Most people work very hard to stay exactly where they are.
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“Our Verdict: Get It! A thoughtful and often funny take on self-improvement ideas that looks at the many tales we tell ourselves.” – indie@kirkusreviews.com
WHAT KIRKUS SAID
As featured in the October 2026 edition of Kirkus Reviews
Professionals and laypeople alike will find the book very amusing … The book’s dry humor is appealing, upending traditional self-improvement narratives with the undeniable statement that “Anyone can arrive nowhere.” It’s a conceit that puts a bright light on how people rationalize a lack of personal progress, which may yield some keen personal insights. Overall, it’s a light, readable, and enjoyable work for professionals and those who enjoy self-help manuals but are looking for a different approach.
indie@kirkusreviews.com
THE BOOK
A life insurance salesman has been detailing the current state of the economy ever since a podcast explained it to him. He never asked the woman across the table what she does for a living. She works at the Kansas City Fed.
An executive assistant can read her boss’s silence from the far end of the office. His coffee order is open on her phone before he asks for it. Her crisis is on hold, waiting for an opening on the calendar.
A professional declutterer asks a widow whether her husband’s shirt has earned its place. She has never once asked herself about the five other people in the booth where she has sat every month for 26 years.
Nobody in this book is going anywhere. Any one of them can tell you exactly how to get there.
Arriving Nowhere is a complete guide to staying exactly where you are. 20 chapters. 20 American cities. A narrator so warm and so reasonable you will not notice what he is doing until it is done. There are five territories to hold, and he will teach you all of them.
A Mind Worth Wasting. A mind is the finest instrument you will ever own. Dottie plays hers constantly. Every grievance filed, dated, and still appreciating. A virtuoso at the art of grudge collecting.
A Body Worth Overruling. The body has opinions about everything and never stops sharing them. Frankie’s knee has been filing the same complaint for months. She reads it, uh-huhs it, and moves on.
Relationships Worth Ruining. Anyone can walk away from a friendship. Gael has perfected the slow withdrawal, so carefully conducted that no single moment can ever be pointed to.
A Future Worth Sabotaging. The past and present won’t budge an inch. The future is open, adjustable, and never makes a peep when you steal from it. Sam knows the better option is coming. That’s why the shortlist never gets shorter.
A Soul Worth Starving. Mei-Lin works air traffic control, where silence on the frequency means something has gone wrong. Nine years in, she has not let a room go quiet either. The quiet is where you would have to notice what you want and what you owe yourself.
Not one of these people is a disaster. They are accomplished, well-liked, and better at this than anyone has ever given them credit for.
This book doesn’t tell you what to do. You already know. It simply makes it considerably harder to pretend that you don’t.
WHO I AM
I hold a doctorate in educational leadership and have spent more than a decade inside the research on adult learning, psychology, and behavioral change, which is a formal way of saying I have read and edited an alarming number of studies about why people do the things they do and then keep doing them. My work has spanned six continents, which leaves Antarctica as unfinished business. I have won awards for my research and academic editing and helped a fair number of others win theirs. Still, I am proudest of the quieter wins: doctoral students who finally typed the last sentence of their dissertations and researchers who saw their work in print after years of “almost.” As a first-generation college, master’s, and doctoral graduate, my focus has been learning to help people notice the patterns they cannot quite see in themselves, which turned out to be unusually good training for writing a book that declines, on principle, to help anyone.
Rest assured, I am not a guru. I have no five-step framework. I have lost all interest in telling other people how to live.
Being human is good. Let’s enjoy it.
TWO MORE THINGS
Speaking. I’ve spent a lifetime translating difficult ideas for live audiences, from university lecture halls to classrooms, team meetings, and corporate events. Every room is different. The goal stays the same: say something true in a way people actually want to hear, and make it fun.
Reader-Response Study. I’m running a formal study on whether and how this book moves anyone. It is anonymous, takes about ten minutes, and exists because I would rather have evidence than assume ideas change people. If you have read the book, I would like to hear what happened.
CONTACT
If something here resonates with you, I’d be happy to hear from you. If not, that’s OK. Just close the link and find someone you agree with.
doug@unchartedpublishing.com