The Nerdist Way

Publisher's Summary

Nerds: Once a tormented subrace of humans... Now captains of industry! You don’t have to be a stereotypical geekwad to appreciate the tenets of Nerdism and to make your innate talents for overanalysis and hyper-self-awareness work for you instead of against you. Join Nerd superstar Chris Hardwick as he offers his fellow “creative-obsessives” the crucial information needed to come out on top in the current Nerd uprising.

Nerds subsist on the minutiae of their chosen passions. As a lifelong member of “The Nerd Herd,” as he calls it, Chris Hardwick has learned all there is to know about Nerds. He’s studied them, lived with them, and has endeavored to milk their knowledge nectar and isolate its curative powers for what ails you. Thus, he has founded a philosophical system (and blog) called The Nerdist, and here he shares his hard-earned wisdom about turning seeming weaknesses into world-dominating strengths. From keeping your heart rate below hummingbird levels to managing the avalanche of sadness that is your inbox, from ignoring your brain to attracting wealth by turning down work, Hardwick reveals the secrets that can help you accomplish what you want by tapping into your true nerdtastic self. The Nerdist Way shows how to focus your mind, body, and time into an unstoppable laser of goodness. Don’t wait for another social tragedy. Don’t resort to cheap “mass murder” tactics to exact your revenge on society. Success is the most satisfying - and legal - form of vengeance there is. And you can achieve it when you follow the Nerdist Way.

©2011 Chris Hardwick (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

I'm a disciple of The Nerdist Way!!

Where does The Nerdist Way rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Other than the Harry Potter series as read by Jim Dale, this is my favorite audiobook! Hardwick has such a dynamic storytelling voice, it felt like a conversation. He offers a perfect balance of humor, personal anecdotes, challenging truths and encouragement to the reader.

What did you like best about this story?

I like that Chris was vulnerable at times, telling the truth about his story. It's what gives me so much hope. He was so relatable, and made me feel like there was hope for me to turn my life around, too. I love that he doesn't just tell the reader what to do, he explains what worked for him and why. But he is also a cheerleader, and I couldn't help but believe he really was on my side as I listened.

Which scene was your favorite?

I don't know about "scene", but the book is separated into 3 sections, and the 1st section was the most striking for me. There's a lot of good stuff to be found in the 2nd and 3rd sections as well, but the first section was amazing.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book literally saved my life, so yes, I had an extreme reaction to it. I was in the process of planning when and how to end my life when someone told me about this book. I downloaded it immediately and stayed up all night listening to it. That night I decided that I wanted to live, and if I was going to live that I needed to let go of suicide as a viable option for me once and for all. (So when I say it "literally" changed my life, I mean it.)

I have been exposed to psychology all my life, both personally and professionally, as it was my chosen field of study. This book took the best of all of that and presented it in a way that was accessible and relatable. It felt like it was written just for me, using my humor and my language. It was motivating and it gave me hope.

The book made me laugh AND cry. I've listened to it several times and I really love it. It has so much great stuff in it!

Any additional comments?

I found myself taking so many notes that I broke down and ordered a hard copy before I even finished the audiobook that first night. Of course, 3-5 days shipping seemed like an eternity to me at the time, so I *also* ordered a copy for my Nook the same day. I have benefitted so much from this book that I also ordered a hard copy for my therapist!

Shortly after this book came into my life I found that Hardwick was scheduled to do standup in SLC, which is about 9 hours from me. I planned a trip and drove out to see him. He didn't do a meet and greet that night, but I took a chance and sent him a Tweet letting him know how far I had traveled to meet him. He DM'ed me back and invited me to the green room to meet him after the show. He was so gracious and sweet, signing my book and my Character Tome, snapping a few selfies with me and giving me a few hugs. I got to tell him that he saved my life, which genuinely seemed to touch him, and give him a small gift I made for him. I'm a big fan of his, and I really believe that he's a genuinely nice guy. This book is full of his personality and has a lot of balanced, encouraging information!

39 of 41 people found this review helpful

Much more than meets the eye with this one!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Nerdist Way to be better than the print version?

I purchased both the book, and the audio (I was told it was better as an audiobook). After going through, I do highly recommend the audiobook. Chris Hardwick's humor can be picked up through text, but not at the same level as through audio.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Nerdist Way?

For me, it was an assignment to think of some things you fear and to shed light on some problems in your life that are holding you back in life. Once those fears/problem in thinking are broken down and examined, they become powerless.

What does Chris Hardwick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Hardwick's humor cannot be delivered as strongly through text. It's about delivery, and as a comic, he knows how to do it well!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

One of the assignments was to write down something you're afraid of. I drew out a scenario of a worst-case scenario (which included negative self talk by myself, and what I thought others would say if I was teaching a group exercise class)

I then drew a better image, where the self talk was positive, and all the comments from the participants were positive. After looking at it, the second image looked more realistic, and helped me to realize how I need to change my thinking in more areas of my life.

Any additional comments?

If you read this, go download it! It's filled with great exercises, and delivered in a way that won't put you to sleep like some of the other self help books out there!

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Chris Hardwick yells at you for six hours.

What would have made The Nerdist Way better?

Calm down, dude! There are a few genuinely useful life hacks in here, but having this shrill stage-level performance in my earphones made them hard to digest. Pretty obnoxious tenor throughout. Also, web addresses, email headers, and math formulae really don't work as spoken word, like at all. Tedious.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Chris Hardwick?

A conversational version of Chris Hardwick.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I particularly liked Chris' candor about his alcoholism and how getting sober changed his life.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

I am a Nerd at heart

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.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

hashtag squee

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

35 of 46 people found this review helpful

A Great Commedian, Mediocere Teacher

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.

12 of 16 people found this review helpful

Buy this book! But maybe not the audible version

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

16 of 22 people found this review helpful

Skip the audio, buy the book

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).

8 of 12 people found this review helpful

apparently all nerds are boys obsessed with boobs

It's got some really good parts, some brilliant ideas, and some fun and interesting things to say but...

The author constantly talks as though he is talking directly to straight guys and assumes getting the girl is a common desire for everybody reading.
It's distracting and kinda awful.

I will however say it happens a lot less often than in other "nerd" based self help books I've impulse bought during sales.
It's not so often as to make me want to stop the book all together, so I forget that it's even a thing that happens. Then it happens again like a slap in the face.

A consistent reminder that some men think of women things you get for being awesome enough, and the men who think that way will really like this book.

10 of 16 people found this review helpful

As Others Have Written, The Book is Better

What did you like best about The Nerdist Way? What did you like least?

While there is definitely a lot of great information to digest in this audiobook, that may also be it's undo in a small way. What are great lists of ideas in the book, are just snippets of soundbites in the audiobook, leaving me wishing Chris had reformatted it a bit for audio to make it a little more digestible.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I'm a big fan of gameification of your life and this book is one of the first sources I've read or heard that explained it.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Chris Hardwick?

Yes.

Was The Nerdist Way worth the listening time?

The audiobook is worth the listening time, but I would get the book to go along with it or I think you'd be lost.

Any additional comments?

If you're looking for ideas to make life's chores a bit more exciting, this audiobook gives you a lot of good insights to do it.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Pointless

Bunch of boring nonsense from someone unaware of survivorship bias.

"I'm successful and also check my email in a certain way, ergo: checking your email in this certain way leads to success"

Enjoy your burrito!

Seriously a great book for getting your life on track, but buy the hard copy.

Great

What did you like most about The Nerdist Way?

Very recognizable for nerds and it is so funny! I really enjoyed listening to Chris Hardwick (the fact that the author himself speaks is a big bonus too). The book consists of three parts: one about the mind, one about the body, and one about organizing your time and stuff. The way he explained about how the mind works (specifically, the nerd mind) was an eye-opener. Good tips for organizing your life too, in the third part of the book. But all the exersizes in the "Body" part of the book didn't come to life in audio form. Fortunately, I liked this audiobook so much that I bought the paperback version to take fully advantage of the fitness exersizes in the book.