How to Be Perfect

The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

De: Michael Schur

Narrado por: Michael Schur, Kristen Bell, D'Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto, Marc Evan Jackson, Jameela Jamil, Todd May

From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world. Read by the author, this one-of-a-kind audio production features guest appearances by members of the cast of The Good Place.

Most people think of themselves as “good", but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad” - especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia, and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more, so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.

Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. Okay, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.

How to Be Perfect is narrated by Michael Schur, Kristen Bell, D’Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto, Marc Evan Jackson, Jameela Jamil, and Todd May!

©2022 Michael Schur. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Michael Schur and the cast of "The Good Place" once again collaborate, this time to ponder today’s toughest moral questions using philosophical views from the East and West. Schur delivers hilarious sarcasm as he tackles ethics and explains how to balance morality and achieve virtue. Friendly and inviting sounding, he is able to take the difficult, oftentimes dry topic of philosophy and make it engaging and entertaining. Using a simple and steady pace, Schur's narration is coupled with signature voices from the show, including Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. The entire cast makes this production an intriguing and funny way to introduce or reintroduce oneself to philosophy and achieve goodness." (AudioFile Magazine)

Good balance of philosophy basis and accessibility

For 20 years I've been one of those annoying people like Chidi who actively go out of my way to live, work, and volunteer based on ideas directly drawn from philosophy. Because of that, I'm familiar with both the source material referenced and the extreme difficulty of getting most people to accept the time and discomfort to get through more than a few pages of it before giving up and going back to navigating life based on whatever we saw parents or friends do. The author is upfront that to present these ideas in a widely accessible way will inevitably bother both some professors (true) and people who dislike philosophy and really just want a fun work of pure comedy (also true). Overall this book walks the practical balance about as well as could realistically be done. It achieves this better than any other attempts I've found. Adding to the comedy here is a meta layer you can find and enjoy in the negative reviews from people telling on themselves who, upon being confronted by the book's correctly explained basis for why their behavior is selfish and makes the world a worse place, insists it must be the author being political, because clearly it's out of the question that they might actually be selfish people living in a way that does make the world a worse place. That disagreement is not an argument against the book or author, it's an argument against being awful from solely living by what some person asserts confidently enough on a podcast, entertaining tv program, or viral facebook posts. The footnotes and jokes work fine, it's not pure stand up comedy it's still fundamentally a philosophy book, and the people harping about that mostly seem annoyed because part of the book prompted them to reflect and they did not appreciate what they saw. 10/10 would recommend to anyone. If they hate it then the world can only improve by them being given recommendations they disagree with.

very insightful

learned so much about different philosophies in a down to earth easy to digest way.

so great

I knew I would love this, but didn't know just how much I would. a delight

Intriguing and captivating

Overall, I thought this book was fabulous. It provided chapters of thought provoking concepts but still kept you engaged! Definitely would recommend!!!

Keep Trying

Firstly, I adore the Good Place and philosophy (perhaps the latter moreso because of the former), so this book was an easy sell. Even so, it exceeded my expectations. It is simultaneously funny and easy to listen to and complex, thoughtful, empathetic, and well constructed. Don't let the title fool you, you will never achieve perfection and will have plenty of questions after listening, but you will be better equipped to answer.

innovative effort at moral philosophy

narration and performance were terrific and the author makes a valiant effort at making moral philosophy accessible to modern readers. v the story is good and not as good as the performance.

loved it

great crash course on lots of basic philosophy concepts, I loved it. great author and great voice cast.

enjoyed

a quick and easy listen; not too deep or shallow. if you loved The Good Place, this is for you.

funny

I never thought I would laugh so many times. great book, great lesson to take away.

Enjoyable listen

I really loved everything about this book. Excellent writing, performance and insight. So good.