Me, But Better

Welcome to my Me, But Better book summary!

I’ve paused reading Me, But Better by Olga Khazan. Current page: 71

booboo real-time book rating: ★★☆☆☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 34%)

One-Sentence-Summary: A memoir of the author, a superb writress, taking a personality test and then retaking that same personality test while changing some of her prior answers to get a slightly higher grade in one of five personality categories – Extrovertism, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.

The Big Five Personality Traits

Openness: how receptive you are to new ideas and activities

Conscientiousness: how self-disciplined and organized you are

Extroversion: how social and energetic you are

Agreeableness: how warm and empathetic you are

Neuroticism: how depressed or anxious you are

“‘Personality is what you do habitually, automatically, without thinking about it, whether it’s how you think about things, how you feel about things, or whether you do certain things.'” (p. 21)

This blog will contain both my summary and review of the book Me, But Better.

This book answers why I never go to MeetUp.com events, and why when I have, it was full of wierdos. I think the author would be ok with me describing her as that based on how she describes herself.

“Sure, they went to Yale, but I could have a huge panic attack about my career and work straight through the weekend like it was nothing.” (p. 11)

“It has been months since I’d had a conversation about something other than how effective the vaccines would surely be.” (p. 50)

“..it’s true that extroverts enjoy..sex..” (p. 58)

The author also seems to be an alcoholic, causally mentioning drinking it at any minor inconvenience various times in the book.

And there is likely some diagnosed mental disorder given her familiarity with all sorts of medications and inability to handle life.

“Would I have been able to better handle midly stressful days..” (p. 10)

As I read the book, you will find my in-progress Me, But Better review and book summary notes below.

There were, surprisingly, a couple of positives I got out of the book. Go to improve is a solid recommendation to increase your conversational creativity. And Conversationl Styles was a interesting book recommendation from the 1970s of a researcher analysing a conversation around the Thanksgiving dinner table. But I’m nervous because I told myself not to take book recommendations from books that I don’t like. This’ll be the second time I disobeyed my rule. The first didn’t go well, so we’ll see.

Me, But Better seems more for someone who is trying to achieve a baseline level and not an optimizer. I’m not sure if Ms. Khazan is writing for a particular audience or if this is genuine, but it sounds like she has a mental disorder that needs professional help.

You are reading my book review and summary by Olga Khazan. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.

I stopped reading after the chapter on extrovertism. I decided that would be the end when describing a house party she threw at the end of 2021 or 2022: “The COVID risk made it more exciting.” (p. 67)

“‘Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.” (p. 27)

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Olga Khazan for writing Me, But Better!

Date Started: Saturday, March 29, 2025

Date Finished: