The solution Brooks offers is a shift from one performance curve to a second performance curve. The first curve is based on fluid intelligence. The second curve is based on crystalized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is better at inventing new ideas while crystalized intelligence is better at synthesizing ideas. Sifting to the second curve is a shift from being smart to being wise. It is a shift from innovation to instruction. When moving up the first curve is no longer possible or no longer satisfying, you need to shift to the second curve.

Brooks offers advice for finding success, happiness, and purpose while living on this second curve. The top pieces of advice that stood out are reordering desires and cultivating relationships.

From Strength to Strength – Top Takeaways

1. Reorder Desires

What we desire has a large impact on our happiness. If we value the fleeting things of the world, the happiness we find will also be fleeting. It is better then, to order our desires around things that last. Reordering desires aligns well with a Christian worldview, where God provides an external standard for properly ordered desires.

2. Cultivate Relationships

The satisfaction and meaning that comes from accomplishments and achievements will eventually lose its luster. Brooks highlights the value of cultivating relationships in the second half of life as a better investment of time and energy. He makes a distinction between eulogy virtues and resume virtues. People likely won’t be talking about your professional achievements or material possessions at your funeral (nor would you want them to). They will be remembering the relationship they had with you and how you made them feel. Community and companionship are also key values in the Christian life.

From Strength to Strength – Critique

Spiritual Growth

As a Catholic, Brooks explicitly calls out the need for spiritual growth and highlights the way in which this midlife shift can be a driving factor. Brooks expands the notion of spirituality to include Buddhist and other eastern philosophies that may make some evangelicals uncomfortable. Brooks isn’t primarily writing to a Christian audience, so he may be tailoring or even diluting his message to appeal to a broader, non-religious audience.

The major overall critique of the entire paradigm is the lack of a spiritual foundation, specifically a biblical understanding of human nature. Moving from striving on the first curve without Jesus to striving on the second curve without Jesus is actually moving from weakness to weakness and not from strength to strength. Success, happiness, and purpose in the second half of life are ultimately rooted in understanding who we are in Christ and living a life with God (which is also the same in the first half of life).

It isn’t just that adding Jesus to everything makes it better. Happiness, success, and purpose are core to what it means to be human. In some sense, they are relative concepts. You might be happier, more successful, and have a stronger sense of purpose when applying the lessons from this book, but they are ultimately secondary to the larger questions about identity that need to be addressed first.

The second critique, which is common to many self-help books, is that the main points could have been summarized in about the quarter of the length. Much of the additional content was anecdotal and didn’t add much value to the overall message.

From Strength to Strength – Evaluation

At best, From Strength to Strength provides a pragmatic way of thinking about shifting the types of contributions one can make in a professional setting as they enter the second half of life. Instead of providing many innovative new ideas on a new project, you may add more value by providing context and instruction based on decades of accumulated experience. If you are looking for a paradigm for finding true and lasting meaning in life, this will fail to satisfy.