On the Life You Were Born to Live

I went into this blind after coming across it on r/Numerology, where people raved about it. I was much less impressed. I don’t think it matters whether astrology or numerology or the rest are “true”; what matters is that they’re symbolic systems that help us make sense of the world when there’s no solid ground to stand on. Millman tries to do that with birthdays, which is fine, but it’s not a home run — the text is simply too broad, so that any number could apply to anyone. That’s the opposite of astrology, to my mind, which is broad enough to encompass many people and yet narrow enough to make you feel singular; here, the author never seemed to be saying much of anything. It didn’t help that the writing was neither good nor engaging. I wouldn’t reach for it.