I loved The Good Place and this was the main reason I picked up this book written by its creator. Michael Schur is a great writer, and it really shows here too. Despite being a book that focuses on moral philosophy and complex ethical theories, this was truly entertaining and accessible and I even laughed out loud a few times after a particularly well-placed joke. It is rich in anecdotes and keeps a nice pace, explaining difficult concepts in an easy and fun way, rich with examples. Several of these were US-centric, as often happens, but enough context was provided so even someone slightly less familiar with US culture could still appreciate them.

I partly listened to the audiobook for this and it was a delight. The author does a great job of narrating himself, plus he borrowed the voices of some of the cast from The Good Place to read parts of this, which was a nice touch.

I had a few issues with the book, mainly around the repetitiveness of certain sections and the evident bias of the author around some issues, even though I mostly agreed with him. Obviously, this isn't a philosophy school text so I wasn't expecting total objectivity but, since a lot of space is devoted to the idea of "moral perfection" and how unattainable (and undesirable) that is, I would have liked to see a little less judgment towards certain people and thoughts, especially in the second half of the book. Or, at least, an acknowledgement that these biases exist and are human, similar to the ones the author included in relation to other issues (which I really appreciated).

Still, this was a really pleasant read overall and the audio made it even more fun. Definitely recommended to fans of The Good Place looking for an introduction to moral philosophy.

I don't like to give star ratings to non-fiction books, especially books like this that you can see a lot of hard work has gone into, but I just didn't gel with this book.

I spent the first half of the book thinking I wasn't clever enough for this title, and the next half thinking I was clever enough, but not particularly philosophically minded.

I was expecting a lighthearted funny read, but ended up with more technical reading than I expected.

How to be Perfect is an accessible and humorous commentary on moral philosophy. It explores many of the schools of thought in an incredibly refreshing way which makes their real life applications easy to understand. Essentially it's a book full of all the things that Chidi would teach to Eleanor, Tahini and Jason in the Good Place. If that doesn't sell it for you, I'm not sure anything will.

This is a must read for Schur's fans and anyone looking for an introduction to moral philosophy that is as entertaining as it is educational.

Light-hearted but with a serious message! Dealing with the questions you’ve always wanted the answers to like:
~ Do I have To Return My Shopping Cart To The Shopping Cart Rack Thingy?🤔
~ Should I Lie and Tell My Friend I like Her Ugly Shirt?🧐
~ I Screwed Up. Do I Have To Say I’m Sorry? 😒

How To Be Perfect: The Correct Answer To Every Moral Question by Mike Schur, creator of Netflix series The Good Place is a book about moral philosophy with a good laugh as you ponder the big questions in life.

(And yes, you should return the trolley to the shopping cart tacky thing “because it helps other people, and we are only people through other people”.)

From the creator of the highly popular Netflix series The Good Place, this book is a light-hearted look at philosophy and its influence on our day to day lives. a guide how to be a good person if you will. It attempts to answer the question " how can we live a more ethical life?" and the author breaks that down into 4 simple questions

What are we doing?
Why are we doing it?
Is there something we could do that's better?
Why is it better?

Schur has a real flair for explaining complex philosophical concepts in layman's terms, ways that we can all understand and relate to. This book points out the things that we can do to be a better person, to flouorish and be the very best versions of our selves. And at the end of the day, that;s all any of us can do. This book is extremely funny and highly inspirational,

Micheal Schur’s How To Be Perfect is a very interesting read. Here you have one our generations best tv comedy writers giving his take on the significance and impact of moral philosophy.

This book came about as Schur’s interest in moral philosophy grew when he began work on creating The Good Place. Now, I will admit to having not watched The Good Place, though I am very much a fan of Schur’s other shows, especially Parks and Rec. But having now read How To Be Perfect, I don’t doubt that when I do come to watch The Good Place, which I will, that I will have an even greater appreciation for it.

It is clear throughout that Schur has but a lot of work, time and effort into really getting to grips with the different schools of thought of moral philosophy. In writing this book he has created an accessible (as accessible as philosophy ever can be) guide that also happens to be very funny. This is a book that requires the reader to think and reflect, it’s not necessarily an easy read but then I don’t think it’s supposed to be.

I came at this book having studied moral philosophy whilst at uni over a decade ago and so a lot (but not all) of the theories were familiar to me. That said I still gained a lot from reading and engaging with the dilemmas Schur proposed to explore the different approaches.

I particularly enjoyed Schur’s coda and how he presented it as a letter to his children, boiling down everything he had written across his book for this different audience. This was a lovely way to end the book and make it even more personal and indeed real. This isn’t just theoretical philosophy, these are ways that we can try to be better and do better.

Though called How To Be Perfect, Schur explains that we are not, nor can we ever be in pursuit of perfection. Instead we must continue to try, to fail, to reflect and just keep trying. Overall this was a fascinating read.

It took a bit of time for me to warm to this book. I found the author's constant joking to be a bit wearing to beging with. But as I progressed through the book either I got used to the humour or it became less of a feature. I'm glad I persevered because it was a really interesting book. I preferred the later parts of the books, and the philosophy that part discussed, more and would have liked to sit down with Schur over a coffee to talk about some of the issues raised.

The book is probably much more accessible than the average philosophy book, but that still doesn't make it a simple read. It is certainly readable but the reader still needs to apply their brain to understand the different philosophical concepts and ideas and to understand what they might mean for life in a more applied way.

Ultimately, if you want to explore some philosophical ideas, whether purely to extent your knowledge or to think about how "best" to live, this book is a good place to start and will provide the reader with much food for thought.

I really liked The Good Place so I was curious if this book had the same energy, and was not disappointed. It's a skill to present philosophy (something that we all seem to deem an extremely intellectual subject) in an accessible and funny way.
It's not something that hasn't been done before though, so this is probably mostly for the fans of The Good Place.

I love Mike Schur’s TV work, and The Good Place is no exception—a wholesome, funny, and thought-provoking fantasy-comedy about what it means to be a good (i.e. ethical) human being, and how hard it can be to strive for that goal in a complex world full of complicated decisions and moral booby traps.

How to Be Perfect was born from him writing and producing that show, and is essentially a philosophy primer; a dummies’ guide to leading an ethical life, drawing on 2500 years of philosophical schools of thought from around the world, applied to everyday situations and decisions everyone can relate to. With a good helping of wit and humor (and some help from actual philosophy scholars), Schur makes concepts like virtue ethics, deontology, utalitarianism, contractualism, ubuntu, and existentialism both palatable and understandable to the masses, starting with easy ethical questions like “should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (all schools of Western moral philosophy agree: No), and working his way up to more complex and relevant moral issues, such as whether we can (and should) separate the art from the (problematic) artist.

While there are some references to characters and scenes from the show that fans will appreciate, having seen it is by no means a pre-requisite in order to enjoy this book. The footnotes were delightful, and some of the scenarios most silly in the best of ways: If you’ve ever dipped into Kant’s treatise on the categorical imperative, you know that moral philosophy isn’t fun by any stretch of the definition, yet Schur cheerfully guides us through some confusing and thorny ethical theories and conundrums with ease, making it both educational, entertaining, and funny.

The title and tagline are a hilarious false advertisement—in fact, a whole chapter is spent making a case for why “moral perfection” is both impossible to attain, and a bad idea to even attempt—but even though by the end of this we won’t know how to be perfect, we will have the tools and the inspiration to be better, embracing our inevitable failures while still trying to be an all-around kinder person.