Recent Ryan’s book is another popular junk-read which have 0 substance and not only waste time but actually distract.
Contrary to the title of another popular junk-read Ego Is the Enemy, I should say that ego is the friend if you want to change or achieve anything in life. Every time you think I’m a good software developer you will have to back it up with action. If you decide to lose weight, it’s far more useful to say to yourself “every day in every way, I’m getting leaner and healthier” than to stick to your old ego of a person who has bad genes, heavy bones or stress full life.
The examples in the book are terrible. They are not accurate and distorted to support the author’s point of view. His choice to consider two Union generals and 0 Confederate generals while most historians agree that Confederates had better generals is biased.
Most of all, the author never proves that ego is bad or is the enemy. He tell anecdotes without any studies. Why a person became successful? It could be because he identified himself with success and had big ego. Yes, maybe he failed later because he stopped delivering great results but that doesn’t support the hypothesis that ego is bad. Correlation does not equal causation.
Bottom line: avoid this book.. and maybe this one as well and all other Tim Ferriss related junk-reads.