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Get a Life! A Guide to Finding a Philosophy to Live By
177 pages, Paperback
Published August 19, 2025
2 people want to read
About the author
Alan Poon
2 books1 followerAlan Poon was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Vancouver. As a child, he read a complete encyclopedia set for fun (it's like Wikipedia, but printed). He had a reputation as a teenage rebel, writing his own answers on multiple-choice tests and fearlessly opening the door to debate Jehovah's Witnesses. Armed with an engineering degree, he works as a mailman and has no credentials to talk about philosophy. That hasn't stop him from trying.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 29, 2025
Alan Poon’s book Get a Life! implements humor into the process of picking a way to live via one of life’s major philosophies and concepts. Some are well known (Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, humanism, and existentialism); others less so (Aristotelianism and epicureanism). The book is billed as stripping down the complicated aspects of these philosophies, but don’t let that fool you. The text in the relatively short read is dense with in-depth, I would say complex insights. Readers will finish it with much to think about.
Leading off with a good Socrates quote about the worth of examining a life, “The Introductory Spiel” section aptly conveys what many already know about our modern world but perhaps don’t often think about: We have it really good in a lot of ways, and it’s an exciting time to be living, but what’s with all the isolation and lack of close friends these days? You get the idea. What follows is a lot of insights from Poon that I’m not qualified to break down but enjoyed reading.
The author reveals at the end that he’s a mailman with an engineering degree with no bona fide credentials to discuss philosophy, but that’s being modest. He’s a smart guy and this is an entertaining read. I hope his next book delves into religious philosophies.
Leading off with a good Socrates quote about the worth of examining a life, “The Introductory Spiel” section aptly conveys what many already know about our modern world but perhaps don’t often think about: We have it really good in a lot of ways, and it’s an exciting time to be living, but what’s with all the isolation and lack of close friends these days? You get the idea. What follows is a lot of insights from Poon that I’m not qualified to break down but enjoyed reading.
The author reveals at the end that he’s a mailman with an engineering degree with no bona fide credentials to discuss philosophy, but that’s being modest. He’s a smart guy and this is an entertaining read. I hope his next book delves into religious philosophies.
August 28, 2025
Alan Poon’s Get a Life! A Guide to Finding a Philosophy to Live By is a delight: elegantly and fluently written, easy but at the same time thought-provoking to read, and satisfying to finish.
After an entertaining introduction which makes clear that this book is no heavy, conceptually impregnable tome, the author reviews eight significant strands of Eastern (Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) and Western (Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Existentialism and Secular Humanism) philosophical thought. He prefaces each section with a clear historical background and metaphysical / ethical analysis before suggesting how different strands of the ideology could be adapted for and/or followed in modern life.
Alan Poon wears his evident learning lightly and writes with deft humour and helpful analogies. The only very minor flaw for this reader is that there were occasional typos and slightly infelicitous turns of phrase which I briefly tripped on; as the book is otherwise so excellent, it perhaps warrants a further line edit.
Highly recommended for readers interested in the historical context of philosophical schools of thought and their relevance and application today.
After an entertaining introduction which makes clear that this book is no heavy, conceptually impregnable tome, the author reviews eight significant strands of Eastern (Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) and Western (Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Existentialism and Secular Humanism) philosophical thought. He prefaces each section with a clear historical background and metaphysical / ethical analysis before suggesting how different strands of the ideology could be adapted for and/or followed in modern life.
Alan Poon wears his evident learning lightly and writes with deft humour and helpful analogies. The only very minor flaw for this reader is that there were occasional typos and slightly infelicitous turns of phrase which I briefly tripped on; as the book is otherwise so excellent, it perhaps warrants a further line edit.
Highly recommended for readers interested in the historical context of philosophical schools of thought and their relevance and application today.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews