I’m a fan of business and self-help books. I like the idea of developing myself, of becoming better at what I do, of working more efficiently, knowing more, being happier.
Trouble is, I don’t have the time to read that I would like to have. I snatch minutes here, minutes there (and no, I don’t watch TV). But recently I stumbled across a great YouTube channel: Fight Mediocrity.
This guy is the animaniacs meets Cliff Notes of business and personal development book reviews. He takes an entire book and reduces it to the core concepts – complete with personal stories and explanations thrown in. So now I can speed-read (ok, watch) the classics in 10 minutes flat.
Yeah, you don’t get all the nifty tales and examples from the books. On the other hand you don’t need to spend hours upon hour reading. And his analyses are pretty spot on. I feel that I do get what the books are about from the short overviews and if I want more I can always get the book in question.
To sum it up: it’s fun, it’s accessible and it’s educational. One of those rare moments when what is good for you is also tasty. Go watch.
Here’s a sample:
11 comments
Paul Lambert
There are actually quite a few of these types of channels now. If you search for ‘animated book summaries’ on youtube you can find them. This is one of the better ones. https://youtu.be/8Q-3qwEDyPM
Filip Wiltgren
Yeah, they do fill a niche for the “quick tip” searchers.
General awareness
The program is VideoScribe. Here’s my first shot 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbg0Dp0xnUY
Adam
Wow that’s very interesting. I hope people create more content like this.
There’s this dude doing the same concept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbQ_jMfolvo
Filip Wiltgren
Yeah, It’s becomming popular to do animated book recaps.
Gayatri
Which software is used for the animations?
Filip Wiltgren
No idea, sorry. I just watch em, I don’t make em.
James Callen
I love FightMediocrity, There’s another dude using the same program to animate classics. https://youtu.be/eYNtUs-vKq0
Filip Wiltgren
Nice, wasn’t aware of that one, thanks.
Carl Klutzke
These sound like a great idea. I look forward to watching them.
Filip Wiltgren
Yepp, they’re a good use of time. Of course, some of them made me want to read the books as well so maybe they’re not so time efficient after all 😉