Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
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Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#22Alan Watt's Wisdom of Insecurity book was enlightening for me. You can read it for free here: https://antilogicalism.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/wisdom-of...
If you like Alan Watts you might enjoy Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice from Shunryu Suzuki.
https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Informal-Meditatio...
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#23Maybe you can start from scratch with the root foundation of your personnality. Sometimes we don't understand why we react to some situations.
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
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#24Seneca's Dialogues, I can't recommend them enough
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#25Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Just a simple premise of looking at ourselves from the eyes of another species opens up a lot of introspection about every action by mankind that we take for granted.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#26Maybe you can start from scratch with the root foundation of your personnality. Sometimes we don't understand why we react to some situations. 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 just want to add something.
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.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#27Goedel, Escher, Bach - an eternal golden braid. This book is so rich with philosophical content it will change you.
I really struggled to read this. It's so dense, in an almost impenetrable way. Am I the only one? I did some skimming, but never seemed to catch on.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#28Maybe you can start from scratch with the root foundation of your personnality. Sometimes we don't understand why we react to some situations. 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 just want to add something. 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 tr…
Like you said it's a good starting point. I wouldn't take all that is written for granted, but hey! We are at least 2 that agree that there is something to start your introspection in there. It's very easy to read also.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#291. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 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.
> Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#30The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
Promoting “breathing” without thinking and not taking your thoughts too seriously has got me through a lot of emotional turmoil and “life situations”.
Incredible even 5 years later.