jimmyjams's reviews
189 reviews

I found this book overall informative, interesting, and a little depressing at times. I had never heard of the term surveillance capitalism, but I now agree that it should be banned. Social media companies will never employ a subscription model, so I think regulations are necessary. I had also read Nir Ayal's Indistractable before this book. It always nagged at me that he was the author of Hooked, and this book just reaffirmed that. It felt like a drug dealer was running a rehab program. 

A lot of the information in this book felt like common sense and a rehashing of other books, such as The Science of Sleep, Flow, Deep Work, and even Indistractable. There were still new things to be learned, and if you haven't read those books, this book is a good summary in the context of improving focus and mental health.

One new thing I took away from this book was how damaging multitasking can be. It also made me realize just how much information is pushed on us everyday. At one point I was at the gym listening to this book while walking on the treadmill. There were multiple TVs in front of me, and I was switching my attention between two different sports on them. It hit me how much what I was doing was probably tiring me out mentally. I turned off the book and made a point to look down away from the TVs. I wasn't watching the TVs out of choice -- I was just doing it because they were there.

Another new thing I learned that may seem like common sense but isn't something I ever thought about, was just how much more time we spend working now compared to previous generations. The author discusses the benefits of a 4-day workweek, which is something I can personally attest to. I currently work a 4-day workweek, and it's had such a huge impact on my happiness and well-being.

While it isn't the main focus, there is also a chapter that discusses ADHD in animals, which I found interesting but depressing. Spoiler alert: it's caused by environmental factors imposed on animals by humans. It was just a reminder of how awful our relationship with animals is, how horrible we treat them, and often how much they are at our mercy.

Partway through the book, I learned that the author has a bit of a checkered past. According to Wikipedia he has a history of fabrication and plagiarism. After learning this, it did made me second guess some of the things in the book, such as his anecdotes. How much were they embellished to make his point?

Overall I recommend Stolen Focus, and I think it would be good for everyone to read it.

I really enjoyed this book. It's definitely heavily inspired by LoTR. In a nutshell it's almost like LoTR but with country bumpkin humans instead of hobbits. It's definitely slow-paced, but it didn't feel that way to me, and I drank it in. It was easy to sit back and enjoy it. The writing is just so good. I personally enjoyed it a lot more than Tolkien. That being said, this is the beginning to a very long series, so I guess I could change my mind. I read the ebook and switched between that and audio. The performance by Rosamund Pike was outstanding.

Like most self-help books, I thought it was too long. That being said, there was some good information, and I would recommend reading it.

I liked the plot and ideas presented, but I did not like the format. It made the telling of the story feel too sterile. I was pretty bored most of the time reading it.

I really enjoyed this series. The story and writing were really good, and I liked all the characters. 

The one minor complaint I have is the usage of time travel is a bit unexplained (and would be difficult to explain). A lot of the events in the book are influenced by someone traveling back in time, creating a kind of time loop. What happened the "first time" the events would have transpired? For example, Davian traveled back in time to before his parents met. He basically introduced them. He couldn't have existed without doing that, so it's kind of an infinite loop. That being said, the concepts were entertaining/fun, so it doesn't really hurt the book much for me.