71–80 of 341 posts
I was never that into Rand-branded libertarianism - even as I read through TF and Atlas Shrugged I considered it a limited and self-blinding ideology - but I was certainly influenced by a story where the protagonist forges his own path even as the entire world sets out to prevent and undermine him.
Nowadays, I point to a far superior example of this inspiring and uplifting theme in the 2007 Japanese anime series Gurren Lagann.
"Shared pain is lessened, shared joy increased." It's really that simple, folks.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X It's a deep dive in understanding and empathizing with another human being, and reflecting and finding the things one is grateful for in their own life.
His continual evolution was nothing short of amazing. While the book is awesome, I appreciated him more when I listened to him directly.
This is also a great book: https://www.amazon.com/Malcolm-X-Reinvention-Manning-Marable...
It essentially makes him more human, exposing his flaws which you rarely hear about.
He's an architect/philosopher who coined the term "design patterns". Beautiful book, got me thinking very hard about how to create artifacts and environments that make the people who interact with them happy.
My tennis coach gave me his copy, from the mid 80s, which was tattered and had clearly been read many, many times.
It taught me so much about life, and how to be successful.
My tennis coach was also my life coach when I reflect back on those days. He grew up in south central LA, rode his bike to the closest tennis courts and sometimes as far as Beverly Hills. He'd wait outside the courts until someone came along and ask if he could play.
He turned that into a full ride scholarship for tennis, became a senior level member of a huge telecom and then left to coach tennis to give back to the sport that gave him so much. He credited this book for teaching him how to focus on the important elements in life and most of all, the grit required to succeed.
Anyways, it's a great read. I haven't read the revised edition but I'm sure it's just as compelling.
Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb He puts into words concepts of life so close to us yet so foreign sounding that makes us rethink everything in our lives. When you ask people "What is the opposite of fragile", they usually answer robust, which Taleb proves to be incorrect by introducing a new concept, the Antifragilty. It entangles so many things in economic, academic, science, finances and other systems with seve…
Once I accepted this everything became a lot more fun, arguments about politics/religion etc are enjoyable as you realise that no one is fundamentally right.
Also, the explanation of fractional reserve banking and how debt came to be a thing was like the matrix being revealed.
Good book, highly recommend it.
tldr; our bodies are just a side effect of the gene's greater plan