C. Campbell

Reading Robert Green books is like climbing a mountain. It's long, hard at times, but extremely rewarding once you reach the top.

The book starts off setting the tone by talking about the origin of human beings & culture. He even goes into the evolution of our primate ancestors to evolve stereoscopic vision, as an adaptation to living in trees, which were repurposed to aid tool making in humans. Knowing the author went this deep in grounding his future claims about human greatness was chilling.

5 stars easy.

The story was really interesting but I had the strong impression this would be a response to "Nickel and Dimed." - The book was only mentioned once, and no comparison was made between her struggle and his, and how he made better choices.

There also was so much detail missing, such as how he setup his budget and the numbers.

The end he gives a really cliche and vague final thoughts on poverty & the american dream, a little cheezy.

There's a lot of really interesting things in this book about human psychology, illusions of the mind, and other tricks in our head but... the author is all over the place, making corny jokes and so many analogies it's hard to keep track.

It's hard to feel a point ever really made. It's like being on a long bus ride next to a guy who's babbling for hours without really a conclusion.

I only made it 4 hours in before I just had to turn it off...and this was in heavy 5 mph LA traffic.

I read this shortly after reading "The Willpower Instinct" so they are both a blur.

Some deep insights into how different things we do are stored in different areas on the brain based on how often we perform them, and what triggers them.

It gets a little dry 2/3's in but ends well.

I recommended this to a few friends already.

The format is really great. It consists of Howard Cutler asking general questions to Tenzin Gyatso (the Dalai Lama) on topics of happiness, suffering, handling anger etc.

He makes some really great points about how the secret to most problems is how you think about them, not solve them.

This was the first book I've read by Tenzin Gyatso, I plan on reading more.

The end gets a little silly. He claims the "purpose of religion" is to help us with life. He goes on to say you should pick your religion based on how it fits. Completely ridiculous. Religion is reducible to a set of beliefs, which in turn are essentially claims about reality. Claims about reality are either true or false, and the idea that we "pick" which ideas "fit us" as opposed to accept ideas that are closer to truth is absurd.

Otherwise really great listen.

This book is funny and terrible. I enjoyed it big time.

One really strange positive effect this had on me is it really inspired me to go out and enjoy life while I still have my youth.

Who wants to go to Vegas?

I read his first book in high school. It really rattled my cage and is why I am a libertarian today. I am a huge Stossel fan and have consumed everything he's ever produced.

As the years pass his message not only is the same but he keeps using the same old examples and analogies. He's on repeat.

Awesome message, I just would like something a little more fresh.

When reading a good nonfiction book I'll have this "HA!" moments where the author says something so awesome it changes how I think, or teaches me something so interesting I literally laugh out loud. It's almost like I get a shot of enlightenment, and it feels so good I just laugh.

I have not had one of these "HA" moments in years and this book gave me at least 5.

Thank you.

I loved the movie and got sucked into the preview. I ended up listening to the entire book.

It actually was pretty fun to listen to. A lot of what he says had me laughing over how right he was.

Some of it was a little annoying, the idea of using sex as some treat to get your little pet husband to do what you want. Haha it might work against the weak married guy who thinks sex something is a woman "gives" you. Sex is something I give too ya know, and it's shared...not given and taken away like some toy.

Lots of examples, explanations, and really awesome stories about how the best became the best.

The speaker is a little monotone but the content is so interesting it's easy to get over.