"12 Rules to Life", by Jordan Peterson: The 3 Great Faults
What's the deal?
Jordan B. Peterson has been in the limelight recently, at the heart of controversy regarding compelled speech and transgender pronouns - but for quite some time, he’s been doling out interesting perspectives about life through lectures and youtube (and in the form of another book).
I’ve followed Jordan Peterson a fair bit since he’s been making headlines, and generally speaking, I find much of what he says very fascinating. This is why it pains me to say the following: This book is an unfocused mess.
The most uncomfortable thing about Peterson’s book for me is that I’m wholly glad I read it. A lot of the stuff he talks about rings true in a big way, and I personally found a lot of his perspectives honest and eye-opening. I do genuinely feel like I’m better for reading the book.
That said - and I do hate to repeat it - the book is a mess. Why? Let me tell you:
The 3 Great Faults of 12 Rules for Life:
1. 12 Rules - and 440 Pages
12 Rules is one of the least concise things I’ve ever read. There are paragraphs and paragraphs discussing one simple idea, when I found one would’ve sufficed. Perhaps it’s just Peterson using as many metaphors as possible in an attempt to include all readers (he does actually address this in a later chapter regarding cat and dog lovers), but I think doing so is a mistake. If you don’t exclude anyone, you alienate everyone.
And that’s just the paragraphs that actually discuss the idea. Some big portions of text have such a tangential relationship to the greater point. So much could’ve been left out - which is why I found it astounding that the book starts with Peterson saying how much the editor had to cut out. It’ll come off harsh, but I’m honestly surprised that the book was edited at all.
2. How to Lose Readers and Alienate People
What is most boggling of all is that - in spite of the excessive metaphor use - the book is so narrow in it’s receptive audience. Firstly, the book has an entire chapter dedicated to the raising of children. There are some tiny notes you can pick up from it, but honestly, if you’re not interested in parenthood in the slightest, this is around one twelfth of the book you can gloss over - a whole 34 pages.
Next, there's Peterson’s liberal use of Christian mythos to explain his points. I personally found it all very interesting and engaging - and this is because, on account of my upbringing, I’m very familiar with Christian mythos. Someone who isn’t would find themselves completely alienated reading a good portion of 12 Rules. Peterson is very heavy-handed in his use of bible stories. These two issues combined would absolutely serve to alienate certain potential readers - the parenthood chapter definitely was the most arduous part of the whole experience for me.
Funnily enough, I think the bible is the most comparable thing to 12 Rules that I’ve ever tried reading. Both have a bunch of really brilliant ideas, surrounded with hundreds of pages of irrelevant anecdotes and metaphors - and I wouldn’t really recommend either book to anyone. Which leads me to the final, awful fault of this self-help book:
3. It's Actually Helpful
It's an actual travesty that this book is so helpful and eye-opening. It's such a shame, because even though I feel like a better person for reading it, even though I feel like my approach to life has been altered - I wouldn't recommend reading it. The end product is almost worth it. Almost.
The way I see it, 12 Rules is Peterson throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks - and what does stick is very poignant and bordering on life-changing - but it’s such an effort to wade through all the crap in the first place. I have no issue with Peterson - he’s a really accomplished man, with a lot of interesting things to say, and he’s clearly very learned - but consider this: It shouldn’t take 440 pages (with large pages and small print, no less) to explain 12 rules, when the rules themselves are a mere sentence each. It makes me sad, because it doesn’t matter how life-changing 12 Rules was - I don’t think I’ll ever pick up a book of his again.
Who should read it:
Patient people who are interested in Christian mythos and raising children, while also having enough time for a dense read. The book is definitely more angled toward males, but I’m sure females could glean plenty from it too. That said, even for this demographic, there's probably another self-help book out there that will help you without making you never want to read again.
Final rating:
2 stars. It hurts because in hindsight I’m very glad I read the book, but it’s absolutely not well-written enough to earn anything higher. If the book hadn’t hit home as much as it had, this would be a very easy 1 out of 5 for me.
Open Letter to Jordan Peterson, from yours truly:
Jordan.
Love your work (mostly). Congrats on the super successful book deal.
Get a harsher editor.
Kind Regards, John J. Hannan
About John J. Hannan: I'm an aspiring novelist who blogs about books, writing, and self-improvement. To keep updated about any of my potential future works, and to follow the blog, follow me on Facebook and Twitter using the links. If you want to contact me regarding anything at all, either reach out to me on those websites, or email me at japroctorfiction@gmail.com.
And here's a link to 12 Rules for Life's goodreads page, just so you can get some varied opinions of the book. My word ain't gospel.