brenticus reviewed Thrive by Huffington, Arianna Stassinopoulos
None
2 stars
Fundamentally, Huffington's idea that we need a third metric to define success in our modern world is solid. Money and power are the metrics we normally use to determine success, but in the end they don't seem to bring people happiness or satisfaction. A lot of her advice in this book revolves around general mindfulness and spiritual concepts that are hashed out endlessly nowadays, but I think she generally hashes it out well enough. The framing that we need to integrate these concepts as a method for "success" in life is interesting enough to differentiate the book a bit from the usual stuff.
There are a lot of minor things off in this book, though. A lot of the examples and metaphors are only vaguely related and tangentially helpful, which means a lot of the book seems to meander weirdly. The appendices at the end are... extensive. I was listening …
Fundamentally, Huffington's idea that we need a third metric to define success in our modern world is solid. Money and power are the metrics we normally use to determine success, but in the end they don't seem to bring people happiness or satisfaction. A lot of her advice in this book revolves around general mindfulness and spiritual concepts that are hashed out endlessly nowadays, but I think she generally hashes it out well enough. The framing that we need to integrate these concepts as a method for "success" in life is interesting enough to differentiate the book a bit from the usual stuff.
There are a lot of minor things off in this book, though. A lot of the examples and metaphors are only vaguely related and tangentially helpful, which means a lot of the book seems to meander weirdly. The appendices at the end are... extensive. I was listening to the audiobook and just shut it off over an hour before it finished because the epilogue was over and I didn't want to listen to a literal hour listing off helpful apps.
Huffington refers a lot to the Huffington Post and other companies that implement measures to help employees develop this "third metric of success," but doesn't refer much to how it actually changes work culture at these places. Many of the companies she references have iffy ethical practices and I don't tend to hear good things about working for them, so I'm not sure she's nailing her point on that one.
Thrive was a decent book on the whole, just one that could have used another draft or two. It made good points poorly with a good but ill-defined framing concept to hold it all together.
