In many ways, the diseases of the modern industrialized world are those of surfeit – too much sugar, too many calories, too much instant gratification and superstimuli.

Drawing from exemplars of both the restrained and those who refused any restraint, each of his points is well supported and illustrated in a way that brings clarity of vision to the issue of ego. Holiday brings a wry humor to the task of reminding us that we are all, in the end, human. I can frequently be heard referring to myself as lucky, usually in a tongue-in-cheek sense, but it’s moments like this one that make me wonder, sometimes…Įgo is the Enemy digs into the difference between the people who succeed briefly, then flame out, or never succeed at all, and those who stride forward, one foot in front of the other and their eyes on the goal.

I was, as I’ve said, in a combative space, and this suited me. Once I have a decent stack of recommendations, I can work through several of them, putting aside the ones that don’t seem to be helping.įrom the large pile I gathered, I pulled Ryan Holiday’s Ego is the Enemy. I did what I usually do when I know there’s something I need to fix and I don’t know how to – searched the internet for lists of good books on the subject. That said, chemistry is not an excuse and I wasn’t going to just take that as a stopping point. So I quit THC and nicotine within a few days of each other, a decision that, while the correct one, has made me a bit edgy.

They were useful crutches at an earlier stage of my life, but I’ve come to a point where they were holding me back. To be sure, at the time of writing this, anger is more easily reached – I’m in the middle of breaking a couple of chemical dependencies. I had a flaw in my thought, and it needed to be fixed. When I calmed down, I saw that they were right. Over the course of several conversations, it became clear to me, in large part by it being explicitly pointed out to me that I was displaying anger, and lashing out and hurting people who, in my right mind, I would walk barefoot over a mile of broken glass for.

Ego is the enemy book review