The Good-Enough Life

by Avram Alpert

How an acceptance of our limitations can lead to a more fulfilling life and a more harmonious society

We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. This book explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible―a good-enough life for all.

Avram Alpert shows how our obsession with greatness results in stress and anxiety, damage to our relationships, widespread political and economic inequality, and destruction of the natural world. He describes how to move beyond greatness to create a society in which everyone flourishes. By competing less with each other, each of us can find renewed meaning and purpose, have our material and emotional needs met, and begin to lead more leisurely lives. Alpert makes no false utopian promises, however. Life can never be more than good enough because there will always be accidents and tragedies beyond our control, which is why we must stop dividing the world into winners and losers and ensure that there is a fair share of decency and sufficiency to go around.

Visionary and provocative, The Good-Enough Life demonstrates how we can work together to cultivate a good-enough life for all instead of tearing ourselves apart in a race to the top of the social pyramid.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Audiobook, Sociology, Politics

336 pages, Hardcover

Published April 19, 2022

About the author

I am a generalist in the humanities. I work to understand what values we should live by in our connected, chaotic, and potentially catastrophic times. I am currently completing two nonfiction books and two novels. I am a Lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program

Reviews

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب به طرز جالب و شیرینی و تقریبا معقولانه‌ای سعی در ایجاد ذهنیت و داشتن یک زندگی کافی و فاضلانه و عاقلانه برای انسان‌ها دارد . گرچه با بخش‌هایی بسیار موافق بودم ولی گاهی کتاب باگ‌هایی داشتن؛ که نمیشد آن‌ها را نادیده گرفت.
هدف نویسنده این بود که بقبولاند درست است که ما کامل نیستم ولی حداقل می‌توانی در این جهت قدم برداریم.

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd read:
I had the pleasure of interviewing Avram on my podcast when this book first came out. I loved it so much that I wanted to give it another read, and it still holds up. This book is so well written, and although Avram is humble enough to take his theory from the book and apply it to his own life by saying he got lucky enough to write this book, I still don’t know if someone could have put these thoughts into words in the way he does.

This book is about how our drive for being “the best” along with the competitive nature of capitalism leaves a lot of people behind and is also killing the planet. This book isn’t necessarily about settling, but it’s about shifting our worldview so we don’t leave people behind and that we start thinking about how we can create a more equal society.

I’m probably going to continue reading this book once a year, and I plan on reading it with my son soon because it has so many important lessons in it.


1st read:
This quickly became one of my favorite books of 2022, and I can’t stress enough how important this book is. Avram Alpert shines a line on the fact that we’ve created a culture where we’re constantly striving for greatness in all aspects of our lives, and this causing us a lot of harm. Personally, I was miserable for most of my life until I realized that it’s alright for things to just be “good enough”, and since then, I’ve never been happier and more content. Avram dives into various topics like relationships, careers, financial well-being, and much more while explaining how seeking greatness is only causing us harm. By no means is this a self-help book, but it’ll shift the way you view your wants and needs, which will most likely make you a lot happier.

And just when I thought Avram had provided enough value and wisdom in this book, the final chapters go into how greatness is hurting our society and our planet. The constant competition and maxmimalization of everything is keeping people at the bottom and reducing their chances of ever succeeding. Alpert discusses how this idea of “greatness” undervalues many people in our societies and how we’d be a lot better off if people could just be “good enough”.

This is a must-read book, and I’ll most likely be reading it again in the future.

[Illiterate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well-meaning but lightweight. Best enjoyed by over-ambitious under-achievers.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the philosophy of this book. I feel incredibly inspired by the concept of having a life of sufficiency and decency. The book ultimately felt a bit too long and repetitive for me. This might be because I was bought in to the idea from the beginning so I didn't need so much convincing.

[Alicja · Rating 2 out of 5]

... Well what a disappointment. I loved the idea, I do believe myself that instead of constantly trying to reach something great we should be as well happy with what we already have, our good-enough lives. However, I don't need to read the same things over and over. I swear that I read a few pages and then when I opened the book randomly - I read a very similar sentences again. It could have been a way shorter book.
Honestly, wouldn't recommend.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important book, but surely a controversial one. His ideas will open your eyes and maybe maybe frustrate you as you try to reconcile your beliefs with the unfortunate truth. He almost always go against the grain of the status quo. He makes you think hard about the point of charity , about the illogic of meritocracy (i.e., in. a true meritocracy all children would need to be separated from parents at birth and raised with same resources), and about the motivations of seemingly benevolent philanthropists like Gates (his investments are done to solidify western hegemony) among many other commonly and closely held truths.

However, he does this all to to open our eyes to what a post-capitalism more egalitarian society would look like. Essentially, his argument is: Surely, we will never be perfect but we can do better than this.

For that, this is a very important book because he shows just how much better things could be with marginal improvements. Its important to note that this is not a book that explains how to achieve improvements. He states that in the book and this has been missed by other readers. He's not offering concrete solutions here because as he states there are other much more qualified writers that have done that and this book would have been 100x longer.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm finding this book dry and a bit of a slog, and it isn't doing much for me, so I won't be finishing it. At the same time that I think I generally agree with the thesis, I am finding the way it is presented rather abstract and difficult to connect with.

[Maher Razouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

المفارقة الأساسية لحالتنا الحالية:
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هناك الكثير ، ولكن ليس هناك ما يكفي . نحن نعيش وسط وفرة وقدرة إنتاجية غير مسبوقة ، ومع ذلك فإن المليارات من البشر تعاني من قلة الملابس والطعام والاهتمام . وهكذا ، في عالم تبلغ ثروته مجتمعة 399.2 تريليون دولار ، لا يزال أكثر من 3.4 مليار شخص يعيشون على أقل من 5.50 دولارًا في اليوم ، بينما يموت 34.5 مليون شخص سنويًا بسبب نقص الرعاية الصحية الملائمة ، ويموت حوالي 9 ملايين شخص بسبب نقص الغذاء . في الوقت نفسه ، تقوم الآلات بالمزيد من العمل الضروري للحفاظ على الحياة أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك ليس لدينا سوى القليل من وقت الفراغ. هناك أناس على قيد الحياة الآن أكثر من أي وقت مضى ، ومع ذلك فإن الكثير منا مازال وحيدًا.

نحن نستفيد من قرون من الحكمة والتقدم العلمي لتعزيز السعادة ، ومع ذلك فإننا مثقلون بالقلق والاكتئاب. في الواقع ، لا يرتفع عدد الأشخاص المصابين بالاكتئاب فحسب ، بل يرتفع أيضًا متوسط ​​عدد السنوات التي يُبلغ فيها الأشخاص عن شعورهم بالاكتئاب. القلق والإرهاق آخذان في الازدياد. لدينا القدرة على الذهاب إلى جميع أنحاء الأرض ، إلى أعماق المحيطات ، وحتى إلى الفضاء ، ومع ذلك فإن وسائل الاستكشاف هذه تستنزف استدامة كوكبنا الأصلي. كل عام نستهلك ضعف ما تستطيع الأرض أن تجدّده سنوياً.
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Avram Alpert
The Good Enough Life
Translated By #Maher_Razouk

[Wiebke (1book1review) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this thinking it would be a self-help personal improvement story to lighten up on life and reduce stress.
Obviously anyone reading synopses will know that's not it. It was super interesting though although it is completely confirming things I believe in anyway, and echoed studies and such I had heard of before.
The thing I always find depressing about books like these is that the people who would need this information won't read it or be open to its ideas.
Still worthwhile read and a good audiobook.

[Yan Castaldo · Rating 3 out of 5]

the ideas here are *good enough* (hahahah) but lordy the tangents this fella flies off on are taxing to say the least

[Alex I · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 would be my rating

It's a good book that explores the ethical framework of what it would mean to truly embrace a "good enough" life for everyone. How it would reflect in our personal and communal lives as well as work and planet wise.

While I was of a similar mindset coming into this book it still helped me appreciate and examine how the "greatness" mindset still affected me. Also, I took away from this book the ideas that it's not about a personal journey but the need to work towards creating a world like this for everyone. Moreover, it gave a strong feeling of appreciation that the "greats" aren't that great and it takes a social setting (so many different people) to actually contribute and create something. Everyone's contribution is needed, important, and good and it presents this argument convincingly. No one is great, just lots of people doing good enough things.

I appreciate the book for what it is and the perspective it provides. While this book does not go into depth in how to achieve this world, I did not need this from this book. This answer is for us to find out by working towards this goal.

This book lives up to the idea, it's good enough.

[Tim Daughters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this book is good enough. There are a lot of good ideas in this book. I particularly liked the chapter on good-enough relationships.

The author has some interesting ideas about how college admissions and government officials might be selected based on g00d-enough criteria. If they could be implemented, it would solve problems with the winner-take-all methods that we use now. The author also recognizes the difficulties in making these changes as a society.

The reading of the book is a little dry, though. It reads like a college term paper or thesis. About the last 20% of the book is devoted to footnotes.

Still, I'm glad I read it. It is quite thought provoking. As I am somewhat recently retired, I connected with the ideas of a good enough life. From time to time, I have a thought along the lines of, "I could make some money doing that." I have to keep reminding myself that I have enough money. That's why I retired.

[Karsten Szajner · Rating 2 out of 5]

As some others have said, great in concept but not so much in execution. This might have been due to agreeing with the concepts the book was pushing prior to starting. It was a bit repetitive and also hard to follow at times with references to writings of multiple other philosophers at once throughout.

As someone who hasn’t read many of the referenced writings it’s hard to be take anything away from the large swaths of the book dedicated to agreeing or disagreeing with others writings.

Would have enjoyed something shorter and a bit more to the point to suggest for others not familiar with the ideas addressed.

[Heather Hoyt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a book about individuals, but about society, and it recommends a type of egalitarianism where people just live good-enough life and reject greatness. Similar to Sandel's The Tyranny of Merit. The book draws on a wide variety of philosophers and other sources, without going too deeply into any debate. The evidence and arguments may be a bit too broad to be incredibly useful, which is a drawback to the book. But I particularly appreciated the moments when the author talked about his conversations with others, as he seemed like a mostly humble person who was still trying to learn.

[Teodora Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are few interesting points, however I feel that is a bit too academic for my taste. It was a pleasure to find this idea of being good enough (in line with my personal view) on a book when the society's greatness is always the front of the news. Elon Musk, Jeff Besos and the like are the role models of a society that doesn't believe in smelling the flowers blossoms and I find this very sad. However, the book was a true gem of good references to other books that I might want to read.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description above suggests this is a cringey self-help guide, which, thankfully, it is not. Instead, it's an examination of notions of greatness and good-enoughness in the thought of different philosophers and authors. It was an enjoyable read, though I can understand how some might feel frustrated with the payoff, or lack thereof.

[Erhardt Graeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greatness is a problem. As author Avram Alpert tells it, you can trace a lot of what is wrong in Western society to its obsession with greatness. We quickly discern hierarchies, trying to name the best idea, best technology, best group, best person. This cultural hang-up is a toxic ingredient in our individualism and relative misery, our poison politics, and our abuse of the planet. We desperately need some humility and willingness to embrace good-enough approaches to our lives, careers, and policies, so we can all flourish to some degree and have a chance at returning some balance to the Earth.

I found The Good-Enough Life to be an original and compelling argument deserving of our attention in this moment. It sits nicely alongside (and cites) other recent critiques that identify meritocracy as a key cause of our contemporary problems. Pulling not just from philosophy, but from history, sociology, psychology, and literature to make his argument, Alpert offers a very readable book, as far as philosophy goes.

I am particularly drawn to his argument that we lost the value of humility. Here Alpert looks to Aristotelian virtue ethics as a guide, since each virtue is defined as a mean—a balance between vices. Too much unearned confidence is vicious, as is humility that abandons any agency. We want to find just enough humility to take action on what we know, but be mindful of what we don't know or can't do alone. Alpert cautions us here against fully embracing Aristotle's approach, since his classical definition of virtue is meant to differentiate great men. Magnanimous (great-souled) men, exuding virtue, were better than other men and should be idolized. Its a fine thing to strive for virtue, but we mustn't abandon dignity for all. Once again, humans seem only to eager to find reasons to treat someone as lesser and to believe they deserve their lesser status.

Its hard to imagine a good-enough policy solution from this book. Alpert is careful not to say we must throw off capitalism and embrace socialism. Closely reading both Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek, Alpert lays out pros and cons illustrated by history (and overconfidence) where each economic system has fallen undemocratically flat. I agree that what we need to do is aim for more democracy. Greatness chips away at egalitarianism, at equal rights. We need approaches that return us to more equal circumstances. That's what good-enoughness offers us in Alpert's view. Its what the social contract is meant to ensure; we each give up some of our greatness to ensure no one is poor and unprotected.

The book lacks the call to action that similar books might have in specific policy recommendations or ways to reorient your personal behavior and mindset. But I suppose when your main argument is about eschewing greatness and embracing more humility, your prescriptions should be modest.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and recommend it.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the thorough and earnest presentation of his arguments. I had originally wanted the book to explore the concept of something being good, and being enough. That is not where he went, shooting much higher and trying to change the attitude that collectively we have taken towards greatness. It's a laudable goal, but at the end of the day, I would have loved a chapter on the more personal steps to take that resonated stronger. Most of that expectation was on me and my needs, the book itself is valuable and I do recommend it. The bibliography will keep me going for ages...

[Yaaresse]

DNF at 22%.

For the love of all the gods, man, get to the point! ANY point! Whether it's good enough or not, life is too short for reading books that just aren't clicking.

Might be a good-enough life, but it's definitely not a good enough book.

[Simon Robs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm, a good enough generalized philosophy towards equal distribution of goods. services, opportunity, etc., which still smites & smells like socialism that wonderful space where everything is just-so equal EXCEPT for human nature which always musses things up and it's back to some forms of hierarchies; but we all like to believe that somehow, someday we'll get there. Wouldn't it be GREAT to be good-enough?!

[Kasandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A "good enough" book that is unnecessarily long. Totally agree with Alpert's premise/argument: we should be focused on getting away from a "greatness orientation" in society (worldwide) and instead find ways to make life "good enough" for the whole -- so everyone has sufficiency, dignity, and a voice/an equally valued chance to contribute. Super! But HOW? There's not much here about how, and I fear that as long as America (for starters) is divided and in thrall to a two-party system, in which both parties are flawed, corrupt, and run by the massively wealthy... well, I don't hold out much hope. A good read to potentially transform/clarify your thinking in relation to your career and/or artistic goals, but somewhat frustrating from an activist "how do we make this happen" perspective. Would have loved more focus on HOW and less on WHY.

[Matt Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly good enough book

I really enjoyed this book. As if to prove a point, Alpert has written a truly "good enough" book about a vision of the "good enough" life for all. It's a compelling idea, and the author makes a strong case for it. It cuts through many areas and disciples, from psychology, child development, sociology, to politics and environmentalism. Because it is so broad and ambitious in scope, I often felt that some sections lacked the appropriate depth. This is probably an innevitable feature of trying to illustrate the power and promise of "the good enough life" on so many levels. Despite these "imperfections" (on brand for the book's topic) I very much enjoyed the book

[Jayson Campeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkably easy concept to understand but difficult to make work in today’s society. Alpert presents the arguments that, if one has an open mind, one cannot really counter. We can make due with much less than we have in this world of ours. We need to learn to love ourselves and be satisfied with good. Good for me may mean good for you too. Great for me likely means fair to poor for you. It is such a simple idea. There is nothing of selling yourself short or settling in this philosophy. In fact, it is likely more work to see the good that simpler everyday day things have on the world than to prop up and support “greatness”. More good comes from many people doing a little bit of good that one person doing great. Bonus it feels pretty good too!

[Charit · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s an inspirational book for sure but the idea for a collective good-enough life for society, not just as self improvement, seems so improbable in the world we inhabit. Everyone seems to want more - a better house, a second house, a better holiday, higher raise at work, better, more accomplished kids. Even with the environmental destruction that this is causing, we can’t seem to look beyond our nose. To have empathy for the billions of people elsewhere in the world to try and get them to a good enough life, instead is unlikely. Still, a great start and the author does a good job at refuting all these kind of doubts with the idea and the higher purpose we need to aim for.

[Scott Buchanan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well-written but a little to utopian for my tastes. I agree with the author on the benefits of a good-enough life for all, but he doesn’t give many PRACTICAL ways to get there. (Returning to pre-Industrial Revolution societies isn’t really practical). His ideas make more sense as a personal philosophy than a way to organize society.
It’s still an interesting thought exercise and I’ll try to incorporate some of his ideas into my decisions and interactions with others.

[Ginna · Rating 4 out of 5]

After I got over the narrator’s voice, I really appreciated this book. The idea that will stick with me is that by eliminating the need to quest for greatness (instead of good-enoughness) as a goal, we can restore childhood.

[Sonya]

Some of the points in the book are stronger than others but overall like the message of the book and thought it was an easy read (non academic) and approaches the idea of over competition / “greatness” in all forms for a “good enough” life for all.

[Sarah Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be a self help book, there was a little of that in the beginning but it was mostly a large scale sociological argument for equality of resources. I think the author’s ideas are valid I just wasn’t really interested in theoretical governments or economical systems.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ideas and thorough, and he's probably right. It's also incredibly tangential, unapproachable because it sounds like a dissertation, and rigid. The author is ever-summarizing other people's work.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The choice is [between believing] that the narrative of life is a story of winners and losers, or that it is about the struggle to ensure decency and sufficiency for all.

Alpert argues in this book for a change in society's orientation from a "greatness" worldview to a "good-enough" perspective. Greatness is characterized by a constant striving for success, whether financial, social, artistic, athletic, relational, or any other realm, a desire to be at the top of a necessary hierarchy. It's about comparing, judging, rating, and ranking people. Some are always better than others. A good-enough orientation, on the other hand, sees us all as connected and interdependent and only successful together, not as individuals. It does not mean just barely sufficient; it means everyone gets at least a good life and all needs are met--decency and sufficiency; good plus enough.

Whatever combination of solutions we rely on, they should all be compatible with the idea that everyone deserves decency and sufficiency, and that no one merits more than others.

I love Alpert's ideas, some of the ways he articulates them, and how he applies the worldview across the board at the personal, communal, societal, and natural levels. I'm not convinced his names for the two orientations are effective and feel often he considers his ideas too vaguely and abstractly, having insular conversations with other philosophers and thinkers instead of with readers.

Overall, though, a really good--and important--book.