Several years working freelance. Gave me the freedom to arrange my schedule to allow time for thought and introspection.
Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
51–60 of 178 posts
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not the first time I see a RAW reference when it comes to personal growth/mental health. But he has written so much. What should I start with and how should I continue?
His whole canon fits together somewhat, in that he refreshes and repeats ideas throughout his writing career, which means that you can almost jump in anywhere and pick up the thread. I'd recommend "Prometheus Rising" and "Quantum Psychology" as a good place to start. Also, don't be put off by his use of the word 'illuminati' in his work - he started that whole joke.
Yeah, Prometheus Rising is a good starting-point for sure.
His work can be usefully classified into three categories: loose essay collections, fiction, and conventionally-structured non-fiction. Prometheus Rising & Quantum Psychology are the closest to conventionally-structured non-fiction (though they both flirt with the loose-essay-collection format) and so, for new readers coming at it from a self-help perspective, they're less off-putting. In particular, Prometheus Rising does a pretty good job of explaining RAW's 8-circuit model (which was also helpful for my emotional self-regulation) in an accessible way -- showing its origins as a doctoral thesis reworked into a textbook.
Of course, almost everybody starts with the Illuminatus! trilogy (and so did I). This isn't necessarily a good idea. There's been at least one casualty from somebody starting with the Illuminatus! trilogy and missing the point (documented in The Cuckoo's Egg), though I guess you can blame cocaine and soviet espionage in that case!
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#53Starting therapy. It's been amazing to help overcome anxiety that was holding me back for years.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#54Burning out and quitting my job with no plan.
Through word of mouth / networking I got a few consulting gigs and things snowballed and I've been doing that for 18 years.
When dealing with short-term clients you learn how to swallow your ego and get things things.
While I can guide/direct on the best approach or technology, the final decision isn't always mine, and I morph to the demands of the person signing my checks.
Also learned a lot about communication, marketing, negotiations, finance, legal, and sales.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#55Psychedelic mushrooms, specifically Psilocybe *. Losing that ego-based view of the world and realizing the interconnectedness of all things, and feeling that connection at the deepest levels of your psyche, does wonders for eliminating the adversarial individualism that I feel generates a lot of issues when enacted in all participants of society. Before, I had (and admittedly still have) some aspects of my self that,…
I don't advocate drugs in any form, but everyone should experience hallucinogens at some point in their life. It will change your life, for the better.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#56I think sticking to things I start has contributed the most personal growth for me. I think for anything to have any effect on you, you have to stick with it for at least 6 months or more (though it definitely depends on each activity). In the last 2 years I have been able to lose 8kgs, increase my business, cure my chronic backache and become a lot happier using this one trick of sticking to things daily without fai…
I love the "Streaks" mobile app for daily habit tracking. It's simple and clean.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#57Luck. I was going to reply with a personality trait, but let's be honest, 90%+ of every success story is plain luck.
Seconding this. I was in a bad rut for many years after college, not making much money or much of myself in general, before a friend told me about a job opening at his company within my wheelhouse. So after getting that job and having a few side-projects go well, I got myself back on-track and living the sort of life I had been hoping for. To a certain degree you can make your own luck, but sometimes you really do just need good old fashioned random good luck to get on track.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#58Not 100% convinced about it, but I wanted to say: that I stopped smoking pot. Told myself well in advance that I'd quit 11 months in to my girlfriend's pregnancy (EDIT - obviously the residual effects are still there. I quit 8 months in to her pregnancy. This is what drugs do, kids.) Since then (now almost a year later) my ability to comprehend and concentrate on technical things has improved a lot. I've learn things…
I gotta disagree with you here. I smoke a little bit every day and I've gone through periods of a month or two without smoking and the only difference I found was that it was easier to get up in the morning if I didn't smoke the day before. My cognitive abilities don't seem to be impaired at all. It's possible that smoking pot for you was associated with other lifestyle affects (like sleep quality/duration) that were negatively affecting your cognitive efficiency.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#59Scepticism.
Re: Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?
#60Psychedelic mushrooms, specifically Psilocybe *. Losing that ego-based view of the world and realizing the interconnectedness of all things, and feeling that connection at the deepest levels of your psyche, does wonders for eliminating the adversarial individualism that I feel generates a lot of issues when enacted in all participants of society. Before, I had (and admittedly still have) some aspects of my self that,…
I don't advocate drugs in any form, but everyone should experience hallucinogens at some point in their life. It will change your life, for the better.
Not everyone*
People with some personality and mood disorders can really be thrown off by psychedelic experiences. A lot of people really struggle to attain stability and control in their lives, and I'm not sure they are good candidates for people who should have their entire reality pulled out from under them.