Name: Darma Paramarta's review of Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker
Item: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Rating: 4
Author: Darma Paramarta

Eric Barker

Wall Street Journal Bestseller Much of the advice we’ve been told about achievement is logical, earnest…and downright wrong. In Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric Barker reveals the extraordinary science behind what actually determines success and most importantly, how anyone can achieve it. You’ll learn: • Why valedictorians rarely become millionaires, and how your biggest weakness might actually be your greatest strength • Whether nice guys finish last and why the best lessons about cooperation come from gang members, pirates, and serial killers • Why trying to increase confidence fails and how Buddhist philosophy holds a superior solution • The secret ingredient to “grit” that Navy SEALs and disaster survivors leverage to keep going • How to find work-life balance using the strategy of Genghis Khan, the errors of Albert Einstein, and a little lesson from Spider-Man By looking at what separates the extremely successful from the rest of us, we learn what we can do to be more like them—and find out in some cases why it’s good that we aren’t. Barking Up the Wrong Tree draws on startling statistics and surprising anecdotes to help you understand what works and what doesn’t so you can stop guessing at success and start living the life you want.

The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Piet Terheyden

Darma Paramarta

I love how almost every concept in this book is introduced by a story, it's enganging. However, it feels like I have to take many notes while reading this. Overall, a good book to accompany you on your relaxing weekend.

Nitin Ranjan

Research meets motivation. A tad too long for what it offers. Too many stories, too-ambiguous takeaways (work hard, but not too hard; have confidence, but not overconfidence). All chapters are structured that way; the first one-third establishes a concept (optimism is great), the next one-third refutes it (pessimism is great), and the next one-third balances it (both optimism & pessimism are needed), so in the end, the reader reaches nowhere.

Nadine 

To reiterate what another reviewer said - why do I keep reading these because they just all repeat themselves and each other.
I think my answer though is that I occasionally need reminders on the one hand and on the other they're the nonfiction equivalent of pulp fiction.
But yes, no fantastic new insights, says the same things (but with acknowledgment) as Gladwell, Adam Grant Kahneman, etal

Fabio Mologni

This book is very easy reading. However, it mixes up platitudes, scientific studies I'd be careful with when interpreting them and stories of successful people. It can give some advice, but at the same I had more than a headache with all the definitions: matchers, givers and so on. The authors sustains every theory and its contrary. It can be summed up as: know yourself and find your pond. 

Nice reading, nice hints, but not that useful after all.

Ivaylo Durmonski

In one form or another, we all crave success. That’s why we read books, buy courses, visit events and lectures. And, on top of everything, we do all kinds of nasty things behind our co-workers back.

Do we succeed? Most of us don’t.

We simply get too caught up in the practices mentioned by the gurus.

Fortunately for me and you, we have Barking Up the Wrong Tree with the extensively long subtitle: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong by Eric Barker.

This book, is not your ordinary type of self-help book. It’s fun, readable, full of facts that are refined so even a 9-year-old can grasp them and above all, written in a human language.

So, if you’re still lost in this journey called life, grab a copy and pick a wrong tree to read it. I can assure you that it’s worth your time.

Key takeaway?

I don’t know. I found so many useful things inside that’s hard to hold to just one. But if I have to pick, I’ll most probably be this: pick a task that’s meaningful to you. It might not be grandiose as saving the world from hunger, but if it makes sense for you, it will be enough.

Read more:
https://durmonski.com/book-summaries/...

Luca Conti

It's a good book. The problem is me. I am tired of this kind of books.

Jack Baty

I did not succeed at loving the book, but the first half was interesting. After that it sort of fell off for me.

Piet Terheyden &
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker

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Piet Terheyden &Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker

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Join the club

Piet Terheyden &
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker