V2 of The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life
The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life was first published over half a decade ago. It has since spent over a year as the bestselling book in the world under Amazon’s Agnostic category (though the book equally supports atheistic and religious perspectives) and has seen four sequels (with one even topping the Wall Street Journal’s bestseller list)—becoming the first of a Pragmatist’s Guide series. (So far, this series includes Pragmatist’s Guides to Life, Relationships, Sexuality, Governance, and Crafting Religion.)
While the Guide to Life covers the most important topics of any book in the Pragmatist’s Guide series, it also has the lowest rating on Amazon. In response, we have re-written it to shore up some of the first edition’s shortcomings, also redesigning the interior of the print version in an effort to make it easier to read.
The Pragmatist’s Guide to Life is a response to the extant education system’s failure to provide a framework for developing independent answers to life’s most important questions:
- What should I optimize for in life?
- How do I know what is true?
- Who should I be?
Sure, college philosophy courses highlight these questions, but in the same breath, present others’ answers, sparing students the burden of finding their own conclusions. We provide a framework helping people develop answers using evidence, ideologies, and experiences they collect themselves.
The problem with this framework turned out to be twofold. First, a portion of the readership really wanted to be spoon-fed an answer. Readers frequently wrote: “I loved the book. What is the right answer?” (Cue yet another head slap moment for us). This book exists to encourage people to think through this stuff for themselves, but the natural human inclination (one we share) to look for an authority figure is difficult to overcome. On the plus side, we must have done a good job writing the book if readers feel compelled to ask us after reading it.
Some of our favorite negative reviews and angry emails assume we are trying to push an agenda that does not align with our personal beliefs. For example, one reader thought that we, fairly secular people, had written the book to secretly convert atheists to Christianity. We cannot think of a better indication that we effectively shielded readers from our own personal biases.
The second problem is less nuanced: The topic is boring if you don’t love it—and if you do love it, you have likely thought through >70% of what the book explores. We made an effort to make the book more engaging for both groups of readers.
Finally, while this book lists Simone and Malcolm as authors, that is something of a lie. A team of about thirty editors—as well post-publication readers—made significant contributions. Whenever someone emails us with a suggested change or criticizes a part of the book in a review or email (we admittedly prefer the latter), we revisit the manuscript to make corrections. If you can think of a way to make this guide better, please contact us! Pragmatist’s Guides are a collaborative effort with the goal of helping people be more intentional with their actions, identities, and beliefs about the world.