According to Goodreads, I last finished a book in the November of 2019; since then I’ve been on an incredibly slow-burn with just six books, so my moribund profile says. Yet despite my inactivity on the platform, other readers continue to find and like my reviews. Apparently—if this continued interaction is anything to go by—my review of Matt Perman’s What’s Best Best is a goodie, despite its far from complimentary critique. I guess the cultural commentators are right, everything is polarised and if you want your view to be noticed it must be absolute. Uncompromising. Almost decade on I stand by my two-star rating of Perman’s book. And because everyone is dancing on TikTok instead of building community around books, I’m going to share my review below.

Among other glowing endorsements in the Christian world, the foreword to What’s Best Next was written by none other than John Piper. With them I wouldn’t disagree, Perman’s book is full of valuable theological insights, the selective adaption and sometimes adoption of secular writing on productivity, a plethora of practical points, and gospel motivated good works. In the end, however, I don’t think it’s a book worth the time investment. Below are my original and only slightly edited reasons for saying that.

1. It’s Too Long, Bitty and Repetitious

Firstly and a little ironically, for a book on effectiveness (careful, not efficiency) and productivity, What’s Best Next is hopelessly longwinded, lacking in brevity or precision. Fans of the work might point me to the ‘core idea boxes’ at the end of each chapter, but that would only prove a point that many other reviews note: the book feels like a collection of blog posts that are at the same time disjointed and repetitious.

Perman’s book is a treasure-trove of practical tips and ideas, priorities and planning, along with cleverly gleaned advice. But in the end it failed to carefully and concisely arrange those numerous and commendable elements. To recast an illustration from Tolkien, who borrowed it from Dasent, Perman failed to thoroughly boil his contents down to soup and I was left picking bones from my teeth.

2. Much of the Book Isn’t Applicable to Many

Secondly, What’s Best Next quite simply doesn’t apply to everyone. While the author encourages an eclectic approach to his content, I am not sure that he does enough to preface or fence his material. For this book will do nothing but overwhelm and discourage certain personality types and people from the swathes of vocations where his principles might not apply. Since Piper wrote the foreword, there’s real danger that What’s Best Next will leave readers feeling like they’re wasting their lives, like they aren’t doing enough.

Yes, Perman does a good job of providing general principles before unpacking them practically. Only the principles, barring their broadest presentation, simply won’t apply to everyone and every job. Tying this point in with the previous one, I think that Perman should have been more careful in explaining how the gospel truly transforms us, and therefore all of our lives, leaving the more specific out-workings and catchy acronyms for his blog.

3. Like Most Emphasis on Productivity, It’s Reductive

Finally, God does want us to be productive, useful, and generous. But that does not mean he desires for us to be maximally effective. While Perman speaks about intangibles—frequently reminding the reader that he isn’t telling us to become bound to to-do-lists—the overall feeling I came away with was the urgent need to tackle tasks, moving from the most significant to the least of them, and organising everything else (including my own thinking) around process.

Perhaps this is an unfair criticism, since the author does touch on life apart from our vocations, but I fear that this book might enshrine productivity (call it gospel productivity) at the expense of other components of Christian living and character.