12 Rules for life; an antidote to Chaos by Jordan B Peterson
Self help non fiction book genre
Audiobook
Running length around 15 hours which can be reduced to around 9 hours or so by increasing the speed of narration. I would specially recommend that for this book since it becomes preachy in places and you will end up feeling, “Get to the point already”!
Overall rating is 1 out of 5 though the narration of his own problem with his daughter in the end deserves a rating of 5!
The introduction is really amazing which may be one of the reasons why my final rating is so low! It is a typical case of raised expectation!
There is a sequel to this apparently best selling novel and I am seriously thinking what the ### is wrong with the world!
So the author who is a psychologist by profession, starts by how one of his comments (answer) in the app QUORA got him lots of views and how a publisher reached out to him. Those points are the basis of his rules for life.
I will enumerate the rules which are more or less self explanatory.
Stand up straight with your shoulders back! Meaning you must be confident
Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
Make friends with people who want the best for you
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today
Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
Pursue what is meaningful
Tell the truth or at least do not lie
Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t
Be precise in your speech
Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street!
Now, most of these rules sound very good and are self explanatory and the author has made good in listing them! My opinion is that he should have left it at that and not explained too much! The reason is that unlike the amazing book 48 laws of power in which the author explains each law in detail and with examples and with counter, here the author just dives into sermon mode!
More than half the content of the book is sermons and narrations from the Bible! Every other passage a revelation from the Bible comes with a story and the author sounds like the father in the early morning church on a Sunday! Now, I have no objection in listening to the sermons from the Bible or any other holy book for that matter but if I have to listen to a sermon then I would prefer to listen to the original! I would prefer to go to the church or a temple! Why to listen to a second hand narration!?
The author tries to take examples from his personal life and practice and fails miserably! He tells the story about his friend who was lost and depressed and he could not save him! In fact he did not even try! Now why would he tell about such a depressing story in a book which is supposed to be self help?
A depressed person would become more depressed after reading the passages of this book!
And his beating around the bush to come to the point will actually increase your pressure when you have taken up self help book to calm your mind!
Many times the author is so confused that the passage is clear!
The only thing good about the whole book is the narration of his personal life and his daughter and what a great fighter she is! She is definitely an amazing girl! But the author there also injects his negativity and almost spoils it!
One of the most depressing self help book I have had the misfortune of listening to! You can torture yourself and that your rule and your life!
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