Review of "Rational Defiance" by Henk Pretorius, PhD

Score: 95/100 (9.5 out of 10)

Sometimes you just need a pep talk.
Sometimes you just need hope.
Sometimes you just need permission.
Sometimes you just need to know you can.

Rational Defiance is a compelling and riveting self-help, motivational, and inspirational book by Henk Pretorius.

Its core argument is that most people are not living by conscious choice nearly as much as they think they are. The book argues that we drift toward the status quo, not just socially, but psychologically, behaviorally, and structurally.

Pretorius calls this drift the “Conformity Coma,” and he builds the book around the idea that people get stuck in familiar jobs, beliefs, relationships, routines, and systems because what already exists feels safer than what could be. He then proposes “Rational Defiance” as the antidote, meaning a deliberate, thoughtful willingness to challenge the status quo when it blocks something better.

There are some great examples provided by the author in this book.

One of the most powerful examples in the book is Kathrine Switzer, the marathon runner who challenged the absurd rule barring women from the Boston Marathon. Pretorius does not just use her as a clean, triumphant symbol of rebellion. He also highlights something more human and more interesting: the evolution of her relationship with Jock Semple, the race official who notoriously tried to physically remove her from the course. At first, Semple is presented as the embodiment of backward tradition, a man literally attacking the future because it threatened the old order. But the story does not end there. Over time, after the rules changed and women were officially allowed to compete, Semple became one of their staunch supporters. He and Switzer eventually became friends, and Pretorius notes that when Semple was dying of cancer in 1988, Switzer visited him in the hospital until the end. That detail matters. It shows that Rational Defiance is not just about defeating enemies. Sometimes it is about changing people, exposing the irrationality of a system so clearly that even its former defenders are transformed.

There are the Wright Brothers, who are used to illustrate the kind of thinking that refuses to accept the limits of the present simply because those limits are popular, familiar, or widely agreed upon. But Pretorius does not stop there. He broadens the lens nicely. We also get Frank Zappa as an example of someone who lived and created on his own terms, refusing to stay boxed into neat categories or socially approved lanes. That example works especially well because it reminds readers that Rational Defiance is not just about business disruption or political resistance. It can be artistic. Personal. Stylistic. Existential.

The book also reaches for examples from consumer behavior and psychology, which helps keep it from feeling like empty motivational fluff. Pretorius talks about how people will often keep buying the same toothpaste, soft drink, medicine, or financial service even when they explicitly say they prefer something else. That is such a sharp and slightly unsettling observation because it shows how weak our conscious preferences often are compared to our habits. In other words, we do not just live by what we say we want. We live by what we have already normalized. That is one of the strongest ideas in the whole book.

There's a relevant discussion of Cola Cola's New Coke experiment, which is especially interesting to us because we just visited World of Coca Cola and tasted New Coke. It's very commonly used as an example in business books.

By the way... this book somewhat presents itself as a bit of a business book, encouraging entrepreneurship and such. However, the content itself is a lot more idealistic and philosophical than necessarily practical. It's somewhat vague about what you're exactly, specifically supposed to do to advance yourself and your business. And that's the book's great weakness. In that sense, it's somewhat like Unapologetic Wealth by Marcia Dawood: it does a lot of philosophizing and not as much discussing what you should actually do.

At the same time, this book really invigorating and encouraged us.
And you could also argue that the vagueness makes this book's message more applicable and accessible to more people. You don't have to have a business. Maybe you just have a new idea or a hobby you're passionate about--"the truth you thought about while reading this book." The book's message still applies and sticks:

"Send the email. Have the conversation. Start the project. Say no to the obligation. Say yes to the possibility. Take one action that moves you from floating to swimming. This is your life. Your only life. You can spend it floating toward a destination you never wanted. Or you can decide what matters to you and swim for it. Deliberately. Defiantly. Starting now."

Check it out on Amazon!