It may be a blogger/millennial faux pass to admit, but I didn’t know much about Emma Gannon until recently.
Sure I’d seem people talking about her first book, Ctrl, Alt, Delete: Growing Up Online but it had never really piqued my interest. Then I discovered her podcast, and whilst I’m not a dedicated fan I do enjoy dipping in and out of her episodes… cherry picking the ones that sound interesting or feature women I find admiring.
And it was through her podcast I learnt about this book: The Multi-Hyphen Method: Work Less
Create More and Design A Career That Works For You. Now that my Master’s degree is well and
truly behind me, I’ve been toying with the idea of a side hustle and this book seemed like a great
place to start.
But… this book was neither an introduction to the topic, or even the warm up act. Normally I don’t
like to post negative reviews when it comes to books because even if you don’t like the content you
can appreciate the work that went into creating it. However, this book is disappointing all round.
In Emma’s defence, she has always said The Multi-Hyphen Method is not guide, or a tool kit. Even if the sub-title hints
at it ever so slightly. Instead it can be best described as a brief history of work and thin tales of
Emma’s previous roles, job perks and the odd ‘terrible’ boss.
Giving a brief history of work, work places and possibly some predictions for the future could
have been fine. And there are some places where it is fine. Emma raises some interesting points
and insights into the different industries she’s worked in. It’s interesting to hear about how she
handles her career when most of her family don’t have the experience or knowledge to offer
guidance.
That said… Maybe it’s just a hangover from all of my academic reading, but this book just seems
lacking somehow. Most of Emma’s references come from online magazines such as Refinery29 or
interviews with friends. And whilst love reading Refinery29, I just wished she would have included
some actual studies or research… or anything really.
I really wanted to love this book, to feel motivated by it and inspired. But instead I just felt tricked…
rather than a book, it would best be described as a printed blog, by a blogger that was only
publishing new posts for the sake of publishing new posts.
If you’re interested in work places practise and the history of work, I’d recommend the Eat, Sleep,
Work, Repeat podcast by Twitter’s Bruce Daisley any day.
Maybe I’m just not the target audience. If you’re fresh from school or have yet to enter the world of work then maybe this book could be a starting point. If you’ve started work, or like me been working for a while, I’d suggest giving this book a miss.
If you’re in the market for a new self-help book, this one may be of interest.