201–210 of 389 posts
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.)
Yuval Noah Harari's books, 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus' really changed the way I look at things.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as well as Godel, Escher, Bach. Helped me see the limitations of rationality, rigor, and measurement.
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew Crawford. 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)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fiction is in general severely underrated among STEM people today, with many arguing for how it is a waste of time, etc. I was fortunate enough to grow up in an environment where I had good access to it, and a healthy level of support for my interest. 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 him…
I wish I had the discipline to read more. Even when I finally get myself to sit down with a book I always find myself zoning out.
All of these are novels. In my 20s I felt guilty and frivolous for reading fiction, but eventually I realized I could learn a lot more walking in a protagonist's shoes than I could reading self help etc. '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 somethin…
Fiction is in general severely underrated among STEM people today, with many arguing for how it is a waste of time, etc. I was fortunate enough to grow up in an environment where I had good access to it, and a healthy level of support for my interest. 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 him…
I highly recommend 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. 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 publ…
For some reason I am repulsive towards 'self-help' books. 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 have seen numerous people who read inspirational quotes/books but the act the opposite way. I feel it is very difficult to change how the internals of a person work, reading a book will definitely push you in the right direction, motivate yo…
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...
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker 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.