stand on your dignity. Outsiders couldn’t care less whether you’ve got a PhD or are president of the Rotary Club. 3) Be tolerant. Outsiders are rarely on time. Sometimes they’re unwashed or wearing colorful shirts. 4) Reciprocity. Give them something back: ideas, money, connections.

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