AMAZING! Each of the 451 ideas Brian Johnson shares in this book help to build better humans. He has a gift for distilling complex concepts down to actionable ideas. This is a book to keep on the nightstand and read from every day. Fantastic!

Pleasant reading and even more useful manual. It teaches you the implementation of a helpful attitude towards life and its challenges while providing the neccessary toolbox to consult in the way.

Just getting onto this book, but I am enthralled with the content and you will be too.I just ordered a copy for my grandson for his 17th birthday. He is exceptionally smart and this book will help him realize his full potential. I can’t think of a better gift.

Anyone who is looking for a book that will really help them reach their G0d-given potential should read this book. It's well-written and filled with lots of practical ideas, not pop culture mumbo-jumbo.

Ready to change your life? Even just a little by little, this book has more ideas and potential for anyone and everyone. You use all the ingredients and make a full meal of life or even choose the ones that you feel for your style and situation. I promise that you and the people around you (family, friends, partner, co-workers, etc…) will all benefit. This book will be placed at everyone’s seat at our Thanksgiving table. I am Thankful for all Brian’s work and having Arete to share with my family.

This book is the worlds wisdom in the palm of your hand! Every page is an invitation and a lesson for how to live a better and more satisfying life - one day at a time - every day - starting now.....aaaand repeat. Just the best advice and practical knowledge for how to make your lists and get things done - today. This takes New Years Resolutions to a whole new level. In love with the learning and the help and the course guidance of Arete - Thank you Brian Johnson for your vision! This is Fire!

Can I rate it to six stars please?
Foolproof recipe to elevate humanity to the Next Level

Brian Johnson is a smart guy.
I like people who read, and he definitely reads a lot. So much in fact, that he was able to synthesize ancient wisdom and modern science and practical tools into a manual which will elevate humanity to the next level.

I'm not a fortune teller, only an engineer who likes to plan things.
The question which nags you before each book you decide to read is:
“Is this book worth my time to read?”
The answer is an irrefutable YES.

Let me give you the proof below.

Steven Kotler writes in his classic, The Art of Impossible why books are the best sources for learning. He writes that people think “it takes commitment to read a book”, and this is the “most used excuse” by ones who don’t read them.

But let’s see the math why books are worth it….
- If you read a blogpost you spend 3,5 minutes and get 3 days of the authors work.
- If you read a long form magazine article (e.g. Wired or Atlantic Monthly), you spend 20 minutes for about 4 months of research and writing that the author invested into that article.
- If you read a book, you spend 5-10 hours for the concentrated knowledge that the author collected, filtered and shaped for about 5-15 years in his head. (For the sake of simplicity let’s calculate with the conservative 7 hours on average, for 10 yrs of average book writing).

If you calculate your Return On Time Invested (ROTI), you will see that books give you the most concentrated knowledge. Let’s choose the common denominator to be 1 minute of your reading time vs. the author’s invested time to think and write.

- Blog: Every minute of reading gives you 411 minutes of the author’s time.
- Article: Every minute of reading gives you 1920 minutes of the author’s time. (more than 4X better than the Blog)
- Book: Every minute of reading gives you 3428 minutes of the author’s time.
(more than 8X better than the Blog)

This is the math for an average non-fiction book.
But let’s see Brian’s ARETÉ.

He has been working as a philosopher and devoured 600+ books that he put into Philosopher’s Notes. Then he created MasterClasses and a scientifically proven Coaching Program (see https://www.heroic.us/optimize/coach/research) and proved what works.
This book is the AGGREGATE knowledge of his 600+ distilled books in a super readable format.

Let’s see the math!
If you put this 600+ books into 1 book which takes you 21 hours to read, you get something astounding:
600+ books for the reading time of 3 books.
This is 200 times better than your standard book. Wait, what?
Yes, you heard it right.
This is a 200X better investment of your time than your standard book!

So the math for ARETÉ is:
ARETÉ Book: Every 1 minute of reading gives you 685,714 minutes of applicable, filtered timeless wisdom.
(more than 1668X better(!!!) than the Blog)

Currently for you there is no better source of applicable knowledge to dig into. Period.
This is the best humanity ever created. It is equivalent of 6000 Yrs of Human Thinking and Wisdom (600+ books x 10 yrs based on various authors filtered concentrated knowledge).

Can you even imagine a scenario, where such book DOESN’T change people’s lives for the better? Or Your life specifically?
Well... I honestly can’t.
Since it DID change mine.
This book is PRICELESS. It’s worth EVERY PAGE, and EVERY MINUTE.
Go ahead and devour it! Then buy more copies and give it to your loved ones.
This is what I am doing on my end.

I wish You a Happy HEROIC Journey!

P.S. I got an advanced copy of the book, thanks to Heroic PBC. :)

Excellent book. Distills the best in modern and ancient wisdom into actionable and memorable chapters.

I really didn't like this book at all. The way that it was written felt like the author wanted to be my buddy in a really mansplaining kind of way, and the messaging about excellence felt incredibly toxic and egotistical. I have no problem with people trying to access their potential, I actually think that's a genuinely great idea - but I hate that this interpretation of accessing potential feels completely based on externalized productivity and performance, rather than self-fulfillment. This feels like Tony Robbins, but with even more capital letters in the text. There is some good content in here, but you have to dig for it sandwiched between general self-help advice and faux-inspirational statements based in guilt and shame about perceived inadequacies.

This is the user manual I wish I had when I came into this world, so I would know how to operate myself. Well done and a big thank you to Brian Johnson and team.

This book made me do something in the last 48 hours that I have NEVER done in 35 years of life. This book inspired me to read 500 pages in two days. While working full time.

I am an avid reader yet I have never read a single 500-page book cover-to-cover--let alone half of a 1066-page book in 48 hours!--but the wide scope, well-researched quality and immediate practicality of the verbal gold nuggets inside of it made it into an irresistible delight that has sucked up nearly every free moment from my last two days since I got an advanced reader copy.

Full disclosure: I was paid for this review--But not with money, rather my compensation begin on March 14 of 2011 when I first started following Brian Johnson and his growing treasure chest of personal development works and has consisted of the best tools for personal mastery i've yet found.

For those of you doing the math that is nearly 13 years, and I can tell you I have watched Brian grow so much as a leader and philosopher, and as he has grown he has crafted a pathway to help so many others grow with him--myself very much included.

This book is for you if you're just starting on your journey of self growth OR if you're like me and sometimes feel like you've "read it all" by now. Bottom line: IF you want to thrive more in any domain of life, this book WILL be a prime asset to you.

Life is an ever changing road. This book will increase your wisdom, and if put into practice will help you close the gap with the sage within you and connect with the infinite energy we are destined to be linked with.

I've followed Brian Johnson for a few years now, especially enjoying his Philosopher's Notes on hundreds of important and valuable books. And of course, I didn't think Brian could top the Optimize and Heroic platforms when it comes to making it not only possible, but realistic to move from where you are now, to the best version of yourself. But Brian has done it. He's topped himself and written this book, which makes it not only possible to continually move towards the best version of yourself, it also makes it realistic and simpler than ever before. Brian has distilled the wisdom of the ages - literally - in bite sized pieces you can ingest in just a few minutes each. But when you take the rest of the day to really process and internalize the concept, it becomes an extremely powerful point of leverage in growing into your full potential. I couldn't help but go through the book as quickly as possible and now I'm starting over, one micro chapter at a time, to squeeze every bit of value I can out of each page. And then I'll start over again. Well done, Brian!

I got an advanced reader copy of Areté. I read it immediately. And I will be revisiting it from now on.
If you want to change your life, for the better, if you want to be in control of it and be the best version of yourself, this is your book.
This is a book I'd like to have 30 years ago.
I can't recommend it enough.

amazing work
takes ancient and modern philosophy and translates it to a form usable by the current geenration

Arete: Activate Your Heroic Potential, by Brian Johnson, which has 451 of my all-time favorite ideas is FANTASTIC! I love the direct quotes from books and the micro chapters are fun and easy to read. I was blessed with a pre-release copy and have devoured every sentence. The 8 objectives helped me learn how to improve my life, one day at a time. Improvements I didn’t know would be easy but would make huge differences in my life. One example is with focus – doing deep work before interacting with the world in the morning has allowed me to accomplish so much more. I loved the chapters ‘The Growth Mindset’ and ‘Small Wins’ because they helped me see that if you are not growing, you are stagnating in your life. This book will change your life. And, if enough of us commit, it will change the world. – Annie Harmon.

Wow!! It's no exaggeration when I say all language falls short of accurately describing the power and love between the covers of this book. Areté is clearly a labor of love and Brian has put everything he's got into gathering the most cutting-edge yet easy-to-implement strategies for once's behavioral, emotional, physical, business, and interpersonal growth. No stone was left unturned and I'm really excited to share this book with my closest loved ones. Let's all rise and bring out the hero within. Thank you Brian and everyone that made this possible. This will be the Bible for personal growth for many years to come.

The premier distilled aggregation of usable wisdom and science. Period. Take this info, practice. Surround yourself (through Arete') with masters and legends like Brian and activate the spiraling up of your life. I'm feeling giddy because that is what flourishing feels like. This book is the clarity I needed and will serve me, my family and my community. The antidotes are personal, science backed, and vetted over centuries. Unreal. Ty Brian

I received this book when asking for an advanced readers copy of it. I was taken aback by just how many gold nuggets are contained in this gem of a book. The nuggets are spread out evenly throughout the entirety of the book. This book, if you use and take action on the actionable content, has the potential to significantly change and massively improve your life. I highly recommend Arete by Brian Johnson as it is life altering at the least if you only do a fraction of the actionable content. Using this book along with the content on the authors Heroic Platform, will solidify your place at the top of your class and the head of the line...

I started reading Brian Johnson's Philosopher Notes many years ago because I liked his practical summaries of interesting books -- I can't read all of them, after all. The incredible research Brian has done over the years, combined with contemporary teachers and experts into every area of leading a good life is mammoth. And now it's in a single book. When you aggregate that amount of experience and wisdom into a tidy, approachable package, it really does have the power to be life-changing.

Being exposed to this knowledge has absolutely improved my daily life and it's introduced me to mind-expanding concepts and allowed me to dive deep into some areas, when the need arose. For example, Steven Pressfield was THE guy who got me to finish my thesis and graduate. Seriously. I could list a ton of examples where learning something moved me in the right direction in my career, in my relationships, and in my overall well-being.

This book can be THE catalyst to move forward in the best ways possible for yourself, the people around you, and the planet. Get it, read it, use it!