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Book Club | 12 Rules for Life

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Jordan B. Peterson

To anybody thinking about buying this book - think again. The book is pretty poor. You are better off by spending your money somewhere else or donating it to a good cause.

Do not get me wrong. There is some good stuff in it. Just the presentation of the main meal is poor.

Jordan B. Peterson writes about his rules for life. He calls them an antidote to chaos. His rules are:

  1. Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
  2. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.
  3. Make friends with people who want the best for you.
  4. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, bot to who someone else is today.
  5. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
  6. Set your house in order before you criticize the world.
  7. Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
  8. Tell the truth - or, at least don't lie
  9. Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't
  10. Be precise in your speech
  11. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
  12. Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street

[12 Rules For Life on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Rules_for_Life

Objectively speaking, the rules are good . . .

  • For example, rule #8 about not lying. It does not take a genius to figure out that telling the truth is better for you. Telling lies is exhausting and once you start it is hard to stop.

. . . the rest is not.

The reason why I say that it is not worth to spend your $20 or so (depends on where you are in the world) is that you don't need to read 400+ pages to work out these 12 simple rules. You probably know most of them already.

The book also feels like a drag. Peterson also goes on and on before coming to a point. There are countless diversions, comparisons, and anecdotes that, in my view, do not really add to the main message.

Then there is a very religious denominator to all that he writes about. If you are a religious person than you may even enjoy it. Otherwise, you may feel like you are being preached to. Nothing wrong with a religion, but if you want to read about the Decalogue then just pick up the Bible.

So here, hope it was useful. If you like to read about books on productivity, check out my other posts. If you like to receive more regular updates, sign up to my newsletter.

Thanks for your time.

Until next time

M|K