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Comment by davesque | Hacker News Reader

Victor Frankl's book, "Man's search for meaning" is also essential reading in my opinion. A few of my takeaways from that book:

1. People are capable of both great evil and great good (often in close proximity).

2. Having a great intellect may, in fact, make someone more compassionate.

3. Finding meaning in a cause, project, person, etc. can allow a person to endure much more than most would expect.

For those who aren't familiar with Frankl's personal background, you'll find many of the relevant details in that book (and perhaps also in the linked video although I haven't finished it yet). Trust me when I say that the man has a legitimate claim to discuss the topics on which he tends to focus.

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The english title doesn't do the book justice. In original language, German, it is called "... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen", which translates to "... after all a Yes to life". Viktor Frankl – one of the great Weiner psychologists – wrote this after surviving concentration camp where he lost his family and to be wife. Obviously, his yes to life, caries much greater depth and weight that you meet in most books. An interesting and easy to read book which contains anecdotes and reflections of daily life in concentration camp.

Victor Frankl is awesome. Everyone should read his book. It's the #1 book I recommend for everyone to read whom I don't know anything anout.

What I found surprising when I read it (years ago) was how having a family would constitute so much meaning. I remember reading the book thinking "alright, I'm simply a teenager, but I can now make the heuristic that family = meaning to basically everyone."

I suppose that I wasn't so big on family in my teenage years.

> Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.

Geez, this one sentence is more enlightening than the book. (I read it and I didn't really get it.)

Currently, on my 2nd read of the book and I interpret this as a struggle to find purpose. Recognizing who asked is like asking yourself "Who am I?" which leads to purpose and with purpose comes endurance. This may be superficial as I gain more insight the more I read it.

My takeaway was that he was asking "why you don't kill yourself' his patients. So finding 'meaning of the life' could be seen as reply to the question 'why don't you kill yourself?' or rather 'why do you need to live?'. Could be wife, kids, family plans etc. That what kept them alive in concentration camp was their meaning.

> The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.

> If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelego. Frankl found evil in prisoners who were promoted to guards and good in guards who were supposed to use and unceremoniously dispose prisoners.

Prior to visiting Auschwitz, I read Man's Search for Meaning and Ordinary Men. Both are emotionally challenging books, and forced me to look deeply at who I am as a person. One of the quotes about life in the concentration camps from Frankl that has always stuck with me is that "the best of us did not return". It is something that survivors of the holocaust had to live with for the rest of their lives.

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