Comments on: Review: Do the Work

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 24 May 2011 12:01:22 +0000

I think deRuiter’s stopped even trying to make sense. But I want to address one point from her(?) post, because I think it’s important: “Brave” and “stupid” are not opposites. A person can be both brave and stupid, and indeed many people are.

By: AnnJo

AnnJo — Tue, 24 May 2011 03:09:59 +0000

deRuiter, I believe Pressfield meant that statement ironically, not literally. At least, that’s the way I took it on first reading.

By: ejw

ejw — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:03:58 +0000

And don’t forget the the other obstacle that Lindbergh faced, keeping your other family secret for over 30 years while being considered a hero.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:05:09 +0000

How on earth did Charles Lindbergh “fight” for anything? He prepared well for his flight across the Atlantic, but it was essentially a stunt, which didn’t change anything for anybody other than himself.

He certainly didn’t “fight” for freedom–he was perhaps the loudest voice in the USA in favor of aappeasing and accomodating Hitler. After he thus managed to shred his reputation, he spent the rest of his life living peacefully in Hawaii, enjoying the money his wife Anne made through her writing, and having no impact on anybody.

By: getagrip

getagrip — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:55:54 +0000

You can read the whole “book” via the link to Amazon.

The idea in the book of being “stupid” is that you aren’t thinking, analyizing to the Nth degree, trying to scope out every angle before you begin. His recommendation is start, get rolling, get doing, and things will open up for you as you’re moving forward.

Don’t know that I’d call it being “stupid” or that I completely agree with that idea but that’s the point I took from what he said. I’ve seen it both ways, people who start something, get it rolling only to have it grow so out of control they lose hold of it and things crash spectacularly. On the other hand I also see folks forever “planning” their novel, their home business, their next project, yet never getting started in doing the actual work that will produce the product.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:29:22 +0000

“The three dumbest guys I can think of: Charles Lindbergh, Steve Jobs, Winston Churchill. Why? Because any smart person who understood how impossibly arduous were the tasks they had set themselves would have pulled the plug before he even began.” No, Lindbergh and Churchill were brilliant, BRAVE men who courageously faced obstacles which were enormous. So did all the soldiers who fought, on both sides, in World War II. They were all amazing men, and some women, who faced death, enormous odds, and fought for what they knew was right. Pressfield calls them “dumb” because he is a product of our feminized society which turns a blind eye to danger which threatens us and thinks that by “dialog” we can keep people from killing us. Freedom has been bought for us in the blood of soldiers, warriors, not by Liberals or feminists. Dithering around about a “peace process” for tiny Israel with its handful of Jews when Israel is surrounded by a huge majority of Muslims whose only plan is to anihilate Israel and kill every Jew in the world is a characteristic of a feminized society. The Muslim society, by the way, is a masculine society. Sympathizing with the perpetrator of a savage crime is another sign of our feminized culture, worrying “why” he murdered, raped, tortured innocents, while losing sight of the victims, that is a sign of our feminized society. Steve Jobs, he is not in the same league as Lindbergh and Churchill. Steve Jobs is creative, a visionary, a hard worker, but there was is no bravery involved in a computer company. The Facebook Crew, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mr. Dell, smart men, visionaries perhaps, but brave, no, not brave like soldiers, not like Churchill, not like Lindbergh.