Do the Work Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B004XJFESM | Format: EPUB
Do the Work Description
Could you be getting in your way of producing great work? Have you started a project but never finished? Would you like to do work that matters, but don't know where to start? The answer is Do the Work, a manifesto by best-selling author Steven Pressfield, that will show you that it's not about better ideas, it's about actually doing the work. Do the Work is a weapon against Resistance - a tool that will help you take action and successfully ship projects out the door.
"There is an enemy. There is an intelligent, active, malign force working against us. Step one is to recognize this. This recognition alone is enormously powerful. It saved my life, and it will save yours." For other titles like Do the Work, visit thedominoproject.com for more information.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 1 hour and 25 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: April 21, 2011
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004XJFESM
To be upfront, I was disappointed by the overly mystical/magical ending to The War of Art (useless to me), but a friend assured me that Do The Work was free of that, so I gave it a look.
Pressfield may not be talking about his imaginary friends in the sky this time, but he still loads the book with bits of little wisdom that he turns into foolishness by taking them way too far, to their willfully illogical conclusions. Metaphors about babies and bathwater come to mind.
For example he declares, "Bad things happen when we employ rational thought." Er... no. Bad things happen when we let rational thought stop us from being creative, but that's not the same thing. And bad things also happen when we ignore rational thought altogether in favor of instinct.
A little bit later he cites Lindbergh, Jobs, and Churchill as "stupid" because that's the only way they would have undertaken the seemingly impossible things they did. Um... no. First, that's not stupidity, it's foolhardiness or na?vete; a writer should know the difference. Second, they weren't na?ve, either. Jobs understood what he was up against when he returned to Apple; he was just arrogant enough to believe he was up to the task (which Pressfield appropriately praises) and smart enough, analytical enough, critical enough to be right (which is where Pressfield is wrong).
Pressfield sees people doing things like overthinking or ignoring their instincts or being too self-critical (which are all real problems), and then failing (which is what happens), so he apparently concludes that you should *not* think, *always* trust your instincts, *never* listen to your doubts, etc. When the real solution is Balance. Think things thru, but don't obsess about them.
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