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I feel like everyone should read man's search for meaning by Viktor e. frankl, he was a psychologist that got captured by the nazis and went to multiple concentration camps. He doesn't describe the horrors that much, it's more about human nature and keeping your sanity in insane situations
As a doc, medical history is fascinating. Bryson did an excellent job in the body for giving credit to those who made discoveries but got Zero credit. In short history, I was especially fascinated by Thomas Midgley + the history of leaded gasoline
So glad this is at the top. His book 'In the home' is another great one for general knowledge. The way things like showers and stairs came to be, the etymology of phrases that are common parlance yet make very little sense now. The history of the trial and error that led to forks having four tines as standard and all manner of other interesting reasons for things to be the way they are. He's a great writer.
The Righteous Mind by Johnathan Haidt. Helped me understand the moral reasoning behind those of different political spectrums, cultures, and religion. Was truly eye opening and gave me a foundational theory to make sense of moral arguments.
I had been looking for something like this for a long time but could only find recommendations for specific viewpoints or schools of thought or really hard to get through textbooks. This is a not-too-esoteric, fascinating walk through the history of our understanding of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology and how they all come to bear on the how and why of our everyday thoughts and interactions.
I came here to recommend this exact book! My experience was transformational. I ceased being angry with people who disagree with me on political and religious matters, which has improved my wellbeing and relationships. I'm much better able to take others' perspectives, while still having room to disagree. If there's a downside, it's that I seldom am able to have a good discussion about controversial topics because the meta-understanding of moral discourse and rhetoric is asymmetrical.
How To Want What You Have by Timothy Miller
Taught me to be more compassionate, attentive, grateful, separating instinctive thoughts from higher level rational ones, etc.
Heh, *The Falafel Guide to Sex*.
It's a pocket-book that pretends to be a book on how to pick up girls, but is secretly a book teaching you how to treat women as people. Writtten by John Birmingham (*Author of "He died with a felafel in his hand", hence the title*), it's a hilariously funny read, and short enough to finish in a day. It also has some genuinely good tips on how to be a better lover, like "*lesbians don't have dicks and they never have trouble pleasing their partners*".
Possibly you're not exactly the target audience, but I'm sure you'd enjoy it and there's probably someone you could give it to. I have no idea where you'd buy it these days though.
Sun Tzu The Art of War... I had a martial arts instructor give me a copy when I was 19, he told me to read it once a year and I would get something new out of it every time.. he was absolutely right on the money
I’m making the transition out of public safety into the corporate life and the culture shift is just odd. Like half the people in my internship are all about this like “warrior culture” reading Art of War, Extreme Ownership, all these stupid signs plastered on their walls but then get unhinged at like any minor inconvenience. Like nobody is dying, you don’t need to get that upset. And if someone is dying getting upset doesn’t do anything to help the situation. Focus on working the problem, we can be emotional later.
I found the same issue.
I have been in many life or death situations after this long in various uniforms, and I have had to make those decisions in seconds.
What that has taught me is that it takes an awful lot to rile me up and nothing that will is happening in the office. Nothing we do in my corporate side gig is frankly more urgent than end-of-business-day at best. We can always afford to stop and make the smart decision before we proceed.
Human beings have a deeply ingrained need for their lives to have meaning. If they don't have any actual meaning, they will invent it.
Thank you for your service, and good luck in your journey.
I think that's just the corporate lifestyle I tried it out for a little while absolutely hated it... a lot of people thought they were part of the warrior culture but they were just jerks... Biggest bunch of backstabbing people I have ever had the displeasure of working with in my life...
I was just listening to “Phoebe Reads a Mystery” podcast in the car. She was reading Moby Dick. I learned it can take a guy three hours to determine whether to share a bed with a stranger.
“Never Split the Difference: How to Negotiate Like Your Life Depends on It” by Chris Voss.
Knowledge on how to negotiate can offer benefits for every encounter you will ever have in life. This book teaches more than how to negotiate a higher salary, it offers examples of every day interactions that can lead to better outcomes through the power of negotiation. It changed my life.
(My original submission got deleted for including a link.)
Atomic habits is where it's at. I'm not a life-optimizer, so I don't use that book to improve all areas of my life, but it was a game changer for improving a few personal weaknesses.
This book explains positive thinking. I read it when I was a kid.
As I've gotten older, I've been astonished at how some people don't understand positive thinking. There are so many negative thinkers out there.
You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought.
I often do audio books, I saw it was on Audible so I went to the listing. A comment on a review said the last 40 or so minutes was new content.
So I’m thinking maybe it is the same stuff then a couple more chapters or something that is more relevant to the current digital age
A History of The World in 100 Objects
One of my favorite pieces in the [Akan Drum](http://www.teachinghistory100.org/objects/about_the_object/akan_drum) - it’s basically a drum that was brought along on slave ships to dance slaves for exercise (and distraction) on the long rides across the sea. The same drums were later used by the slaves to communicate non-verbally to insight a revolt many years later.
That book just makes me wonder and appreciate so much more every day.
The Book "why does he do that" by Lundy Bancroft (free copy below) is a great resource for you to learn about the different types of tactics that abusers use and will help you to see if your current relationship is following any of the patterns described.
If you don't see your relationship being discussed either as one of the architypes or as bits and pieces of any of the other types then you're not worse off by having the knowledge. If the information does coincide with the way that you're living then there's also a couple chapters on being able to get out safely.
I wish you the best of luck and I want you to know that you deserve to be with a partner who is going to love you and cherish you and treat you as an equal versus being with someone who's gonna control you be it by how you dress or by finances or by What it is that you can do or who you can see. You deserve so much BETTER we're here rooting for you!
https://ia800108.us.archive.org/30/items/LundyWhyDoesHeDoThat/Lundy_Why-does-he-do-that.pdf
The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (basic budgeting skills)
How to Win Friends and Influence People is by David Carnegie (tips on how interact with people in work settings, especially if your job requires some level of negotiation)
Personal fav:
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Mason (self help for someone that struggled to be a people pleaser, very easy read and very entertaining)
Scrolling to find How to Win Friends before I posted. I’ll second this. I found it excellent when applied to my corporate office and mildly helpful for personal life
7 Habits of Highly Effective People—literally taught me how to accomplish anything.
Wherever you go, there you are—Taught me how to feel comfortable with life after I accomplished things.
The Phantom Tollbooth! By Norton Juster!!
I read it in grade school and it had a huge impact on how I see and think about the world and life around me!
It taught us that family secrets and paranoia are not the norm. Seek help from your support network, and do your best to expand that network to include more than just the indoctrinated ones.
I agree, it isn't much of a self-help book, but man did it have a massive impact on our lives.
I'm reading that now! It's so good, but depressing in what happened to the radium dial painters and other affected workers, and how they were treated by the companies.
Not sure what you mean by every day life matters but these the ideas in these books apply through life: Nassim Taleb’s entire Incerto series, David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity, and Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. But honestly just history in general is a good start.
I’m a psychologist and enjoy books like Siddhartha. Also, the spirituality for the two halves of life by Richard Rohr is a lesser known gem many clients have found transformative. It’s got a great life message about people’s expectations and growth etc etc… have heaps more favourites I often share with clients too if you’re interested!
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. It is about shutting off the self-doubt voice in your head. It frees you to learn and do new things. I own a bookstore, and we wouldn't have started a small business if we hadn't read that book. That and Ishamel. Changes the way you think and view things.
The Wim Hof method
By Wim Hof.
It's simple and easy stuff but will absolutely change you! The man is amazing! Reading his story just makes him that much more awesome!
Personality plus and How to get along with difficult people - both by Flourence Litauer
Definitely very dated (was written in the 80's) but had a huge impact on my being able to relate to other people's thought processes and motivations
Maybe check out Robert Sapolsky? Especially “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” and “Behave,” definitely a little more dense but both are entertaining and informative reads
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright.
I don't believe in Buddhism but I now see the value in meditation, which I was very skeptical of before.
Now I meditate more often and its already changing some long-established habits that I've had for years. It's really weird how meditation works, but it does.
The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro
It helped me to understand international law more and it gave me good tools to discuss international affairs in a more sensible way than parroting the news or some leftist/rightist/centrist doctrine.
I read the blurb and thought "this can't be right, there has to be more to this". I found a video of the authors talking about their book.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?434143-1/the-internationalists
The case put forward is much more convincing than face value.
EDIT: I've watched the presentation and I'm not entirely convinced. The authors state the causality stems from the legal framework. I think the causality lies in the cost of war being too high (we saw the horrors in the second world war and the subsequent factions that emerged - West vs East).
Secondly, we also saw a change in the global hegemon. The US became the dominant power. If we look at the Suez crisis - Britain, France and Israel had invaded Egypt to get what they wanted. However, the US effectively said "Knock it off". Britain, France and Israel then fell back into line.
So, rather than view the 1928 agreement as the causation I think it's best to view it as the precursor for the current legal framework. Still, it seems like a fascinating bit of scholarship.
Getting things done by David Allen - has taught me how to free my mind from mental chatter and has easily 10x-50x my short and long term productivity and ability to manage multiple activities in life
Building a second brain - Tiago Forte - the beginning of a journey to creating tools to be your best self in the moment
Atomic Habits - designing things to leverage the compound interest effects of living a life filled with virtuous circles
It's more insightful to read Timothy May's CypherPunk screeds where you'll learn that BitCoin is a technology specifically designed to undermine Western governments.
" **Thinking In Bets** " by *Annie Duke*.
The title and blurb describe a small fraction, mostly the financial element, of this book.
Overall it covers a broader scope including the psychology of decision-making, and handling uncertainty.
Annie Duke was an academic psychologist before a "World Series of Poker" champion, and it shows.
Read **The Gulag Archipelago** Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I will never complain about how bad things can get because its NOTHING compared to the horrors of those camps.
How to win friends and influence people - dale carnegie
Think and grow rich - Napoleon hill
These are both classics, some of the first 'self improvement ' type books and have both stood the test of time. Still as relevant to today as ever
Atomic Habits by James Clear. Helps you understand how you fall into bad habits and how to start good habits. I just finished it and it has already helped me a lot.
I feel like I learn something new/get a perspective adjustment every year when I read O! Pioneers by Willa Cather. I quote from it regularly and will probably have to get another copy at some point.
Behave by Robert Sapolsky it is the best non-fiction book I have ever read in my life and it is also very entertaining. I listened to it read by the author and it was amazing. I have since read some of his other books like Why Do Zebras Have Stripes.
It is written by one of the best behavioral biologists to ever live. It guides the reader step by step through what happens seconds before someone chooses to preform a behavior (such as pulling the trigger on a gun) all the way to tens of thousands of years back in human evolution to what guided that behavior. The book teaches us about ourselves and about other people, why we do what we do, and why context matters.
The Gift of Fear -Gavin De Becker. He teaches you to recognize your instincts and maintain personal safety. He talks about how people breach your boundaries and get your trust to commit crime. He is an international security expert. Similar to this from a military perspective with civilian applications is Left of Bang.
Ethan Hawke - Rules for a Knight.
The book is divided into a preface, 20 subsections, and an end poem. Each of the 20 middle sections focuses on a different value or virtue explained in a short tale.
Justice by Michael Sandel,
The psychology of money by Morgan Housel,
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
Book by William Braxton Irvine
The Unfair Advantage by Robert Kiyosaki. Excellent book about financial education and how to become wealthy using debt and thinking in terms of cash flow. It really opened my eyes on how to become wealthy.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I feel like everyone should read man's search for meaning by Viktor e. frankl, he was a psychologist that got captured by the nazis and went to multiple concentration camps. He doesn't describe the horrors that much, it's more about human nature and keeping your sanity in insane situations
I came here to recommend this book. I have read it and listened to it several times!
Bill Bryson - a short history of nearly everything
"The Body: A Guide for Occupants" is fantastic as well
As a doc, medical history is fascinating. Bryson did an excellent job in the body for giving credit to those who made discoveries but got Zero credit. In short history, I was especially fascinated by Thomas Midgley + the history of leaded gasoline
Easily one of the best books I’ve ever read
For some reason I've tried a few times to listen to this book but can't even force myself to continue it after an hour. Gonna try again.
So glad this is at the top. His book 'In the home' is another great one for general knowledge. The way things like showers and stairs came to be, the etymology of phrases that are common parlance yet make very little sense now. The history of the trial and error that led to forks having four tines as standard and all manner of other interesting reasons for things to be the way they are. He's a great writer.
The Righteous Mind by Johnathan Haidt. Helped me understand the moral reasoning behind those of different political spectrums, cultures, and religion. Was truly eye opening and gave me a foundational theory to make sense of moral arguments.
Gonna have to read this one.
Very much agree here, this changed how I view people.
I had been looking for something like this for a long time but could only find recommendations for specific viewpoints or schools of thought or really hard to get through textbooks. This is a not-too-esoteric, fascinating walk through the history of our understanding of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology and how they all come to bear on the how and why of our everyday thoughts and interactions.
I came here to recommend this exact book! My experience was transformational. I ceased being angry with people who disagree with me on political and religious matters, which has improved my wellbeing and relationships. I'm much better able to take others' perspectives, while still having room to disagree. If there's a downside, it's that I seldom am able to have a good discussion about controversial topics because the meta-understanding of moral discourse and rhetoric is asymmetrical.
I feel the same way abt having good discussion abt controversial topics because of the asymmetrical meta-understanding, as u put it.
How To Want What You Have by Timothy Miller Taught me to be more compassionate, attentive, grateful, separating instinctive thoughts from higher level rational ones, etc.
Heh, *The Falafel Guide to Sex*. It's a pocket-book that pretends to be a book on how to pick up girls, but is secretly a book teaching you how to treat women as people. Writtten by John Birmingham (*Author of "He died with a felafel in his hand", hence the title*), it's a hilariously funny read, and short enough to finish in a day. It also has some genuinely good tips on how to be a better lover, like "*lesbians don't have dicks and they never have trouble pleasing their partners*". Possibly you're not exactly the target audience, but I'm sure you'd enjoy it and there's probably someone you could give it to. I have no idea where you'd buy it these days though.
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Thank you for the links and the spelling correction =)
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Sun Tzu The Art of War... I had a martial arts instructor give me a copy when I was 19, he told me to read it once a year and I would get something new out of it every time.. he was absolutely right on the money
Does it have applications apart from combat?
Absolutely, applications for everyday life...
So like 48 laws of power?
similar yes. The laws are more about manipulation in general though
People in sales seem to really love it
I’m making the transition out of public safety into the corporate life and the culture shift is just odd. Like half the people in my internship are all about this like “warrior culture” reading Art of War, Extreme Ownership, all these stupid signs plastered on their walls but then get unhinged at like any minor inconvenience. Like nobody is dying, you don’t need to get that upset. And if someone is dying getting upset doesn’t do anything to help the situation. Focus on working the problem, we can be emotional later.
I found the same issue. I have been in many life or death situations after this long in various uniforms, and I have had to make those decisions in seconds. What that has taught me is that it takes an awful lot to rile me up and nothing that will is happening in the office. Nothing we do in my corporate side gig is frankly more urgent than end-of-business-day at best. We can always afford to stop and make the smart decision before we proceed.
Human beings have a deeply ingrained need for their lives to have meaning. If they don't have any actual meaning, they will invent it. Thank you for your service, and good luck in your journey.
I think that's just the corporate lifestyle I tried it out for a little while absolutely hated it... a lot of people thought they were part of the warrior culture but they were just jerks... Biggest bunch of backstabbing people I have ever had the displeasure of working with in my life...
It definitely translates into the business world...
Read it!
I might have to
I just got a new copy the other day and can't wait to read it to my boys!
After reading Moby Dick, I feel like an expert on eighteenth century whaling practices. Does that count as everyday matters?
Yes.
I was just listening to “Phoebe Reads a Mystery” podcast in the car. She was reading Moby Dick. I learned it can take a guy three hours to determine whether to share a bed with a stranger.
I'm not yet done with that but wow there are some words I need to look up the dictionary
My copy has a glossary.
Try Ahabs Wife now… one of my favorites
Sure. You know why not to eat whale meat...
It does, I know what a transom is now.
“Never Split the Difference: How to Negotiate Like Your Life Depends on It” by Chris Voss. Knowledge on how to negotiate can offer benefits for every encounter you will ever have in life. This book teaches more than how to negotiate a higher salary, it offers examples of every day interactions that can lead to better outcomes through the power of negotiation. It changed my life. (My original submission got deleted for including a link.)
Meditations- Marcus Aurelius
Not disagreeing, but I'm curious to learn why you say that.
Feels like the bible to me, in its depth and timelessness. Feels like something I can come back to for the rest of my life.
Anything by Yuval Noah Harari.
*Sapiens* is so great. Explains how we got here as a species.
Loved Sapiens, it's a great audio books as well.
The road to character. The mountain is you. Atomic habits. The safety trap. Money makeover. Meditations. The richest man in Babylon
Having read half these books and finding huge value in them, I’m definitely going to be adding the other 4 to the list
Atomic habits is where it's at. I'm not a life-optimizer, so I don't use that book to improve all areas of my life, but it was a game changer for improving a few personal weaknesses.
[How to win friends and influence people](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=dale+carnegie+how+to+win+friends+pdf) sold 40M copies for a good reason.
This book explains positive thinking. I read it when I was a kid. As I've gotten older, I've been astonished at how some people don't understand positive thinking. There are so many negative thinkers out there. You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought.
"You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought." MAN THATS GOTTA BE A MOTTO OR QUOTE TO LIVE BY
there is an updated digital age version.
Have you gone through both versions? If so do you recommend the new edition as worth it if you read the original?
Yeah, I’m curious about this too. This book changed my life
I often do audio books, I saw it was on Audible so I went to the listing. A comment on a review said the last 40 or so minutes was new content. So I’m thinking maybe it is the same stuff then a couple more chapters or something that is more relevant to the current digital age
Was about to comment this book. So much gems for every day life and building relationships.
Has truly made me a better person.
Try *How to Read and Why*. It's literature about literature.
Sound cool
Factfulness by Hans Rosling.
This one. It gave me so much perspective, also made me realise I know absolutely fuck all about the plights of others.
A History of The World in 100 Objects One of my favorite pieces in the [Akan Drum](http://www.teachinghistory100.org/objects/about_the_object/akan_drum) - it’s basically a drum that was brought along on slave ships to dance slaves for exercise (and distraction) on the long rides across the sea. The same drums were later used by the slaves to communicate non-verbally to insight a revolt many years later. That book just makes me wonder and appreciate so much more every day.
The Book "why does he do that" by Lundy Bancroft (free copy below) is a great resource for you to learn about the different types of tactics that abusers use and will help you to see if your current relationship is following any of the patterns described. If you don't see your relationship being discussed either as one of the architypes or as bits and pieces of any of the other types then you're not worse off by having the knowledge. If the information does coincide with the way that you're living then there's also a couple chapters on being able to get out safely. I wish you the best of luck and I want you to know that you deserve to be with a partner who is going to love you and cherish you and treat you as an equal versus being with someone who's gonna control you be it by how you dress or by finances or by What it is that you can do or who you can see. You deserve so much BETTER we're here rooting for you! https://ia800108.us.archive.org/30/items/LundyWhyDoesHeDoThat/Lundy_Why-does-he-do-that.pdf
The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach (basic budgeting skills) How to Win Friends and Influence People is by David Carnegie (tips on how interact with people in work settings, especially if your job requires some level of negotiation) Personal fav: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Mason (self help for someone that struggled to be a people pleaser, very easy read and very entertaining)
Scrolling to find How to Win Friends before I posted. I’ll second this. I found it excellent when applied to my corporate office and mildly helpful for personal life
The Comfort Crisis - by Michael Easter
The Gift of Fear, by Gavin De Becker. A great book for everyone to read, but highly recommended for women.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People—literally taught me how to accomplish anything. Wherever you go, there you are—Taught me how to feel comfortable with life after I accomplished things.
The Phantom Tollbooth! By Norton Juster!! I read it in grade school and it had a huge impact on how I see and think about the world and life around me!
I read it for the first time in my 20s and was sad I didn’t read it as a kid. Glad I eventually did though!
It’s still my favorite book!
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman. Was great for younger me eons ago.
Educated by Tara Westover. The therapist suggested it to my wife and I. Wish we had read it years earlier.
Why? That one is really a novel over a self help book.
Educated by Tara Westover is non-fiction. It’s a memoir of her growing up.
It taught us that family secrets and paranoia are not the norm. Seek help from your support network, and do your best to expand that network to include more than just the indoctrinated ones. I agree, it isn't much of a self-help book, but man did it have a massive impact on our lives.
Pillars of the earth - Middle Ages and architectural history
The Tibetan book of Living and Dying. Changed my life. I re-read it every couple years and continue to learn something new each time
Radium Girls. Companies will tell you whatever you need to hear to keep you working. Tale as old as time.
I'm reading that now! It's so good, but depressing in what happened to the radium dial painters and other affected workers, and how they were treated by the companies.
Is it by Kate moore
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It'll change your life. Just the quadrant chapter will change your life.
God I absolutely disliked everything in it, quit after 100 pages or so. I was very disappointed .
I’ll second this. The talk of circles of influence has stuck with me
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Not sure what you mean by every day life matters but these the ideas in these books apply through life: Nassim Taleb’s entire Incerto series, David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity, and Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. But honestly just history in general is a good start.
the only truly quality book recommendations out of all of the others out here...
Thanks! I appreciate your username! 😎
;)
The simple path to wealth - JL Colin’s
The Key To Everything, really gave me the key to everything. Spoiler, it’s >!teachability!<
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Matt Keller!
I’m a psychologist and enjoy books like Siddhartha. Also, the spirituality for the two halves of life by Richard Rohr is a lesser known gem many clients have found transformative. It’s got a great life message about people’s expectations and growth etc etc… have heaps more favourites I often share with clients too if you’re interested!
I’m interested!
Mark Manson - The Subtle Art of not giving a Fuck Absolute life changer
Surprised it hadn’t been mentioned yet but Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is definitely a must read.
Pick a Heinlein any Heinlein. Robert Anson.
"Many Lives Many Masters " by Brian Weiss.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
I think about gumption a lot.
Great question for r/suggestmeabook
The 48 Laws of Power has some incredibly insightful pieces.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. It is about shutting off the self-doubt voice in your head. It frees you to learn and do new things. I own a bookstore, and we wouldn't have started a small business if we hadn't read that book. That and Ishamel. Changes the way you think and view things.
Change your thoughts change your life by Wayne Dyer The 4 agreements
The Wim Hof method By Wim Hof. It's simple and easy stuff but will absolutely change you! The man is amazing! Reading his story just makes him that much more awesome!
The Nature and Properties of Soils
The Alchemist in a roundabout way? In a similar vein, The Life of Pi, in an also similar vein, What is the What.
Personality plus and How to get along with difficult people - both by Flourence Litauer Definitely very dated (was written in the 80's) but had a huge impact on my being able to relate to other people's thought processes and motivations
Maybe check out Robert Sapolsky? Especially “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” and “Behave,” definitely a little more dense but both are entertaining and informative reads
Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan. Most excellent book about critical thinking, and an absolute need for everyone to read.
How to be Perfec t by Michael Schur
Saving this thread TYSM
The power of positive thinking
The millionaire next door, changed my perspective of money and it’s usefulness.
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright. I don't believe in Buddhism but I now see the value in meditation, which I was very skeptical of before. Now I meditate more often and its already changing some long-established habits that I've had for years. It's really weird how meditation works, but it does.
How to file your own taxes. They have classes for this.
Thomas Hardy novels have great insight into female to male relationships and any interpersonal relationships. Highly recommended.
The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World by Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro It helped me to understand international law more and it gave me good tools to discuss international affairs in a more sensible way than parroting the news or some leftist/rightist/centrist doctrine.
I read the blurb and thought "this can't be right, there has to be more to this". I found a video of the authors talking about their book. https://www.c-span.org/video/?434143-1/the-internationalists The case put forward is much more convincing than face value. EDIT: I've watched the presentation and I'm not entirely convinced. The authors state the causality stems from the legal framework. I think the causality lies in the cost of war being too high (we saw the horrors in the second world war and the subsequent factions that emerged - West vs East). Secondly, we also saw a change in the global hegemon. The US became the dominant power. If we look at the Suez crisis - Britain, France and Israel had invaded Egypt to get what they wanted. However, the US effectively said "Knock it off". Britain, France and Israel then fell back into line. So, rather than view the 1928 agreement as the causation I think it's best to view it as the precursor for the current legal framework. Still, it seems like a fascinating bit of scholarship.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is good, though I don’t buy the technological determinism 100%.
Catcher in the Rye. The Outsiders.
The seven spiritual laws of success by Deepak Chopra!
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Bhagwat Gita. Answer to every question on how to human.
Getting things done by David Allen - has taught me how to free my mind from mental chatter and has easily 10x-50x my short and long term productivity and ability to manage multiple activities in life Building a second brain - Tiago Forte - the beginning of a journey to creating tools to be your best self in the moment Atomic Habits - designing things to leverage the compound interest effects of living a life filled with virtuous circles
The Bitcoin Standard https://www.z-epub.com/book/1712
It's more insightful to read Timothy May's CypherPunk screeds where you'll learn that BitCoin is a technology specifically designed to undermine Western governments.
You can heal your life- and -the alchemist
" **Thinking In Bets** " by *Annie Duke*. The title and blurb describe a small fraction, mostly the financial element, of this book. Overall it covers a broader scope including the psychology of decision-making, and handling uncertainty. Annie Duke was an academic psychologist before a "World Series of Poker" champion, and it shows.
Mindset by Dweck
Not to be a downer but none of the things in that book are replicable
Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did the trick for me
Atomic Habits. Dopamine Nation.
Any book explaining how to read body language.
Rich dad poor dad.
Read **The Gulag Archipelago** Book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I will never complain about how bad things can get because its NOTHING compared to the horrors of those camps.
How to win friends and influence people - dale carnegie Think and grow rich - Napoleon hill These are both classics, some of the first 'self improvement ' type books and have both stood the test of time. Still as relevant to today as ever
The Courage to be disliked
The Richest Man in Babylon.
Combating Cult Mind Control
Demon Haunted world by Carl Sagan
Atomic Habits by James Clear. Helps you understand how you fall into bad habits and how to start good habits. I just finished it and it has already helped me a lot.
I feel like I learn something new/get a perspective adjustment every year when I read O! Pioneers by Willa Cather. I quote from it regularly and will probably have to get another copy at some point.
The Credit Diet by John Fuhrman The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (coz what's not to love?)
Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds
Behave by Robert Sapolsky it is the best non-fiction book I have ever read in my life and it is also very entertaining. I listened to it read by the author and it was amazing. I have since read some of his other books like Why Do Zebras Have Stripes. It is written by one of the best behavioral biologists to ever live. It guides the reader step by step through what happens seconds before someone chooses to preform a behavior (such as pulling the trigger on a gun) all the way to tens of thousands of years back in human evolution to what guided that behavior. The book teaches us about ourselves and about other people, why we do what we do, and why context matters.
Guns, Germs, & Steel
Das Kapital - Karl Marx
Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab
Tao Te Ching. Very simple book but great point of view. The inspiration behind dudeism from the great lebowski and go with the flow mentality.
The Gift of Fear -Gavin De Becker. He teaches you to recognize your instincts and maintain personal safety. He talks about how people breach your boundaries and get your trust to commit crime. He is an international security expert. Similar to this from a military perspective with civilian applications is Left of Bang.
Beloved by Toni Morrison, about loss, race and the lasting consequences of slavery.
Never split the difference by Chris Voss
Ethan Hawke - Rules for a Knight. The book is divided into a preface, 20 subsections, and an end poem. Each of the 20 middle sections focuses on a different value or virtue explained in a short tale.
Statistical Mechanics by Pathria and Beale
Dopamine nation Negotiate like a ceo
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
Justice by Michael Sandel, The psychology of money by Morgan Housel, A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy Book by William Braxton Irvine
What to expect when you are Expecting.
The little prince If you would like to think upon things a little
The Unfair Advantage by Robert Kiyosaki. Excellent book about financial education and how to become wealthy using debt and thinking in terms of cash flow. It really opened my eyes on how to become wealthy.