[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 15 KB, 231x346, 41-qyvZqykL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9230151 No.9230151 [Reply] [Original]

Hey /lit/,

In the US you're pressured around 16-18 to start making strong, specific decisions about who you're going to be/what you're going to do with your life. At that age I knew I was a dumbfuck and incapable of a good decision, so I "put it off" with some decisions I knew would be broadly applicable. I figured I'd decide when I was 23.

Now I'm 25 and it's well past game-time. I'm trying to read stuff to help myself develop a personal code and pick a life trajectory (career pursuit/family/travel/etc.) I've been through Marcus Aurelius' meditations, Plato's republic, Franklin's autobiography and I'm halfway through pic related.

Anything else you'd suggest?

>> No.9230159

For you to pay for the spoon

>> No.9230163

The Letters of Seneca are good if you liked Aurelius. Other philosophies I like are Leibniz and Descartes.

>> No.9230166

why don't you read some actual self-help books instead of crusty bullshit from 2000 years ago

>> No.9230174

>>9230151
Have you read much Ralph Waldo Emerson? Try his major essays, boo

>> No.9230192

Thats a bit too late for you to be an airhead interested in meaningless shit written billion years ago. Get a fucking job, nigger

>> No.9230194

>>9230174
Oh yeah! I read one I don't remember which. It was great, though basically the same guidance my parents gave of "just fucking do you, fuck other people don't worry about them."

I need a wee bit more structure. Examinations of how to enjoy, how to love, how to be discerning, how to be fair and so on. Republic was great, ethics has been a little difficult to parse so far.

>> No.9230201

>>9230194
what is it with pseuds and their obsession with greeks

>> No.9230208

>>9230192
Have a job.

>>9230166
Self help presumes to supply answers about how to life your life; philosophy merely proposes what might be the right questions to ask.

>> No.9230240

>>9230208
dude u are the biggest pseud, kys my man

>> No.9230350

>>9230166
Self help books are unanimously terrible, but you're right in that philosophy isn't much better for working out your career

>> No.9230357

>>9230350
which ones have u read? oh, none? well no wonder ur such an authority

>> No.9230392

>>9230151
I did pretty much the same thing and now I'm at law school

I don't even want to be a lawyer, it just seemed broadly applicable.

>> No.9230393

>>9230392
there are a lot of ppl with law degrees who don't work in law, look at kellyann conway, she has a law degree, or peter thiel has a law degree, pretty sure that jewish boxing promoter who controls pacquiao has a law degree, etc.

>> No.9230401
File: 71 KB, 1024x512, you.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9230401

>>9230166

>> No.9230640

>>9230357
Right, because people who psychologically buy into the culture of so-called "self help" with their own money and time are also unbiased sources.

>> No.9230759

>>9230240
>u are the biggest pseud
yeah, I won't deny that.

>kys my man
Gibe book rec instead

>>9230392
Yeah I went accounting+finance and am doing fun stuff with a small VC firm. Money's pretty great but it's not really philosophically fufilling, so I'll probably switch tracks.

>>9230201
bls recommend

>> No.9230870
File: 58 KB, 390x627, 1470603048847.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9230870

>>9230166
>self-help books