/lit/ - Literature

Asking 4chan how to improve yourself is like asking a butcher how to eat vegan.

>>19716252
>narrow view of life to solar cycles
>not overall health of mind and body
>woman
checks out

>>19716252

Self-help has replaced sociology in bookstores, this is factual and has been thoroughly studied in france. Every year self-help encroaches the market share of sociology lit.

Self-help is self induced slavery. Self-help is a conspiracy against life, turned against itself. It is autism of the highest order, the withdrawing from the social sphere to the atomized individual.

>>19716449
Can you elaborate more on why self-help is self-induced slavery?
As far as I am concerned, the reason self-help sucks is because it's disconnected with reality and doesn't really address issues from a realistic point of view but put you in a world of make-believe to make you feel better, by purporting the myth that anyone is capable of anything.

https://youtu.be/BCsM35H9TFA?t=39

>>19716566
>Can you elaborate more on why self-help is self-induced slavery?
It's classic neoliberal disenfranchisement, where one portends that the problem is (You) and that individual agency is somehow supposed to allow you to disregard the onslaught of material reality as well as classist discrimination. The mental health industry is another arm of this, where withdrawal or resistance to social expectation is treated as illness in need of being either medicated or forced compliance to conditioning techniques, sometimes by depriving you of free movement through institutionalization.

>>19716566
I think anon is arguing that self help is too far removed from one's place in the world and that systems of change and improvement don't come from within. That being self actualized stems from having a healthy relationship with society and hypnotic affirmations and the illusion of internal order don't address this in any meaningful way. This is all in lieu of fixing a rotten society.

>>19716252
it's the brutal truth but self-help is rendered completely obsolete by a woman who loves you and supports your pastimes.
I have not found such women and they may never exist to me, but I am almost certain that that 'void' will not be filled by anything other.

>>19716252
> Adopting good habits Dropping bad habits Becoming braver, overcoming fear.
Anything that inspires you (books, music, religion, memories, sport, videogames, games, hobbies). Make sure to only surround yourself with stuff that inspires you. Dont spend your free time, leisure with, "must do", or "peer pressure" stuff that you actually find boring. Get rid of that stuff. If nothing inspires you motivate yourself with fear of what will happen to you if you do nothing. If you're not afraid of anything get angry about society, government, communists, capitalists, jews, or whatever you believe in. If you can't get angy anymore its time for religion/philosophy.

> How to sleep better?
If you can't sleep on a regular schedule you may be quick to say its because of stress or an emotional problem, but there is one very easy fix: exhaust yourself. Be on a regular workout program. When you can feel your muscles at night you will sleep like a baby no matter what.
https://legiogloria.com/the-temple-of-iron/

Start with pushups, bodyweight exercises then get into heavy compound lifts asap.
- Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe

Make sure your bedroom is impecably clean, and air out before you sleep. This should improve your sleep quality greatly. Then train yourself to sleep on your back. Next try sleeping on the floor with a 1 inch futon matress; if this is too hard add a 1 inch camping foam mat under it.
https://jlifeinternational.com/blogs/news/a-complete-guide-to-the-japanese-sleep-system

> Nutrition
There are no good Nutrition books because they all want to be fancy and get you hooked on a continuous struggle forever, so you buy more again.

There is only one diet that truely works for white people: The Hyperborean Diet: Lots of dairy, some whole grains, little bits of veggies, fruit, egg, and meat, no junk food, i.e. no oils, fats, sugars, additives etc. Just try this breakfast:
- 2 glasses of milk (warm in winter) for breakfast, maybe with a biscuit, croissant, or some oats if thats not enough.
- sandwiches, cheese, fruits, nuts, milk, and yoghurt during the day
- dinner of your choice, just make sure its no junk food

Simplicity is key: MILK
https://www.muscleandfitness.com/nutrition/gain-mass/udder-protein/

> Social skills
Learn to not give a fuck. There are many books about this that I haven't read, probably try "the art of not giving a fuck". Realize that we live in a society because other people, i.e. almost all the people that you meet everyday want to live in this kind of society. They are not your friends. When you meet a friend you will know. Build your social skills on that realization.

> Philosophy
Try seneca, bhagavad gita, awakening of faith

>>19716704
It's true that a partner can add some lasting feelings of happiness to your life, but what your describing is an incel fantasy. You don't need a mommy. Also sex won't fix anything. Get over it. Read "The Rational Male", I believe the author calls it "oneitis".

>>19716277
Well you could ask a butcher how to eat A vegan

>>19716277
can be summed up: do the opposite of whatever im doing.

This book is the myelin-pill.

>what is myelin

Some shit in your brain, read it to find out!

>>19716252
It is actually not a bad book. Made me want to go back to therapy. The truth is you can't not be doing anything just because you're young, the 30s are not the new 20s, you are wasting your life (and because of this, I would think 4chan does not like the book).

>>19716252
Heres a self help tip for you OP. Get off 4chan. Ill take my 20$ now thanks.

>>19717574
What's the alternative. Don't say Reddit. I got permanently banned from there because I disagreed with a leftist. And I am not even right wing.

>>19717651
I got banned for saying if kids didn't know how to tie their shoes, they shouldn't be making decisions about their genitals & gender. Didn't even think it would be controversial.

>>19717698
The state of that shithole of a site is disastrous. Like, I didn't even fucking disagree on something big. I just mocked someone for being too woke. Like even a 2 year old would find that woke thing hilarious and retarded. I got permanently banned and the ban message had a sermon speaking about keeping the site safe. Safe from what? my opinion?
Fuckers

>>19717726
I unironically like de r/PoliticalCompassMemes because they take woke-ism as a joke. Actually all of politics as a joke. They'd never ban you there,

>>19717651
jesus christ, you must be brain damaged from all these years on the internet. Just get off the internet for good you will feel better without the constant barge of thoughts and opinions cluttering you mind.

>>19716592
go back to /x/

>>19717027
>get over it, "read the Rational Male"
laughing, there is nothing 'Rational' about that book. What he proposes is perhaps the most pathetic option there is, to pretend that love doesn't exist and to shrug it off, le cool stoic man style.
Denying your most sensitive emotions will almost certainly backfire.

I will bump this thread.
OP, make sure this thread is alive "tomorrow". Its 00:47 here, lol.

>>19716252
Define better

>>19716252
outwitting the devil, think and grow rich, marcus aurelius, seneca

Death seems a preferable alternative. We must not imagine Sisyphus happy.

>>19716252
Getting Things Done is good if you're disorganised.
Feeling Good is good if you're depressed.

>>19716261
Kek

>>19718235
Taking a step back and viewing your "most sensitive emotions" from a rational analytic perspective can help you make better choices. It doesnt have anything to do with denying your emotions or pretending they don't exist, but has everything to do with becoming a functioning adult. But I can see how this advice can be hard to implement for someone of the opposite gender.

>>19716704
why do straight men always think a girlfriend is replacement for therapy. they will do everything under the sun before going "ok i guess i should go to therapy". you're gonna go through the honeymoon period and then be depressed with a girlfriend because the issue was the depression not your relationship status

>>19716252

>>19716252
The hatred of self-help is primarily, at least on this board, the hatred of popular things by people who want to feel intellectually superior to many people at once. I am confused why one would be seriously angry or scornful of people who want to improve (from their own POV) their situation in life by learning tactics that allows them to put in the relevant work.

>>19719179
Gym is replacement for therapy

>>19717651
A BOOK
A FRIEND
HOLY FUCKING SHIT

>>19716252

>>19719187
fucking based

>>19718685
Nutrition, and other knowledge.

>Aajonus Vonderplanitz "We Want to Live"
Catherine Shanahan "Deep Nutrition"
>Mike Cernovich "Gorilla Mindset"
Sally Fallon "Nourishing Traditions"
>Raw Egg Nationalism Cookbook
and then Weston A Price books

Websites
>https://exo-science.com (site will be updated)
https://aajonus.online/
>https://wiki.chadnet.org/
http://dons.directory/
>http://raypeat.com/

What are the top three habits do you want to develop? And why did you pick those three? Where are you lacking in your pursuit of them? The only book that will help you is a technical treatise or digestible personal memoir with lots of nitty-gritty details about how they mastered the relevant craft, technique and/or habit.
Why the fuck do you need a book to tell you to sleep better? Keep a journal/table of when you sleep and wake up. Try and notice a pattern, adjust behaviors to suite. Don't waste your fucking time reading a shitty book on that. Some digestible summary of poorly replicated sleep studies that oversimplifies the results into a few sound-bite worthy imperatives isn't going to help you sleep better.
Anyway, which habits do you want to instill?
All other self-help books are by necessity useless because they are designed to be vague to appeal to a wide audience, but in their vagueness possess usually only one or two anecdotes that may provide actual practical advice you can apply in your real life. (such as in Antifragile when Taleb suggests that if you don't know what to order at dinner, order what the second fattest guy at the table is ordering, since fatties know what tastes good. Good heuristic. You can use it in your everyday life.)

Center for Applied Rationality 2019 Participant Handbook. Google it - it's free.

>>19717027
Interested to hear more about The Hypoborean Diet, do you have any resources with more information?

>>19720710
>sharing exo-science and chadnet with the normalfags on 4chan
Traitor, we're gonna KILL you

>>19716252

who do yoy think is a better boxer, someone that actually boxes or someone that reads about boxing

>>19716252
> Adopting good habits.
> Dropping bad habits.
Feeling Good the New Mood Therapy (generally), This Naked Mind (alcohol), Any of the EasyWay books
> Becoming braver, overcoming fear.
depends what you mean by this. Brene Brown's books on shame are good but generally only Daring Greatly, Intimate Connections, The Gift of Fear
> How to sleep better?
no recommendation for this.
> Nutrition
How Not to Die by Michael Greger
> Social skills
Friendships Don't Just Happen!, Flirtology, Nonviolent Communication
> Philosophy
I don't really have any recommendations here
> Great advice
A New Earth, Lost Connections, Emotional First Aid, This Erotic Mind, Life Changing Magic of Tidying up and Spark Joy, The Ethical Slut, If you're gay: The Velvet Rage,

>>19716252
>> Adopting good habits.
Diamond Sutra
>> Dropping bad habits.
Diamond Sutra
>> Becoming braver, overcoming fear.
Diamond Sutra
>> How to sleep better?
Diamond Sutra
>> Nutrition
Platform Sutra
>> Social skills
Platform Sutra
>> Philosophy
Diamond Sutra
>> Great advice
Diamond Sutra

>>19716252
> How to sleep better?
> Nutrition
fitizen here, the ultimate absolute atomic redpill about nutrition and sleep is Stan Efferdings Vertical Diet. the pdf is available online.

the others i will not answer for someone disagreeing with them might also question the recommendation i gave before and i stand behind that with every cell in my body

>>19717027
Some good, some bad/nonsense advice. A well paved road to hell.

>>19716449
based Jacquesposting Jacques

>>19716704
This desu. I know I am unhappy because I am 23 years old and never had gf, not for some bullshit cope reason this self-help books offer

>>19721576
>not for some bullshit cope reason this self-help books offer
Then why?

>>19721694
Nice reading comprehension

>>19721710
So you think girlfriends just miraculously appear from nowhere, right?

>>19721747
I dont think that, but knowing that hardly makes me happier, does it?

>>19721776
So you are unhappy because you have no girlfriend. You know you should do something to get a girlfriend, but you refuse to do so. Did I miss something?

>>19721807
>another assumption
Never said I am not doing anything or that I think it doesnt take work, just that I know its the root cause of my misery. I am not sad because of lack of self-actualization or because I didnt save my father from belly of the whale or gut flora or whatever bullshit thousands of those self help books peddle at the moment.

>>19721869
Then what are you doing?
I am curious because I was an enormous loser in high school and long after, but I managed to overcome it.

>>19716449
You're trying to piece together an opinion from isolated phrases you've heard literary people using but you're not saying anything

>>19721887
>trying to be improve my body (food, exercise)
>trying to be more social
>trying to study more for college to get better position later on
Also I never felt like a loser, I have a lot of friends and achivements. But one important aspect can still make you miserable, just as lack of vitamin C will kill you even though you have plenty of food otherwise, if that metaphor makes sense.

>>19721891
Did it ever occur to you that half of /lit/ is ESL posters who cannot fully articulate their thoughts in english?

>>19721898
Are you rejected a lot?

>>19721161
reading about boxing > actually boxing > reading about boxing and actually boxing.

picrel, psychoanalytical in general ended up being extraordinarily helpful in reorienting my worldview and living healthier. Lacan and Norman Brown are my favorites

>>19721205
Are you a woman?
You've put a lot of effort into this list and I'd like to check out some of these books in return but I feel that even when men and women share similar challenges the solutions often look markedly different.
It will just give me a bit of a steer in terms of the books I should look into.

>>19721952
Not really, I have been on couple of dates but it didnt really go anywhere. I think I know what you are getting at, that I should ask more girls out and that its a numbers game, which is a good general advice, but I think that it applies more in lets say America than here. Its very uncommon where I live to be asking a lot of girls out and to some extent even faux pas. But I am also a bit of romantic so I cant bother asking out women I wouldnt see myself long term with.

>>19716592
this
it is the print form of behavior changing drugs.
>life sucks? Read this book on how you can desensitize yourself to the fucked society you are forced to live in so you can continue to produce taxable output
it all a meme, if you are happy, have a roof over your head, and are working as little as possible you are winning

>>19716592
https://youtu.be/5nu6QEjMXRg

>>19716252
How the fuck do you even need advice for this basic shit? I swear every other person on this board is a disfunctional retard.

> Adopting good habits.
Do them. You don't need people to tell you what these are. You already know if you think about it for two seconds.

> Dropping bad habits.
Don't do them. See above.

> Becoming braver, overcoming fear.
Just do it. No amount of mental gymnastics is going to make you brave. Just do the thing you're afraid of and you'll gradually not be afraid.

> How to sleep better?
Go to bed on time, keep the curtains open so you wake up when the sun rises.

> Nutrition
Don't eat fucking mcdonald's, lay off the sweets.

> Social skills
Don't be a sycophant who is too preoccupied to say what you think others want to hear. Don't be autistic and give people practical advice if they tell you about their emotions.

> Philosophy
Just pick up a book and read it.

> Great advice
Don't be a pussy

There, saved you both time and money.

>>19722248
...s...sir Gigachad, I am sorry for disappointing you ;o

>>19722108
No, but even if I was a woman you should be able to look at the books for their merit to you personally rather than evaluating it based on me. It's very reductive to simplify that down to sex. Every man you talk to is going to have different issues from you because their life circumstance isn't exactly yours.

>>19716252
> Adopting good habits.
> Dropping bad habits.
Watch Ali Abdaal on YouTube he recommeds books for this sort of stuff while also giving his own advice (which is pretty good)
> Becoming braver, overcoming fear.
Idk this one.
> How to sleep better?
Use more blankets. Live a healthier life. Find out what is causing you to sleep poorly then fix it.
> Nutrition
Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford
> Social skills
Any "Human Sexuality" textbook within the last 50 years. I've read 2 from the 80s and they healed a lot of the issues I had with women. As far as with men, you don't need a book. Maintain 8 friends in your life, and message each of them at least once a week. Introduce these friends to each other to create a greater social life. If you have no friends start with family, or reach out to old friends, or allow people to be your friends who you normally wouldnt allow. Any friend is better than no friend. And yes you're friends have to all be the same gender as you. Opposite genders can't exist happily as friends.
> Philosophy
Wittgenstein or Nietzsche. Use school of life on youtube to get introductions to all the philosphers and if one speaks to you learn them.
> Great advice
Follow the UN 17 SDG in your life, if one of these is out of wack focus on fixing it. No poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peach justice and strong institutions, partnerships for the goals.

>>19722075
This, realize how lack, emptiness and unfulfilled desire are good things

The Nietzschean path is another one you can take if you want to put your suffering (and your moping) in another perspective

>>19716592
What a bunch of shit talking from someone that dont understand nothing about it. The self improvement genre premise is all about how the world and your life is shit and how to make it fullfiling and good. And its the truth, the only one capable of making your life good is yourself

what are some self help books about reasons for self improvement

>>19723783
Nietzsche

>>19723783
Are you looking for self help books or for reasons for self improvement?

I suppose Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe satisfies both requirements.

>>19723901
just a general reasons to do anything heh don't really feel like doing anything anymore

>>19723964
Sounds like you're perfectly comfortable, so why do anything at all? Why not just vegetate and slowly merge into your couch, since you have all the basic needs of not-dying covered?

>>19723964
It sounds like you're dealing with anhedonia. Self-help will give you a temporary boost, but it won't address the root causes of your suffering.

Late 20th century American lit deals a lot with anhedonia as a theme. Roth, Updike, Irving all address it as kind of a baseline of what life in the U.S. post-Vietnam feels like. They all come to different conclusions on how to break free of it or whether it's even possible. But, on some level, they all take up the theme.

>>19716634
Nice, I’ve been looking for a way to strengthen my basic concepts before pursuing more complex self-study. Thanks for the rec!

>>19717027
16 is too young to post on this website friend

>>19722770
Yeah, of course, it just saves me a bit of time because I have nothing in common with a woman

>>19723964
This may sound silly but what gave me a reason to stop vegging out and start making my life better was a really good romcom (Maisson Ikkoku). It was making me sad about not having a gf and ruminating about lost opportunities in the past and I could tell I was going to end up in a dark place if I didn't find a healthy way to process it, so I started practicing some basic time management (just think about what to do before wasting time) and started getting more social and planning for the future more. Also read the book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo, the title is not an exaggeration.

>>19716252
Fuck this cunt. That blurb is enough to give anyone in the their 20's an existential crisis, and according to her, people like me who are in their 30's are over the hill. I hope she gets raped by a pack of feral niggers.

>Philosophy
Books on ethics, obviously, but don't neglect metaphysics. Ethics are pointless when they are not grounded in metaphysics. With that being said, avoid anything written by an atheist.

>>19721205
>Friendships Don't Just Happen!
Isn't that for women?

>>19722770
>In Friendships Don't Just Happen!, Shasta Nelson, friendship expert and CEO of GirlFriendCircles.com, reveals the most important proven steps, processes, and secrets vital to establishing the five different levels of friendships, or Circles of Connectedness, that women—no matter their age or relationship status—are
why are you lying