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  • How to Be Perfect

  • The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
  • By: Michael Schur
  • Narrated by: Michael Schur
  • Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (277 ratings)
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How to Be Perfect

By: Michael Schur
Narrated by: Michael Schur
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Summary

From the writer and executive producer of the award-winning Netflix series The Good Place that made moral philosophy fun: a fool-proof guide to making the correct moral decision in every situation you ever encounter, anywhere on earth, forever.

How can we live a more ethical life? 

This question has plagued people for thousands of years, but it's never been tougher to answer than it is now, thanks to challenges great and small that flood our day-to-day lives and threaten to overwhelm us with impossible decisions and complicated results with unintended consequences. 

Plus, being anything close to an 'ethical person' requires daily thought and introspection and hard work; we have to think about how we can be good not, you know, once a month, but literally all the time

To make it a little less overwhelming, this fascinating, accessible and funny book by one of our generation's best writers and adept minds in television comedy, Michael Schur, boils down the whole confusing morass with real life dilemmas (from 'should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?' to 'can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people?'), so that we know how to deal with ethical dilemmas. Much as Chidi used humour and philosophy to make Eleanor a less selfish person, Schur takes us on a journey through the 2,500-year discussion of ethics, sketching a road map for how we ought to act along the way.

By the time the book is done, we'll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. Okay, not quite. Instead, we'll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day

With contributions from Professor Todd May of Clemson University, who served as an advisor on The Good Place, this is a brilliant, clever and hugely entertaining book about one of the most important topics in the world.  

'The problem is, if all you care about in the world is the velvet rope, you will always be unhappy, no matter which side you're on.' (Tahani Al-Jamil, The Good Place)

©2022 Michael Schur (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio

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Not good

I must say, in the author’s defence, the footnotes were hilarious*



*no they were not

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Perfec T

The narration, and the occasional guest voices from that Good Place, are pitch perfect. And read with good humour. Even the footnotes. If you enjoyed the show, or even if you’ve never heard of the show but maybe wish you could be a better person, you should love this audiobook. Really. If you ever wondered why philosophy is important just give this a listen. Oh and absolutely, I’m with Michael on the Hawaiian pizza thing. Good call.

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Bells, Biases, and Footnotes

Loved getting pinged a million times by footnotes – such a melodious treat! And trying to fit the CNN and MSNBC narrative into the philosophy? Square peg, round hole, but hey, points for creativity.





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Just what I needed...

Thank you for providing a great listen on all the topics I am interested in mixed with the familiarity and humour of The Good Place, which is my favourite show.

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Very good

Philosophical ideas presented in an easy to understand manner with a little humour to keep it light. Well worth reading.

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Great combination of philosophy and humor!

Loved It!
Great combination of hard philosophy subjects presented with humor and soul! The music and performance was great! Helps if you are a fan of The good place.

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Irritating at times

intensely irritating to listen to at times. Many many jokes interrupting flow, most not particularly funny.

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Morals thru a predictable 21st century lens...

Learned some good stuff from the historical survey of ethics. But once the applications/conclusions by the author began, they were overly wordy and trite. He should stick to comedy. The time v value equation is not good for this book.

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Awesome book

One of the best books I’ve ever read. Not just about ethics but in general.

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Great way to start Ethics and Morals

Having the cast of The good place just adds loads.
I’m not in any way shape or form a philosopher.
If you haven’t seen The good place, then do and read or listen to ‘The Trolley problem’ as well.
The foot notes are well done and add humour as well as being informative.
Well worth a listen, probably multiple times.
I love the the concept about everyone bring in the RPG (role playing game) of life, towards the end of the book, where everyone has been dealt a set of starting parameters for their life and how some get lucky with the stats and location and brains and money etc and how we should always be aware that our starting conditions and just plain coincidences have a major effect on how we turn out, and the better the hand we are dealt the more we owe to everyone thing else.

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