Tickled: A Commonsense Guide to the Present Moment

by Duff McDonald Narrated by Sean Pratt

Overview

A New York Times bestselling journalist sets out to explore our addiction to the quantification of everything and ends up confronting his own addiction to certainty. In the quiet of quarantine, he decides to choose ease, rather than control-pursuing habits and hobbies that bring joy and “tickles” to each and every moment-and finds peace of mind, renewed creativity, and deepened relationships are the reward.

In 2020, nothing went according to plan. Duff McDonald had intended to write a book about society's obsession with measurements, data, and predictions, showing how it blunts individual happiness and decision-making while fueling corporate capitalism. But in the quiet of quarantine, McDonald found himself reexamining the assumptions beneath his own life choices. He also reconsidered his book, deciding instead to reframe his approach as an exploration of his own battle with what he calls the “precision paradox”-the existential struggle between our desire for ease and our need to exert control.

Drawing inspiration from an impressive range of sources-from Borges to the Buddha to Bob (Dylan) to Harry Potter-McDonald documents how he let go of his attachment to precision in favor of delving deeper into what it means to be present-in his work, his relationships, and what he calls the “science of experience.” He asks, “What should I have been doing? I should have been focusing on things that I love, not the things that anger or annoy me. I should have been focusing on things that tickle me.”

Part self-help, part memoir, Tickled is a story of how to bring joy and love into your life right now. McDonald acknowledges that “tickle” is a funny, awkward word. In one context, it's as innocent as can be. But it also runs deeper. When something tickles you, you are in the moment, experiencing reality itself-at the vortex of truth, consciousness, and bliss. “When something tickles, that's your soul speaking to you in the language of love, thanking you for experience,” he says. As he lays out his own personal transformation, McDonald invites readers to begin their own journeys to find out what “tickles” them, too.

This exploration of joy and presence-experiences that tickle-lies at the heart of McDonald's unusual, moving, and profound book.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile

Being stimulated into a delightful state—tickled—always happens in the moment and is different from the counting and analyzing we do every day, says business author Duff McDonald. In this moving account he describes how last year’s COVID isolation inspired him to change the way he lives. The author’s charm and calm thought processing are captured by narrator Sean Pratt. His performance has the believability and warmth needed for the author’s relaxing message to be fully absorbed by the overstressed listeners the author aims to reach. McDonald says our habit of quantifying our experiences, past and present, keeps us from allowing joy into our lives. This process and our obsession with micromanaging the external world make us chronically angry and disappointed, and prevent us from connecting with a benevolent universe. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Goddamn! This book is so f*cking smart and wise and good. It’s brilliant and profound, yet somehow utterly relatable. Almost every sentence blew my mind. It actually changed the way I look at the world.” — Kristen Johnston, Emmy Award-winning actress and author of Guts: The Endless Folies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster

“Given the choice, we’d presumably all do what we want all day every day forever. The problem is figuring out what that is. Duff McDonald, one of the most acute chroniclers of this confusing time, ahs, in these pages, for the greater good, ditched habits that trap him in the slog, freeing himself to pursue, pursue, pursue, composing perhaps the most American book ever—what’s more American than a pursuit of happiness?—in the process. Tickled is a new kind of travel diary, a cultural exploration into the preconceptions and inherited beliefs that prevent us from reaching our potential and being free. A lot of us think we know exactly who and where we are. Duff McDonald is still on the road, heading for another joint.” — Rich Cohen, author of The Fish That Ate the Whale and Pee Wees

“With heart-centered honesty and an unflinching eye for the truth of his own failings, McDonald takes us on his journey from skeptical cynic to loving adult. Having set forth to critically explore our collective need for precise and correct outcomes, Duff comes to see that the only outcomes that matter are those that actually work. And, more often than not, those involve a magical notion: that which tickles us can lead us to the thing that matters most of all—love. Tickled may not have been the book he set out to write, but it’s definitely the book we’re meant to read.” — Jerry Colonna, author of Reboot

“Despite the wonderfully whimsical flavor of the word ‘tickle,’ this is a very serious book about how to live our lives much less seriously. McDonald serves up a stick of conceptual dynamite that obliterated my blind faith in the cult of statistical quantification. When the dust settled, all that was lest of my previously clouded brain was a calm sense of presence and a feeling that can be best describes as a ‘tickle.’ This will all make sense once you read the book, which I recommend that you do right now.” — Chris Wink, cofounder of Blue Man Group and creator of Wink World

“An honest and heartfelt expression of one man’s search inside himself. I appreciate Duff’s difficult but joyous discovery of the sweet inner peace that comes from being fully present in the here and now.” — Chade-Meng Tan, bestselling author of Search Inside Yourself and Joy on Demand

“Duff does something astonishing here—he relinquishes the body armor that made him so successful as a business journalist and writes from the heart. It is brave and true.” — Hugo Lindgren, former editor of the New York Times Magazine

Kristen Johnston

Goddamn! This book is so f*cking smart and wise and good. It’s brilliant and profound, yet somehow utterly relatable. Almost every sentence blew my mind. It actually changed the way I look at the world.

Jerry Colonna

With heart-centered honesty and an unflinching eye for the truth of his own failings, McDonald takes us on his journey from skeptical cynic to loving adult. Having set forth to critically explore our collective need for precise and correct outcomes, Duff comes to see that the only outcomes that matter are those that actually work. And, more often than not, those involve a magical notion: that which tickles us can lead us to the thing that matters most of all—love. Tickled may not have been the book he set out to write, but it’s definitely the book we’re meant to read.

Chris Wink

Despite the wonderfully whimsical flavor of the word ‘tickle,’ this is a very serious book about how to live our lives much less seriously. McDonald serves up a stick of conceptual dynamite that obliterated my blind faith in the cult of statistical quantification. When the dust settled, all that was lest of my previously clouded brain was a calm sense of presence and a feeling that can be best describes as a ‘tickle.’ This will all make sense once you read the book, which I recommend that you do right now.

Chade-Meng Tan

An honest and heartfelt expression of one man’s search inside himself. I appreciate Duff’s difficult but joyous discovery of the sweet inner peace that comes from being fully present in the here and now.

Hugo Lindgren

Duff does something astonishing here—he relinquishes the body armor that made him so successful as a business journalist and writes from the heart. It is brave and true.

Rich Cohen

Given the choice, we’d presumably all do what we want all day every day forever. The problem is figuring out what that is. Duff McDonald, one of the most acute chroniclers of this confusing time, ahs, in these pages, for the greater good, ditched habits that trap him in the slog, freeing himself to pursue, pursue, pursue, composing perhaps the most American book ever—what’s more American than a pursuit of happiness?—in the process. Tickled is a new kind of travel diary, a cultural exploration into the preconceptions and inherited beliefs that prevent us from reaching our potential and being free. A lot of us think we know exactly who and where we are. Duff McDonald is still on the road, heading for another joint.

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile

Being stimulated into a delightful state—tickled—always happens in the moment and is different from the counting and analyzing we do every day, says business author Duff McDonald. In this moving account he describes how last year’s COVID isolation inspired him to change the way he lives. The author’s charm and calm thought processing are captured by narrator Sean Pratt. His performance has the believability and warmth needed for the author’s relaxing message to be fully absorbed by the overstressed listeners the author aims to reach. McDonald says our habit of quantifying our experiences, past and present, keeps us from allowing joy into our lives. This process and our obsession with micromanaging the external world make us chronically angry and disappointed, and prevent us from connecting with a benevolent universe. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173290281
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/19/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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