“Alpert is a kind of Carl Sagan of social egalitarianism, packing a wealth of information into an engaging page-turner. This book offers a new aspirational ideal: a good-enough way of living that can enable vastly more people to lead decent lives.”—Cheshire Calhoun, author of Doing Valuable Time: The Present, the Future, and Meaningful Living
“In this eclectic and enjoyable tour of ethics, politics, and aesthetics, Avram Alpert bridges philosophy and self-help to envision something that seems to be slipping from our grasp: a livable world. He shows how an inhabitable planet and an equal society depend on cultivating egalitarian virtues and pursuing the modest satisfactions of what is good enough.”—Gabriel Winant, author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America
“The Good-Enough Life is a great book. In a style that feels like a conversation among friends, Alpert makes a convincing case that it is our deep, often unspoken commitment to ‘greatness’ that stands in the way of improving the quality of our political, social, and economic lives. Learning to seek ‘good enough’ may be the key to social transformation.”—Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
“In this delightfully inspiring book, Avram Alpert draws on virtue ethics, Buddhism, and African American philosophy to encourage us to let go of the cult of greatness. An attitude of ‘good-enoughness’ has the power to replace anxiety and burnout with more meaningful, ethical, and pleasant lives. This is the guide we all need to become good enough.”—Skye C. Cleary, author of How to Be Authentic
"This is an amazing and deeply inspiring book. Alpert employs a prose style that is wrought like fine gold jewelry. There is scarcely a page from which this reader does not wish to quote and share Alpert's wisdom with others."
"Read this book, breathe a sigh of relief, and then go take a nap."---Rana Foroohar, Financial Times
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[W]e should bestow social recognition . . . .on common moral qualities, not on uncommon talent. It should be good enough just to be good enough . . . . [This is] Alpert’s case, and he makes it well.
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---Andrew Stark, Times Literary Supplement"The Good-Enough Life leaves no meritocracy standing. . . . [A] jolt of reorientation."---Emily Ogden, Los Angeles Review of Books
"[Alpert’s] vision of a good-enough world is energizing."---Lily Meyer, The Atlantic
"This book found me at just the right time. . . . [The Good-Enough Life] offers a bit of an antidote or a countercultural approach to designing communities and systems. . . [It’s a] philosophical, semi-political, pro-social, contemplative approach to designing a new way forward."---Alyson Stoner, New York Magazine
"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"
"A Financial Times FT Critics' Book of the Year"