Game Changers by Dave Asprey
Book Review
Description:
Do you want to be smarter, happier and perform better? In other words, do you want to exponentially raise your overall quality of life? (I know, that’s a dumb question.)
Game Changers is written by Dave Asprey who is a New York Times Bestselling Author, the Founder of Bulletproof Nutrition and the Host of the podcast Bulletproof Radio.
In this book, Asprey consolidates the top performance-enhancing, science-backed practices he’s learned and tested. He’s interviewed 450 of the world’s high-performers. They include: Olympic athletes, cutting-edge doctors, world-renowned spirituals leaders, and CEOs running multi-billion dollar businesses.
You don’t need to have any prior grasp of personal growth to read this book. You will get insane value. Asprey establishes the 15 rules to crush it at life, and many of these tactics are easy to implement.
What I love most about this book…
I have tremendous respect for Dave Asprey because he personally tests the performance-enhancing practices he learns from other experts. As of 2019, Asprey said he had spent at least $1 million “hacking his own biology”. He’s had his own stem cells injected into him. He takes 100 supplements. He bathes in infrared light and uses hyperbaric oxygen chambers.
The guy practices what he preaches. He compares tactics too. If you read his blog you’ll see he tries many methods to understand what works best. For instance, before he created his famous Bulletproof Diet method, he tested many other eating regimes from veganism to a carnivore diet.
Asprey breaks down the content into three easy-to-consume sections. I like this because it’s easy to follow.
- Part l: SMARTER – Practices that enhance intelligence
- Part ll: FASTER – Practices that enhance energy and performance
- Part lll: HAPPIER – Practices that raise your fulfillment of life
He opens each section with a summary of the wisdom he’s about to reveal. Then he dives deep into the science. This makes the content easy to digest and flip back to.
What I love less about the book…
Asprey is very theoretical; his writing style is too. The book follows a similar tone to his blog. The reading experience is very information heavy. It’s full of data and scientific facts. Readers who want a bit more whimsy, humor, or artistry, in terms of writing style, might find this a dry read, at times. Though, he does share some great personal stories and few jokes here and there. I personally wish there was more.
The big takeaways in this book:
- Sex to enhance performance: Learn the science on using sex for performance-enhancement. It’s orgasmic (Sorry I had to use that pun!) Well, for women anyways. Apparently women should have more orgasms and men should not. But there is a biological reason for this. And surprisingly it makes sense when you consider the anatomical differences between the sexes. It’s a totally unexpected section to this book.
- The scary truth about the food industry: There is shocking data on what the food industry has done to ruin our food. Learn why every person should eat for their genetics.
- Nootropics: Asprey outlines everything you need to know about nootropics, which are performance-enhancing drugs. He covers what to try and not to, where to go, and what nootropics work for what. He also shares personal experiments. NOTE: I read a review from a former addict on Amazon.com. The reviewer thought that Dave’s advice on drugs was irresponsible. If you have a history with substance abuse you might want to skip this section.
- Using your own breath to de-stress and enhance performance: If you’re not into nootropics then you’ll learn how to use your breath as the ultimate tool for stress management.
My star rating: 4.5/5
The content is solid and most of it is science-backed. It’s a book for every demographic. Most of the practices you learn are easy to apply to your life. It does not get a full five stars because I felt the writing style was a bit dry.
Rating from GoodReads.com:
GoodReads.com rates this book a: 4.12/5
What GoodReads.com readers say:
“Lots of good gems. WAAAAAAY too much self promo.“
“I listened to this on audio and it was excellent….some concepts are out there but I learned so many new things I can incorporate into my life now. Plus, I loved the overall tone wasn’t preachy, it was positive and encouraging!“
“What I liked the most is that every law is independent. It is not necessary to start at the page 1. You can pick any law you want or need at the moment. What’s more, every law ends with a brief summary and also a set of action steps you can make. So, even if you forget something you read, the author will remind you about the most important points, as well as how to implement them. This also makes this book a very good source of tips when you finish it and need advice. Just pick a law you need and read just that one. I highly recommend this book. It is a very good choice for anyone who wants to optimize his life and work. There is a tip, or law, anyone can use. Just pick the one you need.“
“This book is about hacking yourself. It’s about being aware that there’s a lot can be done on ourselves biologically, emotionally and spiritually- and change our habits according to “hack” them for better performance.I like that Dave shares what TOP performers do habitually and some of those are totally new to me. I believe I will revisit this book regularly to improve my own hack.”
“Some of the psychological tips sounded useful, to the point that I initially thought I might want to read this book in its entirety, but then the pseudoscience started creeping in and I ultimately couldn’t get past it.”
Rating from Amazon.com:
Amazon.com rates this book a: 4.5/5
What Amazon.com readers say:
“This book absolutely changed my mindset. It condenses the best advice from tons of experts. When you see all the recommended books you realize that what you’re getting in one book is really the summary of 20+ other books, saving you tons of time. I read it on the kindle. It does ask you to write stuff down which you can’t do on the kindle. So if that bothers you then I would get a physical copy of the book.”
“I’m a big Dave Asprey fan, loved Head Strong and have seen most of his blog episodes. But this book was tough to read, it felt too much like Dave continually talking about himself paraphrasing other people. Personally I would rather have seen it presented in question/answer format so we can hear from the various subject experts. Anyway, I appreciate the work Dave does and hope he continues to bring interesting and usable info to the rest of us.”
“Wow! The amount of work and passion that went into it is astounding. From the beginning, you can start to apply the laws that get you thinking smarter, tools to make you really change the game of how you show up in the world. Dave did it again, and Love how joyful and witty not to mention humble he comes across. He shares his passion for learning and constant improvement through a combination of all of the best habits from the best in the world. I’ve been following him for almost a year now and let me just say: My life will never be the same.”
“This latest book from Dave Asprey is my favorite, mainly for the compact, organized, insights that fall under the headings of smarter, faster and happier. Hundreds of hours of interviews with the worlds brightest, most successful people are condensed into 46 laws.”
“This review is not going to give justice to the book but I will try. Dave Asprey has a gift for discovering the truth in the world. A real signal in this world of noise. This is the most actionable book I know for anyone seeking to upgrade every aspect of their lives. Everybody in the world deserves to read this book and I hope to help that happen.”
Buy this book now if your ready to read, learn and transform your life…
