Already a bit dated, written in 2014. Targeted at graduating millennials, we're now seeing Gen Z enter the workforce and... Most of this is just retooling of knowledge I already grew up with (Xennial here) from a good family that stressed hard work and respect for others. Some of the writing advice is good, still. Glad I got it for $1. ( )

Although I'm much older than the target age group (young 20s), I still found it to be informative and even entertaining. He covers a variety of topics, from office etiquette to grammar to how to find real happiness. The parts about religion and marriage were particularly good. ( )

You have the appreciate the irony of Charles Murray (of The Bell Curve) writing a book on how to not offend people in the workplace :) (FWIW, I think he got a raw deal in the overreaction to that book.)

This is a book of good career advice for anyone, targeted for young people leaving college. A few areas are basically outdated (Murray admits he's not the best source for email and messaging advice, and he's also working at a think tank, not an operational entity). There's a lengthy section on grammar and use of language -- hopefully superfluous, but probably is actually necessary for many in the intended audience.

I'm sure I could write a better version of this book myself -- essentially, "respect other people's time" would be the core point. However, this book exists, and would be a great resource for the intended audience. ( )

I really appreciated the 'straight up and down', 'some things are better than others' approach when reading about how one should go about one's business. We most of us 'young-uns' do tend to over-extrapolate things, and mollycoddle every need and desire, and in the process we lose much of the ability to hold resolute opinions. Be warned, many readers may well get a bit put off when he starts saying things like- "you reach an age when it's time to start taking religion seriously", or find his workplace decorum completely old hat. But I would stick with it- perhaps as a generation it's wiser to understand what we're leaving instead of Ok Boomering it to oblivion. Solid as a rock, for a point of reference at the very least. Here I have eaten and shot, and now surely I have left. ( )

A short, sour and disappointing book that is basically just everyday common sense repackaged as a 'how to succeed' book. Murray's advice basically amounts to 'be humble, think ahead and work hard', and while that may be useful (though also very obvious), Murray does not expand upon it. It is all just stated as incontrovertible fact, rather than providing evidence – even anecdotal – of how this can work.

The book is focused on a narrow market of upper-middle-class millennials who, says Murray, need to be told to stop saying 'like'. If there are people who need to be told basic information such as this, then I fear for them, but they are also not the sort of people likely to pick up the book. Those who do need to figure out how to 'get ahead', who are not vain, privileged middle-class brats pondering whether to do a gap year, will find little of worth, even though a 'how to get ahead' for the working-classes would be a much more advantageous book. As it is, Curmudgeon's Guide is just a slightly offbeat Ivy League commencement speech.

Murray caters only to those who have a pre-existing set of socio-economic advantages to trade with, and he has no sympathy for those millennials who are prepared to work hard and show humility, but have been dealt a poor hand by the decline in educational, social, familial and economic standards presided over by his generation. "Even though the boomers started it," he says on page 50, "it's time for your generation to end it." And that's all you're getting. Burden of student debt? Housing market collapse? Social decay? Population boom? Economic insecurity? Failing infrastructure? Narrowing job market? No emphasis on career planning in school? Twenty plus years of relentless conditioning and social experimentation that has left you woefully underprepared? Never mentioned. Just work hard, Murray says. It's just a case of tucking your shirt in (this is his actual advice at one point) and not getting a tattoo. The unspoken assumption is that the millennials are solely to blame for their situation, and if they are not 'getting ahead', it is because of their own fecklessness. The perfect storm whipped up by the boomers for their children remains something they are oblivious too. Are you drowning? Back in my day, harrumph, we were expected to learn how to breathe underwater.

What is particularly galling is that, even leaving aside the vapidity of the advice, Murray's book is not all that impressive. The writing is workmanlike; the structure artless. It reads like a blog post – Murray admits it started out as an e-mail chain on his institution's intranet – and there is no flair or depth or even a decent turn of phrase. A good third of this short book is not life advice but brazen padding, in the form of a writing guide – whether to use 'further' or 'farther', for Pete's sake.

What is worse, given the author's background as a statistician, is there is no rigour or methodical backing for his arguments. Nor is there any unpacking of the potential real-world utility of his advice. The contrast with the self-help stylings of, say, Jordan B. Peterson, who has a similar 'buck your ideas up' approach, is marked; Peterson proposes, unpacks, provides solid evidence for, and validates. He is lucid, perceptive and valuable. Murray just states. Any self-aware person over the age of, say, 27, could give you the sort of advice in this book, and they wouldn't charge you an RRP of $17.95 for it either. ( )