Comments on: Review: Margin

By: Tedrick

Tedrick — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:56:08 +0000

If interested in a deeper treatment of Christianity and relativism/pluralism, consider reading and reviewing Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who is There.

In this book, Schaeffer illustrates the differences between relativism/pluralism and historic Christianity. The parting of the ways occurred when people lose sight of antithesis – what is a is a, what is b is b — non-a can not be a – ect –

In 2008 we live in a society where the only tolerable intolerance is discrimination against Christians, there is only a short window of opportunity to make note of this before being forcibly silenced by anti-Christian persecutors.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:14:12 +0000

I have been looking forward to your review of Margin. It has been on my permanent bookshelf for sometime. Looking forward to putting your book beside it in the future.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:07:46 +0000

I’m curious if you delved into the author’s other book The Overload Syndrome? Some of the Amazon reviews say the books are very similar, but they might have preferred Overload slightly.

Kudos to you for being religiously sensitive; Boo to those that think you need to rethink your devotion to your faith.

Amusing that the comments (yes, mine as well!) have less to do with the book and more to do with how people misinterpreted you being sensitive to your readers.

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:12:26 +0000

Hi, Trent. I am so glad I stumbled across this Web site. I am so excited to read “Margin” I can barely wait. I also am planning to try to be a stay-at-home dad and continue my freelance writing business on the side. I think I need one year to prepare. I’d love to read more posts about this part of your life and perhaps the unexpected challenges and benefits you experience.

By: Wondered

Wondered — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:37:08 +0000

I wondered about your jump into writing fulltime.
I also find it amazing that a book convinced you to do it, you had talked about it over time, next thing I read you are throwing your job out the window. I wish you nothing but luck and happiness in your new adventure, but wondered where it came from. Now I know.

By: Phil A

Phil A — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:46:29 +0000

I agree with the philosophies contained within this book of wisdom. I am a big believer in free time. Time devoted to relaxation and to doing things I enjoy like watching movies. I need 4 hours of free time during the work week and 10 hours of free time on each day of the weekend. This allows me to enjoy life.

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:50:19 +0000

One thing that people forget is there are always underlying assumptions behind anything that anybody says. When you gather all those assumption together, you should be able to work out a systematic world view (or as I like to use an older term, cosmology).
The problem is that most people are very unaware of their world view, or at worst, their world view is fragmented and/or inconsistant.
Some have commented that religion can not stand on it’s own, but I suspect that they have not questioned their own world view enough to see how much of what they believe can not stand on its own. Take mathimatics/logic for example. While a great tool, it can not stand on its own, and it is a base line for all thought and reason. When it comes down to it, math/logic are what is called a ‘brute fact.’ Another way of saying it, math and logic just ARE. When you deal with brute facts you are in the relm of faith. We can work with math and logic, and know their rules, but we do not know why they are, they just exist.
I am a Christian, but I would not hesitate to read an openly Atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. book on any subject. If what they say is true, then it is good for the goose and the gander. A Pagan can say it is good to save your money. Just because he is a Pagan doesn’t mean what he says it automaticlly foolish.
I guess my point is that we all have world views, even some one who denys they have a world view has one. Those world views dictate how we think and what smart and stupid things will come out of our mouths. We all need to be aware of our assumptions. I would rather have a writer have his world view on his sleves so to speak.
At any rate, after I read the review I ordered the book for my future wife. She tends to over plan her time a lot.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:33:38 +0000

Norman Miller: Only bad philosophy stands on its own, unrelated to anything at all, and purely abstract to disguise its errors. Good philosophy can’t help but bring in other subjects, especially concrete ones where ideas are tested.

By: Char

Char — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:11:55 +0000

Trent,
As a Christian I am grateful to you for the disclaimer, in my case it will make me run faster to the library to get it but I particularly enjoy others who respect other people’s backgrounds. As far as those who criticize that you are not being true to your beliefs I think you will lead more people to the book with your disclaimer and then they can make their own decisions. I have read books written by authors of other faiths and have enjoyed their wisdom at great length but I am always grateful for the “heads up” You do a great job with this blog and thank you for a wonderful review!

By: Ro

Ro — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:22:22 +0000

We are doing a study on this in our Sunday School class. When you posted your daily schedule the other day one of my thoughts was that you are not creating enough margin in your life. Then I immediately thought that I was spending too much time on the computer and need to get my own life and not judge others! :)

I do think it’s a good book.

By: acehbee

acehbee — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:04:34 +0000

On the discussion of Christianity, while I feel that Trent shouldn’t hold back on reviewing more Christian based personal finance book, I think he did a great job in reaching to his readers. Whether I agree with other commentors or not is not the issue, but I think as christian, I think we need to show we care, not trying to judge other people. I don’t know where Trent or other christian reader stands on a lot of the issue, whether they are “good christian” or not, because I know there are sins in our lives that we need to fix ourselves.

Trent, thank you for the review. I actually found an older edition of Margin on paperbackswap and has ordered it. Hopefully I will get it soon and start reading it and put it back out to paperbackswap again for others benefit.

By: jake

jake — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:52:21 +0000

@Rolltimer (comment #8)

I use to think the same way until I step outside and met the world. I realized that people do not share my views, and in some case they do not want anything to do with it.

I’ve met people that at the mere mention of any religious affiliation they would stop me in my tracks and tell me that I better not be heading where they think I am heading.

Trent is respecting people of other backgrounds not turning against his faith. Something, you yourself need to do.

By: reulte

reulte — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:33:02 +0000

Andy (comment 1) I think everything comes down to cutting something out of one’s life; the point is to make a conscious choise of what to cut out. How does the saying go? “You can have anything, you just can’t have everything.”

Kathy (comment 5) & Rolltimer (comment 8) I suspect the disclaimers are there because not everyone who reads this review will have read what Trent wrote earlier. Further Zen Habits doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is; some Christian books do — I recently read “What Every MOM Needs” which even claims in the Introduction, “This book is written to ‘every’ mother … whatever your heritage or faith” (pg 16) then starts quoting biblical verse as the answer to problems. I threw the book across the room when I came across some line that read (and I’m not quoting this) … when you’re really stressed out turn to [Bible verse #) for the answer. As if — when the dog is throwing up some plastic toy he’s eaten, the cat is bringing a live, wounded bird into the house, my boy is crying because he’s hungry and I’ve just stepped on a Leggo while holding a basket of laundry — I’m going to drop everything else, sit down and read my Bible! Sure, the book had useful things information to impart, most books do. But the attitude of the writers as ‘Christianity is the answer for everything’ left a bad taste on my metaphorical literary taste buds.

‘Margin’ does look like an excellent book and I will put it on my PaperBackSwap wishlist hoping that everyone who reads it doesn’t give it a place on their permanent bookshelves.

By: cendare

cendare — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:15:08 +0000

Hey Trent, I already commented above, but I forgot to say that your disclaimers are exactly *why* I enjoyed the review. Any review of a book with a strong religious slant needs to say so up front, and then it’s up to the readers to decide whether to read on. If you do review other religion/finance books (or religion/time management, or whatever), I hope you do it the same way.

By: Norman MIller

Norman MIller — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:07:01 +0000

Religion is a peculiar subject in that for some reason it can never stand on its own, apart from another subject.

Philosophy can stand all by itself, so can ethics. You don’t need religion to understand either subject.

I suspect, based on the review, this book could have been written, without the religious remblings and that would have made it shorter.

As I don’t have as much time as I would like to read, I’ll be skipping this book.

By: clevelis

clevelis — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:56:51 +0000

Hi Trent, Awesome review. I’m adding this to my list to read and sharing it with my fam/friends.

At 28, I am trying to live an intensional life. By that I mean that I am seeking to live the life of purpose and faith.

On other book to check out is “The Shack” by William Young. It is well worth the read; probably not for the SD but just for you.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:32:44 +0000

Trent, you might enjoy reading a good Thomist book on leisure.

By: The Financial Philosopher

The Financial Philosopher — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:19:06 +0000

If the thoughts are wise and useful, the delivery (Christian in this case) should not matter. Some of the greatest thinkers of all time spoke openly for or against religous faith. It would be foolish to discount their wisdom for their personal beliefs…

Thanks for the post…

“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

By: Trent

Trent — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:08:24 +0000

Rolltimer, your perspective on evangelism is why agnostics and members of other faiths are rejecting Christianity.

By: FMF

FMF — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:44:51 +0000

This is an excellent, excellent book. I HIGHLY recommend it. It changed my life (for the better) and will do the same for almost everyone who reads and applies it.

Can you tell that I liked it? ;-)