Afterthought: Clear Thinking By Shane Parrish

The author himself mentioned, this book is a mesh of many books, articles, podcasts, and ideas he read, heard, and learn from others; with a few examples that share his experiences. The style of writing reflects self-help, with every sentence focuses on convincing the reader to make changes, if what you're doing now isn't already aligned with what he's speaking about. Effectiveness is of no question, for self-help author had perfected the technique for decades, even centuries, on influencing people. For a reference, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" was published in 1936-37. Though, if you read too much self-help books, you'd feel weird and manipulated by the technique of writing.

Contrast with a book that's written to inform, to raise awareness, to introduce a new idea. The style focuses on something original (hopefully), without trying to convince you to do something, nevertheless it's effectiveness doesn't decrease, at least for the books written by the great authors who invest in their writing. By invest, one don't mean just the writing skills; though they're important, they're secondary to clear thinking. In Writing To Learn, author introduces that, a clear thinking writes clearly. From one's feel, even if it's written in a semi-repetitive form, to ensure the reader always getting reminded by that one single point the author is trying to make, it feels different from the repetition used by self-help authors. What exactly cause that feeling, unfortunately, one can't pin it down. Perhaps, it's the gap in between good and very good writing, and great writing.

There's nothing wrong with how it's written, though. Author had stated clearly that it'd be written in that form, and it's one's choice to continue reading anyways. One recommends slowing down to read the final chapter. It works better with recalling and taking the time to think. If you need a sad BGM, go ahead and play a few on the playlist. Later, take quiet time (without the BGM) to think it through, and sleep through it. Perhaps you might discover a whole new world, and set off on a brave new world.

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First written in my personal blog wabinab.github.io. If you like more of these, a full list can be found here.