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Monday, July 21

"Get Sh*t Done!" by Niall Harbison - Book review

I've recently gotten back into reading, probably due to copious amounts of free time whilst I work only part-time. Instead of reaching for my usual trilogy of fantasy novels like Delirium or The Maze Runner series, I've gone for something different that caught my attention.
Although grossly unpopular amongst my friends, I wanted to purchase Niall Harbison's (of LovinDublin) new book, "Get Sh*t done".




I wasn't looking for a self-help book laden with bad language and fortunately that has not been the case. Having said that, my feelings about this book are mixed, and I think it would have greatly benefited from an extra few months of editing, as the whole book has a sense of been thrown together in a rushed manner, and although the content is mostly interesting, at about 200 pages in I began to notice repetition and even one or two contradictory statements with Harbison's earlier chapters.

I enjoy the website Lovindublin, but can understand why many really don't care to entertain it, with its harsh critique and "all or nothing" manner. But I do feel it has filled a kind of "yuppie" niche in the blogosphere. Moreover I have used it for restaurant advice and would heartily agree with many of the sites "Top Ten" lists.

Anyway, to be quite honest, I was curious about this Harbison guy, and why all my friends seem to groan and roll their eyes when I mention his work. So I picked up the book last week, and luckily too, because it is since out of stock.

Overall the book is an enjoyable enough read, with several interesting tips on creating a business, and many snippets into Niall's earlier life which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately though Harbison loses me with his use of sensational language. Everything is "the best", "the biggest", or "the most something", and although one might fall into his trap several times, it eventually it becomes a bit tiring and takes away from what he is trying to say, which could be perfectly valid, without the need for lavish language.

Another small thing I didn't like about this book is that Harbison uses few examples following an outlandish statement about the future of business, or success in business. He has done extremely well for himself no doubt, but he backs his guidelines up with maybe only one example from his previous experiences. In the few occasions that Harbison does uses other examples, he only likens to big companies such as Apple or Facebook. As much as I admire both these companies, I already know an awful lot about them, it would have been far more interesting if Harbison had used less obvious shall we say, examples.

In summary, the book is a quick read, it has some great personal anecdotes and is largely enjoyable. Although it lets itself down with its "thrown together" structure and overall lack of focus and reader consideration, leading me to believe that I probably would not purchase his next book.



*I haven't been able to find any other blog reviews on this book yet, but will post them here once I do.

2 comments:

  1. great blog your pics are unreal, are you on bloglovin? I'm @zaircantara

    ReplyDelete

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