The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment

If you've got a rebuke to the literary mission of A.J. Jacobs, he's already heard it and put it behind him. He knows his wife is a saint. He knows he isn't as natty as Plimpton or Robert Benchley. And he knows that his work could be called market-ready fluff. I'm sure that feels like a day well spent at the office for some critic. To me it's like dissecting a rendition of "Happy Birthday." You may be perfectly right. You're also a humorless jerk.

To this reader, Jacobs' experiments are about understanding oneself, making life more interesting and showing the reader a good time. And I love them for it.

(bought 14 July 2011)

Known for his long experiments like reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica and living by the Bible for a year, here Jacobs presents a (short) collection of 9 shorter-term experiments. This book seems to mainly be constructed from articles he has published in Esquire, etc., with updates, but an odd point was that, although many were clearly from different dates, he refers at a couple of points to his “year of experiments”, making a whole out of something that doesn’t seem to have been that. Hm. Some were interesting, like outsourcing his life to India, and he learns from being as rational as possible for a month: I also liked his last experiment of doing everything his wife asked for a month, and there were some show more laugh out loud moments. But it did seem a bit piecemeal and cobbled together, and left me wanting more. show less

Loved it - laugh out loud funny, a rarity. Jacobs imparts knowledge heavily leavened with humor. I loved every chapter from outsourcing to George Washington's 100 tenets for a successful life. It seems that Jacobs will stop at nothing in the pursuit of experiential knowledge and we are all the better for it.

A.J. Jacobs engages in a series of little social experiments, including adopting a set of etiquette instructions favored by George Washington, attempting to follow a philosophy called "radical honesty" in which you're supposed to tell people exactly what you think of them at all times, and posing as a woman for an online dating service in an attempt to find a date for a female friend. Generally, Jacobs' writing is light, humorous, and fun, and while there may not exactly be lots of heavy-hitting insights here, he does try to find something useful and interesting to take away from each experiment.

My only complaint is that for some reason, the chapters are not in chronological order, which leads to the bizarre effect of the author show more appearing to have a weirdly fluctuating number of children. show less

I’ve read both of A.J. Jacobs’ previous books and loved them both. He strikes the perfect balance between sarcastic/self-deprecating humor and an earnest desire to learn about things completely unfamiliar to him.

“The Year of Living Biblically”, while hysterically funny, really affected me (as I think it did him). It was a very genuine effort to try walking in other people’s shoes – people who had very deeply held beliefs that he did not share…at least at the beginning of the experiment. However, he treated the subject of religion with great respect – and ended the process as a “reverent agnostic”.

He seems to take all of his experiments seriously…and at the end of each summarizes what he’s learned from them.

“My show more Life as an Experiment” was different in that it detailed several month long experiments instead of one year-long one. I still enjoyed it a great deal, laughing out loud several times. Like during “The Rationality Project”:

“Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness. Psychologists call it the Mere Exposure Effect. The basic idea is, I like Crest because I am accustomed to Crest. That’s not good enough. I need a fully rational toothpaste. I need, first, to expand my dental hygiene horizons. I go to the drugstore and buy a sample platter of forty tubes of toothpaste. (The cashier doesn’t even bat an eye; I guess when your customers buy bungee cords and vats of K-Y Jelly in preparation for a Friday night, this isn’t a big deal.”

But beyond the humor, I took ideas from this book. For instance, he points out that “we are all predisposed to notice and remember all the bad stuff…because the frustrating episodes are more emotionally charged and we remember them better.” He starts commenting on the positive things out loud – the better to change one’s negative perception. I like that – I’m going to start trying that.

I hope, hope, hope this third book of Jacobs’ is far from the last – they are in themselves, a very positive experience. (Unless one is sitting on a plane next to a stranger, trying unsuccessfully to laugh hysterically without disturbing others. I've tried that experiment while reading one of his books. It doesn’t work.) show less

A collection of articles detailing the author's myriad experiments: radical honesty, unitasking, outsourcing one's entire life, etc. It's fun to read mostly because of the author's amusing way of describing his adventures. He never takes himself too seriously, which is good, because some of the rules he commits to are pretty ridiculous. That said, there are some thought-provoking moments as well, when he discovers new ways of thinking about things. Fun read.

Jacobs has a way with words which make the most jejune situations hilarious. In this series of personal essays, he recounts his many life experiences, including outsourcing his personal chores, telling the truth and nothing but the truth and posing naked. The situations themselves, although uncommon, are not extraordinary. His background and research information, including theories and readings, are what make these adventures vivid and interesting - it is more than a mere thrill, it is a plight for discovery and learning. The added humor makes it that much more palatable.
A fun, vivacious, curious look at life.