In terms of war, corruption, oppression, unnecessary deaths, and overall human well-being, this is by far the best time to be alive in human history.
It’s really not even close.
For those that are actually interested:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250107814/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_i_ujXXDbDQ5PDWJ
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143111388/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_i_0nXXDbKSSRGA7
Before you go and negotiate the salary read THIS book. Or do the audio book. There is a section on negotiating salary but the whole book is useful. Really changed the way I talk with people.
You’re not wrong. Even in developing countries it’s better than at any time in history. Check out the book Factfullness if you like to read. It’s pretty amazing.
I recommend reading "The Millionaire Next Door", it goes it to more detail about the spending/saving/investing habits of the ~~average~~ most millionaires in America. Living in a culture that prioritizes spending it's not surprising those who do the best financially go against the grain, and are also frowned upon.
Jaynes. I actually remember a sentence from the first chapter (probably not an exact quote, but I can't be bothered to go find my copy), "When asked, 'What is consciousness?' people become conscious of consciousness, and believe that consciousness of consciousness to be what consciousness is. This is not the case."
It's engaging and well-written, but his theory wasn't all that influential in the long run. The brain is so much more complicated than left brain/right brain...We as humans definitely have a friction between our logical minds and our impulsive instinctive minds, but it's deeper than they believed back then.
An interesting modern read would be Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman...He's a Nobel prize winning economist who has done a lot of work about human decision making in an attempt to figure out how it drives economic decision making. He's coming at it from a completely different direction, but if anything, that makes his stuff more interesting.
> "Collectively, the world is more stressed, worried, sad and in pain today than we've ever seen it,"
I would contend that this statement from the article is contentious. Was the world less stressed during the major wars that have plagued it? What about the cold war?
Here are multiple counterexamples of things going better: https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814
Scroll down and have a look at the graphs
Lastly, this is a short time-span. Movement upwards could simply be regression toward/away from the mean
If you want to understand the thinking behind this, I highly recommend reading the book that Bill Gates just gifted to every person graduating college this year: Factfulness https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814
In fact, I recommend reading it anyway, if for no other reason than for the good tips on improving your critical thinking skills.
Instead of giving you advice, I have the perfect book recommendation that will come pretty close to directly answering your question. I read this years ago, but only just found it again and am giving it another read through.
The book is called 'So good they can't ignore you: why skills trump passion in the quest for work you love' by Cal Newport.
The author actually has a computer science degree funnily enough. In it he uses empirical evidence to argue that the common advice of 'follow your passion' is flawed and unrealistic, and generally bad advice. After arguing that he puts forward his arguments about what the best course of action is if you discount the passion hypothesis. Its full of examples of people he interviewed who took different approaches to end up doing what they love, why some failed at it and why some didn't. I really can't recommend this book more highly actually, I think it will be perfect for you.
Here is the amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/1455509124
Your dream life is 100% possible today. You can get remote gigs as a programmer making 6 figures working 5 hours a day if you have the aptitude for it. So if you're fine making $50k per year (which is more than enough for van life), you could work like 15-20 hours per week doing consulting work over a satellite internet connection from your van. And then take all the rest of that time and live your life. :) But you've got to work to get there because it requires lots of technical expertise in something.
These books have good generic advice for getting there if you're interested. They're by a professor who got into a tenured position while working normal hours (most people on tenure tracks work INSANE hours), so he knows what he's talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/1455509124
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692/
>>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting. > >Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.
Yeah, that bit made me laugh. $3m isn't even remotely close to private jet territory. Try $300m. Lol
Most people that receive a large windfall like this do not fare well OP. At all. Be extremely careful with this money and do not tell anybody. Check out the "Windfall" section in the /r/personalfinance wiki. Also check out /r/fire and /r/fatFIRE.
Introvert/ extrovert aren’t exact opposites. Most people exhibit tendencies of both. Here’s a good book about it: Quiet
If you're interested in reading about this and other subtle strategies used to influence, I suggest you check out the book influence: the psychology of persuasion. It's one of my faves. It details:
All very interesting stuff that you can see in action every day.
That hard yank on the emotions drives urgency. Too hard a yank is 9 times out of 10 your clue of a financial scheme.
Recommended reading, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion"
The problem is in India introverts are shamed by teachers, by parents, by society. There is Nothing wrong with being an introvert
In fact read this book - https://www.amazon.in/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking/dp/0307352153
I am also an introvert, have always been one. And I love it.
> I have a theory that your brain tries to "automate" processes and to do them subconsciously when it feels confident enough about it.
You should read the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - excellent read that I would highly recommend. I think you'd find the book interesting, and it discusses this topic in depth.
I try to shut off the hysterics as much as possible. NEVER watch tv news and especially none of the dedicated news channels.
Also read and think about things like this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814/
Social proof in action. Long queues signal that if other people are willing to wait for the food, the stall's food must be good. It is a form of heuristic people use to make decisions about what is good or not. However, the long queue could be a result of slow cooking process, or the stall used to be good so but because the cook changed, the standard went down but people still queue based on the reputation of the stall. The book, "
Also if you queue for a long time, by the time you get your food, you are very hungry so anything tastes nice!
I don’t equate extroversion with confidence.
Quiet by Susan Cain explains our culture’s overvaluing of extroversion.
I’m introverted and FIERCE.
In The E-myth Revisited, Michael Gerber paraphrased a quote from Gen. George Patton. It has stuck with me for many years after having read the book.
>The comfort zone makes cowards of us all.
​
> I think the primary problem is that the business is "me" and I'm having a difficult time transitioning from a "freelancer" to a "business" in a way that still keeps me flush with reliable income.
Read The E-Myth Revisited.
The first chapter or so will resonate with you deeply as the whole book is about turning your business into an actual business that can function without you so you can get your life back.
Look up Behaviorial Economics.
In particular, I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555
Also, here's another:
Endowment Effect: This is the tendency for us to value things we already own more than things we don't own. This is partly why loot boxes work, especially when they show they are "rare." You may not pay directly for a rare loot box, but if you already earned one... buying a key to open it is less problematic for many.
I just read The E-Myth Revisited and I cannot recommend it enough for any entrepreneur. It talks about how to build a sustainable business.
You don't need a co-founder and you don't need investors.
Build an MVP in 3 months and see how it goes.
Do not make the mistake of wasting 3 years to build something no one wants. Do not give half to a co-founder for something you can handle in the beginning.
Also, subscribe to Valuetainment. It has phenomenal content on everything you'd need.
> Nei selvfølgelig ikke. Og det er jo fordi det er politikken til folk som Obama-Biden og forgjengerne deres helt tilbake til Reagan som er grunnen til at en karakter som Trump i det hele tatt kom på banen og vant valget.
Så det at autoritære, populistiske politikere på høyresiden er på fremmarsj over hele verden, det er tilfeldig? Det er Demokratene sin feil?
>Et av endeløse problemene for liberalere som støtter den uendelige akselerasjonen til den globale teknokratiske kapitalismen er at jo raskere en økonomi endrer seg jo større del av befolkningen er det som blir kastet på dynga
Dette er fundamental feil. Det er lavere fattighet på verdensbasis i dag enn det noen gang har vært før. Globaliseringen har, uten sammenligning, gjort verden (både lokalt og verdensomspennende) bedre.
>de menneskene som blir kastet på dynga har dessverre for liberalerne fortsatt stemmerett.
Det er ingen som blir kastet på dynga. Du hadde hatt godt av å lese Hans Roslings bok <em>Factfulness</em>, det er mye du kan lære der.
Rosling's last book, Factfulness, tackles 10 common myths (or urban legends, if you wish) concerning the state of the world and how it is majorly improving, directly countering the majority view in the developed world.
Buy it at Amazon or Bookdepository (with free shipping worldwide).
There's a good book on this called "The E Myth" that might help shed some light on this for you. It's not a huge long book, but it goes into the idea that running a business is entirely different than working in your field.
Also, try to keep in perspective your experience. If you fail, so what? You have a great opportunity here to try something. If it works then great! If not, you might go back to a 9-5 with a new appreciation for the simplicity of it all.
I've personally spent a lot of time on Less Wrong, but... I do have to admit that it's kind of an insular place using their own made-up jargon to promote strange ideas. Overall I approve of it and don't put much stock in the usual criticisms, but I wouldn't direct people to it if I wanted to convince them of anything.
Instead, I'd direct them to the book Thinking, Fast and Slow. It's just as accessible as Less Wrong's better-written posts, it covers a lot of the same stuff, and it's written by someone with the credentials to back up their claims.
And best of all, it includes regular examples that demonstrate your own biases to you. Examples like this, where you can actually catch your own brain making a mistake, are more likely to get through to someone who doesn't believe in, say, racial or gender bias.
If you read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking it discusses just this. I actually find things have gotten worse since the book's release as social media seems to have crept even more into our everyday lives. Every time I see someone doing a dance in public for Tik Tok or setting up an elaborate (fake) photoshoot for Instagram, I wonder what planet I've been transported to. I don't feel comfortable here.
You're short, you have acne, you dress poorly, you're no fun to be around, you have no friends/squad, you're shy/introverted/won't approach, you look like a boy and have no authority, you have no sexual experience ... why do you think you should have a girlfriend again?
I know I'm being harsh, but the earlier you learn this the better: you must offer value. Otherwise why do you think anyone would be with you?
Work on the things you can, accept the things you can't.
Short - no solution.
Acne - eat better, sleep better, see a dermatologist.
Learn to dress better.
Finally, learn to socialize. This will have all kind of cascading effects. You will be more fun to be around, you will have a squad, you will have authority based on your friends' opinions of you. It definitely won't be easy, and sure, it goes against what you think is your fundamental nature, but right now, your fundamental nature is also to be girlfriendless. How badly do you want to change the situation?
Some tips for being more sociable: Be generous with your time and thoughts. Compliment people. Listen to them. Think about what they need and offer to help them. Again, you must offer value. Sometimes you won't get anything back. That's part of the pain of the learning process. Let that unrequited kindness go.
Here's a book that may help you with your introverted nature. In part, the author recommends faking it until you make it. Make it into a game, so you can step away, and you can reward yourself for small bit of progress:
https://www.amazon.ca/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking/dp/0307352153
Humans are not intuitively good at probability and statistics, because of numerous cognitive biases. -Thinking: Fast & Slow
Lähteeksi on mainittu Hans Roslingin tuore kirja Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think