This book gave me the courage to take responsibility in my life and start working towards things which are important for myself. As the author once said, you don't get not to pay a price, you only get what price to pay.
It actually gave me the courage to leave Berlin and go back to my country(Romania) which even though is more poor and low in quality of public services, my friends and family are there and they are a priority for me right now.
It also thought me to make small changes in my every day life even though is something as small as cleaning my room. And these small changes give me enough confidence to pursue bigger ones like quitting smoking for good.
Peterson also gave a presentation about his book for those who are interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5RCmu-HuTg
He's dedicated his life in trying to explain why the atrocities of the 20th century happened and how they can be prevented. I believe he sees our rejection of religion as part of the problem but he understands that the way religion has been presented in modern times (last few centuries) is completely alienating given the rise of science. So he uses science to attempt to give a new meaning to the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of western society. I'd say the biggest precursors to his work are Darwin and Carl Jung.
Looking at what he published it seems he dedicated most of his life to researching the effects of alcoholism.
Also would you mind expanding on how he uses science to give new meaning to the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of Western society?
The first lecture should give you a good idea, but if you're looking for discussion, I'd be willing to have it but we'd be here for hours. We'd have to get into philosophy and define terms like "science", "God", "society", etc. We'd then have to explore psychology and models of consciousness, like Jungian archetypes and Freud's subconscious. We could also cover biology and how some substances trigger spiritual experiences that have positive life-changing effects. All the while, we could relate these discussions to the stories of the Bible or chapters of the Tao Te Ching and why they are both at the very least profound and contagious.
I don't think you have to fully understand or agree with him. In large, I don't. Your paragraph, though, is a gross deliberate misunderstanding of his view. :(
Again, I don't necessarily agree. In large, I think he is familiar with a different nihilism than I am. I grant, however, that he probably knows the topics better than I. I certainly plan to dive deeper on it. In large because I disagree.
I might be wrong but it doesn't sound like you've really read his material beyond 12 Rules for Life. It doesn't necessitate believing in something that does not exist but it will at least leave you with a deep respect for your subconscious and for the collective subconscious. That's enough to understand the value of religious stories. Once you're there, belief in God is your own business... it's not even clear if he believes in God and I'd say it's barely relevant.
You might try reading the book Sapiens by Noah Yuval Harari. Among other things, it shows how intersubjective realities such as human rights, religion, and money make civilization work, whether or not the objects of those stories 'exist'.
In his view, the value of the Bible is not as a pre-scientific historical account of the world. Instead, it's a survival guide for generations of people (who had no concept of science anyway) told in story form.
When I look at his religious metaphors in that light, they seem relevant and meaningful in the context of his 12 Rules.
I think we stand to learn quite a bit from reading the Christian bible, but I didn't walk away feeling like anyone should emulate the behavior on display.
I think he would be delighted if he got more people to go to the sources. I could, of course, be wrong.
I did enjoy his reading of his book. And I will admit that I found some of the ideas more compelling than I would have thought seeing them on paper. In particular, the religious overtones are somewhat offputting to me, on paper. Will see how I feel about them after a few day's reflection.
To the point of this post, however. If he his being pushed as a savior of some sort, I agree that is misguided. However, based on their merits, many of the arguments were compelling and I'm interested to see where they can be taken.
So, to that end, I'm not sure what the criticism "he's just cashing in" has to do offer here. What, exactly, are you accusing him of? Successfully presenting his arguments? Is that really such a bad thing?
Oddly, he just seems like an author, to me. If he is a figurehead, I missed that there was a movement. Is there more subtext to this? I assumed he just had a good seller. Oddly, many people can and do lay claim to that honor. It neither diminishes nor distinguishes it.
I have not reformulated my understanding of the rules. Definitely plan to.
Regardless, I second all you put here. Good luck on your decisions!
IMO The next closest thing - in terms of creating introspection - is a psychedelic / psychotropic experience with accompanying ego-death [1].
I am interested to know, how often when you face a situation, you stop and think, oh I read this and that in a book, I should act this way instead of my natural intuition to do the other way.
Given the limited experience with life I have and the fact that I haven't read any of the self-help books, I am willing to change my perspective regarding this. Will give a shot to '12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.'
[0] => "It’s Okay to “Forget” What You Read" https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/its-okay-to-forget-w...
This of course won't work.
But reading a book, finding a usefull tool in it, and practicing it until it become a part of your skills is possible.
The way to change behavior is to actually change something and consistently practice that change.
It requires a great deal of commitment. Progress is generally slow. Set backs happen.
But if you actually change something and make it a diligent practice eventually it will be part of who you are.
There are a huge amount of people that read/share/talk about feel good life change quotes/books/etc that are doing nothing more than playing psychological tricks on themselves while avoiding the hard discouragingly long process that is required to make actual changes.
I wouldn't classify 12 Rules of life as a typical 'self-help' book because Peterson is not a self-proclaimed self-help guru without any substance.
If you check his career section on Wikipedia you'll find out that "Peterson's areas of study and research are in the fields of psychopharmacology, abnormal, neuro, clinical, personality, social, industrial and organizational, religious, ideological, political, and creativity psychology. Peterson has authored or co-authored more than a hundred academic papers. Peterson has over 20 years of clinical practice, seeing 20 people a week, but in 2017, he decided to put the practice on hold because of new projects."
And he doesn't try to sell you the idea that life is beautiful and amazing, he actually agrees that life is tragic and brutal.
> I always have a feeling that you just cannot sum up all the things to be "happy" or "content" or whatever in one book
I agree to that. You cannot sum up all the things which make you happy or more content, but you can follow principles which increase the probability of success in what you want to do, such as "be a bit better tomorrow in some minor way"[1]
> I am interested to know, how often when you face a situation, you stop and think, oh I read this and that in a book, I should act this way instead of my natural intuition to do the other way.
Not every time, but more often than before reading that book. For example, I've read Feeling Good: The new mood therapy(another great book with a self-helpish title) and after reading that book I really started to put in practice some exercises in that book which by now they became almost automatic. For so much time I was a victim of cognitive distortions and now I finally found a way to beat them. And not only me. [3]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz2tYGt0_As
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/0380...
1. the whole nature is based on preying on the weak, and that's mandatory for survival; right now some animal "kid" is being eaten alive by some predator without "empathy" of any kind
2. at this very moment some person that might be relatable to you in some special way (like a perfect fit for a friend or partner) is having a really bad day, like dying-bad
3. the amount of sophistication in cheating each other might be one of the main factors in developing many forms of language, behavior or even science
4. health statistics aren't about others; they are all about me and you, we all are going to end up in one category or the other; often we have no say in it as our destruction is already programmed inside us
5. whatever you worked on hard all your life can be gone from one moment to another; earthquake, volcanic eruption, storm or even divorce can strike any time
6. even if you dedicate your life to something amazing, become rich, respected, adored or die a heroic death before you turn a villain, at best you will be a short, quite pointless remark in the history notes; however most likely you will be as important as a dust speck
7. excitement of novelty wears off quickly if you become a hedonist; going ascetic to lowest lows so that you can reach highest highs again will become pointless at some point as well and nothing will move you anymore
8. even if you believe in afterlife, vast majority of religions will tell you that almost everyone ends up in some sort of hell or won't make it to the "next stage of game"
We choose to be unhappy. By fixating on our wants, our worries, our anxieties, or desires, by refusing to be happy unless everything is exactly what and how we want, we don't let our body and our mind be. I think it's only when we let go of our destructive thoughts, when we let go of what has been and what will be, and just live in the present, in the moment, that we can experience a real state of happiness.
It sounds esoteric and counter-intuitive, I know. But just consider the thought. I personally find this to be more and more true the older I get.
Assuming you won the birth lottery (no terminal illness, overall healthy, work in tech given you're on HN), then you are in the top echelon of society and success.
There are many things to be happy about e.g. volunteering to give back, settling down with a significant other, starting a family (or not), traveling the world, cooking, fixing cars, shooting guns, etc. While you partake in these activities (hobbies?) you can get lost in them and for brief moment, nothing else in the world matters i.e. your list. This gives you something to look forward to and a routine away from existential ideation.
Humans are social creatures and we've evolved this way. Generally speaking the majority of us derive happiness from the ones we care about in this weird thing we call life. Thanks for sharing the list!
In my view, searching for happiness is a bit pointless in a world where everything is temporary and brutal in many ways. But there are things which you know you can avoid to not make your life a living hell(Peterson's words) such as doing excessive drugs and alcohol. As Charlie Munger used to say once is much easier to try to not be stupid than trying to be smart. I totally agree with that. After avoiding things which will make you miserable for sure, it all comes down to probability: it's still probable that life will f*ck you up in a grand way no matter how many good things you did. Just hope for the best and be very grateful if you're life is not a living hell now. Meaning is very important. Life itself is meaningless but we get to decide what it will mean in the end. When I decided to leave a good career to move back to a poor country because I wanted to be close to my family I gave a meaning to my life, which is "family is important to me and I will prioritize it no matter what".
Lastly, Peterson book is not about searching for happiness, is just a readme manual about dealing with chaos. Some ideas are not necessarily mind blowing, one can find good tips in stoicism, buddhism or whatever religion or philosophy. But his book can be a start.
IMO any book can be categorized as "self-help" - most business books I read, psychology books, biographies, etc, I read to enjoy, and the best ones (the ones I tend to enjoy the most and remember) are those that I'm changed by (ie. improved) in some way.
People get too caught up in labeling things instead of trying it out and seeing it works for you. You can read (for example) a celebrity gossip magazine and finish with great personal insights - the probability is just low - but if you do, awesome! Same goes with "self-help" books.
I also think it's highly dependent on timing. A book one year may have no meaning to you in one moment but be life changing in a future moment. It's the difference between reading things applicable to your situation now vs future need - the former approach is generally much better.
- It sorely needed an editor. Echoing other's sentiments, it could have been < 1/3 of its length. The writing style was rambling, overly emphatic, and arguments were often not coherent.
- It used a gratuitous amount of Bible quotes, which
1. weren't necessary to make his point,
2. were often referenced as if they were data, and how people actually behave, rather than anecdotes/fiction
In retrospect, though, part of what makes him a compelling public speaker are his highly emotional arguments, which don't seem to be founded on great reasoning, and therefore make for a bad book, since we have more time to be critical about arguments when reading.
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Au...
https://www.amazon.com/Senecas-Letters-Stoic-Thrift-Editions...
No, it's not. Stoicism has much more depth and the Stoics would not agree with Peterson on many things. Stoicism also doesn't need to be updated.
Adam Sandler has earned people more money from movies than almost anyone. That doesn't mean Anthony Hopkins needed an update.
I originally thought his critique of postmodernism/continental philosophy and stuff was interesting, reminiscent of chomsky
His thesis on alcoholism is interesting, clearly he's atleast a decent psychologist. Reminds me of my aunt, psychologist at U. of Missouri, really interested in carl jung and religion.
IQ testing and personality tests always seemed broken to me. What is IQ measuring? Personality tests seem like arbitary categories. All of this is based on frequentist statistics (factor analysis), wonder if there's a bayesian perspective but I have no idea what i'm talking about honestly, especially compared to Peterson.
I can't stand his economic views, they're similar to Joe Rogan's "classical liberal"/market fundamentalist views. I like Kevin Carson's word: vulgar libertarianism:
"Vulgar libertarian apologists for capitalism use the term 'free market' in an equivocal sense: they seem to have trouble remembering, from one moment to the next, whether they’re defending actually existing capitalism or free market principles. So we get [a] standard boilerplate article… arguing that the rich can’t get rich at the expense of the poor, because 'that’s not how the free market works'— implicitly assuming that this is a free market. When prodded, they’ll grudgingly admit that the present system is not a free market, and that it includes a lot of state intervention on behalf of the rich. But as soon as they think they can get away with it, they go right back to defending the wealth of existing corporations on the basis of 'free market principles.'"
1. Do you regularly apply some of these rules in your life?
2. What arguments were not logical in your view?
"Jordan Peterson's popularity is the sign of a deeply impoverished political and intellectual landscape"
[1] https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-d...
You can figure out for yourself, watch this debate and tell me if Peterson is the type of person described in the article.
I promise I'll read your full article beyond the first paragraph :)
Things are busy at work today, but I'll check it out when I have some time. If you could point me to a shorter clip within the almost 2 hours video, I will be more likely to look at it.
Quite fascinating discussion, like watching a match of intellectual boxing :)
> Jordan Peterson appears very profound and has convinced many people to take him seriously. Yet he has almost nothing of value to say.
The irony of this is that the author himself has nothing of real value to say. (See, I said it so it must be true)
But then I realized much of what he is saying is true - and it personally hits my ego in such a way that the reaction is pretty much revulsion/dismissal.
Can it be written more concisely? Probably. But he is an academic afterall...
FWIW: If you enjoy his lecture style / cadence - try his Audiobook version. I would likely have a tough time with reading his book - but the audiobook format delivers like his youtube lectures, which IMO are very well done.
Peterson's thesis is something like the following: that the early biblical stories constitute a kind of dominant eigenvector of human cognition and experience, what you get when you iteratively retell a story over a hundred generations.
To dismiss this as anecdotes or fiction is very much to miss the point of what Peterson is trying to do.
I am certainly pro-Bible, but in the terms you're putting it here it doesn't seem especially compelling.
So like every self help book ever?
No wonder people are getting insights out of the book. It is practically impossible not to!
'My Struggle' by knausgard. Lengthy but worth it, even if you only read book 1. On face it's just the angst of some middle class writer, but following him into the recesses of his own introspection is really something.
The borderlands trilogy, Cormac McCarthy. This guy tackles major existential questions in his fairly simple (but dark) stories. it'd help to have basic grasp of Spanish for these books
And maybe my favorite book, Lullabies for little criminals by Heather O'Neill. It's about a little girl who's being raised by a junky and is coerced into prostitution. Obviously a very dark premise, but the way the protagonist experiences it made me think a lot about resilience, relative hardship,etc.
THe thing I find funny about this is that many of the "STEM legends" such as von Neumann, Ulam, Einstein and others had read a lot of classical literature. Einstein himself is quoted saying: "Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss." I just make sure I give this quote only when there are no number theorists in the room.
Sure, if one just confines oneself to the "popular" works on a standard YA list, it may be reasonable to conclude that some fiction is not worth reading for a STEM person. However, the classics are classics for a reason after all.
Moreover, it is also not implausible that a discerning eye can find plenty of great worth in modern authors as well, something the parent has done.
Edit: he may manage to become not a moron in the future, I just mean that I would proceed under the assumption that he is at this time a moron.
- The Tao Te Ching, especially Ron Hogan's translation (freely downloadable here: http://beatrice.com/wordpress/tao-te-ching)
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jean-Dominique Bauby
- Getting Things Done, David Allen
- Gimp, Marc Zupan
- Thinking in Systems, Donella Meadows
- Leadership Step by Step, Joshua Spodek (full disclosure: me, https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Step-Become-Person-Others/...)
The suggestion I consider more valuable is to focus more on active behavior than relatively passive reading. Of course, still read. But it's easy to read more and more, telling yourself you're getting more perspective. You are, but nothing changes your perspective like actually moving.
Even if you don't know what will work best -- meditation, fitness, art, music, travel, cooking, gardening, starting a business, etc -- starting with something, even if you soon abandon it, will lead you to things you love and that develop you faster than reading alone. Plus activity will make what you read more meaningful.
I include my book because it's specifically a book of exercises that lead to developing social and emotional skills designed to build on each other.
This, I believe, is the true answer to the OPs question. I suffer from an illusion, very common I think, that in order to get better at something, be it C++, life, or interactions with your SO, one has to first collect information and experiences from other people. Not that this is the wrong thing to do, but it has to be interleaved with acting on the information.
Think of reading books (or, in general, information collection) as earning money. What are you going to do with all that money in the bank? It's a means, right? To what end?
A quote I repeat many times a year from to myself _why: "When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability."
Generally, what I've found is that most helpful introspection books say a lot about getting out of one's own head and focusing on one's relationship with others (and, for the religious, one's relationship with God).
There are definitely parts that are a slog, especially in the Old Testament, and just picking it up and reading it be tough, especially since it's so long.
You might enjoy just starting with a more focused set of books -- as I mentioned, Ecclesiastes is great. Job is another well-loved bit of wisdom literature. Mark is the shortest gospel and a primary source for two of the others (also, because it was written for a gentile audience, it doesn't assume a lot of familiarity with the OT the way something like Matthew does). Esther and Judges are two that I think are good just from a narrative/excitement perspective.
I hope this a not mean response, I just view the Bible as an inherently different document than most Christians, I think, and I want to establish dialogue outside of my little bubble.
I won't claim it's impossible to comport yourself morally without being an adherent of any religion, but the Christian faith offers a more comprehensive framework to think about our relationship to the world and other people that I think is valuable.
For instance, beggar on the street. I can feel morally okay by saying "They might not really be in need, just doing this to get extra money; I'll donate to organizations dedicated to helping homeless instead". But from my Christian perspective it changes, "Why am I judging this person's need? Who knows how much those organizations will help this individual person, who is here now, asking for help. Maybe they don't need it, but maybe they do. Would I rather risk a mouth going hungry, or risk 'wasting' giving a dollar to someone who has enough?", and I give the dollar. Or better yet, say "Wait, why is my time so valuable? Am I really in so much of a hurry? Why don't I see if I can buy this person a meal and talk to them for a bit".
Now, I can certainly see people aligning their basic axioms to arrive at this same decision without an appeal to religion...I just know that for me, I wouldn't. Without a belief in a God who I know values them as much as me, and wants me to help them, I have no reason to push back against my own selfish rationalizations. I might still donate, but then it's just to absolve myself of any guilt I might have (which is also the goal of the rationalizations, really). For me, the belief in God compels me to move past just absolving my guilt, and instead leads me to ask how I can show love.
You might make the case that this is just another form of guilt, and maybe it is (certainly, doing nothing leaves me feeling just as guilty), but it feels qualitatively different. A begrudging giving of a dollar compared with actually engaging with the person leads to two very different feelings, and I know I never choose the latter without an appeal to religion. Again, for me; YMMV.
The fundamental message we can take, in my interpretation, is that every human being is deeply flawed and yet had inherent dignity and worth, regardless of nationality, status, wealth, etc., and that it is the duty of a Christian to keep these things in sight and help his fellow man. Not necessarily in dramatic or obvious ways, but as a general inclination. Of course there are a lot more details but I think this is the core.
Of course you might object that you don't necessarily have to be Christian to believe those things, but looking around you'll see many examples of behavior driven by different axioms (and given the environment Christianity came to exist in, a message about the dignity of the poor would actually have been going seriously against general trends).
This isn't as clear as I'd hoped but I hope it gives some idea of where I'm coming from.
Since you are a scientist, I'll mention I thought this Feynman talk was astute. http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/49/2/Religion.htm
0. Pew paper, no longer available.. so wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20090304020453/http://pewforum.o... There's probably more up to date poll on this somewhere though.
1. http://news.gallup.com/poll/210704/record-few-americans-beli...
Just on the face of it, there are 'books' in the Bible meant as history, books meant as 'self-help', despondent mullings on the meaning of life, a love letter, personal recountings, letters written to others...these are all kinds of authors and approaches here, and so it strikes me as silly to take all of them literally. I mean, Jesus is quoted as saying "Go tell that fox", when speaking of Herod; there is no other mention of Herod being anything other than human. Clearly, if the Christian message is to be taken as truth, it shows that God is able to speak in metaphor (as well as interesting translation differences; for instance, the word for 'day' in the creation story is a word with a number of translations ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom )
So, how do things that seem antiquated apply now? Well, some parts of it -are- antiquated, in that they were meant for a specific time, and not now. Chesterton had a number of beautiful assertions in his book Orthodoxy, to the effect that Christianity is necessarily paradoxical, because -people- are paradoxical. To take that here, from my perspective (and there are many) morality can be both absolute and relativistic; what is 'good' is absolute, but what is treated as 'good' at a given time is relative to that time. You know that slavery is evil, but could you go back 4000 years and convince people of that? No. You would just alienate them, and likely get yourself killed. But you -could- convince them to at least treat their slaves better. You could design a moral code that would in time lead to them stopping slavery, by just introducing the idea that slaves are humans, with rights. If we credit the idea there is a God, and that evolution is a thing that that God uses, then the idea of allowing a moral idea to evolve into a fuller fulfillment of itself, over time, as people think, and talk, and develop, is an unsurprising thing for that God to do.
As to stoning adulterers, and a number of similar things; don't misunderstand what was a legal code with a moral one. Yes, it was influenced by morals (same as our own law is), but the punishment was a legal code to be adopted by a people, and was a symptom of the time. No Christian but the most fundamental would say we, now, should adopt stoning as the appropriate punishment for adultery. Interestingly, the Bible makes it clear "the wages of sin (is) death", but that that's a moral issue between man and God. Any actual judgement indicated to be carried out between men is toward a legal system, and its rationale is much the same as our own, to prevent people from doing it and/or to allow for carrying out some semblance of imperfect justice (since flawed man judging flawed man will necessarily be imperfect).
Similarly, many of the Old Testament rules were particular to the context of the time, and can only be understood in understanding the culture at that time. For why not wearing a diverse set of fabrics, have a look here - https://www.gotquestions.org/different-types-of-fabric.html
It was basically in response to the above poster saying the Old Testament proscribed stoning for adultery; yes, but that isn't a moral statement that that -should- be, forevermore, the punishment for it, and being a Christian doesn't mean you have to believe adulterers should be stoned. Rather, it was a legal statement for that time, that that was the punishment to be carried out.
24% of the US believes the bible is the literal word of god[0].
Knowing some evangelicals personally... they would say Herod literally told the fox. Through god Herod was able to speak to the fox.
Remember, in adam and eve, the snake and eve have a conversation. So clearly it is possible that animals can talk. Many christians believe adam and eve is a literal telling of what happened.
0. http://news.gallup.com/poll/210704/record-few-americans-beli...
The passage is -
At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.'
There's basically three ways to take that passage (across translations, I might add, though I don't know the aramaic); either Herod was a literal fox, there was a random fox that Jesus in a complete non-sequitor pointed to and told the Pharisees to talk to ("Talk to the fox because the Lord isn't listening" I guess?), or Jesus showed that metaphor is totes a thing the Christian God understands and uses (which would make sense given all the parables and whatnot).
I believe in inerrancy, which sometimes means literalism, but sometimes doesn't, because it comes down to intent. The Bible isn't a science textbook, so there's room for allegory and hyperbole, but it can only go so far, so some issues, like "was there a real Adam and Eve", or "was there a flood that wiped out all of humanity except Noah and friends" would, in my view, cross that boundary, and so I do believe they happened.
Underneath this worldview are presuppositions about the nature of reality. Christians believe in a natural order - that the world works in a certain way - and that God created it that way and sustains it. But that doesn't rule out God's ability to interfere with his creation. Since, in the Christian understanding, such events are unusual, they aren't discoverable via Science.
So Christianity is anti-scientific only if you believe the only real knowledge is scientific knowledge (logical positivism). There are serious philosophical problems when it comes to this worldview, even if you're not religious. (It doesn't do a particularly good job of explaining science itself for example)
I highly recommend "Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism" by Alvin Plantinga for a serious philosophical approach to this problem.
As to your second point about morality. I actually agree with you. In my view the Bible is not really about morality, in the sense of a bunch of rules and guidance for life, but rather the Bible presents a grand narrative about the nature of the world we live in:
- We were born good and free but Adam and Eve through their sin brought ruin and death to all creation and drove a wedge between us and God. - Not satisfied to see us destroyed, God came up with a plan to save us instead. - That plan starts with Abraham and the nation of Israel, but is all intended as a foretaste of the ultimate fulfillment to be found in Christ. - Christ, as the second Adam, pays the penalty for Sin, thus allowing the severed relationship with God to be re-established, and freeing humanity from the power of sin and death - Christians live near the end of this story, in the "already" and "not yet" before Christ comes again
So morality is important, but not so much for the rules, but for what it tells us about God. In the Protestant tradition, the purpose of the law is in 3 parts: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Gospel)
1. "[W]hile it shows God's righteousness . . . , it warns, informs, convicts, and lastly condemns, every man of his own unrighteousness" (2.7.6). 2. It functions "by fear of punishment to restrain certain men who are untouched by any care for what is just and right unless compelled by hearing the dire threats in the law" (2.7.10). 3. "It admonishes believers and urges them on in well-doing" (2.7.12-13).
And its that first part which is so vital. The laws exist to show how sinful we are and why we need a savior.
- subtleties in language that don't translate well
- not catching hyperbole or idioms (like know=sex or foot=penis)
- genre confusion (is revelation apocalyptic poetry or literal history)
- expecting too much precision from a text (is 40 days actually 40 days?)
- similar, bringing my cultural assumptions about the nature of the text... graphocentrism applied to an oral culture, reading into it guilt instead of seeing honor and shame, expecting word-for-word quotes, when in the ancient world historians had different standards, etc
- not paying close attention to the literary quality of the text (information is carefully chosen and presented by the author, not haphazardly thrown together, and to really understand the text you have to dig deep)
- one that's really hit home for me recently: there are typological dimensions to the text... events are shaped by what the author is trying to tell you. For example the beginning of John is full of temple imagery and language which is arguing for a deeper meaning to the purpose of the Old Testament and how its fulfilled in Christ. Events would likely look very different from how they're presented if you were a casual observer.
It might look like adding all these things together doesn't look an awful lot like inerrancy, but at least my goal is to try and find out what the text is really saying, and once I feel like I figured that out, then I'll take it quite seriously, even if its hard...
Did you have a particular story in mind?
In my opinion, it's a mistake to think of biblical stories or any other stories for that matter as literal truth. For example, God created the world in six days and on the seventh He rested. But what is six days? Is it six 24-hour, Earth-space days? Is it six undefined periods called "days" so readers can digest it? There are so many details one can pick out and focus on, and we as humans are excellent at fixating on minute details that aren't important.
The problem with this of course is that any organized religion will have misconceptions that are true-ish. What I mean by that is best explained by a phrase tossed around a lot in the LDS church: "Christ is perfect but His servants are not," and topics such as personal modesty are often conflated with being righteous. What I'm getting at with all this is that if you truly dive into Christ's teachings and the rules he strictly taught are few and far between; most teachings are the parables that are good life lessons on serving others.
The parable of the ten virgins is an excellent example. Basically, it's a metaphor that suggests that half of God's people will be unprepared for His coming. Okay, that's easy, but what does unprepared mean? Well, Christ taught that we need to be baptized. Alright, but what else do I need to do? Well, he taught that rich man he should give up everything and follow Christ. Uh, but I have a family to support and feed, and I'm pretty sure I can't do that. I'll figure out what I can do to serve my spouse and children and family and neighbors and do that.
That's what I find being a disciple of Christ is about. The Gospel is essentially 1) faith in Christ, 2) repentance, and 3) baptism. Everything else is about you figuring out what it is for you to be a better person for those around you, and that makes you a servant of God.
The moral side of the Bible is a side affect of growing closer to, and following the teachings of, Jesus.
I'd also say that one of the things that non-fundamentalist Christians have done particularly poorly in popular culture in the last 30 years is discuss how the Bible we have was written to a different culture than ours, and taking it 'literally' means stripping it from much of the intended meaning. You asked about creationism and the big bang, here's a book you could possibly be interested in, by a scholar of Genesis, discussing how the text of Genesis is not intended as a scientific document. It's called The Lost World of Genesis One, by John Walton (https://www.amazon.com/Lost-World-Genesis-One-Cosmology/dp/0...).
Now, as you work through the Bible, Old and New, attempt to see if pictures in the old testament portray this one message, using Jesus as a lens. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typology_(theology) for some examples.
There are Bibles with the references to Jesus in the Old Testament highlighted, which will help you do this. The Jesus-Centered Bible [0] has allusions made to Jesus in the Old Testament printed in blue text and is probably the most useful for doing this. The Gospel Transformation Bible: Christ in all of Scripture [1] has extensive footnotes showing the message of Jesus in the narrative and poetry that precedes him by hundreds of years.
[0]: https://www.christianbook.com/nlt-jesus-centered-bible-leath... [1]: https://www.amazon.com/ESV-Gospel-Transformation-Bible-Black...
Here's another from them that answers "what exactly _is_ the Bible?" for anyone curious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CGP-12AE0
Alzheimer's victims know what they lost, until rather late in the disease. It's part of what makes it a hell.
Act Four, A physicist with dementia details the process of understanding an analog clock.
Also, I am working on a page on A Philosophy of Loneliness (https://www.popmatters.com/a-philosophy-of-loneliness-by-lar...) and finally I would suggest "Trust the Process" (https://www.shambhala.com/trust-the-process-1598.html)
All these somehow helped me in dealing with personal issues and/or provide some adjustment to my views.
Finally, maybe this one might help, too https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89200.Pragmatics_of_Huma... (I read it in Italian and many years ago, the current edition is probably updated).
Mostly the bits about how our society is mostly built on collective fictions.
2. Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse
I remember being very moved reading this, but I can't quite remember why.
Looks like it's time to re-read it.
I couldn't follow him in all his conclusions, namely the hunter gatherer worship, that things were in a sense better for them.
But it's probably in the top 3 books I've ever read, best in the last 5 years.
I think it's the unfolding of someone who sought knowledge and enlightenment throughout his life and the feeling of impotence he felt when sharing knowledge that can only be transmitted/obtained through life experiences.
You have to live life in order to be enlighted. He always "knew it" in reality, but he didn't have the life experience to really know it.
Elders knowledge won't do it - you can't live/experience life through others experiences/knowledge.
After some age, I think we tend to relate to this because we recall people trying to pass knowledge to us and it never clicked until we lived such events. After that, everything gets a new dimension.
If you like graphic novels, the ending of "Asterios Polyp" made me gasp and put the book down and walk outside to mull it all over.
In the 20th anniversary edition I have, the author spends the full preface admitting as much by explaining that people who've reviewed the book don't seem to understand its message:
“Needless to say, this widespread confusion has been quite frustrating to me over the years, since I felt sure I had spelled out my aims over and over in the text itself. Clearly, however, I didn't do it sufficiently often, or sufficiently clearly.”
He then attempts to outline the principle thesis:
“…GEB is a very personal attempt to say how it is that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter.”
“Very personal” is right — the book reads like a fever dream of tangential scribbled notes compiled into an ~800 page tome, only loosely coupled to the notion of how animate things come to be.
It is still interesting and brilliant and challenging and worth skimming if not reading in its entirety, but do not expect it to be instantly enlightening or full of take-aways.
The great thing about GEB is that Hofstadter basically assumes no prior knowledge from the beginning of the book - he just asks that you pay close attention and exercise your analytical mind. You'll then soon start to notice the patterns, jokes and puzzles in the writing, and how they all relate very closely to the ideas presented in the book.
Note: the book isn't necessarily out to prove anything, and if you're looking for a massive 'aha!' moment towards the end of the book, you'll probably be disappointed. It's just an incredible journey down the recursive rabbit-hole that ties together mathematics, formal logic, linguistics, biology, computer science and loads more all through the extremely deliberate use of language throughout.
It still blows my mind, but requires a good amount of concentration, re-reading and note-taking - which seems fair enough as I can't even imagine how long it took Hofstadter to write!
I only mention this because it hurts to see people waste weeks of their lives trying to appreciate something under duress (be it literature, music, art) or under the belief that the fault is with them rather than simply accepting their lack of any natural affinity for the thing they are studying.
Sometimes it is worth working to appreciate things that are alien to you to stretch the mind, but other times it's perfectly fine to accept that a cultural artefact just might not be for you; that there is nothing wrong with the way you have been consuming it. It frees you to move on and find something new.
Personally I found it very informative and interesting - though not ‘enlightening’. I did stop reading it for a while and found it difficult to pick up the thread again though.
Helped me see the limitations of rationality, rigor, and measurement.
Edit: For me 'Information' by Glieck was very good, as it summed up the logical 'journey of man' as a struggle to refine signal to noise. When interpreting math/logic as such, I was floored and a lot of things made more sense to me.
It's worth the read, 100%.
The book is here for free: http://www.hpmor.com/
In it you have a father who is a religious leader and transitions out of the religion to a more atheistic view and his daughter who becomes holds true to their faith in spite of the evidence and her father.
I saw a lot of myself in that girl and it really brought to light the folly of religion when you step outside of the religious framework. I'm still religious but the book made me think.
The Old Man and the Sea. People either love or hate this book, but it had a profound impact on me.
The Moral Animal, by Robert Wright. Made me consider how much of human behavior can be explained through evolutionary biology.
The Truth, by Neil Strauss. Incredibly vulnerable memoir that will make you reflect on your own relationships and what you want out of them.
In general, I think that you can learn much more from classic fiction than any new business book. Books that have been read & discussed for the past 50+ years have much more staying power and timelessness than a TED talk that led to a publishing deal.
Could you share how this impacted you? I'm one of the people on whom this book fell flat.
I've often questioned if spending 8+ hours a day writing software was the right thing for me to do, when I get so much more gratification from physically manipulating something. It was a welcomed read.
I'm frequently disappointed by really good ideas that could be presented in a dozen pages being stretched to occupy 200 (e.g. Deep Work)
It has really changed the way I see life and face adversity.
It is very short and easy to read, despite being quite old, and contains actual down to earth wisdom about life
It somehow goes quite well with the teachings of Frankl, if you replace "God" by meaning.
> With regard to whatever objects either delight the mind or contribute to use or are tenderly beloved, remind yourself of what nature they are, beginning with the merest trifles: if you have a favorite cup, that it is but a cup of which you are fond of—for thus, if it is broken, you can bear it; if you embrace your child or your wife, that you embrace a mortal—and thus, if either of them dies, you can bear it.
Some of the advice is sublime, like this. (And some isn't, but it's a book worth reading.)
Marcus Aurelius's Meditations reads like the daily thoughts of someone attempting to live according to Epictetus's handbook. (Obviously, they're both Stoic works, but they make a better pairing than that alone would make you expect.)
List of 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century
https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/enter/books/book372.htm
And just a heads up. This June brings the arrival of another biography I am very much looking forward to. Matt Polly's definitive Bruce Lee: A Life. Perfect summer beach reading to provide the inspiration for a commitment to discipline!
https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Lee-Life-Matthew-Polly/dp/15011...
The following book had the biggest impact on my world view:
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation, by Thich Nhat Hanh
I personally don't believe in any religious things, and I still don't. But now I look at the world differently.
Buddhism is know for reincarnation, which looks a bit silly to me. But as this book points out, it is not reincarnation, but rebirth in (Zen) Buddhism. Both are completely different. There is nothing silly about rebirth, and it's actually more accurate that how we, as individualistic westerners, view the world.
As someone who loves science, after reading this book, I have a more realistic view on the world than I had before, and than most of my rational friends right now.
The (Zen) Buddhism in this book is not so much a religion with believes, but more a philosophy on how to look at life and the world.
The title doesn't do it justice because it sounds so cliche, but once you read it, you'll actually agree that this DOES cover everything you need to know about economics (although heavily biased towards austrian economics than keynesian)
Also an important side effect: You'll realize how economics is not just some boring, esoteric, and impractical stuff that you'll never need to deal with in your life, but actually essential in designing complex systems.
It does give you a starting point, but the Austrian view isn't in the mainstream for a reason. It introduces just a bit too much bias into novice readers for my taste.
In my case I came from the opposite direction. The first time I learned economics was through conventional lens of what's considered as the "norm" in modern economics, where Austrian economics is largely dismissed for the reason you point out. All economics books do cover Austrian economics but they are still biased against them so if you're a newbie, you come away thinking "OK these classical and Austrian economics theories are interesting in theory but I guess practically they don't work and it's outdated and nowadays it's all about Keynesian".
So coming from this point of view, reading this book did open my eyes, even though I knew exactly what the book talks about even before reading the book. I guess the general tone of the book was very effective in giving me a balanced point of view, since I at the time had a biased view towards Keynesian.
My current point of view is that there is no right or wrong answer, but there is only difference in context. In certain contexts Austrian way of thinking makes more sense, in certain contexts Keynesian makes more sense.
But it's looking more and more likely that it's time for Austrian economics to shine in the next decade, because of trends like globalization, increasing chaos in the world, and cryptocurrency.
I'll also add another vote for The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus and for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
On a darker note, if you had any illusions left, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-yo...
Secondly, the ABC speech (referred to in the article) isn’t meant to be a “compass”, it’s meant to be a motivating speech. (Using threats and abuse, granted.) Note that the speech contains no actual guides, tips, or instructions on how to sell real estate. It’s essentially (paraphrasing) “Do it or you’re fired.” and “I could do it easily, so if you cant do it, you must suck.”
It may not be the best way to convey this particular message in most cases, but I could imagine situations in which it was suitable.
Your off-target criticism of the article by criticizing the ABC speech for something it isn’t reminds me of when the article much later says “So even now, some of you reading this are feeling your brain bombard you with knee-jerk reasons to reject it.”.
>There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.
>You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.
>During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)--while praying to the same God--with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions in the deeds of the 'white' Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.
>But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth--the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to...A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a 'white' man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors--honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King--not a Negro.
(Above are snippets from a letter he wrote. The different portions I quoted are non-contiguous). On his return from that trip he said in a press conference that he is willing to put aside his differences with others and is willing to work with anyone who is dedicated to improving the lives of African Americans.
What I found impressive about him was how much he had changed, and continued to change, throughout his life. He was a deeply introspective person, and continued to refine his thoughts. He was a high school dropout who lived a fairly pathetic lifestyle. And then during his time in prison he decided to make something out of himself. It's impressive how much he changed for the better. I am a very well educated person, but I struggle to achieve what he did in terms of how articulate he became. And most people I personally know simply do not have the courage to continually evaluate their beliefs and change them.
Much of it may have been fueled by hate, but it's also clear his greater goal was always to improve the lives of his kind - hatred was merely a strategy towards that goal. And at some point he realized it didn't need to be part of that goal.
Over a decade ago I had to go on a multi-day road trip and needed something to listen to. So I downloaded all the speeches I could find of his, sorted them chronologically, and listened to them. In some ways they were more impressive than what you see in the book. And the transformation over the years is quite apparent. One other thing that stood out was how well informed he seemed to be about foreign affairs - something neither the book nor the movie points out. He was quite critical of US foreign policy. And he was very skilled at pointing out hypocrisies of the government very openly - something very few people do these days, and frankly, the likely reason many people idolize him.
Of course, he had his flaws - you can find them in Manning Marable's book. His trajectory in a continual positive direction, though, was impressive. He died before he reached his 40th birthday. I have little doubt that he lived another decade or two and had continued on his path of self improvement, he would be a much more revered figure than he is.
The movie's not bad, to be honest. Obviously can't capture everything, but overall does a good job.
If there's a quote to sum up the final third, it's this:
"Brother," he said finally, "remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant -- the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together -- and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?"
"Yes."
"Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping Black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then -- like all [Black] Muslims -- I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me twelve years." [0]
https://antilogicalism.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/wisdom-of...
Watch some of his youtube videos as well - they gave me strength to endure through some tough times.
https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Informal-Meditatio...
https://terebess.hu/english/AlanWatts-On%20The%20Taboo%20Aga...
Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs
The Tao of Pooh
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Tao Te Ching
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity
How the Mind Works
The Design of Everyday Things
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Fiction is harder to pin down. I think, overall, reading fiction has had a greater impact on my understanding of human nature than non-fiction has. But it's diffused over a larger number of books so it's hard to point to specific ones. I think simply reading a large volume of fiction helps me understand all the ways people can live and think.
A book that made me very introspective was David Brook's The Road To Character . It made me ask my self a lot of questions which I have documented here https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/55/david-brooks-humi...
Another book was Paul Kalanathi's When Breath Becomes Air I also copied some quotes, questions, and answers here https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/135/paul-kalanithis-...
I'd recommend reading biographies because they can help you give perspective about how a person leads their life. The ones I found thoroughly fun was Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, Phil Knight's Shoe Dog.
In 2001 I came down with a heart condition. I was 42, had two young kids, a good job, and basically did not know what to do. Spent a lot of nights up at 2 am. I read through the Aubrey-Maturin series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series. On their face, they form an adventure series of historical novels (they fit into a category that Great Britian has, naval fiction). But it seemed to me then and still seems to me now that they are literature, an extended meditation on what it means to be a man.
In any event, they fitted my circumstances. I learned a great deal. They helped me. (I advise starting with the second one, Post Captain.)
But I don't think a person would get much sense of the books from the movie, just as a person would not get all that much sense of an Austen from a hollywood version. (BTW, that's why I suggest the second book in the series for a first try. It is much more like the rest of the series than the first book, in my opinion.)
I guess you could say any book on Stoicism, really, as the others I would mention also fit that bill.
From that point, I pushed myself to live -- got seriously into primitive technology and wilderness survival, traveled to many parts of the world, and did many other things that I previously wasn't able to do. I just found my old copy of Meditations in a box yesterday and plan on reading it again.
I haven't finished it but Foucault's 'Archaeology of knowledge' is enlightening in many ways not least because of its precise language on transformations of fields of knowledge.
I worked, somewhat briefly and largely unsuccessfully, at Bridgewater Associates several years ago and while I strongly disagree with the utopian description of BW as a bastion of egoless radical transparency and all the great things that are supposed to come out of that sort of an environment, the book and the principles behind it are really enlightening. I do honestly think if all workplaces operated in the way the book describes there would be more successful companies in the world and happier people working in them.
1. This Is What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami
Murakami talking about his decision to become an author and also his lifelong hobby of running.
2. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris
Made me laugh for the first time in awhile.
3. The Myth of Sisyphus - Albert Camus
Absurdity.
I find listening to the speech even more chilling: https://youtu.be/8CrOL-ydFMI
Musk is a polarizing figure, no doubt, but what really struck me, at least as presented here, is his vision for the future. That he's not working for money or glory so much as to save the planet and the species. That's a pretty big goal, and a tremendous service to humanity.
More than any book I've read recently, this made me stop and reflect on my own life and what I'm doing with it. I work, primarily, in entertainment, which has its own value, and I try to make a positive, if small, difference in the lives of people around me, but ... nothing like on the scale of what Musk is doing.
This is a pretty indirect suggestion, and nothing in the book advocates this sort of introspection, but it was my profound take-away. Who knows? It might have a similar effect on you.
Fear - Thich Nhat Hanh
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fear-Essential-Wisdom-Getting-Throu...
1) Antifragile by Taleb (Skin in the Game is so far excellent as well) 2) The Border Trilogy by McCarthy 3) The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky 4) East of Eden by Steinbeck 5) Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut
I don't like a lot of his attitude (arrogance) and I'm not sure I'd call them all that well written either. He likes to ramble and seems to cram as many "SAT words" as possible into his writing, even when simpler/more commonly used words would done the job just as well.
With that said, they're some of the books that have made me reconsider the world around me the most and he has a very interesting take on the world.
For me personally however I think Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment more or less informed my world-view from a very young age and continues to do so.
I picked up Crime and Punishment a few years ago, but had to put it down, due to both foreseeable and unforeseeable circumstances. How would you introduce it if you were to recommend it to someone?
Kierkegaard’s Either/Or
Thoreau’s Walden
William Stringfellow’s Impostors of God: Inquiries into Favorite Idols
... and any good poetry.
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
3. Siddhartha
4. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
5. The Blind Watchmaker
Although it can be read in an hour or two, it completely rewrote the way I approach life – particularly by reframing procrastination and idleness.
"You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire"
But that's not really enough to have a media empire and series of books, so the book is larded with all kinds of ridiculous claims, including risible Biblical exegesis, an attribution of various historical atrocities live Kristallnacht to a failure to like In the Now, an extended discourse about how living In the Now can make menstruation a rapturous experience rather than a painful one, and obviously bogus claims about how living In the Now will actually cause the molecules of your body to spread out and make your body less dense.
I think these things, when moving beyond basic limbic system hacking like deep breathing, are highly personal, so YMMV.
I agree it has the tepid undertones you imply, but did not devalue the book since the one tool it provided me with has served me so well.
The point with these therapeutic visualizations is to try how they work, personally, as an actual tool to solve a concrete dilemma. As such it does not matter how useless they sound in written form. Human mind has these psychlogical switches that just seem to work in specific situations. For example of a pathological "switch", the gambler is lured by an unpredictable sequence of loss and reward. Which to most people sound extremely silly, until they try it out themselves, and are totally hooked. Therapeutic switches can seem to have equal power to deal with ones emotions and pain.
For me, visualizing my pain as a separate entity that fed from my suffering allowed me to conceptualize my internal pain in a way in which I could observe and deal with it better.
It's like how some yogis speak of energy flows and whatnot - which is completely inconsequential hogwash and do not matter just as long as the movement and breathing techniques do their very physical work on the human body.
The problem with presenting functional techniques as deeply linked with an esoteric philosophy, a religious movement or (in Tolle's case) a guru is that the technique is often used as a token hook just to lure the person to follow the movement or philosophy.
He summarises the first few chapters in a brief video, so you have an idea what you're in for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ujt4We82Jk
This book had a big impact on me; it definitely made me re-evaluate how I was approaching things like politics and religion.
“Crucial Conversations” is another really important book that teaches how to safely deal with very hard conversations.
For my own personal development/relationship with women I must say that “No more mister nice guy” and “the way of the superior man” has both helped me.
Lastly the letting go e-book by Leo Babauta from zenhabits also is really good.
-my first introduction to stoicism.
2. Mastery by Robert Greene
-stories about the lives of luminaries such as Henry Ford, Michael Faraday, and Da Vinci on what it takes to be successful.
3. Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
-for providing me a new mental framework on building discipline and confidence.
4. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
-for giving me a paradigm shift on how to think about myself and others.
5. Seeking Wisdom From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin
-a compendium of cognitive biases and mental models.
That aside, the book is just very well written and really quite enjoyable to read, which is never something that hurts.
Why ? Opened a world of possibilities to me. Changed my mindset on a lot of topics. His books don't offer many answers, but helped me put my goals / life into perspective.
excerpt: “There is still an overwhelming social compulsion — an insanity of consensus, if you will — to get rich from life rather than live richly, to “do well” in the world instead of living well. And, in spite of the fact that America is famous for its unhappy rich people, most of us remain convinced that just a little more money will set life right. In this way, the messianic metaphor of modern life becomes the lottery — that outside chance that the right odds will come together to liberate us from financial worries once and for all. Fortunately, we were all born with winning tickets — and cashing them in is a simple matter of altering our cadence as we walk through the world.”
there's a full free chapter on Tim's website: https://tim.blog/2010/05/12/living-well-vs-doing-well/
I'm not yet successful on the front of making money off my own projects, but I was successful in pulling the trigger and finding my own adventure in life instead of feeling like I was slaving away.
Now some introspective books:
* The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. If you're open to fantasy, this series delves deep into how to respond when one's worldview is shattered. Highly recommended. Elantris also covers some similar territory.
* The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. How do you reconcile the whims of capricious Fortune with your desire for peace in this world?
* Bonds That Make Us Free by Terry Warner. This book makes you take a brutal look at how you contribute to your own misery in life. It will be agonizing to read, but persevere and I believe you will find it insightful. Try not to be too turned off by the conservative religious viewpoint that occasionally peeks through.
+1 for Man’s Search For Meaning.
Lord of the Flies. Amazing that this is assigned reading in middle school (or high school).
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Really drove home the importance of paying attention to language and framing.
Moby Dick. I’m amazed at myself for reading this on my own in high school. There’s something about that era of sea travel that speaks to my soul.
6 Pillars Of Self-Esteem. This was a HN recommendation. I’ve been doing the sentence completion exercises for about 6 months, and it’s been astounding to palpably feel my self-awareness increase.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Discusses the underlying group dynamics that influence the progress of science.
A Fire Upon The Deep. Just an amazing work of sci-fi exploring the internal logic of radically different forms of intelligence.
The Sane Society. It’s liberating to reflect on some of the crazy things that capitalism pressures us to do.
The Power Of Now. I think I might have some more issues if I re-read it, but it undoubtedly had a huge impact on me and made me introspect deeply and finally “get” meditation.
I was not prepared to read this book when I did, and its ideas have haunted me since. They have kept me awake many a night.
In many ways him and I came from similar backgrounds, only his situation was in many ways more harsh. Losing his one arm as a kid, growing up in a bad neighborhood in Holland, becoming a drug dealer, everything in his life was heading the wrong way. But he managed to pull himself together, leaving the country, training himself to achieve the most amazing life.
I read it without knowing anything about it, which I can recommend (so sorry for these first spoilers, but there’s so much more I won’t spoil).
I’ve also read Mans Search For Meaning, recommended in 12 Rules For Life. Also good, I agree.
- Nothing special by Charlette Joko Beck, Steve Smith. I have been playing with meditation for years now, but this book has really changed my perspective.
It's a deeply introspective and, at least for me, borders on being a philosophical text. I would even go so far as describing it as a philosophical text disguised as fiction.
It will take effort to get through, but it's one of those things where you can immediately feel that the energy put into the book is worth it.
I can trace much of my life direction back to principles I established for myself while reading this book. My copy is very marked up. :)
2) The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell
3) Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
4) The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
5) Barking up the wrong tree by Eric Barker
6) This might be strange - but Harry Potter series also teach us a lot, especially about Courage and Conviction.
http://www.nur.gen.tr/en.html#maincontent=Risale&islem=read&...
How to Win Friends and Influence People - made me realise that 99.99% of anything you want to to do, you have to do by working through other people, and the best way to do that 99.99% of the time is to befriend and get on with people as far as possible.
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay - Just a great story about a young, bullied kid in South Africa who learns to box.
Lives of the Greeks and Romans by Plutarch - shows you that human nature hasn't changed much in 2,000 years.
For self improvement books you can’t go wrong with 7 Habits of a highly effective people. It’s short and to the point and very practical.
I’m half way through Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and it’s either way over my head or overrated. I don’t particularly like the narrator which does not help
1. Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us - Daniel H. Pink
2. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth
3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck - Mark Manson
4. Be Obsessed or Be Average - Grant Cardone
5. High Performance Habits - Brendon Burchard
6. The Obesity Code - Jason Fung
The summary of what I've taken out of this is really fall in love with the intrinsic reward of doing things, take on the challenge but work at it pragmatically and patiently. It's okay to be a little crazed at what you want, do it for you, and always reflect, learn, adapt and try again.
Taught me that Religion, nation states, national pride etc.. are all imagined realities we all share to allow our particular country to thrive as a whole collective.
Getting Things Done - not the method but the insight that you can’t manage time, only your actions. And that it’s OK not do to anything without having to make excuses to yourself.
The 2nd and 3rd Ender novels - Ramen and Varelse are concepts that apply to vega/veganism from a completely different angle. It’s not an intended metaphor I think, but it applies to my life on a personal leve; (I’m not vegan, my wife is).
Non Violent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
This is not an easy book. It's not really a book in the traditional sense. It was written: "To destroy, mercilessly, without any compromises whatsoever, in the mentation and feelings of the reader, the beliefs and views, by centuries rooted in him, about everything existing in the world."
If you try it and it doesn't speak to you, put it aside.
(Look for older editions, the new ones have begun to be edited.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confession
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_Y...
His style is highly introspective and forces you to analyze everything. There are also lot of youtube videos with him giving a talk.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jiddu+krishnamu...
The first 30 or so pages of Swan's Way is about a child waking up in his room. He shows that something so benign and ordinary is anything but, it includes countless memories, senses, instincts, and emotions. Technologists should take note.
It's a fantastic collection of contemporary views on the problem of free will.
In my local circle, I don't know anyone who has ever read it :-)
Someone else that seems to be similar -- J Krishtamurti. I haven't had a chance to really dive deep, but the few talks of his I have heard in pieces were all pretty awesome.
2. Total Freedom by J Krisnamurti
- Principles, Ray Dalio
- L'Etranger, Albert Camus
- Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire
- The Dao of Capital, Mark Spitznagel
- Howl, Allen Ginsberg
- On the Road, Jack Kerouac
I could go on and on...
Principles is fantastic. At the same time you may read and think "sure, common sense" but then did you think that before you read the item -- probably not. I feel this is a book to keep for a lifetime. Can't wait for Ray's economics book.
Cool animated summary here: https://www.principles.com/principles-for-success/
The Dao of Capital is deeper. The chapter on Conifers (yeah, pine trees) and how they exist with and balance times of trouble versus opportunity is well worth the price of the book.
Also, and not least, Nassim Taleb's books: Fooled By Randomness, Black Swan, and Anti-fragile. Poetic, deep, useful, and entertaining. Fantastic. A pleasure to read and listen to in audio while driving/traveling.
It is a small book but it really makes you think about your views on life.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Awareness-Opportunities-Reality-Antho...
So, I did this Myer Brigg online test at 16personalities.com
I red the description of my personality and it was like reading in my head.
I bought the longer version and it really helped me better understand myself.
Hope it can help you too.
ENTP
I, too, took a lot of personality tests 4-5 years ago. Briefly got a bit obsessed with them, particularly MBTI (Meyers-Briggs). The problem with these tests is that they play on the archetypes that we would like to be. Also, the minutia of being a living person can not be captured by a system with so few inputs.
Anyhow, I still think it was very helpful, because it got me started on a track. Exploring intuition vs. sensing, thinking vs. feeling got me thinking about who I was, and how I respond to things. I wouldn't have been as rigorous was it not for the fact that I constantly thought about what my 4-letter combination was. I've probably thought I was 8 of them during my studies. Always an intuitive, though.
What I think is particularly bad with these tests are the way they highlight the personality's shortcomings or dificulties. They are portrayed as the opposites to the good parts of the personality, that you already resonate with. Since you resonate so much with the good parts, you can sort of logically repulse the shortcomings as "that's just the way I am", and then sort of brush it off. At least I found it to be the case.
Anyhow, I recommend the MBTI still, since it is what got me started on this track, and I've never been the same after spending the past 5 years introspecting.
For example, I’m a solid, hardcore ENTJ at work but a sensitive-flower INFP at home — it’s hard to get much more diametrically opposed than that.
IMO the “intuitive/sensing” dimension is the only one that is close to “innate” since it just describes how you make inferences and decisions. The rest change based on context.
It’s almost better to look at the “16 personalities” as the different mindsets people can come from. MB tests are useful, but take them with a grain of salt. It’s not some innate thing that you can’t change.
While the wikipedia page of MBT succeeds in hiding the critique to the end it's luckily there [1]. 'Psychometric specialist Robert Hogan wrote: "Most personality psychologists regard the MBTI as little more than an elaborate Chinese fortune cookie"'
Katherine Briggs and Isabel Meyers (a mother and daughter) should be considered as literary authors at most rather than psychologists [2][3]. Katherine apparently had a lot of ideas about personalities in general and she wrote them down. But it's not like she did massive field work or performed anything that could be recognized as credible research.
Luckily some enterprising consultants recognized her work was easy to sell. The rest is marketing...
People find comfort in lot of things. I don't mind people turning to charlatans like horoscope readers if they know what they are getting into.
MBT is entertaining fiction that is marketed by profiteering consultants as an actual psychometric tool. Fiction can be valuable in understanding the world but it is not a scientific instrument. The fact that it is marketed as such makes it very distasteful.
The only well respected psychometric model that has not failed in one way or another that I'm aware of is the five-factor model [0].
The main problem with MBT is when people think they can use it in some structured manner. The marketing around is so solid it succeeds in fooling some people into actually employing MBT consultants. People in actual workplaces have suggested forming teams based on a balancing made through MBT analyzes.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indi...
https://www.math.ualberta.ca/mss/misc/A%20Mathematician%27s%...
* The miracle of mindfulness - Thich Nhat Hanh
* Letters from a stoic - Seneca
* Amusing ourselves to death (Neil Postman) (combined with 1984 by Orwell and Brave New World by Huxley)
* Zen mind, beginner's mind - Shunryu Suzuki
* Walden - Henry David Thoreau
Halfway through Skin in the Game, and I expect I'll do the same with this one.
Herman Hesse - Siddhartha - The Journey to the East
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Seneca - Letters to Lucilius
Daniel Quinn - Ishmael
https://fonsvitae.com/product/the-book-of-assistance-imam-ab...
“A moral animal”, by Robert Wright. (Evolutionary Psychology overview - will change your view on life)
Frankenstein (1818 Edition) by Mary Shelley.
In my teens, I was all over the place. I was exploring some existential stuff. I probably could have benefited from talking to a transpersonal psychologist. These were three books that stuck out in my mind from that time:
Ken Wilbur's Brief History of Everything (this is Wilber's Integral Philosophy, and helped me know there are some framework to put seemingly competing paradigms and views into a coherent whole, as well as a few philosophical techniques to get my head out of my rear... somewhat)
James Redfield's Celestine Prophecy (kicked off a lot of things)
Robert M Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (I didn't know this at the time, but it spoke to me about what can be beyond subject-object duality)
In my early 30s, I stopped using books and media as a proxy for change and transformation, and journyed. Went through a lot, experienced many things that I had only read about. Lots of peak states. But coming back to ordinary life had proven to be difficult. That started the next era -- of embodying what I had found with those peak experiences in ordinary life.
Chris Wallis's Tantra Illuminated -- lots of view correction for me, helped untangled some things for me, particularly around working. I read this one within my first year of marriage.
Second year of marriage, I might have been able to work, but my marriage at this point was on the rocks. I had this book on my shelf for years and never really read it. When I read it, it was pointing out to me some of the deep stuff on why my marriage was failing:
Glen Mazis's The Trickster, Magician, and the Grieving Man.
This is a critical, honest look at toxic masculinity, and descriptions of alternate masculine archetypes; but not complete by itself, just made me wallow in anger and depression, and self-loathing. I could tell, it did not integrate well with the hard-won personal perspective from all those journeying earlier.
The next book that followed was one from last summer:
Crucial Conversations. (Four authors)
This book was very good to read following Mazis's book. It was very practical advice grounded in psychological research, yet very much in alignment with all the things leading up to it. It wasn't a pancea, but reading this and trying to apply it was probably the inflection point in my relationship with my wife.
In the past six months, I somehow got sucked into the orbit of one particular non-dual teacher by the name of Adyashanti. I usually prefer reading rather than listening, and with Adya, it was the reverse. I mostly listen to his stuff while washing dishes (and that seems somehow appropriate). There are some free podcast interviews with him (on different podcast series), and some of his retreat talks are also available for free. He has some guided meditation.
His talks and his teaching lineage is very direct. By that, I am talking about very directly pointing to the nature of being, of letting the world be _exactly_ the way it is. I don't know what kind of transformative experience you have, but whatever it is, if you're ready for this stuff, his words will speak to you. If you are not, that's fine too.
1. The Fall of the Human Intellect 2. The Holocaust of Attachment 3. The Vedanta Treatise
The author for them all is 'A. Parthasarathy.' The books are meant as a course of study, coupled with reflection in the morning between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. This systematic approach eradicates ignorance in its three stages, viz:
- "I do not know" - "I do not understand" - "I do not experience"
By their three antidotes; Reading/Hearing, Reflection, Meditation. It is interesting to note that these are effective practices for gaining almost any sort of knowledge, in steps which gradually bridge between you, the seeker, and the object which is sought (the known).
Good luck!
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
The Inner Game of Tennis
The stoic classics mentioned throughout these replies;
Reinventing the Sacred;
The Art of War;
Descarte's Error;
Free Will by Sam Harris
Introduction to Probability Theory
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Don't need to be an alcoholic to see that our efforts to run and order our lives often can end up making us more miserable. Read the first 164 pages.
>it is a loping colloquy between Faith and its mate Reason, Free Will and its mate Fate; I read in it that I should make my way West to go with the day, with Time, maturation, aging, having children, the coming of the next generation, the slow fading and dispersal at sunset- and East if I wish to go against the day, into the past, toward morning, the smokeless altars of memory, to youth… where we can’t ever stay for long, because the terrain has started to go missing, there is less firm land under foot to hold and lift us, and our Lines must again resume their inexorable Westerly course...
Act now to establish Dharma.
It comes across much clearer than many other religious books like the Bible (even though the Bible I recommend as well) because it has a common narrator who fills in the gaps for you and helps you understand the links between stories.
It also is fairly scientific in its premise-- if you do an experiment by reading some of it and asking God if it is true, you can receive an answer from God if you ask Him sincerely and are willing to act upon the answer you receive. See Moroni 10:3-5 [1]
The Book of Mormon also answers questions like why am I here? [2]
and where am I going after I die? [3]
A key idea of the Book of Mormon that is reflected many times is the cycle of "pride", where a group of people first humbles themselves, then prospers, then becomes prideful and makes poor choices, forgets love for others, and then falls, then causing the people to humble themselves again and repeat the cycle.
Overall I heartily recommend this book. Reading it will make you feel great.
[1] https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng
First, it is important to approach the BoM knowing that it has many problems. If it is divine truth and "the most correct book ever produced", as its author/"translator" Joseph Smith claimed, then its claims about history should be correct. After all, if the Bible says something about an ancient city like Jericho or Jerusalem, we expect to find archaeological evidence to support or refute this claim. When we apply this test to the BoM, we find that its recording of history has no support in archaeology. The MormonThink website (which claims to be objective but tends toward anti-Mormon positions) does a good job of summarizing these issues.[1] And archaeology is just one of the many irreconcilable problems. There are also the problems of geography (no one knows where the events described in the BoM actually took place), language (no evidence of "reformed Egyptian" has ever been found anywhere), and genetics (mitochondrial DNA shows no evidence for migrations of Semitic peoples to the Americas). Mormons defend these points with elaborate, seemingly plausible explanations, but as time goes on the lack of evidence becomes a louder and louder witness against the BoM.
Second, the BoM has issues with manuscript reliability. With the New Testament, we have approximately 5,800 manuscripts (varying in length) in the original Greek, and when you add in early translations into Coptic, Aramaic, Syriac, and other languages, we have around 25,000 such fragments. A small number of these fragments can be dated to within 50-150 years of the time of the original writing, which is incredible when compared to contemporary documents and does much to establish credibility. The large number of fragments is important for error correction: when textual variants occur (as they always do), you can usually examine multiple sources to determine what was in the original. For the BoM, on the other hand, we have no original manuscript, no "golden plates" inscribed with "reformed Egyptian". Only a few witnesses were supposedly allowed to see these plates, but whether they saw them with their physical eyes or saw them in a "vision" is up to your interpretation of their testimony. There is a very real possibility that these plates never existed or were merely a forged prop. Furthermore, if these plates did exist and there was only one copy, it would be extremely vulnerable to corruption. Without the source manuscript, we can never be certain that the official English translation (which has received at least 3,913 changes[2] since its original publication in 1830) is accurate. Joseph Smith's ability to translate anything by divine power is already in question because of his incorrect translations of Egyptian papyrus scrolls for the Book of Abraham.[3]
Third, and perhaps most importantly, most of what makes Mormons Mormon is, surprisingly, not found in the BoM. Despite being called "the fulness[sic] of the gospel", the BoM fails to talk (in detail or at all) about central Mormon doctrines such as temple ordinances, the celestial kingdom(s), baptism for the dead, and premortal existence. Most of these things are actually found in the later additions, particularly the Doctrine & Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. Certain of these newer doctrines actually conflict with the BoM. The BoM, for example, quite clearly supports trinitarian monotheism[4], a doctrine that has existed in Christianity since its inception and was formalized in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Current Mormon doctrine denies this idea of the Trinity, and gives yet more elaborate explanations in an attempt to reconcile this doctrine with the BoM. This ends up creating more holes than it plugs, and reminds one of the attempts to reconcile the geocentric model of the solar system with observational data by simply adding more epicycles. By itself, the BoM makes few doctrinal claims that a typical Baptist or Methodist would take issue with. But after the doctrinal revisions of the 1830s and 1840s, many important members of the early Mormon church, including some of the witnesses to the golden plates, left to join other churches or start their own denominations.
If you do choose to read the BoM, do so with an open mind and with knowledge of the problems listed above and described in detail elsewhere. One certainly cannot deny that the Mormon church today is responsible for much social good, and that Mormons in general are kind, caring, and serving people with high moral standards. Like the Bible, the BoM has had a positive impact on the lives of many. Using this to claim proof of the BoM's divine origin is a logical stretch, but we fortunately live in an age where (in most places) such opinions can be held without fear of persecution.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura
[1] http://www.mormonthink.com/book-of-mormon-problems.htm#archa...
[2] http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm
[3] http://www.mormonthink.com/book-of-abraham-issues.htm
[4] https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/31.21?lang=eng#p20
I would say, though, that the idea that more manuscripts necessarily implies a more reliable textual history is incorrect. The textual history of the Book of Mormon is incredibly simple, substantial parts of the original manuscript and the entirety of the printer's manuscript (a copy made of the original for purposes of printing it) both exist. For the New Testament there are no "autograph" manuscripts (original manuscripts) and the earliest manuscripts are at best a century after the originals. Reconstruction based on all of the numerous NT manuscripts really only serves to get you back to the point the the BoM text is already at, and not even quite there. See Royal Skousen's Book of Mormon Critical Text Project for more on this.
It took hundreds of years for trinitarianism to be adopted as a consensus, and prior to (and also after) the great creeds there was substantial disagreement about the nature of God. I wouldn't put too much stock in them as a doctrinal buttress. See "Voting About God" by Ramsey MacMullen.
Again, kudos for all your research into Mormonism, which I find to be a fascinating tradition, even if I now seriously question its truth claims.
For anyone wondering the specifics, the Council of Nicea settled the details in 325 AD.
(My knowledge manager project, AGPL: http://onemodel.org )