Book notes: Die With Zero by Bill Perkins
Rating: 3/5
This is a book about thriving and not just surviving. Not about making your money grow but making your life grow. The premise of the author is that the business of life is the acquisition of memories. Therefore, you should organize your life around that goal and the experiences that will produce those memories.
The kind of experiences you have throughout your life depend on several factors and your foresight to plan accordingly:
- your health and life energy
- your ability to afford them
- being aware of the upsides and downsides of certain decisions according to your life's stage (i.e., maximize the upside and minimize the downside whenever you can)
- overcoming your fears
The book makes a good point on reflecting on the finitude of life. We are all going to die, and we won't be always at our peak performance. So be intentional about your life. However, life is not just about creating meaningful memories and organizing everything around it. Especially when most of the "experiences" the author mentions come from Hollywood-like scripts. (Like the author relating his mental struggles on deciding to celebrate his 45th birthday with a week-long party on an exclusive island, paying for the traveling and lodging expenses of most of the guests.)
Memories and experiences are important, but not the only purpose of life. How about positively influencing others? How about situations when you have little control of the outcome? Or the transcendence your life has even after you are dead? What about changing things for the better?
If, as the author also says, there are many variables outside your control in achieving "success", does it make sense to base your decisions in extensive calculations about what your health will be in the future and how much money you'll have left in the bank?
I read this book because I saw it recommended by several people I follow, and had good reviews. I got a few insights but overall, but didn't like it very much. My recommendation is to complement it with Viktor Frankl's A Man's Search for Meaning.