What is enough? Enough is a very personal metric. Like our center of gravity, each of us must find what is enough by swaying from less to more until a comfortable medium is found. The goal, then, is not to find what is, or will be, enough forever. That is impossible. The goal is to discover the tools and strategies you need to find what is enough for you right now and provide the flexibility to adjust as the conditions change.
Ok, full disclosure in case you didn't already know — Patrick Rhone, as well as being an awesome author, is my husband. And I have lived constantly with the creation of this book for well over a year.
That said, the fact that I still love this book (and I am picky) is a testament. Every essay in this book (no matter how much I discussed them when they were being written) makes me think, and think some more, and go back to thinking. This is the kind of book that depends upon the reader to DO something with what they have read, to take an active role.
If you are coming to this book expecting a storyline, you may be disappointed. This is a collection of essays circling around the central theme. For me, this provided a method by which I could ponder the thoughts within each of the essays and decide for myself how I might apply them.
I cannot say this is a full-featured book, but it is worth reading. Patrick Rhone mostly focused on the importance of keeping an 'enough' attitude and by doing so everyone can save quality time and peace of mind. If we split the book by its content, the first part handles the common life situations and the latter part discusses the technological challenges to be overridden. There are simple yet practical ideas all over the book.
Patrick Rhone is a brilliant man who's writings and ramblings offer deep insight into us as individuals and the human race on a whole. In this book he writes about the concept of "Enough" which is in essence the concept of balance and moderation, leading us to consider our base needs and what is really required of us to be successful in life. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, he writes about our never ending search to find Enough; an ever-changing metric that we must continually find for ourselves. Life is always changing, so we must be as well.
A collection of short, but thought-provoking essays. I didn't always agree with the author, but his arguments are well-written and enjoyable to read. Some of the essays are informational, others instructional, others more meditative.
I own a print copy of the book and its one of the few that stays on my nightstand if I need a little something to ruminate on before going to sleep (especially some of the essays that focus on gratitude and reflection).
I wanted to give this book more than three stars, as I liked many of the ideas from Rhone and I knew his writing from his blogs... But having just finished reading "Free Will" by Sam Harris, I can't help but compare the books with each other. And this comparison shows clearly that while Harris is a fabulous writer, Rhone is not quite there yet.
This is a good book with good ideas. Not great, but good.
Thought provoking, inspiring and beautifully written
This book is a series of short essays on a variety of topics, ranging from productivity, to how we use technology, to every day life and personal development.
I read the book over a period of weeks, dipping in and out whenever I needed a jolt of energy to kick-start my brain.
The book is beautifully written. Each chapter feels more like a conversation with the author than an essay you read.
If you work in IT, then I suspect you'll find this book even more thought provoking, as Rhone is a self-confessed fan of technology and uses the book to examine our relationship with modern tech.
As a side note, the book was written entirely on an iPad and iPhone, rather than a full keyboard. Amazing!
If the digital world is too much with you, then this book is exactly what you need to read. In a fairly short but extremely pithy book, Patrick Rhone gets to the heart of a number of ideas that plague modern society and specifically those of us in the connected, digital space.
How much is too much? What does it mean to be connected? How do we examine these things through the lens of 'enough'? I found myself highlighting many parts of the book, partly because it resonated so deeply with what I believed but also because I want them as regular reminders when I get too complacent in the way I handle my technology-fueled lifestyle.
A very good book without too many trappings and something you can read and reflect upon as the days unfold.
While enough starts out strongly with good advice, insightful observations, and useful suggestions, it, unfortunately, peters out rather quickly.
The strong start includes suggestions of tools you can use to define what is enough for yourself and how to minimise time-wasting distractions that lead to frustrations over not living the life you really want. Later in the book, which is more like a collection of somewhat structured musings on what minimalist life involve, Rhone tends to become fixated on the role of technology, often offering up middle-of-the-road, non-insights. Yes, technology use and structuring your dependency on electronic tools can benefit from a minimalist approach. However, most of us will not need a book to tell us that using several folders for emails is a good idea. Or that we should limit our time on social media.
In a book of just 100 pages, devoting three to four pages to such issues becomes a distraction - a barely useful way of spending precious little space. A counter-minimalist approach, one might say.
As a result, enough ends up between two chairs. It is neither the Hagakure of minimalist maxims nor the short-form self-help guide to aspects that
This was a very encouraging book, although it took me forever to read... too much to chew on, I suppose. Basically, going over what we already know: we have been sucked into a consumerism mindset that is overwhelming us on so many levels. Reset - learn to be grateful and content, learn to be discerning about what you do with your time, money, energy and emotions. Patrick Rhone spells out compelling reasons to do so, then follows it up by answering the eternal question: "Yes, but how?" Highly recommend.
I heard about Patrick Rhone through the Minimalism movie on Netflix. Rhone had a few narrative spots that demonstrated his insightful way of looking at the world. I appreciated this book for the questions that it asks, rather than the lecturing it could give. I also found it interesting that Rhone discloses that he wrote the book on his iPhone and iPad. Great to see him exploring how much tech is "enough" to write a book.
At its best 'Enough' is thought provoking and full of interesting practical advice. It can get a bit repetitive at times especially towards the end when the same points about social media and digital selves are rehashed over and over again.
Still, a good read and it left me with some interesting experiments to try out in my own life.
I like that the book made me think differently then I usually do. It made me more aware of how to spent my time constructively. Also, the book was very positive and encouraging on ways to change.
At times it felt a bit scattered; I think I may have enjoyed a more through-composed book on a single subject along these lines. Still, some really great thoughts to chew on.
Great intro to using minimalist tactics to organize the mind
I know it's more a general exploration,but to use the ideas to also affect thought process was rather shocking to me. Great read, short and sweet. Also dense. It was muffin then
An interesting read, although many of the topics covered in this book were not new to me and thus not as thought provoking as they could have been. The topic of enough still interests me and encourages me to think about me life, both personal and digital and I think that's healthy to reflect and understand more about how the world works and how you can find a sense of peace and calm in the midst of all the chaos presented in our society today. If that sounds interesting to you, why not give this short book a try?
Explanation for the rating. Although the topic is interesting and I think it is worth a read, the book itself, i. e. the language and style of writing and everything in between is not fantastic and for me it is hard to justify for me personally to give the book five stars. Three stars feels right to me, but that again doesn't mean that I didn't like it and that I don't recommend it, because I do.
This book has been on my TBR list for ages. I think maybe if I'd gotten ahold of it back in 2012, it might have made more impact. I've read a fair number of books about simplifying so many of these ideas weren't new. The essays are heavy on the technology side - lots about email, social media use, how we use our phones and other technology. There are some good ideas, there just wasn't much I haven't heard elsewhere. It also felt longer than it needed to be which says a lot for a book of fewer than 100 pages.
A concise collection of desperately needed and essential essays for living in these distracted and complicated times. Patrick Rhone is razor sharp with his prose... and even sharper with his insights.
Enjoyed the tech slimdown and simplification of wardrobe and career ideas - probably could have been consolidated even more. Otherwise, it was not really the minimal approach I have been focusing on. Still valuable takeaways.
Simple, easy to read yet engages the reader to think about their choices. It has the reader examine what is enough in their lives. Even if you are content with your situation, it's a good read to examine your home situation.
Finally got around to reading this and it surely did not disappoint. Wish I had read this sooner. Occasionally found Rhone's redundant phrasing mildly distracting. Already have my sights set on a few books from Further Reading.
This book contains a number of essays on attitude and mentality in general. There are many books on these topics and I did not feel that this book was particularly special. It did not add much to my knowledge.
I liked it very much, it's concise, helpful (gives actual tips on how to create or change some habits) and gives food for thought about the things we do and why we do them, about value, meaning and purpose.
It turned out to be a collection of essays as opposed to a chaptered book. I personally enjoyed reading each of them. Even though I have found most of his ideas from other books, I found a few ones that were fresh to me.
An easy to read compilation of articles, this is a nice criticism of consumerism and technology creating a divide between people. All his points resonate d with me.
I really felt that this book wasn't about the enough concept, it was more like why is important to know how and when to use technology, it told some other things, though.