Book review - Essentialism

Before downloading the audiobook, from reading the "blurb", I presumed this may be in many ways very similar to Start With Why by Simon Sinek and indeed it is but with a subtle difference.

Essentialism draws on many of the same ideas but from a different view point. The best way I can describe it is to liken this to a cook book detailing recipes for delicious sugar-free baking. If you put the information into practice you will end up with a healthier diet but maybe not a deeper understanding of nutrition and health. Where as books like Start With Why would instead be comparable to a textbook about nutrition and healthy eating and how it works with your biology. Both are valuable and some people will be motivated more from reading one or the other. For me the deeper concepts presented in Start With Why inspired me and the nitty gritty of Essentialism help to provide concrete ways to put it into practice, but for many they may actually feel more of a spark of interest from the more superficial and therefore actionable ideas presented in Essentialism.


Essentialism also covers many of the same ideas and examples as I have come across from a handful of other books reviewed this year such as How to have a good day, Deep work, Black box thinking. However I preferred those other texts for the main part.


A big opportunity missed in this book is that the author spends a long time throughout the book explaining what "Essentialism" is and how essentialists see the world, but the single best explanation of this comes only after you have got through 90% of the book. Essentialism means you focus on the W.I.N. (What's Important Now). At any given time you have to be making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy to act on the maximum possible point of impact by doing those tasks that are only essential and most important at that given time.

This is a good book, maybe not in my top 10 reads of this year but valuable nonetheless. See here to order: https://amzn.to/2qWGXKp