Started reading "Learned Optimism: How to Change your Mind and Your Life" by Martin Seligman today. I am about of a quarter of the way through and can already say I'd recommend it to anyone, regardless of if you are happy or not. Other books I'd recommend are "How to Win Friends and Influence People", and "How to be a Man (and other illusions)" by Duff McMahan.
Anyone have any books that improved their life or helped them through a rough time?
I have many. Here are my top picks, they are mostly informative so you'll have to actually apply the mechanics to get a happier life.
>Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman
A short pop-psy book that talks about Systems I & II - the architecture of our minds and how we think. It's very simple and every freshman in college should read this. If not for the mind modeling then for all the information on cognitive biases. Knowing this stuff will help you make objectively correct decisions in life and spot errors in others' thinking.
>Book of Pook
Free pdf, just google it. I didn't read it all but it's a quick and forward take on social dynamics. Just read the lessons and skim some chapters. The book is a great introduction to understanding the opposite sex and can help you build confidence in interacting with them.
>Way of Men by Jack Donovan
Meme /pol/ book that's pretty good. The Pook one talks about understanding women, this one talks about understanding men. The chapter on the bonobos stood out the most for me.
>Sleight of Mouth by Robert Dilts
Still reading this one. It's pretty heavy and abstract with the concepts, but can help you create mental models of human discourse. Understanding social interactions and thought patterns can help you understand why other people do the things they do. By breaking down interaction, you can plan this stuff out or practice improving it - or go above and beyond and do social engineering stuff.
1/2
>>17174026
2/2
>Actualized videos on YT
This bald guy knows his shit. It's worth listening to him even though the advice is very basic, almost elementary. I like the piece on meditation the most. Worth downloading the audio and listening to that whilst driving.
>Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Takes like 2 weeks to build habits. Habits/systems are objectively better than pursuing goals.
>Mastery: The Keys to Success
Same thing as above, but shorter. tl;dr Maintaining systems is better than working "towards" a goal.
>Men's Fitness Bible
Or any workout book really. Conflicting views on which workout book is good/bad exist, but pick one and stick with it. Pretty much the idea is to get /fit/. Depends on how much you know of this stuff already, so read accordingly in this domain. Start with the /fit/ sticky. Exercise is very important and everyone should do it.
>Meditations by Julius Evola
Another meme /pol/ book. The guy has an insane writing style and I'm sure he's right on half the stuff he talks about. It's a hard read, but the take away is to meditate. This helps you overcome emotion and become more Stoic. Stoicism is a pretty good life philosophy imo.
>>17174053
>>Meditations by Julius Evola
It's actually Doctrine of Awakening.
Meditations was Marcus Aurelius
my bad
>>17173952
Shit I had a typo too, it's Duff McKagan
>>17174026
>>17174053
Some of these sound really useful, I'll check them out.
I find a lot of good recommendations on a YT channel called Philosopher's Notes (iirc), they touch on the main points of these types of books and it makes it easier to judge which ones I'm interested in
>>17173952
The classic ic THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING. A little too quasi-religious for some, but worth a look.
Those actualized videos... sounded like a bunch of hokey-pokey to me. Thanks for the other stuff though!
i'm reading pic related atm and holy hell, it has already transformed my sexlife and i'm only one third in.
>>17174488
I watched a couple and like anon said, they're pretty basic. Didn't seem like he was trying to sell me anything though. His advice is good but I have found my own path/advice for myself and it isn't the same as his, so I took him seriously I just don't plan on applying anything he said to my life any time soon.
