Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsThe whole of the philosophy doesn't work for me.
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2014
I don't exaggerate when I say I have probably fifty or more books on the topics of simplifying one's life, saying no, managing time, managing expectations, and so on. It is a topic I'm extremely interested in. So I was quite interested in seeing what Essentialism said and how it said it.
Really, there's only so many ways to present this information. Essentialism isn't new or groundbreaking. It doesn't have amazing insight. Still, it does present information which is valuable. If someone hasn't read about this before, maybe this book will be the one that helps them improve their life. It could also be that the book's system of having short, illustrative stories connects with an audience more clearly than other styles of presentation do.
Author Greg Mckeown provides a variety of systems to help the reader become an Essentialist. Keep a journal and watch for changes. Make sure you get ample sleep each night, because lack of sleep leads to issues with brain functioning. Consider each choice and if you don't enthusiastically want to say YES to it, then say no. The time you free up could lead to a perfect opportunity for you. Be present in the moment. Aim for small victories that then add up. Allow time for play - it keeps the brain elastic and creative.
His stories give examples and background for many of his instructions. He talks about an experiment with dogs where the dogs "learned helplessness" - they didn't even try to avoid electric shocks because they'd been taught they were just part of life. Greg explains that often humans are like this. We give up on even trying to change things.
Greg says, imagine you set a goal to drive across town without using the brakes. Sure, if you timed all the lights just right you could do it. But life isn't like that. Life has stoplights and cars pulling out and so on. The only way to maintain your goal would be to build in a buffer of space so that you could account for those things. Life is like that. You need a buffer to account for the normal issues.
So all of this is great. Again it's not new, but it's important. These are things we should keep in mind and practice. I'm a proponent of people learning and understanding these things.
Where I have an issue is with the many other things he snakes into his message which I feel are less healthy. And since they're all in this common "wrapper" they might be ingested by readers without thought.
For example, while sometimes he talks about donating things to charity, at other times he says to "throw away" what you don't want. He denigrates the idea of taking on charity work in a field we adore. Apparently only work you get paid for is worth your time. He praises parents who only allow their child to do "one big thing" in order to get into their chosen college choice. What if the kid also is interested in photography or softball, just at a lesser level? Apparently this is "bad" because the kid should only be allowed to do one thing.
Couple that with his statement that parents shouldn't do ANYTHING for their own creativity like attend book clubs or go golfing. They should spend their days 24x7 focused on their kids as an ideal. Now, I'm all for engaged parents. But I also think kids should have kid-time and parents should have parent-time to keep them all well rounded. If nothing else, a parent who takes an hour a day to celebrate their passion for watercoloring is providing a healthy role model to their child that they, too, should always have space for their own creativity and passion.
I dislike his use of "yes, but" language for turning people down. So many other books explain why this is poor phrasing. Also, he harps on the idea that if you say no to people that they'll grow to respect and love you. Sure, some might - but not all will. It's better to be realistic rather than idealistic in presenting information.
One of Greg's praise is for a person who says "productivity in my experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people." What?? So even if I adore photography, I shouldn't participate in my local photography club, which I am just so joyful about, simply because it helps other?
Again, I say absolutely that much of the message here is healthy. But there's no need, in my mind, for these unhealthy messages to be mixed in. Will some readers skim over them? Certainly. But other readers won't. And it's like presenting a delicious dinner that has some pesticide-laced items in them. Some people won't eat those - but why in the world have them on the plate? Surely the product would be even better without those items.
So as much as I love the idea of Essentialism in general, this book in particular just has too much questionable material in it to recommend. It's not like it's a choice of this book or none others. It's a choice of this book or HUNDREDS of others which are just about identical. And with so many of those others being awesome, and covering the same material, I highly recommend the others.
As a final note, I was also flabbergasted that, even though I own the hardcover, I had to pay another $10.99 to get the Kindle copy. That's an outrageously high price for a Kindle version of a book that has no printing or other costs involved. The profit margin on that for the author is incredibly high. And, not only that, but the way the Kindle book is laid out is sub-optimal, from asterisks that aren't explained until many pages later to the page layout and the way jumps are handled. So it's not even that you're paying a premium for an extremely well designed Kindle option.
