T-Readers --- HELP!

Off Topic
1

Looking on putting in an order to Amazon very soon as I’ve nearly churned through my last order of reading material which will be completed within the next couple weeks.

Looking for any excellent reads on topics such as; economics, politics, self actualisation, etc. The below short lists should provide you with an idea of the kinds of things I’m interested in.

In short really anything that is non-fiction, a great read, and applicable to everyday life.

Last batch ordered included:

  • The Art of War by Samuel B. Griffith
  • What Would Machiavelli Do? by Stanley Bing
  • Supertraining by Mel Siff
  • Practical Programming for Strength by Mark Rippetoe
  • 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler
  • Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu
  • Never Let Go by Dan John
  • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  • The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
  • Live Life Aggressively by Mike Mahler

In my next batch I have currently included the following to be order:

  • Mein Kampf
  • The Asian Mind Game by Chin-Ning Chu
2

[quote]Teledin wrote:
Looking on putting in an order to Amazon very soon as I’ve nearly churned through my last order of reading material which will be completed within the next couple weeks.

Looking for any excellent reads on topics such as; economics, politics, self actualisation, etc. The below short lists should provide you with an idea of the kinds of things I’m interested in.

In short really anything that is non-fiction, a great read, and applicable to everyday life.

Last batch ordered included:

  • The Art of War by Samuel B. Griffith
  • What Would Machiavelli Do? by Stanley Bing
  • Supertraining by Mel Siff
  • Practical Programming for Strength by Mark Rippetoe
  • 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler
  • Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin-Ning Chu
  • Never Let Go by Dan John
  • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
  • The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
  • Live Life Aggressively by Mike Mahler

In my next batch I have currently included the following to be order:

  • Mein Kampf
  • The Asian Mind Game by Chin-Ning Chu[/quote]

Well, what you seem to want is “36 stratagems”.

I would warn you though, unlike other books you mentioned, na, not quite true but still, anyway, to get to the point, with this one you need to put in the work.

Meaning, active participation is nice reading any book, but if you do not bother, dont bother with this one.

Also, if you do not reread the “Art of War” every three years or so, whats the point anyway.

Also, Hagakure … and Machiavellis contribution to the history of ideas is misunderstood IMO and I would not trust anyone who thinks name dropping Machiavelli is a selling point.

Not because Machiavelli was not right, somewhat, but because he was a bloody amateur compared to Asian authors because the idea that he sought to overcome was never in their heads. They immediately cut to the bone, whereas he is all giddy that he dares to question a catholic morality.

3

The Religion of the Samurai - Nukariya

4

The Road Less Traveled - M. Scott Peck
Consolations of Philosophy - Alain De Botton
Status Anxiety - Alain De Botton
On Writing Well - Stephen King

These are the ones I’ve read lately. De Botton is a genius and can’t wait to get my hands on his newly published “Religion For Atheists”.

5

The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction?

6

Instead of ‘what would machiavelli do’ why not buy ‘the prince’? Unless you already have it?

7

[quote]groo wrote:
The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction?[/quote]

I guess the variety of tastes would be too great, unless he gives us some examples of what he likes.

I used to read more non-fiction, but now almost everything I read is fiction. I love a good story!

8

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]groo wrote:
The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction?[/quote]

I guess the variety of tastes would be too great, unless he gives us some examples of what he likes.

I used to read more non-fiction, but now almost everything I read is fiction. I love a good story![/quote]

I’m the opposite. I used to read all fiction, but I reached a point where I got tired of the ups and downs & loops of a story and just wanted to find books for specific “lessons” and nuggets of wisdom.

I tried to read the best-selling fiction of all time, but the first few pages of talking about family lineage got too confusing. LOL

9

[quote]B.L.U. Ninja wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]groo wrote:
The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction?[/quote]

I guess the variety of tastes would be too great, unless he gives us some examples of what he likes.

I used to read more non-fiction, but now almost everything I read is fiction. I love a good story![/quote]

I’m the opposite. I used to read all fiction, but I reached a point where I got tired of the ups and downs & loops of a story and just wanted to find books for specific “lessons” and nuggets of wisdom.

I tried to read the best-selling fiction of all time, but the first few pages of talking about family lineage got too confusing. LOL
[/quote]
I think good fiction says things in ways that nonfiction could never approach, but to each his own. And there is nothing wrong with simply reading for pleasure sometimes as well imo.

Someone like Haruki Murakami, I think can provide both.

10

[quote]orion wrote:
Well, what you seem to want is “36 stratagems”.

I would warn you though, unlike other books you mentioned, na, not quite true but still, anyway, to get to the point, with this one you need to put in the work.

Meaning, active participation is nice reading any book, but if you do not bother, dont bother with this one.

Also, if you do not reread the “Art of War” every three years or so, whats the point anyway.

Also, Hagakure … and Machiavellis contribution to the history of ideas is misunderstood IMO and I would not trust anyone who thinks name dropping Machiavelli is a selling point.

Not because Machiavelli was not right, somewhat, but because he was a bloody amateur compared to Asian authors because the idea that he sought to overcome was never in their heads. They immediately cut to the bone, whereas he is all giddy that he dares to question a catholic morality.

[/quote]

I hear ya. I personally feel the same way, especially currently reading Thick Face, Black Heart. The Machiavelli book, although an amusing read, left me scratching my head at times as I really couldn’t juxtapose many characteristics of a “Machiavellian” with those of the leaders I am privy to. (my boss and the corporate managers, modern political leaders, etc). I think the examples used in that book were more common to the exceptions not the rules. Whereas I can see the majority of characteristic mentioned in Thick Face, Black Heart in the same said leaders.

I definitely am planning to re-read Sun Tzu very soon as I don’t think I quite grasped some of the deeper points from the first read.

I’ll definitely highly consider 36 Stratagems!

[quote]Nards wrote:
The Religion of the Samurai - Nukariya [/quote]

Thanks. Had a look at some of the reviews and it looks pretty solid.

[quote]B.L.U. Ninja wrote:
The Road Less Traveled - M. Scott Peck
Consolations of Philosophy - Alain De Botton
Status Anxiety - Alain De Botton
On Writing Well - Stephen King

These are the ones I’ve read lately. De Botton is a genius and can’t wait to get my hands on his newly published “Religion For Atheists”.
[/quote]

I’m digging Status Anxiety. Added this one to this list for my next order.

[quote]groo wrote:
The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction? [/quote]

Outliers is sparking some interest in me. I’ll look into this one further.

I find fiction books designed around the goal of entertaining the reader moreso than teaching the reader. If my thoughts aren’t provoked across most pages, I tend to lose focus and just develop A.D.D. and end up procrastinating with the book just sitting there ultimately destined for incompletion. People may disagree with me, that is fine. I just don’t learn very much from fiction - largely due to my reading A.D.D. lol

[quote]Bambi wrote:
Instead of ‘what would machiavelli do’ why not buy ‘the prince’? Unless you already have it? [/quote]

I already purchased WWMD. The Prince looks like a must have and I’ll look into this one further.

11

[quote]B.L.U. Ninja wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]groo wrote:
The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction?[/quote]

I guess the variety of tastes would be too great, unless he gives us some examples of what he likes.

I used to read more non-fiction, but now almost everything I read is fiction. I love a good story![/quote]

I’m the opposite. I used to read all fiction, but I reached a point where I got tired of the ups and downs & loops of a story and just wanted to find books for specific “lessons” and nuggets of wisdom.

I tried to read the best-selling fiction of all time, but the first few pages of talking about family lineage got too confusing. LOL
[/quote]
I know what you mean. I read Sense and Sensibility (I’m not kidding) a couple of years ago and there was one paragraph I read more than 10 times trying to understand who was referring to whom and could not figure it out. Also at the beginning I had trouble understanding the family tree as it was explained.

12

[quote]Teledin wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:
Well, what you seem to want is “36 stratagems”.

I would warn you though, unlike other books you mentioned, na, not quite true but still, anyway, to get to the point, with this one you need to put in the work.

Meaning, active participation is nice reading any book, but if you do not bother, dont bother with this one.

Also, if you do not reread the “Art of War” every three years or so, whats the point anyway.

Also, Hagakure … and Machiavellis contribution to the history of ideas is misunderstood IMO and I would not trust anyone who thinks name dropping Machiavelli is a selling point.

Not because Machiavelli was not right, somewhat, but because he was a bloody amateur compared to Asian authors because the idea that he sought to overcome was never in their heads. They immediately cut to the bone, whereas he is all giddy that he dares to question a catholic morality.

[/quote]

I hear ya. I personally feel the same way, especially currently reading Thick Face, Black Heart. The Machiavelli book, although an amusing read, left me scratching my head at times as I really couldn’t juxtapose many characteristics of a “Machiavellian” with those of the leaders I am privy to. (my boss and the corporate managers, modern political leaders, etc). I think the examples used in that book were more common to the exceptions not the rules. Whereas I can see the majority of characteristic mentioned in Thick Face, Black Heart in the same said leaders.

I definitely am planning to re-read Sun Tzu very soon as I don’t think I quite grasped some of the deeper points from the first read.

I’ll definitely highly consider 36 Stratagems!
[/quote]

Machiavelli, for you, is irrelevant.

The point he made was that there is no catholic morality, the keyword being catholic, as in, all encompassing, including all men, all situations, all actions.

Since you grew up in a culture that does not blindly follow this view, for better or worse, this cannot possibly be a revelation to you.

My point was, if you want to go over to the dark side, or at least want to know what it is all about, read people who never had to overcome the idea that there is one catholic morality.

They spend no time justifying, they immediately get to the nuts and bolts of how to fuck other people over.

Also, if you really want to learn about human nature, which is kind of the topic here, I would look into theology, I kid you not. It needs some work to apply it to todays circumstances, but if you want to learn what human beings are all about you want to learn from people who thought that their immortal soul was in danger unless they found the right answers.

13

As I’ve read both, I would recommend Talent is Overrated and recommend skipping Outliers. Outliers might be non-fiction, but its really thinly-veiled brain junk food. It basically tells a bunch of entertaining stories that lead up to the conclusion that very successful people have 10,000 hours of practice in a given field and are in the right place at the right time. Not very useful or inspiring.

Talent is Overrated on the other hand tackles the elephant in the room in accordance to the 10,000 rule: Nearly everyone in the world is likely to accumulate 10,000 hours at their profession over their careers but very few people ever become true experts. You won’t be very far into the book before you start seeing how the principles could be applied to whatever it is you want to get better at.

As far as modern day Machiavelli stuff goes that is actually very relevant, I would recommend The 50th Law by Robert Greene. Yes it has 50 Cent’s name on it, but it was written by Greene so don’t knock it til you’ve read it. I found it to be 100x more useful than the 48 Laws of Power which he is more well-known for.

14

Read Machiavelli if you want to know how to be a dick.

At least now we know why you haven’t been posting in the NBA thread anymore - you’re too busy self-actualising. Respect.

15

I recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck, Free Will by Sam Harris, and The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

16

[quote]challer1 wrote:
As I’ve read both, I would recommend Talent is Overrated and recommend skipping Outliers. Outliers might be non-fiction, but its really thinly-veiled brain junk food. It basically tells a bunch of entertaining stories that lead up to the conclusion that very successful people have 10,000 hours of practice in a given field and are in the right place at the right time. Not very useful or inspiring.

Talent is Overrated on the other hand tackles the elephant in the room in accordance to the 10,000 rule: Nearly everyone in the world is likely to accumulate 10,000 hours at their profession over their careers but very few people ever become true experts. You won’t be very far into the book before you start seeing how the principles could be applied to whatever it is you want to get better at.

As far as modern day Machiavelli stuff goes that is actually very relevant, I would recommend The 50th Law by Robert Greene. Yes it has 50 Cent’s name on it, but it was written by Greene so don’t knock it til you’ve read it. I found it to be 100x more useful than the 48 Laws of Power which he is more well-known for.[/quote]

I would second the recommendation for The 50th Law by Robert Greene & 50 Cent. The main takeaway being “Fear Nothing”/“Nihil Timendum Est”, and is blanketed by Machiavellian & other Philosophical references. It was entertaining because it’s not your typical, dull book just filled with references. 50 Cent’s “real life” POV & Greene’s writing was a perfect blend.

17

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]B.L.U. Ninja wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]groo wrote:
The Better Angels of Our Nature-Steven Pinker
Outliers-Malcolm Gladwell
Wired for Culture-Mark Pagel

Why no fiction?[/quote]

I guess the variety of tastes would be too great, unless he gives us some examples of what he likes.

I used to read more non-fiction, but now almost everything I read is fiction. I love a good story![/quote]

I’m the opposite. I used to read all fiction, but I reached a point where I got tired of the ups and downs & loops of a story and just wanted to find books for specific “lessons” and nuggets of wisdom.

I tried to read the best-selling fiction of all time, but the first few pages of talking about family lineage got too confusing. LOL
[/quote]
I know what you mean. I read Sense and Sensibility (I’m not kidding) a couple of years ago and there was one paragraph I read more than 10 times trying to understand who was referring to whom and could not figure it out. Also at the beginning I had trouble understanding the family tree as it was explained. [/quote]

Yeap, but I think it was more the author’s flaw than the reader’s as suggested by, if I’m not mistaken, Schopenhauer if the book is full of fairy dust and written with a magic wand. As much as I like metaphorical allegories and the twists & turns of good fiction, I’d prefer a witty approach but still able to clearly impart whatever wisdom/knowledge the book & author is trying to leave the reader.

And, the book I was talking about was The Bible. Best-selling fiction of all time, but it fails to deliver IMO. The first page had my A.D.D in full effect.

18

[quote]orion wrote:
Machiavelli, for you, is irrelevant.

The point he made was that there is no catholic morality, the keyword being catholic, as in, all encompassing, including all men, all situations, all actions.

Since you grew up in a culture that does not blindly follow this view, for better or worse, this cannot possibly be a revelation to you.

My point was, if you want to go over to the dark side, or at least want to know what it is all about, read people who never had to overcome the idea that there is one catholic morality.

They spend no time justifying, they immediately get to the nuts and bolts of how to fuck other people over.

Also, if you really want to learn about human nature, which is kind of the topic here, I would look into theology, I kid you not. It needs some work to apply it to todays circumstances, but if you want to learn what human beings are all about you want to learn from people who thought that their immortal soul was in danger unless they found the right answers.
[/quote]

Yeah I’m not too sure on Theology, but for the sake of it I’ll give it a shot. Noted it down.

Machiavelli is more of a topic of interest to me I guess. I like looking at two or more POVs, picking them apart and drawing an educated conclusion on what the most applicable aspects are of each.

[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
Read Machiavelli if you want to know how to be a dick.

At least now we know why you haven’t been posting in the NBA thread anymore - you’re too busy self-actualising. Respect.[/quote]

lol I’ll be back in full force come playoff time. :wink:

I’m not attempting to replicate Machiavelli’s approach, I think it doesn’t work unless you are in a position of the highest authority i.e. CEO of a successful and large organisation. People are just going to see you as a dick, if you act like a dick and have no concrete track record that allows you to be that extreme dick.

I have seen this in practice recently having worked with an interstate manager who’s business we bought up a few months ago, albeit it he does a terrible job of trying to strike fear in people that aren’t women or his immediate team lol

19

JSMaxwell, B.L.U. Ninja, challer1

I noted your responses down and will put in some research later on tonight. Going to be tough chopping down the long list to a short list!!!

20

Mein Kampf has obviously been a very influential work. That being said, it’s pure drivel. It’s not the work of an intellect by any means whatsoever. Beyond that, it isn’t a good source for a look into Hitler’s mind if you are interested in him from a purely psychoanalytical standpoint. For that, I would recommend “Hitler’s Table Talk”. Don’t waste your money on Mein Kampf thinking your expanding your literary or intellectual horizons because you won’t be. The guy was clinically narcissistic and a severe yet high-functioning paranoid schizophrenic and the book reads as such. If you want to read something like that read “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” instead. Don’t turn into some Francophile/pseudo hipster intellect who reads Mein Kampf and thinks he’s cool because he’s being “intellectually honest” and funny because he’s being ironic.

“What Would Machiavelli Do?” Fuck that book. Why not just reread The Prince (I assume you’ve read it, and if not you definitely should) and decide for yourself what he would do? Personally, I think that the Prince is the epitome of Machiavellianism. Don’t forget, Machiavelli was an exiled, disgraced republican and a lifetime civil servant who had no part in govt when the Medici took power. I’ve always read the book as a veiled indictment of the autocratic, sometimes-tyrannical rule the book purports to endorse. The Medicis read it as a manual to rule, one that Machiavelli hoped they would be receptive toward and eventually bring him back into govt. At the same time, to those who knew Machiavelli, the book was clearly a satirical condemnation of “Machiavellianism”. You should also check out his “Discourses”, which are far lengthier than the Prince but equally as important in my opinion.

Quite frankly, after reading a couple of descriptions of Bing’s book, it seems to me that the guy has never even read Machiavelli, especially if he thinks Machiavelli was a killer of some sort. Don’t waste your time with this book.