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dmaurath's review
5.0
This is a very important book, but surely a controversial one. His ideas will open your eyes and maybe maybe frustrate you as you try to reconcile your beliefs with the unfortunate truth. He almost always go against the grain of the status quo. He makes you think hard about the point of charity , about the illogic of meritocracy (i.e., in. a true meritocracy all children would need to be separated from parents at birth and raised with same resources), and about the motivations of seemingly benevolent philanthropists like Gates (his investments are done to solidify western hegemony) among many other commonly and closely held truths.
However, he does this all to to open our eyes to what a post-capitalism more egalitarian society would look like. Essentially, his argument is: Surely, we will never be perfect but we can do better than this.
For that, this is a very important book because he shows just how much better things could be with marginal improvements. Its important to not that this is not a book that explains how to achieve improvements. He states that in the book and this has been missed by other readers. He's not offering concrete solutions here because as he states there are other much more qualified writers that have done that and this book would have been 100x longer.
However, he does this all to to open our eyes to what a post-capitalism more egalitarian society would look like. Essentially, his argument is: Surely, we will never be perfect but we can do better than this.
For that, this is a very important book because he shows just how much better things could be with marginal improvements. Its important to not that this is not a book that explains how to achieve improvements. He states that in the book and this has been missed by other readers. He's not offering concrete solutions here because as he states there are other much more qualified writers that have done that and this book would have been 100x longer.
mahir007's review
5.0
المفارقة الأساسية لحالتنا الحالية:
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هناك الكثير ، ولكن ليس هناك ما يكفي . نحن نعيش وسط وفرة وقدرة إنتاجية غير مسبوقة ، ومع ذلك فإن المليارات من البشر تعاني من قلة الملابس والطعام والاهتمام . وهكذا ، في عالم تبلغ ثروته مجتمعة 399.2 تريليون دولار ، لا يزال أكثر من 3.4 مليار شخص يعيشون على أقل من 5.50 دولارًا في اليوم ، بينما يموت 34.5 مليون شخص سنويًا بسبب نقص الرعاية الصحية الملائمة ، ويموت حوالي 9 ملايين شخص بسبب نقص الغذاء . في الوقت نفسه ، تقوم الآلات بالمزيد من العمل الضروري للحفاظ على الحياة أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك ليس لدينا سوى القليل من وقت الفراغ. هناك أناس على قيد الحياة الآن أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك فإن الكثير منا مازال وحيدًا.
نحن نستفيد من قرون من الحكمة والتقدم العلمي لتعزيز السعادة ، ومع ذلك فإننا مثقلون بالقلق والاكتئاب. في الواقع ، لا يرتفع عدد الأشخاص المصابين بالاكتئاب فحسب ، بل يرتفع أيضًا متوسط عدد السنوات التي يُبلغ فيها الأشخاص عن شعورهم بالاكتئاب. القلق والإرهاق آخذان في الازدياد. لدينا القدرة على الذهاب إلى جميع أنحاء الأرض ، إلى أعماق المحيطات ، وحتى إلى الفضاء ، ومع ذلك فإن وسائل الاستكشاف هذه تستنزف استدامة كوكبنا الأصلي. كل عام نستهلك ضعف ما تستطيع الأرض أن تجدّده سنوياً.
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Avram Alpert
The Good Enough Life
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
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هناك الكثير ، ولكن ليس هناك ما يكفي . نحن نعيش وسط وفرة وقدرة إنتاجية غير مسبوقة ، ومع ذلك فإن المليارات من البشر تعاني من قلة الملابس والطعام والاهتمام . وهكذا ، في عالم تبلغ ثروته مجتمعة 399.2 تريليون دولار ، لا يزال أكثر من 3.4 مليار شخص يعيشون على أقل من 5.50 دولارًا في اليوم ، بينما يموت 34.5 مليون شخص سنويًا بسبب نقص الرعاية الصحية الملائمة ، ويموت حوالي 9 ملايين شخص بسبب نقص الغذاء . في الوقت نفسه ، تقوم الآلات بالمزيد من العمل الضروري للحفاظ على الحياة أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك ليس لدينا سوى القليل من وقت الفراغ. هناك أناس على قيد الحياة الآن أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك فإن الكثير منا مازال وحيدًا.
نحن نستفيد من قرون من الحكمة والتقدم العلمي لتعزيز السعادة ، ومع ذلك فإننا مثقلون بالقلق والاكتئاب. في الواقع ، لا يرتفع عدد الأشخاص المصابين بالاكتئاب فحسب ، بل يرتفع أيضًا متوسط عدد السنوات التي يُبلغ فيها الأشخاص عن شعورهم بالاكتئاب. القلق والإرهاق آخذان في الازدياد. لدينا القدرة على الذهاب إلى جميع أنحاء الأرض ، إلى أعماق المحيطات ، وحتى إلى الفضاء ، ومع ذلك فإن وسائل الاستكشاف هذه تستنزف استدامة كوكبنا الأصلي. كل عام نستهلك ضعف ما تستطيع الأرض أن تجدّده سنوياً.
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Avram Alpert
The Good Enough Life
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
gijs's review
2.0
Picked this up as the book by Ryan Holiday on the stoic interpretation of the cardinal virtue of temperance/moderation as 'discipline or self control' (and don't forget this also implies the recursive Hofstadterian ‘moderation of moderation'), was ok but not great. So ‘the good enough life’ has the potential to appeal to anyone contemplating satisficing as a default heuristic. But this book just didn’t cut it. The overall impression you're left with is that a young, inexperienced-in-real-life, overly ambitious writer is expounding the cardinal virtue of temperance/moderation, by doing some rudimentary armchair philosophizing all the while being convinced to have thereby written something original.
bootman's review
5.0
2nd read:
I had the pleasure of interviewing Avram on my podcast when this book first came out. I loved it so much that I wanted to give it another read, and it still holds up. This book is so well written, and although Avram is humble enough to take his theory from the book and apply it to his own life by saying he got lucky enough to write this book, I still don’t know if someone could have put these thoughts into words in the way he does.
This book is about how our drive for being “the best” along with the competitive nature of capitalism leaves a lot of people behind and is also killing the planet. This book isn’t necessarily about settling, but it’s about shifting our worldview so we don’t leave people behind and that we start thinking about how we can create a more equal society.
I’m probably going to continue reading this book once a year, and I plan on reading it with my son soon because it has so many important lessons in it.
1st read:
This quickly became one of my favorite books of 2022, and I can’t stress enough how important this book is. Avram Alpert shines a line on the fact that we’ve created a culture where we’re constantly striving for greatness in all aspects of our lives, and this causing us a lot of harm. Personally, I was miserable for most of my life until I realized that it’s alright for things to just be “good enough”, and since then, I’ve never been happier and more content. Avram dives into various topics like relationships, careers, financial well-being, and much more while explaining how seeking greatness is only causing us harm. By no means is this a self-help book, but it’ll shift the way you view your wants and needs, which will most likely make you a lot happier.
And just when I thought Avram had provided enough value and wisdom in this book, the final chapters go into how greatness is hurting our society and our planet. The constant competition and maxmimalization of everything is keeping people at the bottom and reducing their chances of ever succeeding. Alpert discusses how this idea of “greatness” undervalues many people in our societies and how we’d be a lot better off if people could just be “good enough”.
This is a must-read book, and I’ll most likely be reading it again in the future.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Avram on my podcast when this book first came out. I loved it so much that I wanted to give it another read, and it still holds up. This book is so well written, and although Avram is humble enough to take his theory from the book and apply it to his own life by saying he got lucky enough to write this book, I still don’t know if someone could have put these thoughts into words in the way he does.
This book is about how our drive for being “the best” along with the competitive nature of capitalism leaves a lot of people behind and is also killing the planet. This book isn’t necessarily about settling, but it’s about shifting our worldview so we don’t leave people behind and that we start thinking about how we can create a more equal society.
I’m probably going to continue reading this book once a year, and I plan on reading it with my son soon because it has so many important lessons in it.
1st read:
This quickly became one of my favorite books of 2022, and I can’t stress enough how important this book is. Avram Alpert shines a line on the fact that we’ve created a culture where we’re constantly striving for greatness in all aspects of our lives, and this causing us a lot of harm. Personally, I was miserable for most of my life until I realized that it’s alright for things to just be “good enough”, and since then, I’ve never been happier and more content. Avram dives into various topics like relationships, careers, financial well-being, and much more while explaining how seeking greatness is only causing us harm. By no means is this a self-help book, but it’ll shift the way you view your wants and needs, which will most likely make you a lot happier.
And just when I thought Avram had provided enough value and wisdom in this book, the final chapters go into how greatness is hurting our society and our planet. The constant competition and maxmimalization of everything is keeping people at the bottom and reducing their chances of ever succeeding. Alpert discusses how this idea of “greatness” undervalues many people in our societies and how we’d be a lot better off if people could just be “good enough”.
This is a must-read book, and I’ll most likely be reading it again in the future.
quigonchuy's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A magnificent book. In today's hustle culture, obsessed with greatness, the latest and greatest, and never enough, it was refreshing to read something that advocates a different way of doing things. I think the title doesn't portray what the book is advocating, because it isn't so much about settling, but about making sure we are considering the consequences of always striving for more, instead of taking a look at how we allocate our mental, physical, and environmental resources and what effect that is having on us, the people around us, and the planet. He does an amazing job of explaining not just himself, but why others might hold the views they do (instead of just polarizing or dismissing other views). Probably my favorite book of the year. Highly recommend.
quentin_r's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
If people read this book and implement its advice, they will be happier and society will be capable of solving many more of its problems.