I discovered Benjamin’s content through his writings on Medium and I really liked his perspective on life and work. He wrote many books, but this one particularly intrigued me. Here is what I thought after reading Slipstream Time Hacking, by Benjamin Hardy.

Right from the start, the book took me by surprise. I didn’t expect the slipstream metaphor to go as far as to be, in fact, the foundation of the entire book. I plowed through the first pages of physics-based explanation of time travel, hoping it would lighten later on. Fortunately, it did. The main idea of the book is to challenge our traditional way of measuring progress in our lives. Instead of looking at time elapsed, we should look at distance travelled. BOOM! Right there, my whole world flipped upside down, I’m hooked, I want to know more! The author then uses few chapters to develop his idea of time as a distance travelled and how to move faster in the direction we want to go. The concept of slipstream becomes more and more clear. What can I do to go from A to B quicker? What are the wormholes I can exploit to travel further, faster?

Then, the remaining of the book is about practical implication of time hacking. As new time travellers, we must learn how to find or develop our own worholes, identify the opportunity that would represent a slipstream. Also, as a general self-help advice, how can we make the most out of the time we are gifted by life. We should aim to live our life to its fullest, not live the longest life.

This book resonated a lot with me. I had the book in my digital library for some time(well something like 2 years…), and I only recently read it, but I think it was the perfect moment to do so. It was a wake up call to stop thinking about what I would like to do, to have, to visit… Daydreaming does not bring me closer to my goals, just like reading recipe books would not make me a Chef. I must get in the kitchen and cook! That is my biggest take away from the book. I will make sure to live a deliberate life, aimed at reaching my goals by moving towards them a little bit every day, always looking for my very own slipstreams…