For What It's Worth


Thursday, February 10, 2022

Review: How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur

From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world.

Most people think of themselves as “good," but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad” - especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice.

Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more, so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.

Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day. ~ Goodreads

Source: ALC (Advanced listening copy) provided by Libro.fm via Simon & Schuster

Narrated by: Michael Schur (author), Michael SchurKristen BellD'Arcy CardenTed DansonWilliam Jackson HarperManny JacintoMarc Evan JacksonJameela Jamil & Todd May
  • Length: 9 hours 13 minutes

Review: Written by Michael Schur, the creator of the comedy series, The Good Place, a series that centers on the philosophy of morality and ethics, How to Be Perfect expands on and explores those themes in a lighthearted, humorous - yet still informative and thought provoking - way.

I have never seen the series but Schur has a very inquisitive, open mind on the subject and is willing to be self reflective about some of his own actions where his morality and ethics came into question. 

How to Be Perfect explains most of the major philosophical concepts regarding ethics and then applies the theories to a hypothetical situation. Such as the thought experiment,  the trolley problem - where you could save 5 people by diverting the trolley and allowing one person to die instead.

Schur also delves into more recent debates like football teams with offensive names, cancel culture and mask wearing.

Honestly, this book could not be more timely and could have been written entirely about mask wearing and vaccine mandates (but that would be a downer and I'm glad he didn't lol) . More interestingly though, is that even though Schur has a distinct point of view - I think anyone could come out of any debate with a different answer with a philosophical approach to match their opinion. 

Each philosophy takes a different approach but still finds their way ethical using the principles of utilitarianism, consequentialism, contractualism, virtue ethics, existentialism and others. While one theory may espouse *being good* is by sacrificing and helping others, another theory believes being good to oneself above all others is of the highest moral value.  

In the end - it's all sort of arbitrary and the philosophers themselves could be deeply problematic - some believing women, Black people and the poor weren't even worthy of entering the discussion. Some were even Nazi sympathizers and twisted their theories in knots to make that work out in their brains. 

I listened to the audiobook and I really think that's the way to go. It has a full cast of narrators  - the author and the cast from The Good Place: Kristen BellD'Arcy CardenTed DansonWilliam Jackson HarperManny JacintoMarc Evan JacksonJameela Jamil & Todd May, They really help to make the drier subject matter come to life. 

There are a lot of footnotes and they are denoted by two different tones for the start and finish. That was super helpful and not confusing to me at all. 

If I have one complaint with this book is that the author felt the need to fill every space with a joke. He's a comedic writer and I get that he's trying to make something dry and possibly boring more palatable, but while often very funny, it wore a little thin sometimes. 

Overall this was a fun read and got me thinking. Can we be perfect? No. Because all of our choices have consequences for someone. Even with the best intentions, there is a ripple effect. Schur mentions what he coined - the moral exhaustion effect - and yessss. As good as you try to be - research where you get your food, or what car you drive or any other decision that you investigate to try to have the least impact possible - it can be getting exhausting.

Is it still worth trying to be a better persona and do the right thing? I say yes. We will screw up, get better informed, dust ourselves off and try again. We can't afford to do otherwise. 

This book is book #2 (out of 5-10) read for 2022 Audiobook Challenge hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer and That's What I'm Talking About (click on banner to learn more about the challenge)

2022 Audiobook Challenge


23 comments:

  1. Omg I absolutely love The Good Place, and I had no idea Michael Schur wrote a book on some of the themes from the show! If you get around to watching it, I would highly recommend. It's hilarious and heartwarming, but also extremely intelligent in the way that it deals with moral and ethical concepts.

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    1. I'm watching it now, I'm on season 2 and it's basically the book come to life via tv show lol

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  2. I love the tv show. It might be fun to read the book. I'll put it on my TBR.

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    1. I'm watching the show now and it's interesting to see so many of the theories applied to different circumstances.

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  3. I...ehhhh, non fiction, yikes. Lol, but yes once a year I try to read one :D

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    1. Ha! I seem to be able to do some non fiction on audio.

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  4. I just LOVE your valentines day header!! Its so charming and fits your brand so well.

    I personally strive to be a good person and responsible but its too exhausting thinking how every little decision I make reflect on everyone else haha like that will just raise my blood pressure which I don't need.


    I am glad that you enjoyed this one and that it offers something good for you.

    Lovely review.

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  5. I've never seen the TV show, but this sounds like my kind of nonfiction, so of course I need to read it. I'm fascinated by hard-to-answer ethical questions. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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    1. It's kind of interesting because, really, no matter what you do - it has a negative impact on someone, somewhere so you can't be *perfect* in that sense. And there are so many different philosophies that you can pick and choose to fit your needs. As they did to justify supporting Nazi's, for example.

      I find it really interesting too! And he did it in a fun, light way.

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  6. I've always been interested in books like this. It kind of reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's books that take a deep dive on any given subject. I love comedy peppered into heavier subjects, but I can see how it could be inappropriate at certain moments.

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    1. I loved the humor! It just wasn't always necessary. He kind of felt the need to fill every space.

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  7. This sounds wild/ "Most people think of themselves as "good"". I'd go one step further and say that I used to think most other people were good too, although the pandemic has challenged that lol. I think too that a lot of people acting like assholes still "think" they're good, they jsut think the other side is the problem! Ha I'm not sure if this is even relevant to this book but it came to mind. :) I remember studying that philosophy stuff in college too and loving it.

    And it is exhausting. Researching food is a great example. I love learning more but sometimes I just want to eat something unhealthy!

    Teams with problematic names, the masks... yeah pretty timely!!

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    1. Yessss! Greg, you totally hit on what I got out of it.

      The book didn't explore that, but I saw it as any person could read this and use it to justify them being good - even on conflicting sides.

      And I'm right with you on not being sure anymore about people being good.

      He used electric cars as an example. Less fuel/pollution but now you're making and needing to dispose off batteries.

      I think we can only try to learn and make the best decisions we can without tying ourselves up in knots about everything.

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  8. Interesting. I'll take a look at it but, given my knowledge of philosophy, I suspect I already am familiar with the ideas. Good review.

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    1. Most likely not for you - it's amore of a basic, ethics 101, with humor for people who might be bored otherwise.

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  9. Oooh, I like the sound of this! (I also loved The Good Place but that's not the point, lol.)

    I particularly like the question (in the blurb) of whether you can still enjoy something if it was created by "a terrible person"... It's something that frequently bugs me at the moment with cancel culture and twitter mobs etc.

    I agree with you that all we can do is keep trying to be a better person. If we mess up, learn from it, listen, and do better next time. :)

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    1. I'm watching The Good Place now and there's a lot of overlap - he puts a lot of these concepts in action for the show.

      He touches on a few current topics - sports teams with offensive names, Chick-fil-la Woody Allen, a bit about masks.

      It's important to remember we will screw up but that we can learn.

      This book is almost naïve in it's approach though because the philosophies can cover anything you may think and still deem you a perfect person lol

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  10. I hadn't heard about this before now. Sounds interesting though.

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    1. It was different than usual for me but fun on audio

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  11. Definitely sounds like a good one for audio, with all the different narrators!

    Lauren @ www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. I think his inflections made it better too. I wonder if I would have even finished it if I was reading a physical copy.

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  12. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! This sounds like something I might like. I like reading about "perfect" historical figures who in reality were far from it. 😅

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    1. It's just funny how these people were trying to be the authority on morality and then bend their views to embrace Hitler or whatever they felt like doing lol

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