Customer Reviews

Keeping It Straight

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yesterday I had the pleasure to read his new book, Keeping it Straight. The book was release on May 3rd, and it's a series of 48 essays divided in three sets, You, Me and Everything Else.

From the Book:

"- You - Ideas and observations that I hope will resonate with and inspire you (as they do me)

- Me - Stories and revelations that are specific to me (but also may apply to you)

- Everything Else - How to handle some of the other necessities and detritus of life (that is meant for both you an me"

The book is an honest treat to read, the only thing I regret wasn't have a hot cocoa to read it even slower and enjoy it even more, but don't worry, I have plans to re-read many of the chapters this weekend.

In case you don't take my word for it, and need something in advance, let me take from the book this golden nugget: "The Three most important productivity tools: trash Can, delete key, and the word "no"."

Thanks Patrick for such nice book.

Patrick Rhone's writing style is so easy to absorb and fully relate to. It's the simple things. It's the quick and common sense things that everyone generally forget about. Patrick's series of essays brings those gaps into order and reminds us to take a step back, and really breathe and take a look at our immediate surroundings. Some may think this is a 'self-help' book, but think of it more of a friendly reminder of all things that we should be doing no matter what our normal schedules look like. It's a quick read, well worth diving into, and reading over and over.

Having read great, thought provoking, web content from Patrick for several years, I was not surprised at all by the quality of Keeping It Straight. Patrick's candid and honest style makes this book an easy read.

Patrick's experiences give him a unique perspective on his life and the things he does.

I was especially moved by the "Me" section. In it, Patrick is very candid and transparent about the some of the people and experiences that have shaped him, and have true meaning in his life. It is a great opportunity to get a feel for what makes him who he is.

Though I have never met Patrick face-to-face, I have spent enough time interacting with him directly to know that the words in Keeping It Straight are from his heart, and well represent the things he values.

To borrow an oft-used phrase from Patrick's Minimal Mac site that applies well here...

This is..."What we believe in".

Well done, my friend...well done.

How would you describe a book that contains a lifetime's worth of keen insight into the human soul? Words inevitably fall short, unable to do justice to the passion and dedication behind this wonderful piece of literature. Through his gentle, thoughtful writing, we get to know Patrick the writer, but we also get a glimpse of Patrick the human being. He may not have all the answers, but that's not what he is after. Patrick's journey is one of calm and collected self-discovery, the kind of journey that you want to last forever. With this book, we get a personal invitation to join him for the ride.

And that's an offer you just can't refuse.

*Disclaimer* I'm a friend of Patrick's, and promised that this would be my first eBook purchased for my new Kindle.

That being said, I will write this review as candidly as possible for the person who is deciding on whether or not to buy this book.

What this book is *not*: long, fiction, polarizing, Mac-centered, all brand new material, full of pictures.

What this book *is*: short, nonfiction, introspective, revealing, personal, zen-like, referenceable.

I've bookmarked many of the pages in this book to go back to and read again and again. He shares deeply personal and insightful "a-ha" moments and things about himself and others, in hopes that you may get a morsel of something out of them. If you're like me, you will. I find myself too busy too many of my days, and some of Patrick's ideas in this book can truly help bring me back to center again. This book really packs a punch. Take a step back and reflect, and really enjoy the short amount of time needed to read this book like I did.

Patrick released his first book "Keeping It Straight" on May 3rd. I've been reading and enjoying the things that he writes for quite a while now, so it was a no brainer for me to buy this book. I've had a review of this book penned for a while, but I wanted to meet with Patrick and fill in a couple of gaps before I posted it.

This is not that review.

In the 4 hours I was able to spend with Patrick, this is what I discovered:

- Everything he does, everyone he interacts with, and every thought that he pours out into written or verbal form is something that he is incredibly passionate about. The organization of his computers and his thoughts, the company he keeps, his plans for 20 years from now, and even the location of his house; all of these have deeper meaning for Patrick that most people would never consider.

- Great curation isn't just a hobby for Patrick, it's a way of life. For lunch, he took me to a small Caribbean Creole restaurant. Their menu was limited, and the food was outstanding. He pointed out a wine shop and a men's clothing store, both of which contained small inventories, knowledgable owners, and strove for excellence in what they did. And we discussed topic that he'd been pondering for a while with me and another friend of his, using us as sounding boards, testing his ideas and thoughts.

- Patrick is also a huge history buff. Within a minute of walking into his backyard, I was getting an informative history lesson about his house and the surrounding areas. We also discussed technology, and how if history is any indication, we have no idea what the future will have in store for us.

- Life is about picking your battles. Patrick's house is, for lack of a better term, cluttered. His wife organizes by keeping piles of materials for various projects, and saves everything. His 3 year old daughter's presence dominates the downstairs of his residence, with toys working their way into every nook and cranny. And here's Mr. Rhone, a self-proclaimed Get Things Done and minimalist guy. He works with the things he can control; his iPad and MacBook Air, his desk, his mind. He keeps these areas clean and organized, even among the clutter of the house. This allows him to not only be productive, but to truly appreciate his area, his zone, and his place of peace.

- Companies don't benefit from giving other people benefits for being "valued customers". Everyone should be a valued customer, and be treated as such.

- Patrick is equal parts engaging, enlightening, fascinating, and hilarious. All of those are accompanied by an absolutely incredible bank of knowledge stored in his head.

All that being said, there's no reason for me to give you a review of "Keeping It Simple". The book is a gateway between the reader and Patrick's inner thoughts and feelings. If you read the book, you know quite a bit about the man. If you know the man, the things you read in the book come as no surprise.

Patrick has been a close and dear friend for about 6 years now. He is well versed in what it takes to make your life easier on yourself. He cares deeply about not just making his family's life better, but also making the lives of all of his reader's lives better. So when he told us that he would be releasing his first book, I jumped at the the chance to grab it.

Keeping It Straight is a collection of 48 essays that he had written and released on one of his many online ventures. So I had read most of them when they were released. He did divulge on his podcast `Enough' that every single one of the 48 essays was looked at, edited, revised or expanded upon for inclusion in the book. He structures the book into three themes (which are also the subtitle of the book) titled: You, Me and Everything Else. The You theme are posts that he hopes will touch us as a reader of his work. The Me theme shows some posts that affect him as a writer and a person in hopes that we, his readers, will find inspiration like he did. The Everything Else section deals with, well, everything else that we as beings on this planet have to deal with day-to-day.

He discussed money, time management, honesty, blame, worry, karma and many other things that we all struggle with all the time. He provides simple answers for us to overcome the things in our life that get in our way. He also throws in a good bit of himself into these pages. There are a number of essays that cover his life as he grew up in New Orleans and the experiences that would shape the man that he is today.

My only disappointment with the book, and it is minor, is that there is no new material in it. I know that there are some posts that he expanded on, but I was hoping for an entire volume of "Rhone-isms" to fill my day to enjoy. If I know Patrick, I am sure that he is hard at work on his next book, and hopefully, there will be some new material for all of us to enjoy together.

Patrick entered the Internet world as a Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity blogger (like I did, way back in 2006). One of his first widely read piece was his white paper for his productivity and organizational system, that he lovingly dubbed Org-Fu. He is also the creator of the Dash/Plus system for pen/paper list makers to denote the status of list items.

Today, he still writes about productivity, but it is at such a higher lever than just GTD, his writing teaches all of us how to be more productive, but more importantly, better human beings. He is one of the most talented writers of this generation, and I am proud and honored to call him my friend.