Review: Winning isn't Normal: Meditations on the Art of Ass-Kicking by Jason Shen
Disclaimer: I have
worked with Jason and consider him a friend.
All self-improvers
and autodidacts out there will enjoy these well-written
self-improvement essays. This is a good book. I would not recommend
that someone read it until they have read some of the classics of
self-improvement: The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey, for example.
It is not a single,
cohesive argument, which leaves you with the feeling that your life
is permanently changed. But if you want a series of short, 10-minute
articles each of which delivers a cogent, researched and personally
evaluated punch, Shen's Winning isn't Normal is a good investment. I
certainly learned a lot reading it. My favorite lesson from the book
when willpower fails is: “don't try harder, try something
different.” As someone who has spent 30 years promising to try
harder each New Year's day, I learned something from this book.
