Think yourself happy!
3 stars
[My review of the 12min summary]
This is an overly simplistic prescription for overcoming depression.
Ravikant's whole premise is based on his unproven assertion that the reason you are depressed is because you don't love yourself! Shame on you!
There's no doubt that we all do things and even think things that are sometimes not in our best interest or sabotage our success. That's far from not loving ourselves.
Maybe Ravikant presents proof of his claim in the actual book and it's just not in the summary I read. Such is the hazard of reading summaries. However, you can still get a good feel for the merits of a book by reading a good summary. I could never read this many books otherwise. When I find a review that makes me think that the underlying book is excellent, then I will often seek out that book and read it. This …
[My review of the 12min summary]
This is an overly simplistic prescription for overcoming depression.
Ravikant's whole premise is based on his unproven assertion that the reason you are depressed is because you don't love yourself! Shame on you!
There's no doubt that we all do things and even think things that are sometimes not in our best interest or sabotage our success. That's far from not loving ourselves.
Maybe Ravikant presents proof of his claim in the actual book and it's just not in the summary I read. Such is the hazard of reading summaries. However, you can still get a good feel for the merits of a book by reading a good summary. I could never read this many books otherwise. When I find a review that makes me think that the underlying book is excellent, then I will often seek out that book and read it. This is not one of those books.
The crux of his whole process is meditation. I'm not keen on this idea, but we now have mountains of data that says that meditation (a form of mindfulness) is hugely beneficial. It's right up there with exercise. This part of the book has merit, but you can get this advice in a zillion other places.
During your meditation, you should repeat to yourself: "I love myself." (This is in sharp contrast to how I do it. During my meditation, I repeat to myself: "Where's my cinnamon roll?")
Another thing he says in the book has merit, but it's overly simplistic and in many cases impractical in the short term. When you are facing people or problems that make you hate yourself, ask yourself one question: "If I loved myself truly and deeply, would I let myself experience this?"
Come to think of it, "overly simplistic and in many cases impractical" is a good overall summary of the book.
FINAL NOTES (quoted from 12min) "If you need a one-sentence summary of Kamal Ravikant's self-published bestseller 'Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It,' just read the title. If, however, you need to learn how to love yourself — well, you can do a lot worse than read the book. It will only take you an hour of your time, but it may change your life permanently."