The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)

Chris Hardwick is an amazing comedian and awesome speaker, all throughout the book he keeps a "hey buddy" relationship with the reader and this is probably the only reason I finished the book. However I found the content of the book to be very lacking. The book is divided into three sections, each representing an aspect of life that you must perfect to achieve happiness. The only section of this book that was even worth listening to was the first. He lays out a very good, creative, and fun model to help you better yourself, the character tomb, however never really comes back to it. Where as the majority of the first section talks about things to add to this tomb, exercises, and makes it sound like this is going to be your clean cut method for improving yourself, the later sections barely even mention it.

Although there are a few good nuggets in here they are buried under loads of advice we have already heard time and time again, usually I can deal with this as the best advice is advice all self help guru's give, however unlike other gurus he didn't elaborate, or even put his own spin on most of them. I would advise those of you looking for good self help books to pick up How To Live In 24 Hours, or any of Carnagie's work, also The Secret and The Road to Babylon. All of these books take specific ideas Chris mentioned, and really put them into the spotlight allowing you to get the full use.

This is a great book, IF you know what you are getting. For realsies. If you don't know a tardis from a taunton, can't tell Louis CK from Patten Oswalt, have never rolled a 20 sided die in an RPG, or leveled up in World of Warcraft, this book might not be for you. But for a particular group of tech and pop culture savvy nerds (generally male), looking for help in the grown up world, this is the book that will try to show the way.

Chris uses his personal struggles, a gigabyte of humor and a gazillion pop culture references to illustrate how the time honored keys to success can be reframed for the hyper-connected who are used to instant gratification online. Goal setting and decision making hasn't changed much over the centuries, but if you look at time management from the perspective of an Evil Genius for example, it may resonate enough to make it a do-able IRL. You are your character in a giant LARP. Here you just need to you identify your abilities and start racking up experience pointsm to get to the next level.

Chris narrates the book, and at warp speed, it might be difficult to catch all the references. Movie and comic book characters abound and shout outs to Ben Franklin, Charlie Rose, Oprah, Stephen Frye, the Kardashians, among many others, pepper the story. Everything from bits of the Lincoln-Douglas debate, to solipsism, to chess, make an appearance, as Chris shares how he overcame panic attacks, a back injury, a serious dependance on alcohol, a crappy credit rating and bad Asian chicken salds, in a way that says, you can absolutely do this too.

I can't imagine "reading" this book. The audio is the way to go, since it's so much like a comedy routine. There are links provided to items which must be diagrams in the book. And those circling the OCD island will certainly find them helpful. I don't see how this book can possibly have a long shelf like. Two years from now, it may be totally incomprehensible. But for the target audience, two years from now is another universe. It's about the now, and in more ways than one.

The Nerdist Way is profane, and not always PC. But it is Chris Hardwick at his best. A pink pill of happy. He's not paying me, but maybe he should.

#hugs

I was hoping for a little motivational geekiness but after the first few chapters, Hardwick has gotten fixated on exercise. I wish I had the book so I could just skip all the crap. The book also has worksheets and things to facilitate implementing his basic idea (which is compelling if you are a D&D geek).

It may seem confusing that I give the story 4 stars, the performance 4 stars, but the overall only 3. Here's why: I think this is a fun, useful and well written and performed book, but I think it is better as a physical book than audiobook.

I pre-ordered the hard copy after Hardwick announced it on his podcast, and then promptly forgot. Then, months later, I saw his reminder about his new book on Twitter and since I only ever get time to digest books through audiobooks, I came here to see if it was available. I listened to the first couple of chapters very happily and Chris, as usual, is very funny and delivers his material as only he could, so I was very glad that he read it himself.

Part 1 of this self-help book, which is about the mind, has a lot of narrative and works very well as an audiobook. I related very well to the experiences he relates about anxiety and self-confidence and he made me laugh so much. There are exercises to do, but they are thought exercises that at most, I would pause the playback for a minute to think about before resuming the book. There is also a suggestion for a "character tome" which I will do, and am glad to have the physical book to refer to for the structure of it.

However, Part 2, about the body, includes his story of how he got to where he is in his caring for his physical self, and many conversations with/information from his personal trainer. It is very inspiring. But a large part is composed of bullet lists of exercises and motivational points. These are very useful for actual reading and referencing, but not very interesting to listen to.

Part 3, Time, focuses on ways to use technology to better manage your time to meet your goals and how to get your finances in control. Obviously, I can use some organizational skills, and was pleasantly surprised to see the stigmatizing issue of bad credit in here as well, and Hardwick has a lot of great suggestions. But listening to them in the car and not being able to right away try them out was less useful. For that reason I was very glad that I had the physical version at home that I could reference Parts 2 and 3.

Maybe it's just because I listen to Hardwick's podcast that I had no problems with hearing his voice in the text, but I really think it's because he wrote it in a way that his humor is obvious and, in some ways, better in written form than spoken aloud. So if you are worried that reading it will feel more bland than listening to him, I don't think it's an issue for this particular book.

So please, buy this book! I really do recommend it and in fact will be buying more hard copy versions for friends as gifts. And if you don't mind buying both versions then by all means, do! #Moneybags #HashtaggingOutsideOfTwitter

Probably.

This is no fiction, so there is no story to end :-)

I would tune it down a little and use a bit less profanity.

No. It would not make sense make movie from this topic

People who are really wasting all their time playing video games and having low self esteem.

Be practical more. And cut the motivational crap.

Total disappointment.

I'm a fan of Hardwick's standup, so I knew I would probably enjoy the performance and comedy aspects of the book. What I didn't expect was for it to be so damn useful. I got plenty of laughs, but so many of the strategies he suggests for managing one's life and productivity are really, truly valuable, especially since it is written specifically for those of us who to have a very particular sort of "nerd brain": hyper-aware obsessives who are equally creative and scientific in their interests and skills. Bonus: he makes it very fun, which is essential ingredient in getting any results when embarking on any self improvement odyssey. It's a lot easier to do the work when it doesn't all feel like someone has a Gom Jabar pointed at your jugular.

Having been drawn to books like Getting Things Done, The Four Hour Body and numerous other self help books about getting organized and systematic in my chronic and withered attempts to embrace adulthood, this has similar advice, but it is really laser focused for what he referes to as the "nerd brain", i.e., analytic yet creative thinkers who tend to be somewhat compulsive in their interests, motivated by systemic rewards systems (i.e., those of us who live for progress bars and experience points). Because his brain also works this way, he is remarkably insightful in not only giving advice that would actually work for this particular mindset, but also breaking down the WHY'S of what he proposes. For example, when discussing managing anxiety and panic attacks, two conditions he personally suffers from, he doesn't just tell you to "take a deep breath" and meditate; he actually tells you the physiological reasons that taking deep, slow breaths can conquer a panic attack (i.e., flooding the blood with oxygen,which will help neutralize the biochemicals that are flooding your system when you have an attack). For folks like me who need to analyze and understand processes, this sort of information is absolutely vital for not only grasping what is happening to you, but how you can change it, allowing you to focus on the PROCESS rather than just following instructions. While many might find the whole idea of "DMing" your life (i.e., Dungeons and Dragons style character profiling of yourself and your goals and using a similar progress reward system) as somewhat juvenile, anybody who has spend 8 hours straight playing a video game and feeling like they accomplished something will likely find value in the approach.

Aw, Hardwick is like a very smart, funny and adorable Golden Retriever that you just want to go to the park with and then you discover he can open refrigerators, douse water and diagnose blood diseases with just his nose. I mean, I knew the guy was very funny, but I had no idea how much I would respond to the actual advice and tips in the book and that I would actively implement them into my life. A lot of it is very serious advice, whether it's about career goals, health, managing stress and anxiety or just getting out of your own way. Because he presents it interwoven with the geek humor he is known for and a multitude of personal anecdotes about his own triumphs and soul crushing defeats, you are thoroughly entertained while getting introduced to concepts that could indeed improve the quality of your life. Oh, and also, maybe get some nerd tail.

I'M IN YOUR HEAD,NERD

If you like Hardwick already, you'll like the entertainment value of the book, but it's likely you can get a lot of great tips from it as well. It does reference a lot of content in the physical book, but you can go the the Nerdist Way site to access what he is referencing. Finally, Lizard Brain.

Hardwick covers several great areas of self help to encourage nerds to get off the couch and keep themselves motivated and healthy. Since he comes from the same place as his intended audience there's a true sense of honesty and authenticity to his message.

Must read for any nerd languishing in couch-dom.

I was concerned about this book because my husband read it first. My husband was wanting more comedy and not a self-help book. So, I had that in the back of my mind when I started to read this book. I actually really enjoyed the book. I could relate to it in more ways than I expected. There are lots of ways that I will apply this book to my everyday life.

Chris Hardwick narrated this book. I can't imagine anyone else doing it justice. However, at times he talks very fast and I am afraid of missing something. On the flip side, his comedy comes through and makes the audible version better than what I think the print version would be.

The title of this piece of trash is a misnomer.

The author/narrator constants swears to the extent is painful to listen. F--- this, F--- that.
His verbal skills have more in common with a street thug, than a supposed nerd.

It would be ok, if the information conveyed between the constant stream of profanity was of any use. However, his "self help" advice is both shallow and obvious. Eg. "Don't listen to negativity from your brain. It is just a brain f---"

No scientific evidence is given in regards to any of his self help advice.

I could only recommend this for individuals of low IQ, who enjoy listening to swearing.

The nerdy aspect of this audiobook are the references to RPGs, video games, Dungeons and Dragons.