The book gives me nothing to hook on to. No big ideas. At times it feels like a string of quotes patched together by an AI. A fairly sophisticated AI, I admit. It almost gets it right, but there's an absence of human touch in the text.
I think it's partly the author and partly the subject's fault: Ryan Holiday relies too much on his writing formula, and courage is an elusive topic to write about.
It's like a commencement speech โ very motivational, but without the personal anecdotes and stories from the author's life that tie the content to the one wielding the pen.
The subject of courage can be elusive and maybe hard to break down into practical terms. Yes, I know what courage is, but how do we cultivate it? The book gives no clear answer.
It's only in the afterword that the book redeems itself a bit. Now Ryan, finally, shares his own stories of situations where he should have acted more courageously โ and how, with age and experience, he has made it a habit of making the courageous choice in more situations. These personal stories grab me and I realize that this is what I've been missing from this book all along.
Hearing about decorated war heroes and Tibetan monks who put themselves on fire in the name of love is one thing. But hearing stories of courage from someone more relatable โ like the author โ allows the message of the book to connect in a more meaningful way.
It's bold to write a book about courage. I do not envy the task. The book seems formulaic and it feels like it was written with haste. I have bigger hopes for the other books in this series about the Stoic virtues: temperance, justice, and wisdom.
You can skip this one! Read Stillness is the Key instead.