Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive

Top positive review

Excellently Portrayed Real life application

Reviewed in Australia on 20 December 2020

I loved this book, and what it stands for. Your own improvement. This provides some wonderful tools based off solid research. I will be applying these in my life tomorrow and every day after. I really appreciated the appendix where he provides his own experience with the tools and how he used them.
Excellent book :)

Top critical review

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Gaspard Marsala

Anecdotal over Practical

Reviewed in Australia on 10 May 2016

I wish the author had spent more time outlining strategies and giving some practically advice - it's in there (sort of) however the books structure is confusing anecdotal stories are abruptly cut and reappear after another anecdote.

2 people found this helpful

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Surbhi Maheshwari

Not as expected from Charles Dughigg.

Reviewed in India on 13 February 2019

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Its a good book for a starter in the field of productivity but it lacks the depth and eye-opening insights as compared to authors pervious book.

Abhishek

Just enough smart. Just enough fast. Just good enough

Reviewed in India on 6 September 2018

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Nothing compared to his previous book Habit. The book tells you lots of stories but less insights and take aways. Could have been much more action oriented.

Vaibhav

Nice book

Reviewed in India on 9 February 2018

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There were overarching stories and seemingly no summarised theme, I liked the prose and got some insights but would probably require re-read

Amazon Customer

Good but not great

Reviewed in India on 2 September 2019

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This book like other Charles books is full of interesting stories. Although I would not say it's a great book.

sporksmom

Dirty

Reviewed in Canada on 8 June 2020

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Haven't had a chance to read yet. But, the book was very dirty when it arrived. Black specks all over it.

Amazon Customer

Three Stars

Reviewed in Canada on 16 April 2017

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I expeced a bit more from it.

Mady

Well not my style of reading

Reviewed in Canada on 29 August 2016

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It base on case study, not my style of reading, for me it is very boring to read.

Tiffany Liew

Three Stars

Reviewed in Canada on 31 October 2017

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The book Came ripped on the front

William Jordan

Interesting narratives focused on themes related to productivity

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 April 2016

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Duhigg gives us a set of stories about people who have been very productive in various ways and some tips: motivation is about feeling in control, teams work best in a safe space where people have equal time to talk; a mental model can be very helpful if you are flying a plane in severe distress; goal setting should be a mix of stretch goals and SMART actions; managing others works well when you can devolve power to the front line (as in a car factory); decision-making should involve open-mindedness and an understanding of probability; innovation is a bit hard to pin down (no real useful take-aways from the chapter for me); and to get good results (in school or in debt collecting) the key is to experiment and to work with data to understand what experiments have worked.

All this is persuasively written. I'm not sure how far it would go to solve the problem Duhigg says he started with, of not having enough time to fit everything in. But clearly Duhigg thought about this himself (or his editor did, he tells us) and in some ways the most interesting chapter in the book is the last one on applying these ideas. It's persuasive on decision-making, focus and goals - and even motivation to a degree. Less so on the other themes of the book, where the final chapter give you 'how to' advice, rather than worked examples from Duhigg's own life.

I felt overall I learned something from this book. The narratives are all eye-catching and the notes convince you that Duhigg has done his homework on the stories. That said, you might do better to read, say Philip Tetlock's book on super forecasting rather than the chapter here on decision-taking. And I dare say the same is true for some of the other themes of the book. And doubts persist about how far it all fits together as a single coherent study of productivity. It did hold my attention, though, and it is thought-provoking.

18 people found this helpful

David C.

Reviewed in Brazil on 19 May 2016

Verified Purchase

Not as engaging as The Power of Habits. Seems like a collection of insights arranged in a not-so-tight bundle. Good, especially if you're new to articles about productivity.

2 people found this helpful

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