Blinkist is a paid service that provides access to book summaries and markets itself as a tool for acquiring knowledge faster and more efficiently.

While we agree with the speed angle, we don’t necessarily agree with the ‘efficient’ part, and this review explains why.

TPM Strategic Audit: The Pitfalls of Low-Resolution Learning
Most summary apps optimize for speed and volume—not understanding, internalizing, and upgrading mindsets and behaviors.
Blinkist is low-resolution learning: it gives you the feeling of knowledge without the ability to apply, connect, or think critically.
We keep this review as a case study for our high-agency readers. If you outsource your thinking to a low-level summary, you outsource your competitive advantage.

Intro

This Blinkist review comes from Lucio Buffalmano, social scientist and avid reader who has read thousands of books and reviewed hundreds of them on this very same website.

That’s me.

The headphone strings you see are from noise-canceling headphones so that I can listen to audiobooks on the go.
Indeed, as you can see from our reviews list, I read a lot. And I like being strategic about it.

So let’s see why I don’t use Blinkist (and why I don’t recommend it to TPM’s audience).

Where Blinkist Can Be Useful (Limited Cases)

Here are the advantages of using Blinkist:

1. Saves Time on Poor Space-Filler Books

Short waste of time is better than big waste of time

Let’s be frank, not all books are worth your time.
Some might even be great books, but they don’t fit your goals, personality, or lifestyle.
And some might be great authors or great people, but they’re just putting out content to monetize their name-brand.

In these cases, a summary saves you time (and money).

P.S.:
Most best-sellers are fluffy for smart and high-angency men. See:

• Why I stopped reading best-selling books

2. For Many Books You Can Get 80% of Value in 20% of Time

Pareto says yes in his Blinkist review

Some books -but not all, read the cons!- can be easily summarized and you can get most of the value in a quarter of the time (and cost).
One example could be The 10X Rule.
Even with some great books, you can get 80% in 20%.

Why it Doesn’t Work for Top-1% Men

The main cons for our target demographic are these:

1. Science-Based Books Are Not There

We prefer textbooks written by researchers because they’re the best tools to properly understand the world, and become effective in that world.

They pay the biggest bang for the buck, and are the most reliable and evidence-based books you can get.

But…

They’re not on Blinkist.

2. Great Books Can Lose 80% of Value

The really good books, with lots of content and lots of wisdom, are difficult to summarize. For anyone.
And I don’t think Blinkist does a good enough job with the books I tested.
I think of The Art of Seduction, which the Blink summary pretty much butchered.

3. You Must Trust Blinkist Employees (some bad summaries)

Some summaries I tested didn’t meet my expectations.

4. No Ranking Means You Can’t Prioritize

Services like Blinkist don’t -and possibly can’t because of the agreements they sign- rank their books.

But ambitious and busy men must prioritize.

5. Blinkist Does Not Provide Critical Review

Blinkist summaries don’t criticize the book, only summarize it.

For example, in the otherwise good book The 48 Laws of Power, we listed the risks of over-antagonism and loss of cooperation (see ‘why The Laws Don’t Work‘).
But that’s not something you would read on a Blinkist summary.

6. Books As Silos: Get The Trees, Lose The Forest

By looking at books as silos, you lose sight of the broader literature, which often offers a superior lens for understanding reality.

This is especially important for books that go against the grain of the consensus, or that try too hard to be unique and contrarian to capture attention and boost sales (example: The China Study, which Blinkist doesn’t put in perspective with the consensus on nutrition).

But mentioning contrasting theories is important for readers to make sense of a subject.
For example, in How to Win Friends, we say that it’s a must-read book. But also add that ambitious men must look at the full social skills spectrum, which includes power dynamics, positive dominance, and strategies.

7. Fun-Fact Approach to Learning Doesn’t Serve ‘Pros’

It’s good that Blinkist seeks to make reading ‘fun’: it’s good if more people who wouldn’t otherwise read, read.

But it’s not the approach that best fit our audience.

Here is an example:

“But did you know that” is a typical “fun fact” approach. But I am not interested in fun facts. I want facts, not fun facts.
And I want to know how they can help me move forward.
It’s the same for TPM’s audience.

Validation-Reading

Books should add value to your life.

Adding books like players add notches under their belts won’t move you an inch toward your goals.

In that sense, Blinkist and its marketing may nudge people towards ‘reading for reading’s sake’:

Ever read read four books in a day?

No I haven’t, and neither do I want. I’d rather learn from 1/10 of a top resource every day. And internalize and apply that wisdom every day.

Should You Get Blinkist?

If you’re an ambitious, driven man who reads to boost his competence and personal power to achieve goals, you shouldn’t get Blinkist for your core learning.

Quip George Clemenceau when he said that “war is too important to be left to generals”.
Similarly, I say:

Knowledge is too important to be left to random people’s summaries 

You can use it as a ‘filtering tool’

However, you can use Blinkist for two high ROI approaches:

1. Save time on space-filling fluff books (many are)
2. Get a first idea about a book

This approach can also work for our readership, which can use Blinkist alongside the full book, or TPM’s own analyses.

If you get it… Keep this in mind

Ultimately, by removing the most popular books without adding criticism or power dynamics, Blinkist can unwittingly promote ineffective naive self-help.

Learn better:

• TPM’s top resources (for top-1% men)
• Why I stopped reading best-selling books
• Naive self-help to avoid (if you want to succeed)

Naive Self-Help: 10 Most Dangerous BS to Avoid