Ego is the Enemy

I stumbled upon Ryan Holiday on YouTube and come back to watch his videos regularly. Stoicism has already been a big help to me. My brain thrives on being anxious about things I can't control. I also caught myself dealing with some ego issues this morning. Seemed like a great opportunity to give a listen to Ego is the Enemy.

After getting to know how Holiday puts his books together through his Daily Stoic videos, it's pretty much exactly what I expected. Lots of lessons from and quotes by famous folks. Nothing wrong with that and I did get some good info out of the book.

I think others can get a lot out of Holiday's knowledge and experience. This is mostly filled with stories of historically significant events and biographies that give the reader some great examples of how ego can seriously get in the way. There's other good stuff in there, too.

If that's what you're looking for, give it a listen or read it with your eyeballs. I'm used to the author's voice and mannerisms from all of the videos so I went with the audio and am happy with that choice.

“Back to another popular old trope: Fake it ’til you make it. It’s no surprise that such an idea has found increasing relevance in our noxiously bullshit, Nerf world. When it is difficult to tell a real producer from an adept self-promoter, of course some people will roll the dice and manage to play the confidence game. Make it so you don’t have to fake it—that’s they key.”

In a world based on our ego, this book is quite an eye-opener. It makes you think a lot about one's behavior and way of thinking, but also make you rethink a lot of the habits we all have in those social medias times. This book offers invaluable advices towards accomplishing real work, but also as to the way you behave everyday. It's one of those books where you highlight something in every single page and for me quite life changing and challenging. A must read for everyone nowadays.