Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex Harris

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I listened to "Do Hard Things" and when I was finished I thought: check, I've done a hard thing. Not that it was terrible, but it was pretty preachy and slightly sanctimonious. The idea was good, but the tone was so "aren't we great and don't you wish you could be like us," that it made it difficult to listen to.

As I said, it has a good premise. Who doesn't think that teenagers need to work harder and have more expectations of themselves. I'll be the first to admit that most of the time, I don't really expect anything of my kids other than they just exist. But, these guys were just over-the-top and so full of themselves and their accomplishments. Some of the descriptions just went on and on. If I had been reading the book at least I could have skipped ahead and not gotten so impatient with all of their superior explanations.

One of my favorite parts (not) was when they talked about some teens who helped a super right wing candidate get elected. They actually thought that God had helped them because he had hand picked this guy to win! What abut when evil left leaning candidates win? Did God lose out to Satan? Maybe his helpers weren't pious enough.

Sorry for the rant. As I said, I like the idea of this book and would love to see teens (and even adults) be challenged to do "hard things" and be pushed out of their comfort zone, but these two holier than thou types aren't going to inspire any self respecting adolescents to do anything.

On a positive note: these boys were so condescending and obnoxious that it actually made me appreciate my own less than perfect kids.



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