
Ask HN: What are good resources for life advice? - sumitsrivastava
What are other good resources to read from?
Any source that are as good as PG essays on how to think in life?<p>Sources can be videos, audios, recordings, essays, blogs, etc. Anything.
======
jefflombardjr
First and foremost, what you are describing is metacognition - thinking about
the way you think. Hopefully that will aid you in your search for things!

Secondly, here are some of my favorite influential material:

\- Li Ka-Shing, Tips on Life. My takeaway: invest in yourself.
[https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/asias-richest-
ma...](https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/asias-richest-man-li-ka-
shing-shares-advice-for-young-entrepreneurs/)

\- Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture. My takeaway: don't limit yourself
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7zzQpvoYcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7zzQpvoYcQ)

\- Guy Kawasaki, Make Meaning. Aimed for startups, but equally applicable in
life. My takeaway: Have the proper motivations for doing things.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQs6IpJQWXc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQs6IpJQWXc)

\- Admiral William H. McRaven, Make your bed. My takeaway: if you want to
change the world, start by changing yourself.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70)

\- David Foster Wallace, This is Water. My takeaway: Take a big picture view,
and don't sweat the small stuff. [https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-
wallace-this-is-water/](https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-
water/)

\- “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet
you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to
talk about.”― Rumi

\- Man's Search for meaning. My takeaway: We make meaning.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Me...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning)

\- "All the livin that you're saving, won't buy your dreams for you" \- Townes
Van Zandt

\- Idiot wind by Bob Dylan My takeaway: Your reaction to things can be just as
bad as the actual thing.
[https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/57330/](https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/57330/)

\- Stoicism and Marcus Aurelius, Seneca. My takeaway: Focus on what matters.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5617966-a-guide-to-
the-g...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5617966-a-guide-to-the-good-
life) (read this one first for a good foundation)
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97411.Letters_from_a_Sto...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97411.Letters_from_a_Stoic)
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations)

\- Buddhism. Our takeaway: Meditation is important, the doctrine of emptiness
(not nihilism!) is super interesting.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104949.How_to_See_Yourse...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104949.How_to_See_Yourself_As_You_Really_Are)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammapada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammapada)
[https://www.shambhala.com/the-pocket-dalai-
lama-14965.html](https://www.shambhala.com/the-pocket-dalai-lama-14965.html)
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25942786-the-mind-
illumi...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25942786-the-mind-illuminated)
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3346233-buddhism](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3346233-buddhism)

\- Leonardo Da Vinci My take away: There is a beautiful intersection between
tech and art. Great things could not exist without a little of both.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34684622-leonardo-da-
vin...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34684622-leonardo-da-vinci)

\- The Alchemist My takeaway: It's not the destination it's the journey.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/865.The_Alchemist](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/865.The_Alchemist)

\- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. My takeaway: Seek out quality,
whatever the hell that is!
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629.Zen_and_the_Art_of_M...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/629.Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance)

\- Why we sleep. My takeaway: go the fuck to bed.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-
sleep](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep)

\- Anti-Cancer Diet. My takeaway: don't eat shit.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1886829.Anticancer_A_New...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1886829.Anticancer_A_New_Way_of_Life)

\- Non-violent communication. My takeaway: You can (and should) communicate
your needs respectfully.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/560861.Non_Violent_Commu...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/560861.Non_Violent_Communication)

\- Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela. My takeaway: There is a difference
between institutionalized action and individual action. Forgiveness is the
only path forward.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318431.Long_Walk_to_Free...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318431.Long_Walk_to_Freedom)

\- A people's history of the US. My takeaway: Things are getting better.
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767.A_People_s_History_...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767.A_People_s_History_of_the_United_States)

~~~
godelmachine
I heard about non violent communication only last week. Heard there’s a course
and a workshop too on this.

Very eager to master Non Violent Communivation coz more often than not I find
myself in loss for the right word.

~~~
afarrell
If you find yourself at a loss for words often, you might find it useful to
talk to yourself more often, rehearsing how you would explain something.
Showers are good for this. Parks are too, but there you should carry a handful
of papers and occasionally pretend to look at them .

~~~
godelmachine
Thanks for your pointers.

Apart from the point to which you have replied, there’s one more I would like
to add.

I am an Indian, and have a bit of an accent. Am trying to rub it off. I work
for US clients and have observed that I can’t crack jokes as easily as they
do, nor do I sound as natural in a friendly banter as well as they do. Also,
in the excitement of the conversation, sometimes my American client mumble off
something which I am unable to grasp, and which my Indian colleague is able to
understand with surprising ease. (The fact that my Indian colleague is
vernacular medium educated freaks me off even more)

Also, I am preparing for IELTS the second time (Band 8 in first attempt). I am
particularly weak in listening. To remediate that, I listen to a BBC podcast
everyday called “The Archers”. I miss out on at least 5 points in the podcast,
unable to decipher what they meant. That’s one area I am trying to improve at.

The other one is speaking itself. To put in simple words, I am trying to make
my speech as fluid as water. The person I am conversing with should be able to
understand me effortlessly. Right now my speech is quite rigid and not that
articulate. I scored band 8 in speaking in IELTS. To take things forward, I
learnt about this shadowing technique from YouTube’s Emma’s channel and from
someone on HackerNews. The bottom line of the shadow technique is, pick up a
favorite show - and speak along with whatever the character says, do this for
all episodes, and finish the series. One person on HN said that in order to
perfect his Mandarin, he shadowed on Chinese TV series for 9 years straight.

In addition to this, I also record myself and speak on some random topic daily
for 2 min(Topic is mostly from IELTS speaking tests). Go through the
recording. Spot pronunciation / intonation/ articulation mistakes. Take one
more go at the same topic. And see if there’s improvement.

Do you have any other ideas apart from these in your mind which can help me
with improving my speech?

I am also planning to gobble up all books related to languages written by
Steven Pinker.

------
andai
I was going to suggest Dr. Peterson, but Ctrl+F revealed a veritable graveyard
of downvoted comments about him already. That's too bad.

So I'll go with Steve Pavlina's [0] work instead.

Steve Pavlina's blog is a mix of solid personal development advice mixed with
a journal of his self experimentation.

His most interesting work is on belief systems, and on deliberately installing
new belief systems to improve your life.

An interesting note is that he has released most of his work into the public
domain. I'm working on audio versions of his articles.

[0]: [https://stevepavlina.com/](https://stevepavlina.com/)

~~~
sridca
That's a clever way to mention (suggest) Mr. Peterson and evade the downvotes.
:-P

Being an individualist I don't agree with his life advice one bit.

Those that are not looking to settle down to anything less than perfect in
life I'd suggest looking up "Actual Freedom".

~~~
slothtrop
> Being an individualist I don't agree with his life advice one bit.

Without knowing much about him, my impression was such that he's a staunch
individualist

~~~
sridca
I have read parts of his book and watched some of his lectures, and would
hardly characterize him as a person who is independent and self-reliant (which
is what the word individualist refers to).

Just for starters, allowing your well-being dependent on being above some
level in some social hierarchy is hardly considered being self-reliant.

~~~
slothtrop
> hardly characterize him as a person who is independent and self-reliant

Maybe you have some example as to why.

> allowing your well-being dependent on being above some level in some social
> hierarchy is hardly considered being self-reliant.

This sounds like a mischaracterization of whatever it is is espoused. No one
lives in a bubble, but a strong social network isn't antithetical to self-
reliance, because self-reliance isn't an absolute nor is it purported to be -
0 people are entirely self-reliant in the literal sense. It's in practice
about initiative, to move beyond a stagnant dependency. For example, seeking
professional help in the instance of mental health to improve our lot, or
reading a book to that same end, is an example of self-reliance at work. No
one can _make_ you do it. You have to want to improve. I see it as self-
motivation.

~~~
sridca
I'm talking specifically about the life advice being dished out by Mr.
Peterson. Given that you said "without knowing much about him" perhaps you
should first familiarize yourself with what he is promulgating before
continuing this discussion.

~~~
slothtrop
If you know, you can sum it. Should be easy if you criticize it in abstract

~~~
sridca
Yup I did:

> Just for starters, allowing your well-being [to be] dependent on being above
> some level in some social hierarchy is hardly considered being self-reliant.

It may be hard for some not to lump self-reliance (aka. being autonomous) and
hierarchy-consciousness (to coin a word) together; which is where the third
paragraph of my original comment comes into picture (something you seem to
have ignored[1]).

\---

[1] I can guess it because of this:

> [slothtrop]: 0 people are entirely self-reliant [in affective context] in
> the literal sense.

As a matter of fact I know at least 6 people who fit that description.

And:

> [Mr. Peterson]: I’m saying it is inevitable that there will be continuities
> in the way that animals and human beings organize their [hierarchical]
> structures. It’s absolutely inevitable, and there is one-third of a billion
> years of evolutionary history behind that … It’s a long time. You have a
> mechanism in your brain that runs on serotonin that’s similar to the lobster
> mechanism that tracks your status—and the higher your status, the better
> your emotions are regulated. So as your serotonin levels increase you feel
> more positive emotion and less negative emotion.

I know at least 6 people for whom it is not (anymore) "absolutely inevitable".

~~~
slothtrop
> Yup I did:

Seems rather circular then to suggest I familiarize myself with him more if
you can't even be bothered to demonstrate how you've extrapolated what you
reiterated using a source. Google yields no sources parroting that. Even the
negative opinions suggest something completely different : "Ultimately,
Peterson’s dismissal of happiness as the purpose of life is a problem because
it aligns his argument too closely with an emphasis on an introspective
attempt at self-sufficiency. Insisting that meaning can be forged out of
effort emphasizes a kind of self-reliance which, while certainly useful and
even admirable at times, misses the mark in telling most of the human story.
Suffering for the sake of suffering in order to “tolerate the weight of our
own self-consciousness” is, I suppose, the best we can aim for if the material
world is all that exists." \-- [https://humanumreview.com/articles/why-we-
need-jordan-peters...](https://humanumreview.com/articles/why-we-need-jordan-
peterson-and-why-he-needs-us)

> As a matter of fact I know at least 6 people who fit that description.

That can only be true if you don't appreciate the fact that outcomes which
appear superficially as self-reliance don't materialize from a lifetime of not
benefiting from social networks.

> I know at least 6 people for whom it is not (anymore) "absolutely
> inevitable".

Seems you drew your own ideas as to how this has anything to do with self-
reliance.

How an individual leads their life has no bearing on whether there are
hierarchical structures in the whole of society. You can go live in the woods,
and humans will continue on without you with class structures.

~~~
sridca
> Seems rather circular then to suggest I familiarize myself with him more

Only because you wrote "Without knowing much about him" and you keep
misunderstanding the nature of my critique.

> ... if you can't even be bothered to demonstrate how you've extrapolated
> what you reiterated

What I reiterated was that - allowing your well-being [to be] dependent on
being above some level in some social hierarchy is hardly considered being
self-reliant [aka. being autonomous].

> using a source.

Both Peterson's book and his online videos are the source for that
paraphrasing.

> Google yields no sources parroting that.

All you have to do, basically, is to directly read his book and watch some of
his online videos; and not read reviews (be it negative or positive) of those
works online.

> Even the negative opinions suggest something completely different :
> "Ultimately, Peterson’s dismissal of happiness as the purpose of life is a
> problem because it aligns his argument too closely with an emphasis on an
> introspective attempt at self-sufficiency. Insisting that meaning can be
> forged out of effort emphasizes a kind of self-reliance which, while
> certainly useful and even admirable at times, misses the mark in telling
> most of the human story. Suffering for the sake of suffering in order to
> “tolerate the weight of our own self-consciousness” is, I suppose, the best
> we can aim for if the material world is all that exists." \--
> [https://humanumreview.com/articles/why-we-need-jordan-
> peters...](https://humanumreview.com/articles/why-we-need-jordan-peters..).

Of course they do, as I'm referring to the matter-of-fact self-reliance (aka.
being autonomous) and not "a kind of self-reliance".

>> As a matter of fact I know at least 6 people who fit that description
[being entirely self-reliant [in affective context] in the literal sense].

> That can only be true if you don't appreciate the fact that outcomes which
> appear superficially as self-reliance don't materialize from a lifetime of
> not benefiting from social networks.

Given that I wrote _in affective context_ it is beyond me how you can
characterize what I wrote as to "appear superficially" and materializing from
"a lifetime of not benefiting from social networks".

>> I know at least 6 people for whom it is not (anymore) "absolutely
inevitable".

> Seems you drew your own ideas as to how this has anything to do with self-
> reliance.

Of course it seems that way, as to you -- especially not being familiar with
Mr. Peterson's work in critical sense -- whatever you dub as self-reliance is
nothing to do with being autonomous in the affective context, and that being
actually so somehow automatically implies (to you) "living in the woods" or
having "a lifetime of not benefiting from social networks".

> How an individual leads their life has no bearing on whether there are
> hierarchical structures in the whole of society.

Just so that it is clear, the hierarchical structures Mr. Peterson is alluding
to is entirely affective in nature ("class structure" as you mention below
belongs here), and is not specifically referring to the actual structures in
the society.

> You can go live in the woods, and humans will continue on without you with
> class structures.

Yes, and so what? This is nothing to do with what I'm talking about.

------
prepend
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a quick book that goes into how
we internalize meaning that drives happiness from purpose that helped me
figure out this out better than many other “journey > destination” books.

Bed of Procrustus by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a bunch of quick aphorisms that
takes less than an hour to read and gives good insight into Taleb’s form of
critical thinking.

Between the Devil and the Dragon by Eric Hoffer has essays from a self-
educated, laborer philosopher and has helped me to understand much about how I
think through things and why.

~~~
Balgair
Aside: _The True Believer_ is well worth the read. Though I may have some
issues with Hoffer's conclusions in his work, I've never regretted the time
spent reading him.

~~~
prepend
True Believer is included in Between Devil and Dragon.

I like how you stated “I’ve never regretted the time spent reading him” as I
don’t agree with many of his statements and sometimes his writings seem a bit
self-involved or exegesis in need of a peer review, but I’ve found it valuable
to read through and think the power of some of the ideas I keep, or just
strongly disagree, are worth all the material I discard.

------
hpvic03
Books on Stoicism. In particular, “A Guide to the Good Life”

Some good stuff here:

[https://www.theschooloflife.com/](https://www.theschooloflife.com/)

~~~
eafkuor
Seriously? I thought they were cartoonishly bad. A group of hipsters
dispensing cheap philosophic pills for lazy fake intellectuals.

~~~
HNLurker2
True true. They don't even teach Philosophy. their video is the embodiment of
cognitive ease.

~~~
eafkuor
Yep. I'm really surprised to see them upvoted on HN to be honest.

------
squirrelicus
Jordan Peterson's Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules for Life, and his many tens of
hours of content on YouTube.

If you're willing to entertain the idea for a brief moment that the Bible has
any wisdom at all, his Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories is a
must. I recommend them even if you aren't willing, in fact. They converted me,
and i was a fairly nihilistic atheist for almost all of my thinking life.

~~~
lisardo
I see Jordan Pererson gets downvoted here, but recommend all critic to read
“12 rules for life” themselves. This book helped me a lot.

~~~
silveroriole
I did read it. I decided not to take life advice from someone who writes,
about a two-year-old child: “I picked him bodily off the playground structure,
and threw him thirty feet down the field. No, I didn’t. But it would have been
better for him if I had.” It’s a ‘joke’, but it’s a weird joke. I believe he
thinks this over-aggression makes him seem dominant and powerful; in reality,
a grown man getting so furious at an infant that he fantasises about throwing
it is just odd. I can see why young men on the internet find it appealing to
be told that being aggressive is actually cool and powerful and good, but that
doesn’t actually make it good advice.

I also don’t agree with his sexual-marketplace ideas about how women choose
mates, and why it’s a good thing for women to choose men who behave badly
towards them because they’ll change: “[female lobsters] identify the top guy
quickly, and become irresistibly attracted to him. This is brilliant strategy,
in my estimation. It’s also one used by females of many different species,
including humans. ... His aggression has made him successful, so he’s likely
to react [to the female] in a dominant, irritable manner. Furthermore, he’s
large, healthy and powerful. It’s no easy task to switch his attention from
fighting to mating. (If properly charmed, however, he will change his
behaviour towards the female. This is the lobster equivalent of Fifty Shades
of Grey, the fastest-selling paperback of all time, and the eternal Beauty-
and-the-Beast plot of archetypal romance. This is the pattern of behaviour
continually represented in the sexually explicit literary fantasies that are
as popular among women as provocative images of naked women are among men.)”
Is this good advice or information for men or women? Personally, I don’t think
so, but since it bears absolutely no relation to how I chose my partner, I
suppose Peterson would say I am some kind of outlier or unusual female.
Readers may make their own minds up about the quote.

~~~
gexla
> in reality, a grown man getting so furious at an infant that he fantasises
> about throwing it is just odd

You are getting that backwards. In reality, people think that way. They get
angry with kids. They may even think violent thoughts. Tragically, they may
actually be violent.

Any time you make a statement about what's weird about interactions between
adults (especially parents) and kids, you should clarify that you do or do not
have kids. So, I'll ask, do you have kids? I ask because we can be rational in
an HN discussion. Dealing with kids tests that rationality.

> Is this good advice or information for men or women?

Men who are "alpha male" types get more selection. This may or may not be
true. The "should" (rational decisions) is a different argument. JP is trying
to explain how things ARE (and he could be wrong on that.) That's different
from advice and the information is neither good or bad.

~~~
silveroriole
He is just describing “how things are”, not giving advice or telling you what
you should do, in his self-help advice book about his “rules for life”? That’s
surprising to me, I must say!

~~~
gexla
Heh, good point.

Okay, you're right. It's a self help book with advice. ;)

------
aizatto
What sort of "life advice" do you want?

I think for starters is to realize there is a lot of contradicting life
advice. Then the other thing is wether people follow the advice they give
others.

There is a Carl Jung quote:

> Only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life.

Personally for me, understanding life is understanding the pros/cons of every
scenario.

The pros and cons of short term thinking.

The pros and cons of long term thinking.

The trade offs between both. There are trade offs in everything we do.
Understanding them, and accepting them is important.

~~~
cousin_it
Yeah, came here to say the same thing. There's so much advice out there,
different advice is good for different people at different times, and none of
it can cover life in full.

One way to think of it is that reading advice puts you in the perspective of
the advice-giver, instead of your own. Like, when you read a book titled "99
ways not to be a loser", you begin worrying if you're a loser and seeing
everything through that lens. And then you read "35 ways to become a decent
person" and suddenly being a loser isn't a problem anymore, now there's
something else on your mind. And so on. It stops you from seeing your life on
its own terms, from many angles and the actual weighting of each, which is
very personal. It requires living, not reading.

~~~
lcall
That is part of the reason that I have thought long about maturity models: a
collaboratively-built step-by-step approach. Not everyone is in the same
place, but there are some best practices that can help us all, when we are
ready for them. More at [http://lukecall.net](http://lukecall.net), under
"Life lessons".

(ps: I am a religious person and the content is heavily influenced by that,
but I hope the concept, and present/future software, are amenable to about any
worldview.)

------
shambolicfroli
The Psychology of Human Misjudgment by Charles T. Munger
[https://www.harrisonbarnes.com/the-psychology-of-human-
misju...](https://www.harrisonbarnes.com/the-psychology-of-human-misjudgment-
by-charles-t-munger/) (You may wish to scroll down to "psychology-based
tendencies that, while generally useful, often mislead")

------
liamcardenas
Naval has a lot of good content.

I would start with his tweet storm: How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

[https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936?s=21](https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936?s=21)

~~~
cjohnson318
This is just a bunch of vague garbage. Sure, "don't trade your time for money,
invest and make money off of your investments", but saying so is a lot harder
than doing. All of this vague garbage is a lot easier for white upper class
people that get nice interest free loans from their white upper class parents.

~~~
methusala8
Naval is an Indian Born Self-made guy. Sure, it is hard. If it were easy,
everyone would be doing it.

~~~
cjohnson318
I didn't know that about Naval. I'm used to hearing this sort of self-serving
advice from "self-made" people that really weren't self-made at all. The
reason this vague helpless advice is appealing to people is because the
implication is that it IS easy, and that everyone CAN do it.

------
stfwn
> There are these two young ﬁsh swimming along, and they happen to meet an
> older ﬁsh swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys,
> how's the water?” And the two young ﬁsh swim on for a bit, and then
> eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is
> water?” -- David Foster Wallace

This is a nice analogy about how hard it is to understand what we live in
every day. To know about 'water' I learned a lot from Thomas Eriksen -- Small
Places, Large Issues. It's an introduction to cultural anthropology and it's a
great academic read, but it also taught me a lot on a personal level; to
clearly recognize different schools of thought and see their particular and
universal value.

Good contextual knowledge of this sort tones down the general chaos of life
for me. It just helps a lot to have a solid mental model of cultures and
ideologies, know their overlaps and contradictions, and to have the ability to
relate specific thinkers to this model.

------
codethief
I recommend Mark Manson – he's got a popular blog
([https://markmanson.net](https://markmanson.net)) on topics like these and
also wrote a great book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.

------
jpamata
Derek Sivers' blog. One of my favourite pieces of his, There is No Speed
Limit:

[https://sivers.org/kimo](https://sivers.org/kimo)

------
emperor_
12 rules of life by Jordan Peterson. Also Peterson's YouTube channel has loads
of free lectures.

~~~
thundergolfer
It's pretty hard to avoid the reactionary politics when consuming Peterson,
but if you can yeah you get mostly tried-and-true basic self-help advice.

~~~
squirrelicus
It's funny. He took like one political stance and then got labeled awful
things. We can just skip past the trans thing. It's ok.

For those that don't know: he interpreted a law that was passed in Canada as
compelled speech law and decided that was a line that shall not be crossed, no
matter the presumed benefit. That line happened to coincidentally involve
trans people and, well, it's the late 2010s, so that speaks for itself. It
takes about three minutes of listening to him talk on the subject to
understand that his singular life's mission is to figure out what is necessary
to prevent totalitarianism ever again. Compelled speech laws are something we
ought to be on the defensive for in that regard. The fact that it involved
trans people is irrelevant to him and should be irrelevant to us.

~~~
verbify
> It takes about three minutes of listening to him talk on the subject to
> understand that his singular life's mission is to figure out what is
> necessary to prevent totalitarianism ever again

I spent some time listening to him, and that wasn't my impression. It struck
me as a mixture of contrarianism, attention seeking behaviour and latent
transphobia.

~~~
gdy
My impression is that your comment is a mixture of contrarianism, attention
seeking behaviour and latent transphobophobia. Can't refute it, can you?

------
suniltejs
Zen mind, beginner's mind - Shunryu Suzuki. I don't think it's life advice.
But, it certainly had a profound impact on my life.

As an entrepreneur, I found the best way to learn about life is to read
biographies of successful people, especially the ones that speak of the
transformations.

Shoe Dog - Phil Knight Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein - Walter
Isaacson

~~~
aphextron
>Zen mind, beginner's mind - Shunryu Suzuki. I don't think it's life advice.
But, it certainly had a profound impact on my life.

Just wanted to second this. One of the few books that has actually changed the
way I view everything in life, and led to a years long deep dive into eastern
philosophy.

~~~
scruple
Third here. I was talking about this book just yesterday on HN and also
briefly with my team at work. It's definitely not life advice, but it also
helped me change the way that I view most things in life.

------
godelmachine
_The Conquest of Happiness_ by Bertrand Russell.

Never knew unhappiness after I read this. Highly recommended.

Another one is _Méditations_ by Marcus Aurelius.

 _Lives_ by Plutarch if you have the patience.

------
aphextron
Socrates, Spinoza, Hobbes, Rosseau, Kant, Nietzche, J.S. Mill, Camus, de
Beauvoir, Arendt.

------
sillyguy123
Your parents, grand parents and other paternal figures like coaches teachers
aunts uncles and siblings

~~~
avip
Very happy to find this obvious answer. People always look far for what can be
found right here.

------
50
I recently finished reading "The Wisdom of Insecurity" (1951) by Alan Watts. I
have to go back through it again to grasp it further. It's a short read (~150
pages). I highly recommend it.

------
rkho
I like Aaron Swartz's Raw Nerve series:
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve)

~~~
whalesalad
Disclaimer: This is it’s a series of posts on how to get better at life
written by someone that ended their own life.

~~~
wtmt
Why is that a disclaimer and why does your comment sound like knocking on
something good? If you haven’t watched the documentary “The Internet’s Own
Boy” [1], check it out. The amount of harassment (mental and emotional) he
faced could also bring most other people to take steps that they never
would’ve imagined themselves doing.

It’s very easy to knock down others. But you haven’t lived his life, and you
just cannot know how it was for him and what pushed him to take his own life.

Would someone put down any works by Ian Murdock (founder of Debian) because he
also took his life?

I find these kind of criticisms, based on some actions of a person who
otherwise contributed a lot, very silly and downright insulting in the meanest
of ways.

Next time you want to write a disclaimer on Aaron Swartz, you could perhaps
describe it as how the FBI and DoJ went too far and killed him in more ways
than one.

[1]:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internet%27s_Own_Boy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internet%27s_Own_Boy)

~~~
p1esk
On the other hand, someone here mentioned Viktor Frankl, who had been through
a lot worse than what Aaron Swartz faced, and survived. Which one of them is
more qualified to give life advice?

~~~
wtmt
Both are qualified to give life advice based on their experiences. In fact,
others are also qualified. Good life advice usually stems from struggles that
one has gone through. There doesn’t need to be a scale or measure on who is
more qualified.

~~~
p1esk
What if you need to choose only one?

------
Funes-
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. It's the hardest pill I've ever tried to
swallow in my life; in fact, I am still in the process of doing so. It goes
over the mental process and ruminations of assuming the greatest commitment a
human being can make: that which you make to reason and nature. Taking full
responsibility of your existence is a daunting proposition, but initiating the
process is a fruitful enterprise.

Just a warning, though: be prepared for thanatophobia while reading it, since
it has "memento mori" written all over it.

~~~
HenryBemis
For people that may want to put a little Stoicism in their lives, you may want
to try this book: The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance,
and the Art of Living: Featuring new translations of Seneca, Epictetus, and
Marcus Aurelius [1]

This one-per-day, helps me absorb them in a slow and steady manner.

[1]: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-
Perseveranc...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daily-Stoic-Meditations-Perseverance-
translations/dp/1781257655/)

(link is not associate)

------
dizzyfingers
Any body remember when Alone was writing The Last Psychiatrist?

~~~
sridca
For those in the blank:

[https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/archives.html](https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/archives.html)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastpsychiatrist/](https://www.reddit.com/r/thelastpsychiatrist/)

------
jstrebel
I frequently scan Quora for interesting perspectives on life. I really like to
learn from the personal stories of individuals. Of course, you have to take
everything with a grain of salt, as Quora is not peer-reviewed or scholarly
supported, but exactly this raw and unfiltered content makes it attractive.

You can learn best from the mistakes of others. It's a kind of wisdom of the
crowds-approach.

(I don't work for Quora, nor do I participate in their partner program)

------
gordon_freeman
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Basically the introduction to Stoicism
philosophy)

~~~
louismerlin
Seconded !

------
lcall
Coming late to this but ... I have thought long about maturity models: a
collaboratively-built step-by-step approach. The famous coach John Wooden said
something like "the trouble with all the good new books is they keep us from
reading all the good old books".

Not everyone is in the same place in their personal growth process, or has
time to read as much as needed to find what is best and most applicable to
them, but there are some best practices that can help us all, when we are
ready for them. So the intent is to capture those, for any area of life (which
I have grouped under mental, physical, spiritual, social/emotional).

I have posted much more at [http://lukecall.net](http://lukecall.net), under
"Life lessons". (I think the site is lightweight/responsive, and skimmable.)

(ps: I am a religious person and the content explains why, and is heavily
influenced by that. Also, I hope the concepts, and present/future software to
help with it, can be helpful, given almost any worldview.)

------
z1mm32m4n
My favorites:

 _The Last Lecture_ by Randy Pausch

 _How to win friends and influence people_ by Dale Carnegie

------
Rerarom
David Chapman - Meaningness

[https://meaningness.com](https://meaningness.com)

~~~
aaimnr
Wow, didn't expect it here. Chapman is an amazing guy. Influenced mostly by
Buddhism, has a good grasp of western philosophy and his insights into AI make
things even more interesting (he was playing part in the GOFAI).

The message is very subtle, but much closer to reality than most of the other
suggestions here. The difficult part is that it requires letting go a lot of
views to which we are very attached. Not your typical feel-good motivational
book.

------
rtcoms
[https://waitbutwhy.com/](https://waitbutwhy.com/)

------
raztogt21
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My
Life by Scott Adams.

An extremely concise life advice book. Doesn't wander around ideas. Well-
written.

Of all 'self-help' books I have read, this is the only I truely recommend.

------
Balgair
If you're in for a 15min/day kinda thing, try out the Harvard Classics.
Reading them acts as a great barometer for the 'stickier' problems that we
humans face. Totally free to download and read here:
[https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120212](https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120212)

Daily Reading Guide here:
[https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1](https://www.myharvardclassics.com/categories/20120612_1)

------
gexla
Morgan Housel for financial advice. Just Google the name and follow his
Twitter feed if you have an account there.

I have learned a ton through playing poker. The game has a lot of carry-over
into real life. Luck vs Skill. Variance. Take a look at the link for a great
review on a great book about poker.

[https://25iq.com/2018/10/13/lessons-from-annie-duke-
author-o...](https://25iq.com/2018/10/13/lessons-from-annie-duke-author-of-
thinking-in-bets-making-smarter-decisions-when-you-dont-have-all-the-facts/)

------
tmaly
I think Poor Charlies Almanac is great as it covers the mental models. It also
has a wealth of life advice.

You can also subscribe to the fs blog or their podcast The Knowledge Project.
They do a lot with mental models.

The book The Art of Thinking Clearly is another great book that covers biases
of the mind in one to two pages each.

The Tim Ferris podcast surprisingly has some amazing guests filled with life
advice. I just listened to one with Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. It
was absolutely fantastic.

------
spchampion2
A wonderful book that's a little off the beaten path for HN is "Bird by Bird:
Some Instructions on Writing and Life," by Anne Lamott.

------
factsaresacred
I enjoy the writings of Kapil Gupta. In fact I found them life-transforming.
Naval is mentioned here - I believe him and Kapil are friends.

He writes on mastery, seriousness and the Truth.

His Twitter:
[https://twitter.com/KapilGuptaMD](https://twitter.com/KapilGuptaMD).

And some excerpts from his writings:

> _" Cleverness and insincerity are loud. Seriousness is quiet"_

> _" The Mind does not assault man for his mistakes. It assaults him for the
> cover-up"_

> _" If there was one single thing that stands between man and his freedom, it
> is the belief that he has time"_

> _" What must be understood is that human beings’ lives harden into routines.
> They harden into a way of being. At some long-forgotten moment many moons
> ago, they settled. For things they swore they would not settle for...today's
> compromise is tomorrow's resentment”"_

> _" People are who they are. And they will do everything in their power to
> remain who they are. And the Mind will make certain of this"_

> _" The common man is afraid of “losing.” The Legend is afraid of not
> arriving at his ultimate capability. These are fundamentally different
> paths"_

------
kpennell
Pocket's must reads are full of lots of self-development articles:
[https://blog.getpocket.com/2018/11/2018-must-reads-on-
pocket...](https://blog.getpocket.com/2018/11/2018-must-reads-on-pocket/)

------
linuxboxer
Joe imbriano, The Fullerton Informer is a good start. He covers many issue
related to technology, health, government, self improvement etc.

[https://thefullertoninformer.com](https://thefullertoninformer.com)

www.YouTube.com/thefullertoninformer

------
shinryuu
I would suggest the readings at [https://betterhumans.coach.me/a-directory-of-
advice-that-wor...](https://betterhumans.coach.me/a-directory-of-advice-that-
works-e7a177844a46)

~~~
tonystubblebine
Thank you!

------
polytronic
There is great a number of Alan Watts talks on YouTube. For more information
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts)

------
tebeka
The Knowledge Project [https://fs.blog/the-knowledge-
project/](https://fs.blog/the-knowledge-project/)

------
adebrincat
[https://academyofideas.com/](https://academyofideas.com/)

------
mikelyons
[http://www.actualized.org](http://www.actualized.org)

------
matonias
Go out and explore the world and try meet interesting people ;) no better
resource then that

------
neillyons
Sam Altman’s blog. I like this article [https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-
are-long-but-the-decades...](https://blog.samaltman.com/the-days-are-long-but-
the-decades-are-short)

In particular. Do new things often as it slows down the perception of time.

------
alashley
I like Coach Red Pill on You Tube. Some of his stuff is pretty insightful.

------
git-pull
I'm biased in favor of audiobooks since they fit with strolls. Books are for
sitting, walking burns calories :)

Books:

 _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ and _How to Stop Worrying and Start
Living_ by Dale Carnegie

Taste testing:

 _PhilosophersNotes_ is like sparknotes for self-help books. Can be used as a
way to discover / screen books you'd like.

Audio:

 _Psychology in Seattle_ 's episodes regarding Attachment Theory (6 episodes).
The reason why is it's a swiss army knife for understanding relationships and
behavior. These episodes are paywalled though, but there are free episodes
available if you use a Podcast app.

Like aphextron mentioned Socrates: _Republic_ , _Apology_ by Plato are really
good. The one narrated by Ray Childs.

Audible for _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ by Robert Pirsig (it's
like a Socratic dialog about what Quality is)

A lot of stuff by The Teaching Company / Great Courses in general have been
good quality (maybe I've been lucky).

------
n2dasun
Stoicism books, Markmanson.net, books by Brene Brown

------
lukego
If my kids ask me for advice about buying a house, taking a job, doing a
degree, etc, I'll refer them to bogleheads.org without hesitation.

------
Odenwaelder
Dear Sugar, the Rumpus advice column.

------
throwaway1111x
On the Shortness of Life by Seneca

------
temp2903d
Maybe not the place to admit it but I'm more of a Naval fan myself...

~~~
bubblewrap
Who is that, where can it be read?

~~~
sumitsrivastava
Twitter @naval.

------
deepsun
Not sure if spending time on life advice is better than on life itself.

~~~
jolks
By reading such resources and articles, I learned from the mistakes that the
authors painfully learned themselves or observed in their lives. Putting what
I learned from them into practice would save me so much time and money, by not
repeating those mistakes or at least minimize them. They are my mentors across
different space and time.

~~~
p1esk
What makes you think you would have repeated those mistakes?

------
emperor_
12 rules of life by Jordan peterson

------
nell
If you already know all the usual advice or don’t think highly of them, try
the graduate level works of Kapil Gupta.

\- kapilguptamd.com

\- He appeared in a few episodes on 33voices podcast

\- two recent appearances in Crazy Wisdom podcast with Stewart Alsop

~~~
p1esk
Are you serious? That website looks like total bullshit.

