I’ve heard many great things about Barbara Sher & her books, but I hadn’t got around to reading any of them until very recently. Tiara suggested I read Refuse to Choose in an email exchange, so I put it on hold at the library and had it in my hands some 24-48 hours later (you have no idea how enabling 24 hour online holds are for a book junkie). It’s her most recent book, printed in 2006.
Short review: This book is amazing, if you have polymath/Renaissance/jack of all trade (she calls them Scanners, but I kind of feel like that sounds like cyborgs) tendencies and have ever struggled with them, do yourself a favor and go check it out now.
Longer version:
Barbara has an extremely engaging writing style. I find it hard to stay focused on a lot of nonfiction, but didn’t have any of those problems with Refuse to Choose. This is also one of the only books I’ve ever read that’s actually motivated me to do the exercises. That’s quite a feat in and of itself, really! Not to mention that I’m still planning on buying a copy after reading the library copy.
The first half of the book is dedicated to talking about what a Scanner is and the common problems some Scanners struggle with. Chapter titles include things like “Commitment Phobia”, “Too Busy to Do What I Love”, “I Never Finish Anything”, and “I Can’t Get Started”. If you’re a Scanner, these should sound pretty familiar to you. She addresses the concerns in a calm and rational manner and includes stories from actual clients (names, I’m assuming, changed).
The second half of the book covers the different types of Scanners. I’ll admit, there were a few parts in the first half that made me kind of squirm a bit and wonder if I was reading the wrong book because I didn’t feel like they fit me at all. But she covers the differences between cyclical Scanners (pretty much what it sounds like, Scanners who cycle between a certain number of different interests, whether 2 or 20) and sequential Scanners, who just do one thing after the other. There’s three subtypes of cyclical Scanners (I’m a Sybil with a bit of Plate Spinner thrown in, if anyone’s curious) and six subtypes of sequential Scanners. Each chapter on a subtype has more stories about clients of that type, and suggestions for ways to design your life around your interests.
I’ve read a lot when it comes to that sort of thing but she has some fascinating suggestions, including things I had never thought of before. I’ll admit I didn’t read any of the chapters on sequential Scanners since they didn’t apply to me (I skimmed a few pages here and there), but I would assume it was more of the same. One of the suggestions was to get a seasonal job or jobs – an example was a man who taught skiing in Vermon from December to March, did underwater photography in Australia from March to June (he was a contributor to a diving magazine), and then went to Chile for their ski season to work as a test skier demonstrating new equipment for companies. Ingenious!
Overall, I’d definitely recommend Refuse to Choose. It’s engaging, practical, and pretty much all around great. I found myself wishing for more of the book at the end, not because it was cut off at a weird spot or left the reader hanging, but because I found it so helpful that I just wanted it to go on forever! It got me to take notes and I’m planning on using several of the techniques in my day to day life, which I think is really the highest compliment you can pay to a book like this.
You can pick up Refuse to Choose at Amazon for $9.99 (for the Kindle edition) or $10.85 for paperback.
