en-bref-blog1

[en-bref-blog1]

How to be Miserable: Randy Paterson

Walking past the self-help section of a bookstore and you’ll run into shelves and shelves of books promising happiness in all forms, including the perfect body or a great life.  The sheer amount of books would imply that it’s not working.  That’s because happiness is hard.  Misery though, is easy.  So don’t try to be happy; instead, be miserable.

When Paterson says you’re probably doing many of the things, he wasn’t joking.  But that’s a good thing.  Its point is that if you learn what makes you miserable, then you know what NOT to do, which will help lead you to happiness.  Sometimes, it’s just a matter of putting it in a different light, which Paterson does well. It’s a light read as well, with each idea being at most ten pages.

4/5

[en-bref-blog1]

Deep Work by Cal Newport

In order to make good progress on meaningful work, you have to designate long periods of time and be free from distractions, including social media and email.  Concentration is like a muscle that you have to strengthen and the internet is like adding a cheese pizza to a keto diet.  Even minor distraction like seeing an important email or getting a notification can be enough to either break your attention or divide your concentration, which leads to worse results. 

I enjoyed the book and liked the ideas it presented.  I have long thought that social media can be harmful and have felt myself in moments of boredom or study be distracted and not get much work done.  Some of the ideas presented may seem extreme at first but the results speak for themselves and the real-world examples back them up.

4/5