7 books will change the way you look at the world

If you are a human and have a brain, then you may like to use the brain. And if you like to use your brain, you may love moments of understanding something that feels like a breeze blowing directly into your face, causing your hair to be blown back and you shout " Woo " , just like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix movie when he learned Kungfu martial arts from a USB stick attached to his neck.

I know it's not something that lovely kids like to do but I like to read fiction books. Many fiction books are different. And my favorite moment every time I read them is when a book "hits straight" into my brain and reconfigures my whole understanding of reality as well as myself.

I love it. It is like an "orgasm" state of mind.

I received a lot of emails asking me to suggest them a list of books to read. I do not know how to answer because there are so many books that affect me that I have not read, not because they are too good but most because they give rise to problems that make me think while reading them. .

So, instead of revealing my favorite books, I will give you something better: 7 books whirling into your mind, helping you reshape your world knowledge and inspirational that I have read.

Note that the list below is not in any particular order.

1. Stumbling on Happiness (Daniel Gilbert)

What does the book address?

Stumbling on Happiness is like the "mother's" child with a red head " is books about happiness. It doesn't fit in with the majority of books in this bookcase because basically, books try to convince you that when you 're born, you don't know what kind of monster is happiness. So, why is it so stressful because of it?

Gilbert is a very famous Harvard psychologist whose knack for conducting "crazy" experiments reflects gaps and prejudices of the human mind. In this book, he has repeatedly shown to you that as a human being, we always judge inaccurately about what makes us happy in the past, which makes us happy in the future. hybrids and even things that make us feel happy at the present time.

In fact, many years of Gilbert's study of happiness point to the same worrying fact: happiness is not so much related to what happens to us in life but is very relevant to them. We observe how things happen.

Gilbert's theory is that each of us has a "psychological immune system" (psychological immune system) , basically a stupid machine - where the mind finds every excuse to defend those. past experience, predictions about our future and current state in the same way as we always maintain a boundary of satisfaction. And that is when this "immune system" does not work, they will also fall into a state of prolonged frustration and / or crisis that is common in existential crises.

Notable quotes:

"We treat our own futures as if they were our children, spending most of the day building tomorrow that we hope will make them happy . However, this "time child" is often very ungrateful, we work hard and sweat to give them something we think they will like and they quit their jobs, leave their hair long, move in or get out of San Francisco and then wonder, why can we be so stupid that we think they will like it, they can't get the rewards and achievements they think are the core of a life contentment and self-end by being satisfied with things that cannot be done according to our short-term and wrong plans ".

"Economies will rise when individuals rise, but because individuals just rise up for their own happiness, in fact, they often mistakenly believe that production and consumption are two. the way to help each person have a happy life ".

Bonus points for Stumbling on Happiness: This will be the best and witty psychological book you've ever read.

If this book can be summarized in an image, the image will be: A dog named "humble" constantly chases its own tail with a smile and drool constantly flowing on its mouth. .

Read this book if .

1. You like Harvard experts - those who often take the Beatles example in each chapter and like to joke.
2. You are interested in unreasonable decision making and behavioral economics.
3. You always have the feeling that you don't know anything but you like to study 400 pages of psychology books just to confirm it for you.
4. You want to read a book explaining happiness without mythifying it or worshiping it.

2. On the Genealogy of Morals (Friedrich Nietzsche)

What is the book about?

Hiding behind the intoxicating prose, exasperated speech, the shameless blasphemy and the long, mustache, Nietzsche wrote On the Genealogy of Morals with a strong and cold argument. This book is probably one of his shortest and most influential works, and it is also the most straightforward. In three lectures with a total of 100 pages, he listed some of the following key points:

1. In any population, you will also face a group of people who are more talented / smarter / better than ordinary people. Call them "The Strong" . In addition, you will also have a group of people who are less talented / intelligent / better than ordinary people and call it "The Weak" .
2. "The Strong" will obviously have a lot of strength and power in society without any other reason than that they are more capable and talented than others.
3. Because " The Strong" gains greater power and creates influence through being smarter or more productive than others, they will nurture moral beliefs that will prove their position. theirs is right: that they deserve that position, that they have many rights corresponding to that honorable position, that they achieve things that belong to them. Nietzsche called it "Master Morality" .
4. Because "The Weak" loses its power and influence by being less intelligent and working less effectively than others, they nurture moral beliefs that will prove their position right: that they deserve help and charity, that one should give up their possessions for the less fortunate, that you should live for others, not yourself. Nietzsche called it "Slave Morality" .
5. Master / Slave Morality is a kind of conflict that occurs in all societies throughout the history that has been recorded. Many political / social contradictions are side effects of a family struggle between those who belong to the "Mastery of Ethics" and one side of "Slavery of Ethics".
6. Nietzsche believes that perceptions of sin, punishment and "evil conscience", culturally, are all built and used by "The Weak" to gradually reduce dominance and the power of "The Strong". He also believes that "Slave Morality" is also capable of destroying and suppressing society on par with Master Morality. Christianity is an example.
7. Nietzsche also believed that "moral slavery" suppressed the best qualities of a man, including his ability to create, innovate, ambition and even happiness.

Notable quotes:

"Above all, there are no exceptions to this rule: that the concept of political superiority always destroys the notion of psychological superiority.

"Without evil, there will be no festivals."

The bonus for On the Genealogy of Morals is: it states that the weak will have to "create a God" so they can believe that the suffering they have to go through has a certain meaning. Nietzsche is a very tough "guy".

3. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Gisorder (Nassim Taleb)

What is the book about?

Before explaining some very interesting ideas in this book, I need to say something to feel more comfortable: Taleb sounds like a self-conscious detective. If he pranks the whole world with his writing style, he did very well, because some paragraphs are almost incomprehensible without rolling his eyes at him or stuffing a book into a shredder. material.

Taleb has a lot of amazing ideas. I am talking about ideas that have the potential to change and impact the world. They can be thoroughly explained in about 50 pages. Another 450 pages almost tried to prove that you are a cultured and calm person while explaining how clever you are compared to the following groups: university professors, politicians, people Nobel laureate, Wall Street analysts, economists, journalists, statisticians, historians, soccer moms (mothers who spend most of their time on children's activities, typically driving a child from one sporting event to another with their participation), teachers, anyone using a bell curve, anyone working in the field of social science Assembly and anyone disagree with his views.

So what are the views that make "earthquake" in this work? Here are a few starting points:

1. By definition, often the most influential events in history are least anticipated. They are called "black swans" (Black Swan).
2. As people, we are inherently inclined to recognize many events in life and their impact.
3. Because of the unusual escalation of technology, "black swans" events are becoming increasingly popular and creating unprecedentedly large influences.
4. Therefore, we should build systems (and develop ourselves) to be able to improve adversity, in particular, to build our lives and our society in the same way as getting benefits from events not anticipated before.

Notable quotes:

"The ability to improve adversity far exceeds resilience or endurance. Resilience helps you resist shocks and return to your original state; the ability to improve adversity helps you feel better. .

"The irony of the process of controlling that thought is: the more energy you spend trying to control your thoughts and what you think about in the end, the more thoughts you control."

"The challenge is to revive geniuses."

If you can summarize this book in an image, the image is: Stupid conversations with the cappuccino about life in France and the scene of Umberto Eco smoking cigarettes with some rich, fat bald guys make you bored. Meanwhile, many times, you slap yourself in the face with a spoonful of sugar just to try to make them stop talking.

Read this book if:

1. You like to feel you are smarter than the people you think are not as smart as you.
2. You want the concept of "success" and "progress" in your mind to be completely turned upside down.
3. You want to read a book that contains about 60% of silly things but will still make you think about them years later.

4. The True Believer (Eric Hoffer)

What is the book about?

The True Believer discusses why people finally agree with fanaticism, fundamentalism or extremist ideology.

This book is probably one of the most reliable and focused philosophical works I've ever read. And Hoffer's use of short sentences has created a source of strength that can make you "suffocate".

Notable quotes:

"The historical game played by the best and the worst in the world often exceeds the knowledge of the majority of people in the middle".

"The less a man has a good reason to assume that he must become eminent, the more he is willing to stand up to claim his rights for his homeland, religion, race or devotion. his".

"Freedom, at the very least, also makes the frustration become more severe or less severe with the same level of freedom. The freedom to choose will place the whole responsibility of failure on the burden of each individual. And because freedom promotes a multitude of efforts, it will also be unavoidable to cause failure to multiply. "

The reward for this book is: According to what is told, The True Believer is one of President Eisenhower's most favorite books.

If you can summarize this book in an image, the image is: A flip-flop hand is directed at your cheek.

Read this book if:

1. You want to know why people give up their identity for a few ridiculous reasons.
2. You wonder how war and revolution can happen?
3. You want to read something harsh but don't want to struggle to read hundreds of pages full of academic jargon and it's hard to understand them.

5. Civilization and Its Discontents (Sigmund Freud)

What is the book about?

Freud was a "scholarly phenomenon" in the early 20th century. He discovered psychoanalysis ( psychoanalysis , an initial psychological system used to treat some disturbing disturbances, later becoming the basis for a general theory of psychology) making psychological science a mainstream and he was also highly respected in intellectual circles throughout Europe at that time. After that, the First World War broke out and ruined everything. Freud's spirit dropped sharply, causing him to fall into a deep state of crisis and live away from society almost during the 1920s. This is also the reason for the creation of this work.

The book only offers a simple argument that people have deep animal instincts to eat, kill or destroy everything. Freud argues that civilization can only rise when enough people learn how to prevent these increasingly despicable and obscene desires, pushing them deep into the subconscious where (according to Freud's model) they rot rinse and eventually create all kinds of things like some neurosis.

Basically, Freud came to the conclusion that as a human being, we have one of the two most insidious choices in life: (1) restrain all basic instincts to maintain something like with the appearance of a civilization that is solid and cooperative, thus, making ourselves selfish and vulnerable or (2) letting them become out of control and out of control.

For Freud, Hitler and World War II completely proved his point only a few years later. Since he was a Jewish native living in Austria, he had to leave Vienna with his wife to escape to London. He continued to live his last years in a city that had been forgotten after a bomb explosion.

Read this book if:

1. You like the explanation that the only problem that any of us has is that we want to destroy and / or destroy all those in our sights even though we are not allowed to do it.

6. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biolog (Ray Kurzweil)

What is the book about?

The first part of The Singularity is Near, Kurzweil pointed out that the processing power of computers and technology is increasing exponentially in history and is likely to continue like that.

Next, he also argued that for this reason, all of our brains will be digitally encoded in 2046 and uploaded to the cloud where an immortal consciousness is unique. Formed, can control the entire computing power on the planet.

Notable quotes:

"A cubic inch in the circuit diagram of nanotubes, once fully developed, will be 1 million times stronger than the human brain."

"Can technology speed continue to increase forever? Is it important for people to not think fast enough to keep up with it? For those who are not improved, it is clear. However, 1,000 scientists at that time, each of which was 1,000 times smarter than the present scientist and operate 1,000 times faster than humans at the present time. What will it do (because the process of processing information in faster non-biological brains)? Over time, every year, it looks like a millennium. what? "

Read this book if:

1. You are a computer addict, simple and naive.
2. You want to understand why the Internet and smartphones are just the tip of the next thing that will happen throughout our lives.

7. The Denial of Death (Ernest Becker)

What is the book about?

When referring to the fear of death, the following is a summary of The Denial of Death:

Because everyone is just an animal capable of forming the notion of their existence in their heads - thinking about life, doubting it, imagining possible possibilities in the future - therefore, each He is also just an animal that has the ability to form the notion of his non-existence, such as his own death.

In other words, people naturally can imagine the future and the person they want to be, but the price to pay for this innate ability is to realize that we will one day be death. A dog does not realize it will die. So is a fish or cockroach. However, humans can.

Understanding the inevitable death will lead us to a "fear" that is present in everything we do. Becker argues that this terror inspires us all to engage in what he calls a " hero project" - where each person attempts to become immortal through his actions and achievements, to create something greater that will remain forever.

That's when everyone's "hero projects" contradict another project that we scramble, touch, trust blindly and guilty. That's when the failed hero projects make us sink into frustration and crisis because once again, we face an inevitable death and a meaningless life.

Notable quotes:

"People cannot tolerate their insignificance unless they can convert it into something that makes sense with the greatest possible possibility."

"The irony of that human condition is that the deepest need is to be freed from the worry of death and destruction, but life - it has awakened that need itself and therefore, We are forced to step back so we can survive. "

If you can summarize this book in an image, that image is: a fierce reaper who laughs alone while watching you build a very elaborate Lego guy called "life" and you turn around and say "stop laughing, this is very important".

Read this book if:

1. You have planned for one day I will die.
2. You think, sometimes, you take life too seriously and need to relax a bit.
3. You want to read a convincing argument about why we keep embracing pain and fear instead of avoiding them.