Jason Seiden’s new book, “How to Self-Destruct: Making the least of what’s left of your career” easily gives the impression that its contents are edgy, unconventional, and utterly hilarious. The book lives up to its promise as Seiden lends his refreshing, brutally honest voice to the often dreary genre of career guides.
Since I tend to see myself as somewhat a non-conformist who questions everything, I thought “How to Self-Destruct” would be a mere affirmation of the things I believe in.
Boy, was I wrong. While many of the ideas in the book are very similar to my own thoughts about work and life, I was surprised that the book also brought to my attention some of my flawed reasoning, harsh judgements, and weaknesses. If you think you’ve got it made, this book gives you a wake up call and shows you the things you need to improve.
Jason Seiden has such a strong voice that reading his book makes you feel like he’s sitting in the room with you, talking those very words. (Or maybe I lack sleep and I’m just generally hearing voices.) It doesn’t take long for the average reader to realize that the book is intended to be sarcastic, and that if you want to avoid self-destruction, do the opposite of what he suggests. But, as you read on, you’ll realize that such a reading of the text is overly simplistic. It’s not just one large sarcas-tathon.
First of all, the book isn’t entirely tongue-in cheek. The sarcastic sections are visually separated from the straightforward sections which are entitled “Surefire Masochistic Alternatives for Rookie Success Seekers”. The latter is printed with a light red background, which Seiden refers to as “the color of pending doom”.
Secondly, this book tackles everything from your career to your relationships and even money. What I especially like is his non-institutionalist approach to education:
“True learning occurs independent of, and sometimes inspite of, the work done in pursuit of a degree. Learning happens any time you embrace your incompetence as a challenge to learn new skills.”
Source: “How to Self-Destruct” by Jason Seiden
This passage especially reminds me of my own education, where I dropped out of arguably the ideal university in the country to go to a no-name college. Why? Because I didn’t know how to draw and wanted so badly to learn, and the top art insitutions require rigorous talent tests that obviously don’t accept stick figures. (Which I don’t get - if students are already skilled at something, how much do you expect to instruct them?)
What I love most about the book is that reading it requires you to question what you know and challenge the status quo. Even if I’m really happy with my life and my work, reading this book has allowed me to reevaluate my perspective on some things, and to find room for improvement (there’s always room for improvement, no matter how happy or well-adjusted you think you are).
Overall, I highly advocate Jason Seiden’s “How to Self-Destruct”, especially for fresh college graduates. But even experienced professionals can learn so much from Seiden’s book. I know I did.
However, there are two things each reader must possess to fully take advantage of this book: the ability to think for oneself, and a sense of humor.
If you want a sneak peek of the book, click here to go to the website and read some excerpts.
(Or, you know, in the spirit of the book’s style, don’t read it. Doing so causes introspection, and why would you want to do that? Your time is superior spent Twittering about your day anyway.)
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