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A lot of time defending OTF

Revisado: 05-03-19

This book is mostly him defending the OTF against apologists. He goes through and refutes every argument against it. There are some weird ones. The actual explanation of the OTF is relatively brief. In an audiobook, I was wishing I knew where he presented it formally, so I could go back and read it. The chapter where he applies it to Christianity (chapter 11 in the audiobook menu) is really good.

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Very entertaining!

Revisado: 03-22-19

This book has some funny and interesting stories. It’s interesting! I like the authors reading

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Voice doesn’t stay at consistent volume

Revisado: 03-20-19

I doubt this book would prevent anyone from believing in God. It’s a mixture of a lot of different ideas about different religions. I think it presents the case in part that God isn’t good or specifically that religion is not good.

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stereotypical characters

Revisado: 01-30-19

The performance was pretty good but I felt like the accent disappeared at times.

The main character seems kind of like an obnoxious progressive. Even after getting to know the guy, they refer to him as a “hate mongerer”...which is clearly not the case based on what he says. I guess that makes every Christian saying that “it’s not what God intended” is hate mongering. The main character is portrayed in a very non homophobic way....it’s a really watered down type of “homophobia” you hear from real progressive Christians but they still talk about him like he’s this terrible guy bc he won’t put a gay character in his movie, which he isn’t even that aggressive about. It seemed to be a pragmatic move.

Spoilers:

The romantic part is just kind of weird. She seems very willing to cheat , explicitly saying she would. But he’s not even coming onto her. I think this is supposed to show how much she is dissatisfied with her husband that she’s having these delusions. I think the main character is kind of immoral for doing that bc I think her intention was real to cheat. To see her go back to her husband is kind of unsettling. They then read the hate mongerers advice and become really happy.


the Southern woman was portrayed as stupid
The southern man a bigot.

And the woman visiting came off as an elitist snob looking down on the terrible Christian man but was going to cheat with him regardless. The husband of the visiting woman seemed kinda emasculated.

There is a part where she talks about night sex being sexual assault because they initiate in the middle of the night. It seems really bizarre and she was thinking about if they have a divorce if they would report it as a crime but she was like they both do it. I was like what? You want to report your husband because you’re sleepy when they have sex? Or do they have sex while one another is unconscious?

That makes me think the author is liberal and I’m wondering if the self righteous and judge mental attitude of the main character was intentional or if it was written to be ridiculous. Does the author see their character as a hate mongerer?

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Questionable Examples , lots of fluff

Revisado: 01-16-19

The audio quality for this book is pretty good. I like it when the author reads their own book. However, I don't really like Ryan Holiday's way of reading. It is something about his way of speaking and tone of voice. It's relatively subjective I suppose.

There is an interview at the end of the book, which is an interesting addition. However, the audio quality is less than ideal. So I am only going to give it 3 stars for performance.

The interview, which is in addition to the book, also involves a lot of somewhat irrelevant questions that seem like filler. Tim Ferris and Ryan Holiday talk about relevant information but also a lot about irrelevant things it seemed. They talked about breakfast and what Ryan Holiday cooks. Stuff like that was kind of uninteresting.

If you are trying to get interested in stoicism, I would not use this book. This book involves way too much fluff and the people that Ryan Holiday talks about are morally dubious. There are a lot of political figures that are given praise like Lincoln, Obama, Alinsky, etc. While you can extract relevant information from the stories, the narrative he sets up isn't necessarily accepted by everyone. For example, Holiday talks about Obama and his connection to Jeremiah Wright and his questionable statements. He interprets it as a set back for Obama and praises him for his speech following this event. He also talks about John D Rockefeller and his success.Which some would view as exploitative. He also talks about Samuel Zemurray and how he came to own land through smart thinking but some have criticized this because of backing of political violence. Many have also criticized any praise of Alinsky as well. These events and figures are not people I'm super familiar with but I understand why they are controversial and the interpretation of events is sometimes questionable. The ultimate message is clouded by the questionable nature of these characters.

Sometimes the book doesn't seem to get the stoic message across. Mixed with the stories of highly successful and rich people it comes off kinda like a way to be successful like them and get power through determination. For example, he gives the example of Steve Jobs pushing his workers so hard. They needed 2 weeks for a deadline and he said get it done sooner and would not tolerate it. So they got it done sooner. He fired those who said they couldn't. But the iPhone comes out without a copy-paste feature. What is the message? Work your workers really hard? That's fine but absent constraints and details on the situation it just sounds like "WORK HARDER". Also, Steve Jobs insisted that even the inside of an iPhone is beautiful! What's the message? Strive to do things well? Sometimes you have to realize that some tings are a waste of time.

There seems to be conflicting messages. Take the opportunity and also know when to wait. Rockefeller knew not to buy the land. Amelia Earhart took the plane ride with the guys who were only going to let her ride along. I thought she wasn't going to do that and stand up for herself! But he gives it as an example of someone taking advantage of imperfect opportunities.

These short little stories can support anything you say. There is just too much fluff and the stoic message seems to be getting overshadowed by silly stories that have holes in them. Like a US military man being tortured in prison and not leaving because he is loyal to his fellow soldiers and cares about moral..so he got tortured for more years. No. Just leave.

It's interesting hearing Ryan Holiday talk about stoicism when the thing that got him famous is manipulating people, deceiving them and lying. Why did he do this? So his company could make money and then also so he could expose the system. To me, it seems very unethical. He exploited peoples emotions through deception but now is the modern face of stoicism. That is not to say his book is bad for that reason. It's a bit of a side point.

But again, I think the stoic message doesn't come across clear enough, there is too much fluff and bad examples.

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Good points made but a bit redundant and disorganized at times

Revisado: 01-14-19

This book was good and would serve as a decent introduction to libertarianism but not in a deep philosophical way. It’s also seemingly disorganized and redundant at times. Finally, it’s not the hardcore version of libertarianism and doesn’t mention the more extreme positions which are needed to understand libertarianism today

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Excellent narration & content

Revisado: 09-27-18

This book is well narrated. Sometimes the sentences are long or complicated and the narrator does a good job making clear what is trying to be said and he’s pleasant to listen to. The book is a philosophical classic. It’s hard to listen to some arguments in audio form so be weary you lose out if your not paying close attention . The book is very intriguing and makes good points.

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Not very useful

Revisado: 09-04-18

This book is not very useful in my opinion. I didn’t see most of reasons as all clearly thought out. I think points are not so well articulated. Lanier talks about an acronym BUMMER so frequently but it seems like he can just call something bummer and convince you it’s bad. The book is very political also. It talks about all sorts of political issues and I just found it annoy and preachy. This is extra annoying because I don’t agree with his stances on political issues which are a large part of the book.

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