Recently, I’ve stumbled upon the video of debates with a very intriguing topic “Is the pursuit of happiness making us miserable?” and enjoyed watching it a lot. Hopefully, you will as well:
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Posts tagged as:
happiness
What I recently read:
1. Economics of Happiness by Mark Anielski
Quite an interesting book which summarizes ideas of economics of happiness (happynomics), sustainable development, ecological footprint and others. Sometimes it’s a little bit ideological: anti-consumerism, anti-credit, anti-FED, etc. But still there are lots, lots of interesting and familiar ideas. Both on individual level and on the level of world economy and national economy. I personally read it because it’s closely connected with my area of interest in terms of Ph.D. paper. But I’m sure it’s worth reading even if you did not have a particular interest in these specific topics. Overall, it’s an insightful book with fresh ideas.
2. Man’s search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, torrent.
Appeared to be much more of a non-fiction type than fiction compared to what I expected. Less of a personal story of Auschwitz and more of a scientific paper and a quick look on the 20th century history of psychotherapy. From Freud’s “will to pleasure” to the “will to power” and then to Frankl’s logotheraphy and “will to meaning”. If you’re into psychology or in the current search for meaning in your own life, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this one, it’s a classic.
Currently reading: What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis (torrent), Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson and Crack the Case by David Orkhall. Another one that I still cannot finish is awesome On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser.
Did you read anything worthy recently? Care to share?
BTW! Question from twitter: how are you searching for books (both, audio and ebooks) if neither isohunt.com nor ebdb.net helps?
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“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
This weekend I’ve spent a couple of hours watching “Philosophy – Guide to happiness” series on youtube with my girlfriend. Most of them were quite interesting, so I decided why not to share a few on my blog?
We often think of philosophy as something too vague, up in the clouds and too far from reality. Creators of videos below tried to fix it by grasping the essence of the famous philosophers’ ideas, drawing the parallel with their own destinies and projecting them to our daily life.
Yes, sometimes it means simplifying or even over-simplifiyng. And sometimes conclusions sound a little too banal, obvious and seemingly well-known. But still there are interesting insights and learnings to be applied in real life.
I don’t know for sure if watching these videos and attempt to apply the ideas from them will make you a happier person, but it is certainly worth watching and trying. What is surprising is that how little the world changed during last couple of thousand years and how these teachings are still vital nowadays.
I embedded the videos, so you won’t have to google them. There are 6 philosophers discussed, 3 videos for each one.
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