"Hell Yeah or No" by Derek Sivers

"Hell Yeah or No" is one of the shortest books I've read so far in my life. However, I'm glad the author decided against bloating every chapter with extra padding content. The book's title comes from one of the chapters suggesting only doing things you can say "hell yeah" to and dropping everything else. Derek shares 67 concise and brief pieces of wisdom he gained over the years.

Unfortunately, most of the advice from the book was old news to me due to the sheer amount of non-fiction literature I consume yearly. If you're in a different situation, I suggest reading this book summary instead of the whole thing — I'm almost sure you won't miss out. I'm going to address Siver's journey in the review of one of his other books, but for now, keep in mind that he sold his company for $22m, gained a lot of email subscribers, and is now capitalizing on the distribution he has to push whatever wisdom he has to his followers.

Now, is this wisdom good enough? Some advice is questionable as most are based on Derek's personal experience instead of research. Whatever worked for the author probably won't work for you. Check out my book's chapters on survivorship bias and omission error to learn why you might not want to follow Derek's path.

Is this book harmful, though? Not at all. And I would rather you read "Hell Yeah or No" instead of some esoteric "thinking materializes things" bullshit. Derek's book contains enough practical wisdom for an average reader to justify spending hours listening to or reading it. Is this a thumbs-up review? I feel like it is.