An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth
Life Lessons from Space
Chris Hadfield
Having read it
★★★★☆
A good memoir from a well travelled human who has seen some things, learned some things and has a great attitude to helping pass on that knowledge and spirit to others.
Many interesting moments and approaches to encountering and dealing with good and bad moments (throughout his life but particularly his astronaut years and missions to space) are well told and the steady pace of it helps propel reader interest, understanding and appreciation of how sweating the small stuff can and does actually help a bigger picture, or two.
Just a shame about the afterword written (circa April 2021) eight years after the book was originally published (2013) and, despite its somewhat energising tone, seems more of a publisher?s effort to get some more sales with a somewhat misguided effort at contemporary context (chasing headlines and big moments) that offers nothing more than headlines, not considered and meaningful thought and actions, like the actual book offered and told of.
Still, these particular words from the author are very relevant:
[...] value the wisdom of humility, as well as the sense of perspective it gives you.
A good passage
It’s never either-or, never enjoyment versus advancement, so long as you conceive of advancement in terms of learning rather than climbing to the next rung of the professional ladder. You are getting ahead if you learn, even if you wind up staying on the same rung.
A second good passage
It’s counterintuitive, but I think it’s true: promoting your colleagues interests helps you stay competitive, even in a field where everyone is top-notch. And it’s easy to do once you understand that you have a vested interest in your co-workers’ success. In a crisis, you want them to want to help you survive and succeed, too. They may be the only people in the world who can.
A third good passage
[...] If I’d defined success very narrowly, limiting it to peak, high-visibility experiences, I would have felt very unsuccessful and unhappy during those years. Life is just a lot better if you feel you’re having 10 wins a day rather than a win every 10 years or so.