I suckered some friends into reading this one with me. And I kinda wish I hadn’t.

I mean, there’s good stuff. I like Brené Brown okay, but I don’t know much about here and now that I’m reading this book I think maybe I like her better as a few random quotes or a podcast snippet than as a whole book. Or maybe I have already heard too much about this book, so the learning (and thus, most of the delight and satisfaction) from reading it are kind of… not present.

Also, it’s written as a business book so there are large sections devoted to translating courageous leadership into business-corporate application. These sections bore me.

But there are some gems in here:

“We cannot practice empathy if we need to be knowers.”

Ah. This probably explains why I scored so low on that empathy quiz. I have a pretty deep-rooted and compulsive need to be a knower.

This is an unfortunate trait:

“Having to be the”knower” or always being right is heavy armor. It’s defensiveness, it’s posturing, and, worst of all, it’s a huge driver of bullshit.”

Ah, again. There is plenty of bullshit in my life, and defensiveness. And having to know, having to be right, to fix things: that turns quickly from heavy armor to a heavy burden. I am trying to lay it down.

“We want to fix, we want to give advice. But empathy isn’t about fixing, it’s the brave choice to be with someone in their darkness—not to race to turn on the light so we feel better.”

Like I said, some good stuff. But not that much, and kind of buried in a lot of pop-psych obviousness which is in turn wrapped up in organizational-psych speak. I will look elsewhere for my nuggets of wisdom.

Highlights: 📖 Brown - Dare to Lead