WIJFR: The Nerdist Way

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As a lifelong member of “The Nerd Herd,” as he calls it, Chris Hardwick has learned all there is to know about Nerds. Developing a system, blog, and podcasts, Hardwick shares hard-earned wisdom about turning seeming weakness into world-dominating strengths in the hilarious self-help book, The Nerdist Way.

From keeping their heart rate below hummingbird levels to managing the avalanche of sadness that is their in-boxes; from becoming evil geniuses to attracting wealth by turning down work, Hardwick reveals the secrets that can help readers achieve their goals by tapping into their true nerdtastic selves.

Chris Hardwick’s self-help book for nerds, “The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)” was my latest read.

Meh. I like Hardwick’s comedy and enjoy his Nerdist podcast (and TV show) and while the book is a funny (and relatively quick) read, I guess the self-help theme of it didn’t really appeal (or apply) to me.

The book is divided into three sections: Mind, Body, and Time.

In the first section (Mind), Chris suggests you “RPG your life” which involves starting a Character Tome (notebook) in which you write up your own personal characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, skills, etc. as if you were a Dungeons & Dragons character. The rest of the book builds on this, assigning experience points for achieving goals, completing tasks, etc. While the other concept of “hacking your brain” to change your way of thinking about things was interesting, at my age I’m not going to create a D&D-like diary for tracking my life and career progress.

The Body section I just quickly skimmed through as it involved exercise, diet, and getting a nerd’s body into shape, something I did on my own a few years ago.

Finally, the Time section is mostly about organization and time management, something else I am already particularly anal about. For example, Chris suggests getting one’s finances in order by using banking software or online services like Mint and also implementing the bytes-to-bits method (scan and shred) for managing your paper files (bills, bank statements, important documents, etc.). I’ve been doing both of those things since ’95 and thus didn’t find this last part very interesting or applicable (other than to pat myself on the back and say “good job!”). The best part of this section, though, was Doc Brown’s letter to Marty McFly (comedy gold)!

Oh, and how’s this for irony in terms of goal-setting and achievement?  The book came out last November and yet the related website referred to several times in the text (nerdistway.com) still says “full site coming soon!” 😮

All that being said, I liked Hardwick’s writing style, personal backstory and anecdotes, and nerdy references so if you’re a nerd you will probably enjoy “The Nerdist Way” even if you’re not looking to make any major life changes.

Enjoy your burrito.

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