We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider

I heard a chapter of this book in Tim Ferriss website (who’s also a producer), and really enjoyed it. Given the free chapter, I believed book had a more productivity/self-help/improvement angle… and I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

Tim Kreider is your cooler hipster friend that you openly judge — and are equally fascinated by — because he can’t enjoy a normal live. And at the same time you secretly envy him, since you’re aware he sees through your normalcy as well.

The book is a series of essays/stories with a minimal thread of relation to each other. Not all of them captured my attention equally — I abandoned the book a few times for a week or so. But it never was about quality of the story, in many cases it was an overload of sincerity that made me cringe because how close it resonated. You might not agree with his opinions and choices, but his ability to share his thoughts and emotions make it imposible not to relate somehow every few pages.

And this is where I enjoyed the book the most. It’s one of the best written books I’ve read. At least it’s the book I’ve said to myself the most times: I wish I’ve written this.

If you enjoy hearing the stories of a friend who’s life is (and has always been) a mess over a few drinks — and concede s/he does make some good points, I highly recommend this book.

non-fiction essays memoir