/lit/ - Literature

Fuck an average girl with complete sincerity. Smoke a joint and drink a beer after a hard day's work. Watch true detective box set. Read 'dune'. Start a garage band playing nirvana and metallica covers. Teach your nephew to fly a kite.

How do I stop being mediocre?

This thread is pretty mediocre thus far, I hope someone will change that

by reading 莊子, 列子 and 老子 in the original chinese. Now you'll tell me, waitu piggu, where that painting is from. It looks like your typical depressed "American realism" but, at the same time, it is set in one of the bleak Europooristans. It looks bizarre to me! I wantu a sorution!

>>5488899
are you describing your life?

>>5488907
googre it

>>5488899
That sounds pretty fun anon, It feels like autumn

>>5488882
place effort into becoming not mediocre

>>5488899
checkd

>>5488899
best post of the day

get over yourself

Why do tou want to be superior? Superior to what? To do what? Doing what?

By posting on /lit/ and /pol/

>>5488899
thats pretty cool

Watch Amadeus and masturbate.

Kill an old banker maidan with an axe. Also: her sister. Then turn in.

>>5489015
>old banker maidan
I believe the technical term is 'Jewess'

pray and repair your worldview

>>5489020
No. That's the trick: You need to find a banker maiden on the safe side of the pale of settlement.

>>5488899
goddamn mediocrity is so comfy

>>5489015
/thread
don't forget to drink vodka

>>5489015
>>5489116
Is this a reference to something I don't know about?
Please tell me more, this lifestyle sounds intriguing

>>5489125
Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky

>>5489127
Is it worth reading?
How "hard" is it?

>>5489127
Who's the author?

>>5489127
spoilers....

>>5489140
John Green

>>5488882
By not internalizing. Do not make mediocrity part of yourself. Just acceptance. There is no intellectual way to deal with this problem, it's personal.

>>5489135
It's the best Russian piece in my opinion. It was written in serials for newspapers so Dostoevsky's income depended on making his work approachable. The only thing that might be confusing to a new reader is the Russian names.

>>5488899
>true detective
>mediocre

>>5489149
Can you recommend a translation?
Sadly I don't speak Russian.

>>5489161
Jessie Coulson translated my copy.

>>5488882
Work hard. Find a niche.

>>5489142

if you know fuck all about the novel you know he kills some old woman in her apartment. if you read the back of any of the paperbacks it will say it. its not really a novel that cab be ruined by a "spoiler"

>>5489157
Babby's first nihilistic cynical mystery ritual murder detective series.

>>5489169
I'm such a horrible human being, I googled his name and someone recommended this translation, praised footnotes and a map of Moskau.
But the cover looks shitty so I will probably just go with the best looking one.

>>5489176
Can you recommend any good murder/detective books to read?
I'm a sucker for stuff like True Detective, but I realize it's not that incredible. It kind of fell off in the later episodes

>>5489176
come on, for a TV series it's great. nobody cares about your pulp comics or whatever.

>>5488899

>>5489197
Okay, I admit I was baiting. I'm generally not too impressed by ritual murder stuff in detective novels, though. In most cases, it seems like a trick in writing to me: Don't write convincing murderers with convincing motivation, just have them be sexually depraved lunatics who are killing because of an evil cult tradition.

>>5489239
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nt7PWtgOPI

>>5489244
I think the fact that it didn't try to portray a very realistic detective story was one of it's strengths though. The ritual and signs and symbols and other spooks gave it a very interesting and actually unique vibe when you combine them with the drab rural setting and the cops. It tried to focus on characters and mood- it's character study never got very deep, but still ended up being leagues more interesting than most tv-fare. It's not CSI, it's a neat gothic exploration. though i admit the bad guy was disappointing.
if they make the next season about shadowy ritual killings too then my respect for the series will be a lot lower though.

>>5489251
i smiled

>tfw just clever enough to know how stupid you are
sweet ignorance pls

>>5489785
f-fuck you dunning and kruger

>>5489785
I'm pretty dumb and way too lazy to change it

>>5488882
realise that mediocrity is not only not detrimental to happiness, it's instrumental to it. then be happy.

>>5488907
looks like the latin quarter to me.

Is anyone here happy/satisfied with who they are?

>>5490047
I'm not generally satisfied with life, but I'm satisfied with who I am. It's just that the world doesn't seem to adapt to me properly.

>>5490047
I don't think you should ever be happy with who you are. There is always something that you can do better. Internal, external, physical, emotional, intellectual, on and on. Even the most accomplished human beings have so much left to learn.

>>5490047
I'm not, the worst part about me is how lazy I am.
Too bad I'm too lazy to change

op, expand your mind

>>5490063
That's dumb as heck and wrong. Winning at life = get happiness, be happy

>>5490063
sure, but you can be satisfied with who you are in the present as a person who has a strong constitution to improve/learn/whatever

>>5490070
>tfw you don't know anyone who drugs
f-fuck

>>5488882
just start acting like someone else.

>>5490073
Happiness seems to be accepting the things you can't change and willfully ignoring the things you can.

>>5490087
some options:
go to a festival
make friends with guys with long hair
just start asking around
grow your own shrooms from a kit

>>5490087
order them online

>>5490063
what's so good about progress if it doesn't lead to happiness?

>>5490113
>>5490122
>grow your own shrooms from a kit
how do i do that?

By not caring at all about other people's taxonomy of human intellect.
You would stop being mediocre ipso facto.

>>5490159
BY
Y

>>5490133
the shroomery is a good place for info.
shroomsupply (among others) has a grow kit but you'll need to get spores/needles from other places.

>>5490185
I feel like getting the spores to grow poisonous shrooms to get high off from would be the hardest part

>>5488882
One points himself in a direction he can get motivated about.

>>5490203
these can be ordered from the non-deep web, regular, old internet.
everything is poisonous but the LD50 for magic mushrooms isn't feasible

>>5490218
how do i get motivated motivated?
:(

>>5490203
Psilocybin is not poison. It's in the triptamine family, along with every other one of the neurotransmitters in your brain that are remarkably similar to psilocybin.

>>5490230
fuck me, the first step in changing my life will be to proof read all my posts

>>5490230
You care about the direction in which you've pointed yourself.

>>5490258
That makes sense, I should have thought about your post more anon.

How do I stop worrying and start pointing?
I don't really see a direction that I care about right now, is there anything I can do to find one more easily?

>>5490203
Psychedelic shrooms aren't poisonous and you can get the spores easy peasy since they're legal due to their use for microscopy slides.

I got mine from ebay in a syringe, injected them into a kit I also got from egay. kept them near a radiator, they grew really fast and it was really easy. I got so high I worshipped an ikea lamp for 4 hours. I literally cried because of the radiance and beauty I felt from the lamp. It's a cool experience, but make sure you have a non high buddy to take care of you if you're new to it.

>>5490279
Finding yourself is at once an impossible directive and an unavoidable certainty. That's what it's all about, man. You gotta do that yourself. Btw if that's your problem, Psilocybin mushrooms may be exactly what you need.

You gotta keep moving forward. All you got to do is build yourself up and cut yourself down until you develop your own voice

>>5490304
Thank you anon. I will find a way.
>>5490294
That sounds pretty easy, I think I could buy some shit from ebay.
I once saw a short film about a guy who jumped from a building with an indian bow and some arrows in his arms because he got so high on shrooms, what's the worst thing I could do if I use too many?
also, how do I use shrooms the best way? do I eat them?

>>5490326
I don't recommend going alone. You could get lost. I always keep my favorite playlist on standby for if things get iffy.

>>5490326
Well technically everything is poisonous i.e has a lethal dose. Even milk or water. You'd need quite a few kilograms of dry shrooms to get ill from them.

What the shrooms do to you will depend on who you are more than the strain of shrooms or the amount you ingest. If you're a very ansty person or if you're schizo that can get amplified, but if you have no major psychological or responsibility issues you should be fine as long as you have a buddy looking out for you.

Shrooms don't make people do irresponsible things, it's the people who do these things. Shrooms affect your perception, so you might feel colours or see cool waves and edges on objects, but they wont make you jump out of a window. Being a retard makes you do that. Just like how some people get drunk and rape a dog, then blame being drunk on it.

The easiest way is to just eat them. Some people like to make tea from them for a nice buzz.

There's tonnes of books and many online resources on the subject you should check out, the first onebeing the wikipedia article on psylobicyn. Good luck fellow psychonaut!

>>5488882
Do what you want to do? Is it really that difficult?

>>5488882
Take a plane to the Middle East and join the next big mass movement.

>>5490047
I am sometimes. I get the feeling both when I write something good and when I shitpost on 4chan. I think that all the self-loathing on 4chan is actually just an ironic joke. We love ourselves here. Its when we get offline that we begin to hurt again.

>tfw watching traumatised cowering shells of their former selves
>tfw they were fine until they did psychedelics

not worth the risk, don't believe the hippies

>>5490498
an an experienced dirty hippie i recommend caution. stay away from psychedelics if you have mental health issues.
>dxm and k are useless, pretty toys.
>2c-whatevers are the same.
>nitrous in quanitity kills your brain.
>pot generally makes you useless.

however, mushrooms are non addictive and have clinically shown improvement for depression and personality openness. you can use them to see inside yourself and learn things.
>acid is ok too

>>5488882
Don't care.

>>5490565
the problem is, there are people who don't realise they had mental issues until they start eating shrooms or acid. and then it's too late. the question is if the risk of finding out if you're one of them worth some possible introspection.

>>5490586
This is so true. If you have depression and take shrooms you might just kill yourself, and I can't begin to imagine what shrooms would do to a schizophrenic.

>>5488882
I wouldn't know. Sucks for you OP.

>>5490586
>some possible introspection
psychedelics have profoundly changed my life for the better. obviously that not everyone will react the same but i am hardly alone in this.

>>5490609
mushrooms can treat depression
http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/magic-mushrooms-depression-122301.htm

>>5490632
>>5490609
Take shrooms with mdma for certain good trip, if you feel you may be coming down take a xanax and go to sleep. Best to have people with you just incase but not essential

>>5490632
>psychedelics have profoundly changed my life for the better. obviously that not everyone will react the same but i am hardly alone in this.
I'm not doubting it, but as profoundly as it can presumably better lives it can also ruin them. They're a double edged sword.

On a seperate note, mind elaborating how it changed your life for the better?

>>5490656
the biggest change:
>be me in uni, years and years ago.
>i'm an econ major with the intent to get an mba
>because you can never be too rich.
>took acid one night,
>had fun.
>go to a book store next morning.
>trip is mostly over but
>i'm practically weeping over a collection of short stories by my favorite author.
>i remember:
>in 3rd grade, i wanted to become a writer.
>this is my true self.
>i switch to an english degree with a writing emphasis.
i've never regretted that decision

>>5490741
what do you do now?

>>5490762
work a day job. write my book. flirt with girls. party at a hippie festival.

>>5488882
I just started going to free therapy at my university for precisely this reason.

>>5490791
seems like your life was on course for something better...

>>5490741
>>5490791

I really wanted to try LSD when I was 17/18. Now I'm so glad I didn't. I'd have probably stayed a philosopher major because it was "my passion" or some shit like that.

>>5490791
what kind of day job?

>>5490816
which one was "better" is entirely a matter of perspective

>>5488882
god made you special and he loves you very much :)

>>5490828
of course, but you don't need perspective to know the usefulness of an Econ degree vs English and of course you're going to say you made the right decision because you made it and are spending your life justifying it. like we all do

>>5490855
I'm not that hippy anon, I'm another person

I was simply pointing out that it's a matter of taste

whether or not the drudgery and grinding of chasing a degree is worth the money you earn in the end just so you can retire, fuck off to your private mansion, and do whatever it was you truly wanted to do before you became a wage slave will vary between people

>>5490820
i was doing retail for a bit. it's great for writing material, you meet every kind of person, but the pay is nothing.
i'm going to get back into data even though it was deadly boring being in an office, chained to a computer for years. my money skill is sql programming.

>>5490816
>>5490855
writing is the only thing i want to do.
i'm smart enough that i could go back to school for anything but i have no desire to change my career path.

>>5490817
do as you want. i make no judgements on what others do to be happy. i am content to take the longer, more difficult road.

>>5490855
>implying that wasting your life as an accountant or whatever is useful

>>5490855
think of the money you are losing out on

it is your measure of personal success

it is your life essence

it makes the earth spin

>>5489186
No, you're just a faggot

>>5490893
So now you still have a shitty job, just with less money than with your other plan?

>>5490994
i've had a disposable income when i was programming. i wasn't happier then. after you buy a bunch of toys, you realize money isn't that big of a deal.

>>5491034
I agree, I'm on welfare myself. It's just that, if you're going to work a shitty job, you might as well work the shitty job that gets you more money because that money might free you from working.

>>5491054
you're right

>>5490927
>>5490935
>>5490865
it's amazing how people can assume one's entire philosophy without any evidence

patrician board

>>5490129
I think the answer is progress itself, contrary to popular belief. Happiness is not a state, so nothing you accomplish will actually make you happy, but a series of internal processes in which you realize that greater truths aren't worth chasing if you are not doing it for the sake of learning.

>>5488899
What if I'm sort of mediocre, but not mediocre enough to be sincere and innocent?

>tfw you will never be this intelligent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSYCwxt78jY

>>5491054
my goal is to get published. working retail provided more matherial than programming. in that sense, retail was more useful as a means to escape from day jobs.

>>5491216
prodigies peak early. nonprodigies achieve parity in college.

>>5491216
Just take the lesson and be humble from now on.

>>5491233
I am taking Algebra 2.

>>5491216
that kid is gonna be an alcoholic by the time he hits 25

screencap this now, and see you in 17 years

>>5491216
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOJVcYHIkZM

>>5491274
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvMiXk2gGSk

>>5488882
>he's mediocre
>he

Please stop implying only men can be mediocre. You're offending me.

>>5491216
Lol that kid's so cute when he's talking about physics

>>5488882

>>5491282
Hush woman, your my possession

>>5491274
>>5491277
that's pretty adorable

>>5491277
>you can never know the truth
Confirmed for /lit/fag

>>5491333
>implying you can

Nice trips m80

>>5489157
i think he means that watching it and enjoying it is something that anybody can do

>>5489176
you're going to be redundant and condescending in the same post? come on.

>>5488905
>How do I stop being mediocre?
Can't really change your genes.

>>5490001
>to change it
Can't just "change" your intelligence.

Also,
>>5489785
>tfw I'm in the same boat

>>5490326
>I once saw a short film about a guy who jumped from a building with an indian bow and some arrows
Go research who funded that movie. Hint: it's most probably some anti-drug crusader organisation full of retards who have no clue about what hallucinogens do.

They do NOT make you "crazy", unless you already are crazy, so don't take shrooms if you have mental problems.

>>5490586
>the problem is, there are people who don't realise they had mental issues until they start eating shrooms or acid. and then it's too late. the question is if the risk of finding out if you're one of them worth some possible introspection.
If you're dumb enough not to research your family history of possible mental diseases as well as examining yourself for possible signs, you deserve a bad trip.

Oh, and a bad trip doesn't mean you'll jump off a building. Chances are that you'd kill yourself without the shrooms sooner or later if you're so depressed that you kill yourself while tripping.

>>5490817
>I'd have probably stayed a philosopher major because it was "my passion" or some shit like that.
That would probably have been better for you in the long run. Getting a degree just for the money will always lead to a burnout and disappointment.

>>5490935
>think of the money you are losing out on
Why should he?
>it is your measure of personal success
>being this vain

>it is your life essence
Eh, no.

>it makes the earth spin
The earth would spin around just fine even if we'd nuke ourselves out of existence. Don't delude yourself with grandiose thoughts about your own importance.

>>5492245
>missed the sarcasm
it's okay. you tried.

>>5492227
>so don't take shrooms if you have mental problems.

does extreme narcissistic personality disorder count as a "mental problem" in this case

>>5492329
yes

>>5494277
what will happen

>>5488882
Who is "he", OP? You syntactic asshat.

>>5494281
Yeah? What would happen?

>>5494281
Look, man, this isn't a chemical reaction like "if you have this disorder shrooms will produce this effect"
It is more like shrooms can amplify areas of your personality. So people say, if you have a dangerous personality, you should probably not trip alone your first time.
Honestly everyone should have a babysitter the first time they trip for this exact reason. Some people can't handle it.

That being said, shrooms drastically transformed my life. Before I tripped I was apathetic and depressed, but shrooms helped me see how interesting the world is.

My advice to you is to do some research, and decide for yourself if shrooms seem like something you want to do.
The shroomery is a great place to start, and Alan watts has some interesting talks on the subject., for literature, you can do no better than The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley

>>5492240

That's just modern propaganda, the thing about individual options in jobs with the "do your passion" thingy, has become mainstream in the last years, before people just wanted stability.

They are just options, they don't lead always to burnouts or happiness.

>>5490133
you can buy kits and spore needles online legally. i did it a few years ago and the mushrooms turned out great. takes a while to grow them and you need the right conditions (like 75-80 degrees and humid). I grew mine at the top of my closet during a hot summer

>>5490203
you can buy them online. the spores are legal, but the mushrooms are not. so you buy the spores online then grow the shrooms in your home

>>5490488
>next big mass movement.
ISIS is already here

>>5494525
What do I put into ebay to buy shroom kits?
What the fuck am I even looking for? What is a shroom needle?
And where do I cope the spores?

>>5488882
realizing that i was mediocre and not some special snowflake was very liberating. my life hasn't really improved, but at least i am content now knowing that i am no more important than any other individual

>>5488899
>dune

>>5490326
Read up on this on Erowid or a similar resource.

Like another poster mentioned, it's a good idea to have a sitter.

>>5494345
This is good advice; that is an excellent essay.

>>5488907
you guys got no sould for the same reason, no inner life, just pure brute work force. That's because you got dominated by kings and modern red kings since, at least, the same rice of your civilization 'till today and tommorrow.

>>5491216
>wants to design a rocket that can go faster than the speed of light
fucking dropT

find what you define as mediocrity, see how you feel about it, then transcend it in the direction of what you feel to be above it

>>5489157
>>5489157
top pleb

>>5488882
Noopept.

>>5488882

Marcus - Meditations

faggit

>>5495630
>faggit
That was unnecessary

>>5495630
Marcus wasn't mediocre, that fucker was emperor of fucking Rome.
And a pretty cool guy, too.

>>5495652

I sorry, you are not a faggit

>>5495653

I didn't say that he was mediocre, i just recommended it as a classic for dealing with blue feelings

>>5494548
if you really expect to grow, you're going to have to do some research of your own. take some initiative.

>>5490054
>I'm not generally satisfied with life
As no one with taste in art should.

Living under the impression that I'm going to commit suicide soon has been a double-edged sword, too bad one side is sharper than the other since there are few methods of suicide which are painless and 100% guaranteed to work.

>>5496659
an exit bag should do to the trick. but if you're under 60, you're making a mistake

>>5496670
>an exit bag should do to the trick
Nope, I've read too many horror stories to believe that even an exit bag will work.

>>5496659

Med student here. Feel for your laryngeal prominence and head laterally until you feel your carotid artery, one on either side of your larynx. Slash both of them and maybe your brachial veins for good measure. You'll be dead in minutes. Alcohol for the pain, unless you want to shoot horse beforehand

That's how I'd do it.

>>5496693
>Alcohol for the pain
Not good enough, the whole point of suicide to avoid any pain at all.

>>5496694

Entirely possible with painkillers or local anaesthetics. Good luck getting your hands on them though. Besides, it's death, unless you go to dignitas and drink the barbituates you'll probably feel some pain.

Gun in mouth isn't exactly a bad idea either.

>>5496703
>Gun in mouth isn't exactly a bad idea either.
Again, 100% is very important here.

i heard about one way which was claimed to be painless and 100% working. you sit at a table, take two sharp pencils and put them sharp side ahead into your nostrils, then you quickly move your head against the table so its surface hits the blunt sides of the pencils and drives them into your brain

>>5496713
Urban legend, there's a bit of skull blocking what would be a passage to the brain.

>>5496703
>Gun in mouth isn't exactly a bad idea either.

So many ways that that could go wrong.

>hit wrong and survive but have a crater in your face for rest of life
>hit wrong and become a vegetable
>hit right but just wrong enough to not be instantly fatal as you lay incapacitated and in extreme agony and terror for hours before finally bleeding out

>>5496713
you should try it and let us know

one does this by referring to himself in the third person

>>5496730
>tfw fractured psyche with one being a subhuman who I blame all my failures on and the other being a god who I pin all my successes on
Help.

>>5496716
somebody could take such a cringeworthy advice seriously? :3

>>5496725
i can give you another bad advice how to make sure the gun will kill you. pour water into its barrel!

>>5488882
Mediocre people think they're not mediocre but special. So a person who realizes his mediocrity has already transcended it.

>>5496751
the real question is how do I convert this mediocrity into cash

millions and millions of cash

>>5496757
Write a book and have it lauded by /lit/ and other losers, oh wait a certain Russian author already did that.

>>5496757
Go to China.
Don't ask why, just trust me.
Just go and never look back.
You will find opportunity there.

If you don't follow my advice, don't complain later that you're poor.

>>5496766
packing my bags now

I'll come back and do an AMA for you guys after I become the grand wu emperor

>>5490047
lol

>>5496770
Just do it.
1) get a job as an English teacher first
2) learn Chinese, it will broaden your horizons
3) learn about their culture, philosophy
4) meet Chinese businessmen and powerful people, make connections, this will open doors for you
5) ... the sky is the limit

>>5496703
Position yourself in a virutally isolated room with a barbecue containing a shitload of glowing charcoal. IIRC the atmosphere need only contain 12% CO for it to be deadly within minutes.

Also how could an exit bag go wrong assuming you've done all the steps right?

>>5490068
The way to defeat laziness is to fully embrace it. You have to become absolutely lazy, so lazy, that you'll be too lazy to even bother to be lazy.

>>5496777
>1) get a job as an English teacher first

all kidding aside this is actually a stellar fucking idea. having read and written as much as i do i could easily teach an english class to chinese kids, and at least over there i could find a job doing something i'm already qualified for instead of being unable to get even a fucking fast food job in america with a bachelor's degree

thanks for the tip anon, i might actually do this

>>5496779
Not sure how it could go wrong as in leaving you a vegetable or damaging you without killing you like a gun would do, but I've always been wary of the helium tank meme after doing a little research and finding a metric shit tonne of blog comment sections out there where people discuss the ineffectiveness and difficulty of killing yourself peacefully with a helium tank. And I'm not talking about people who are faux-depressed and want to end it all because mommy and daddy took away their Xbox, I'm talking about people who have terrible and painful chronic diseases, like being constantly fatigued and unable to sleep, or certain extremely painful strains of cancer, stuff like that. If anyone deserves the opportunity to end their lives pain free it would be someone like that, but suicide is such a taboo in modern western society that not even the people who need it the most are afforded the opportunity to safely, quickly, and effectively opt out of a shitty hand.

>>5496797
The helium method is recommended in Final Exit and it was even used as a euthanasia method in Switzerland(http://jme.bmj.com/content/36/3/174)) although they used a facemask instead of a bag.

I think that if you practice it a bit, whilst following the steps prescribed in the Final Exit book and maybe have an assistant with you, that it's unlikely to fail.

>>5488899
This sounds boring as shit.

buy several used helium balloons and tie them to a chair (like that guy who got darwin award did), sit on that chair and fly into the sky, then shoot those balloons

>>5488882
Pretend that you are not, make everyone around you think you are amazing/living a full life. Let them believe. Live in your lie until you can't take it anymore.

>>5497194
>anime video game picture
>dumb post that reeks of faggotry
every time

>>5497210
>tfw you got so far that people don't think you play video games or browse the internet all day
h-huray!

>>5496733

What philosophy presents and solves this problem?

>>5497206
kill you'reself

>>5488899

This sounds pretty comfy.