This book is essentially a summary of Jordan Peterson’s lessons which I’m sure he has probably addressed across his hours of lectures and various online material. I guess it could be characterised as a sort of self-help manifesto. The book is based on a set of 42 rules he wrote out in an answer to a Quora post.

I read this book because my housemate had it so I thought I would have a read to see whether it was any good. I’d also had a mild interest in Jordan Peterson given that he’s quite the controversial figure and I think a lot of his work is quite valuable despite not agreeing with everything he says or stands for. This book also doesn’t touch on that much that is explicitly controversial so I thought it would be an interesting read.

In all honestly, I didn’t particularly enjoy the book that much. I thought that a few of the lessons were quite obvious although I guess a lot of self-help books are mostly spelling out the obvious in a somewhat articulate way. Maybe I find some aspects obvious because I hold several of these values already.

Despite this, I do feel like the book could be a lot of help to someone who struggles with direction in their lives. I have heard people say that it’s aimed at the young male demographic, however I think anyone could benefit from the book as there is a lot of good advice in there and could be quite impactful as I believe many people have found. So, have a read if you’re interested in some well-articulated advice, you never know, it might be what you need.