From Strength to Strength

This book is directed toward ‘ambitious strivers' who are now finding themselves slipping. Let me say, arrogance and privilege exude from almost every single sentence of this book. If this book is directed to ambitious strivers (like, Mr Books himself, which to be fair, he does not hide the fact that this book is largely about him), then why do more than 100 people have it on hold in the NYPL? I leave the sociology to another essay, but I'm sure it's because how to find meaning after midlife is something we all are looking for insight. Although even though I'm largely negative on it, it does have some insights: your mileage may vary. I'm going to be snippy and summarize the thesis this way: So you, Mr or Ms Ambitious Striver, have spent your life being successful, making lots of money and fame, while (and he makes a point of this) neglecting your life, your spouse, your children and pretty much everything else in life, except conspicuous consumption. Now you're at the point where inevitably your lunch is eaten by other younger, talented (perhaps more ruthless) people. Now what do you do? You reassess your life. Move on to different strengths. Positively you become a mentor and teacher and move on to the business of wisdom. Spending a lot of money on flying to India to chat with a guru nobody else can talk to, talking to your buddy the Dali Lama, making spiritual walks in Spain (because downtown DC just won't cut it I guess). Then. You convert to Catholicism. Whatever, you read the book. My major argument with the book is this: if people can get addicted to success, then perhaps this book is being directed to the wrong age group? Why are you talking to people who have made their success, if, like a meth addict, get them before they fall down the path, tell the young that there's more to life? I warn all, there's a heavy sell on religion for a few chapters (nothing any devoted free thinker couldn't demolish in seconds), but there's a smidge of disingenuousness there, I mean he buddies up to us, saying talking to religious people is like “someone trying to sell you a Buick” then, literally, the next 3 chapters are “but consider, the Buick gets good gas mileage!” Groan. I also caution people about the Cattell-Horn-Carroll Intelligence theory (yes, it is widely accepted, yes, I'm a psychologist), which he uses to claim there's a big inflection point in life where you transfer from fluid to crystalized intelligence, i.e. you start out your career as Steve Jobs and end up as Yoda. But, look at the curves (pp. 8 and 28) drop offs are far from steep and in fact most of the lifetime, career success and intelligence fall all within a narrower range for a long period. Brooks is also selective about giving examples of people who “fall off” in their latter career (no counter examples, like Noam Chomsky - oh, wait, Brooks' eyes might melt if he mentioned Chomsky, never mind, there are more). I mean, selectively choosing examples, we know that gambit, right? Ok, look, that was all unkind, and I didn't mean it to be, there is insight here, I very much resonate with devoting the latter half of your life to mentoring and teaching (something those of us who stay in the same profession for their work life and gain experience understand, we get all of one sentence at the end of the book, but, ok). You know, I'm sure, if I met Mr Brooks on a plane, we'd chat, maybe even be friends (level 1 or 2, not 3 - read the book) but, no, I wouldn't be the one complaining that my famous life was down the tubes... But heck, read it, it has some insights.