What the title says.
A technical read would be nice as well, but I am not sure if something like that exists. I don't want to go into self-help stuff, nor do I want to go into the rabbit hole of philosophical thought. Just something to make me think about how I can make my life better and be able to go through it all.
I don't want to go into Jordan B. Peterson, because I feel he went too much into the self-help / religious side and that doesn't really fit my secular life views.
I'm also not into this whole dudebro "escape the Matrix" thing people are doing nowadays in various different forms.
Nor do I want to go the whole Seneca side of things, because I don't have the mental room to think too much about things.
Any advice?
by RomanianBagVoid
6 Comments
Augustine of Hippo – Confessions
If Seneca is too deep, try the [Discourses of Epictetus](https://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html)
Maybe “Shantaram” by Gregory Robert Davis? True story of a paramedic who does a bank robbery in Australia, breaks out of prison and escapes to India, then redeems himself by being a “doctor” in the slums of Mumbai. Now a series on Apple TV.
How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything by Albert Ellis
Ellis developed rational emotive behavior therapy by applying then-modern research standards to Stoic philosophy. His work is still a major part of cognitive behavioral therapy.
*The Antidote* –Oliver Burkeman
*Stillness is the Key* –Ryan Holiday
Burkeman’s book is for grownups. Not the TikTok crowd. It’s nicely philosophical and helpful without being preachy. Nor is it an email that turned into a book.
Holiday on other hand is a full-on Stoic. His books are nice intros into the actual stoic lifestyle. Holiday is an interesting character and probably what you’d consider a public intellectual. He owns a book store and has a nice newsletter where he shares what he’s read for the week/month. I dig his work.
Jordan Peterson is the worst of us. Just smart enough to enjoy the scent of his own flatulence, but dumb enough to believe in actual shit. He’s a pompous dipshit.
I’m at least forty or fifty deep into self-help books at this point. HMU if you want to chat further. For reference, I too hold secular beliefs.
This might be breaking the rules, but I think The Shawshank Redemption and Gladiator do a good job at referencing stoicism.
I would also watch the “Like Stories of Old” videos on them.