Daring Greatly

How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

by Brené Brown

320 pages

Published April 7, 2015 by Avery.

ISBN:: 978-1-59240-841-2

View on OpenLibrary

(50 reviews)

3 editions

BillieCodes reviewed Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Review of 'Daring Greatly' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Good advice through a very specific lense.

So the science in it is good, as far as my knowledge goes, but it's applied through the lense of her experiences, which are not very intersectional.

The author is a Christian mother, and talks about that lot. When it comes to her advice it is always applied through the lense of being safe, i.e. not at risk of being attacked, and from a place of power in a relationship. The biggest fears she talks about are not being picked first for a sports team or her work being criticized.

If you are safe and in a position of explicit or implicit power I think this is a good book to read. If you are on the other side this book has a lot less to offer you.

Moorlock reviewed Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Review of 'Daring Greatly' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Brown has collected some of her insights about vulnerability, shame resilience, and "Wholeheartedness". If these insights resonate with you, you will find much to chew on from how she has explored a variety of common human difficulties, in situations like the workplace, school, and parenting, and has found solutions in the form of embracing vulnerability and working constructively with shame.

The book is a little overstuffed and repetitive for my tastes. I found myself skimming paragraphs that seemed to be saying the same thing from chapter to chapter.

I also would have appreciated if she had shared more of her reasoning with us. It was hard to tell if she was really on to something or whether she had just fallen in love with a pet theory and was interpreting all of her experience using it as a guide. Brown frequently says things like "the data suggest" or "research shows" without giving us much insight into what the research or the data was. There's an appendix that concerns her research methods, but I didn't come away from it feeling very enlightened. Details were few and the process seemed at first glance to be very vulnerable to confirmation bias.

But the book is probably better read as a pep talk rather than an argument. If you find her theory persuasive, you will be given many examples of how people have applied it in various contexts and the benefits they have felt from having done so.

Marcus reviewed Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Review of 'Daring Greatly' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book is single-handedly one of the best things I've read in a long time. I've been looking a lot for a sorta reinforcement that I'm on the right track in my desire to be an effective life manager. I knew that being vulnerable was the key, but I didn't know exactly how, or to what extent. This book gives a great definition of what shame is, and how it colors a lot of our lives until we start to recognize and deconstruct it. It also gives you some great strategies to practice with shame resilience, and gives a good list of emotional barriers that keep us from being vulnerable life managers. I made so many notes, and I wish I could share them all. Anyone owes it to themselves to read this book and start their journey of process and growth right away.