12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos Paperback – May 2, 2019

Let me be clear from the start. I have a borderline passionate dislike for the vast majority of the self-help industry. Legions of self-anointed gurus promising miraculous changes to the reader's life if only s/he follows some simple set of prescribed rules leave me feeling cold and less-than-optimistic about the human race. A book called 12 Rules for Life superficially sounds like one of those lesser works and I frankly would most likely have avoided it had I not already been familiar with Dr. Peterson's Jungian analyses of mythological works which I have found quite interesting. As such, I eagerly picked up a copy of this work and was not at all disappointed.While it's true that this is a self-help book, it's entirely devoid of the "quick fix" solutions promised by the ethically-challenged majority of the self-help industry. Instead, it offers a rich psychological treatment of twelve simple (one might even say common-sense were it not for the fact that such wisdom seems anything but common these days) "rules." Nowhere does Peterson claim that he is possessed of any extraordinary wisdom or that his methods will be easy for anyone. On the contrary, he suggests that the application of his twelve rules, while emphatically not easy, is conducive to a more productive and fulfilled life. This is a justifiable claim.Let's take a moment to examine the twelve rules themselves, each of which is presented as the title of a chapter dedicated to its more detailed analysis:1) Stand up straight with your shoulders back2) Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping3) Make friends with people who want the best for you4) Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today5) Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them6) Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world7) Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)8) Tell the truth--or, at least, don't lie9) Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don't10) Be precise in your speech11) Do not bother children when they are skateboarding12) Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.If these seem simplistic, it's because they're meant to be. They're meant to be expressions of wisdom we'd all struggle to disagree with (which is perhaps why none of the critical reviews of this book actually take issue with the rules themselves), yet which many of us fail to live up to.The book is well-written and well-argued, making it a pleasure to read. Dr. Peterson's analysis is thorough yet informal and punctuated with plenty of anecdotes to make his psychological expertise more palatable to a lay audience. The result is a book that can be quickly and easily digested yet which has sufficient depth to withstand multiple readings. Far more difficult than reading the book will be the task of heeding its advice, but I can say from personal experience that Dr. Peterson's rules are important (if not essential) to psychological prosperity.Though the book does not dwell on the reasons why people seem to have forgotten the once-common wisdom contained within its pages, Dr. Peterson's mission does seem to be to correct an epidemic of psychologically unsound thought that has gripped the Western world in recent decades. I think other authors (Lukianoff and Haidt in The Coddling of the American Mind, for instance, and Hicks in Explaining Postmodernism) have done an admirable job of documenting the problem. This book, rather than discussing the problem, offers an individualistic solution that is arguably as important to societal health as it is to individual psychological well-being.Highly recommended. I'm already eagerly awaiting Dr. Peterson's upcoming follow-up book.

"Clean your room," has become a mantra for a generation of lost kids who finally found a male figure in the culture to look up to. Jordan B. Peterson has become something of a Millennial Messiah in the most unusual way. He's telling people to take on responsibility and to blame only themselves if their life isn't the way they want it. This book is a condensed version of his tome "Maps of Meaning", a much longer philosophical tract on how the myths and stories humanity passed down over the centuries influence our values.It's obvious that the last generation's drive to give out participation trophies and to tell everyone that the evil system is to blame for all your ills (think of the hippies going against "the man") no longer resonates. Millennials and younger people today are under a lot of pressure. They're deep in student loan debt, they're having trouble finding jobs that pay well, they're getting married and owning homes at lower rates because they're not secure enough financially to settle down. This could make you feel deeply powerless if you were trying to blame the system. Just look on TV at every late night host talking about how hopeless and stupid our country is right now. Jordan Peterson comes with a different message- start by cleaning your own personal room. Stop blaming other people, and get your own life in order. You can't expect to see change in the world, unless you first change yourself.Rule 1 is a great example. The basic gist is to stand up straight and face the world with your head held high- literally, not just metaphorically. Famously, Peterson looks at lobsters. Lobsters have a dominance hierarchy where they constantly fight. When a lobster loses a fight, it skulks around and lowers itself to become smaller and less threatening. If you give the lobster a drug to fix its serotonin levels- the same rewards system present in most every animal brain- the lobsters picks itself back up and goes right back to fighting. Human evolution diverged from the lobster millions of years ago, and yet we can see that even they have dominance hierarchies and societal struggle and depression. It is therefore ludicrous to think that human suffering is only a "social construct" as today's academics would have you believe. These feelings are naturally built-in to our nervous system. If we want to feel better we need to pick ourselves up and "get some pep in our step" as a previous generation might have said.The whole book is like that. A blend of science, folksy wisdom, and tales from Peterson's own life and career. From working as a dish washer to a lumber mill worker to a clinical psychologist, Peterson has seen all of humanity. His conclusions are profound, yet immediately relatable. He covers the topics at all levels of analysis- from philosophy, to statistics, to evolution, to straight up humor.Peterson's critics are having a hilariously hard time trying to downplay this book. In a famous interview, a BBC host asked Peterson if he was suggesting that we should structure our society like that of the lobster. If you're that philosophically inept or that malicious trying to slam this guy, then enjoy your life, there's little I can do to try and hold a conversation with you. In case anyone's confused- nobody's saying we should structure our society like the lobster. There's an ancient philosophical debate about "is" versus "ought". Peterson wrote this book about how the world is. The human nervous system is made in such a way that depressive factors snowball until it's hard to dig yourself out, so feelings like resentment only make things worse. This says nothing about ought- nobody's saying that we're happy the human nervous system ought to be this way nor is anyone saying that societal progress ought to revert to some crude pre-historic state. The "is" and "ought" are two different topics. If you want to lead a better life in the world that is, read this book. If you'd rather fret about what ought to be, have fun with that.If you can manage to keep those concepts straight, this book's for you. Especially if you are- or are close to- a young male in the millennial group who's struggling to face the society we find ourselves in today, this book is for you. The book reads well for any person, but the millennial male group are most powerfully affected by Peterson's work for obvious reasons. Young men have biological drives toward duty and responsibility that currently aren't fulfilled in their school, home, or professional lives. Anyone can benefit from this book- so the fact that one group needs it most should tell you something. This book is powerful, timely, and profound. Give it a read.