Which book will transform me from a cynical, lethargic, brain-dead

>>8066535
loaded question.

Monster Energy drink

No book can do that. You have to do that to and for yourself.

walden

>>8066535
bible

>>8066535
Try Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

>>8066535

If you've realized how you should be acting then all there is left to do is to act.

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>>8066535
8 hour arm workout and 80 scoops CMON

>>8066581
I don't know how to act. I just know how I currently act is bad

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>>8066586
Gotta get big cmon?

>>8066590
Find someone you admire and emulate them.

If you can't find someone you admire, ask yourself what exactly you ought to expect from yourself and follow those expectations.

No offense to your mental prowess, but it isn't rocket science. You need not act so bewildered.

>>8066590
Do things that give you pleasure, treat others decently and without judgment. Eliminate your expectations of life, be content with things as they are or try to change them for the better.

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>>8066593
CMOOOOON!!!!

>>8066563
This. Specifically, the Gospels.

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>>8066535
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

>>8066535
Epictetus - Discourses
Aristotle - Nichomachean Ethics

The fatherly role-models you never had.
If you want to see where beta-ness comes from Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals can be fun. Jus b ur self k?

if you're serious, you might try reading this guy

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>>8066622
oops

this guy

>>8066535

It didn't take you a day to become an asshole, it sure won't take you a day to turn you into a cool guy.

Protips: stop browsing 4chan, eat healthier, go outside more, find a productive hobby

>>8066590

Then just act. Choose a way to be, and be that way. If it doesn't work, you discard that and try something else. Life is a struggle, but that struggle doesn't become meaningless until you throw your hands up and proclaim that it's not worth the effort.

>>8066535

Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.

This seems like a lot of effort. Just gonna walk off a bridge. thanks anyway

(1/2) http://daphne.palomar.edu/jtagg/should.htm

== Shoulding Yourself, Shoulding Others ==

The psychologist Clayton Barbeau came up with the term "shoulding yourself" to describe this cognitive distortion. Another psychologist, Albert Ellis, calls it "musterbation." It consists of telling yourself that you have an obligation to do something different from what you are doing. Obviously, this cognitive distortion can work in your thoughts about other people too. But in either case, your automatic thought is that you or someone else should/must/ought to/has to do something.

Obviously we do have obligations. There are reasons why we should do some things and not others. But "should" statements with reasons, or that include what the consequences of doing the particular task would be, or that weigh the costs and benefits of doing something--these are not automatic thoughts; they are rational conclusions. Indeed, the first step to taming such automatic thoughts is to ask why you should do such-and-such. When you can provide a reason, the "should" becomes irrelevant. "I should be doing my homework" is an automatic thought. But "If I don't do my homework tonight, I'll have twice as much to do tomorrow" is merely a factual statement that reports the consequences of a given action.

We get into trouble shoulding ourselves when it takes the form of an automatic thought. In this form, the "should" comes to us as an abstract, universal obligation such that if we don't do what we "should" do we are wrong and feel guilty. Guilt is an important and real experience. But it is a response to moral failure. To feel guilty about our personal choices which have no long-term effects is to trivialize guilt. And that is dangerous. Guilt is an unpleasant feeling. We don't like it. We try to avoid it. And the vague, undefined sense of guilt that comes with automatic "should" thoughts is especially unpleasant. It is often accompanied by mind reading, which makes it even more painful: "I should be doing my homework and everyone will think I'm dumb if I don't."

The most frequent result of shoulding ourselves is procrastination. If I find that whenever I think about doing school work I find "should" thoughts rushing in, making me feel guilty and depressed, I will tend to mentally "change the subject" and redirect my attention to something that isn't so unpleasant. The more you "should" yourself about studying, the harder it becomes to actually spend any time studying. You never feel like it.

(1/2) http://daphne.palomar.edu/jtagg/should.htm

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>>8066535

>>8066707
(2/2) http://daphne.palomar.edu/jtagg/should.htm

== Shoulding Yourself, Shoulding Others ==

It's easy to see how we learned this particular cognitive distortion. Even those of us who had very kind and understanding parents found as children that the authority figures in our lives sometimes imposed obligations on us that we would not have chosen for ourselves (taking out the trash or mowing the lawn, for instance). When we went to school another authority figure, the teacher, came up with a whole new set of things that we should do not because we wanted to, but because somebody else said we should. That was necessary when we were children. But now that we are adults, there's no Mom there to nag us; so we do it to ourselves. The trouble is that it doesn't work any better for us than it did for her; nagging, even in the self-generated form of shoulding ourselves, makes us not want to do the task in question.

As adults, we are free to choose what to do and what not to do. College is not mandatory. You are perfectly free to leave it and go do something else. But whatever you choose to do, you will bear the consequences. One way to break the hold of "should" automatic thoughts is to bring the thought out in the open and substitute the word "choose" for the word "should." If you find yourself squirming with the automatic thought, "I should start my essay," change it to "I choose to start my essay." You're a free agent. It makes very little sense for you to say, "I should do this, but I choose not to." Such a statement reveals the "should" for the illogical and confusing term that it is. If you don't choose to do it, you don't really believe you should do it.

On the other hand, the idea of choice moves you closer to actually doing something. A "should" just leads to guilt; a choice leads to action. So you are wise to think about the consequences of an action, the costs versus the benefits, before committing yourself to a choice. What you choose to do, and then do, will (to some degree, at least) change the world. What you "should" do will just make you miserable.

(2/2) http://daphne.palomar.edu/jtagg/should.htm

>>8066535
The Holy Qur'an

>>8066628
Freedom from the known is really great.

>>8066713
So if I think I should do anything, I won't be able to do it so the only life available is that of mindless degeneracy?

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>>8066768
>Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will.
~The Law Of Thelema, as dictated to Aleister Crowley by Aiwass

>>8066789
deep

>>8066792
edgy

need help

Actually, Crowley objected to this being thought of as a call for hedonism and complete allowance of violence, tyranny, selfishness, and so on and so forth. Do what you will means finding out your true will, what you actually wish to do, and then doing it. This is a far sterner injunction than what we typically think of as morality nowadays, actually.

>>8066906

People are too retarded to know what 'Will' means in the philosophical sense, nowadays; so it comes as no surprise.

>>8066906
Amen! And this faggot,
>If you want to see where beta-ness comes from Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals can be fun. Jus b ur self k?
>>8066621
could not be more wrong about Nietzsche. Following through on what your truly feel in your heart is courageous as fuck.

>>8066906
who's crowley

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>>8066920
Nobody knows/knew, not even him.
https://youtu.be/afP-Y8xez_I

>>8066928
sounds like an absolute faggot

>>8066933
no u

>>8066668

You'll be fine

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>>8066535

>On this path, effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort towards spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.
~Bhagavad Gita 2:40

>>8067023
deepak chopra tier

I don't know, OP. I feel like these things run too deep. Recently I read Spinoza and it convinced be of the eternal essence of God and the continuation of one's essence after death. You'd think that would change the way I think, behave, act, but it hasn't. Books don't really change our real life, only the cerebral inner-life we lead. Our everyday actions are just governed by our long-ingrained behaviours.
It's like fetishist's disavowal: we can feasibly imagine a theoretically sound reason to be happy, calm, confident etc. but nevertheless we will act in the sense that feels most immediate to our instinct. I can't shake the feeling that there is something inherently wrong with me.

>>8067031
Only once you relax will things get better. It's up to you when you want to let go.

>>8066535
Siddhartha

>>8067031
i get that feeling about you too

>>8067031
Such a sweeping generalization is useless. Essentially you are saying that writing has never changed anyone's life in a meaningful way, and that is obviously false. Some people actually have the spine to push their ideas into a reality.

>>8067037
It's not though. It's evident that I am not responsible for any of the contingent factors behind any event. That includes my brain chemistry.

>>8067058
Have you tried taking psilocybin mushrooms?

>>8067062
FUCK OFF JUNKIE DEGENERATE!!!

>>8067053
A book can only be instrumental in that process.; a hurdle passed as you move in a pre-determined direction which you have not, in any meaningful sense, chosen.

>>8066906
nah he was popular because he has a big penis

>>8067062
Yes, they were fun. Taking them will only widen your perception of the determinism which I'm talking about. If you want to be happy permanently you should eliminate that kind of consciousness.

>>8067068
>I'm a failure because i have no choice but to be one because muh brain


the oldest cop out in the 20 year old 'i think i am smarter than everyone' development

>>8067075
If you are willing to posit an argument for free will then I am all ears

>>8067079
if you're willing to posit an argument for why guesses on how your brain works below the surface makes it an inevitability that you are incapable of change then i am all ears

>>8067089
I couldn't put it better than Spinoza, and so I'll post the propositions from his Ethics:

http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Spinoza/Texts/Spinoza/e2g.htm

>>8067097
How does this prove your point?

>>8067065
Nobody gets addicted to psilocybin mushrooms.

>>8067073
They were fun? Take more next time. No one is happy permanently. The realization of 'determinism' should FREE you to do whatever the fuck you want because, that's what was going to happen anyway, right?

>>8067105
Well, it demonstrates quite clearly that free will is a fiction. Every action in nature is determined by a previous cause and so on ad infinitum. The human mind is not except from nature as we consider it to be, and therefore is not exempt from this rule. It can not have, as Spinoza says, "an absolute faculty of positive or negative volition" because it is subject to the same laws of cause and effect as anything else.

The human brain is an organic, natural machine which is part of, and cannot operate outside of, nature. We can will to do this, that or the other, but that will in itself is governed by neurological factors beyond our control or understanding.

Now do you have a rebuttal, or will you keep asking stupid questions?

>>8067118
The realization of 'determinism' should FREE you to do whatever the fuck you want because, that's what was going to happen anyway, right?

I have considered this actually. I think right now I only understand determinism but I don't realise it on a fundamental level, so it just depresses me. I did only take a small dose of psilocybin so maybe a higher dosage would be beneficial.

>>8067123
It's not a stupid question, it happens to be the same question that you continue not to answer.

Because you don't understand the totality of the function of your willing something, doesn't stop the fact that you can have the sense of willing things.

Bear in mind the context because here's the question: why does determinism make it so that you can not go from sensing yourself to be 'a cynical, lethargic, brain-dead idiot' to 'some sort of amazing, happy, great, intelligent, calm guy?'

And if determinism is true for all then how come people have made this transition before?

>>8067170
>sense of willing things
Precisely. The sensation that one has free will is not the same as having free will

Here is your answer: determinism doesn't forbid that transformation but will only facilitate it if the contingent factors are already in place.

As for this:
>And if determinism is true for all then how come people have made this transition before?

It betrays your misunderstanding of determinism. No free will doesn't mean no will.

>>8067218
There is literally no disagreement here. And you're correcting misreadings which is irrelevant to the point. The point you continue to be silent on.

why does determinism make it so that you can not go from sensing yourself to be 'a cynical, lethargic, brain-dead idiot' to 'some sort of amazing, happy, great, intelligent, calm guy?'

Why is it not possible that your pre-set track is on that course, why is it you sense there is something 'fundamentally wrong' with you and how on Earth does any view on free will give you any sort of proof for the case YOU made about a prediction of a determined yet unknowable future?

>>8066535

going outside and talking to other human beings

>>8067244
not a fan

>>8067255

then stay inside and keep on posting in a site that eventually turns you into a fat cynical jaded neckbeard loaded with false dichotomy on the world around you.

Either kill yourself or start making plans to survive living on your own outside of your parent's basement. Life isn't about being a happy optimistic faggot 24/7 anyways, it's about finding something you like and applying yourself 100%, even if it means you feel like killing yourself sometimes. Have a sense of responsibility and you will turn out alright.

>>8067268
what do you like and apply yourself to?

>>8067277

I am currently working my ass off at a job that I like in hopes of making enough money for film-making equipment and a new car. Then my friend and I are going to form a team and attempt to make something good even if it means turning into miserable, broke shitheads for a few years.

>>8067234
>Why is it not possible that your pre-set track is on that course,
There is no pre-set track per se. That would be fatalism. However, it is possible that you could be determined to go from one state to another. My point was that this journey is contingent upon forces beyond our control.
>why is it you sense there is something 'fundamentally wrong' with you
A personal issue and little to nothing to do with this discussion, other than the deeply-ingrained feeling of inadequacy demonstrates neatly how one cannot simply will oneself into a better person and that the process is largely reliant on incidental factors
>how does any view on free will give you any sort of proof for the case YOU made about a prediction of a determined yet unknowable future?
I'm not sure I understand your question, nor can I see any assertion similar to the one you attribute to me made in any of my previous posts. Are you suggesting that I said that OP will never blossom into that amazing, happy, calm, and insufferable person he intends to by reading a book? I wouldn't make such a claim. I only meant that books can hardly alter our fundamental nature and are a small influence on our behaviour compared to even the minutest stimulus in the world outside of literature. Books aren't meant to be abused in such a way in any case; a good book is useless.

>>8067290
Movie making?

>>8067255
Just go outside and not talk to other human beings, then. Is there anything kinda-sorta natural near you? Some hiking trails?

>>8066535
The ones about shit you find interesting enough to apply yourself to

>>8067353
might just drown myself in the sea tb h

>>8066535
mindfulness in plain english has had more effect on me as a person than any book
it's not just about the internalisation of values, its about habitual application of them, in both your actions and thoughts
if you don't fancy becoming a bhuddist (not that that's the purpose of the book) try stoicism

>>8067395
That's even harder than wallowing in depression. Trust me, I've been there.