What books do I need to read to figure out what to do with my life...

What books do I need to read to figure out what to do with my life? I don't want to spend a significant portion of my life sitting in an office.

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Start with the Greeks.

The Bible

Trick question. No book is ever going to telling YOU what YOU are interested in.
I suppose you could attempt to utilize your exestential despair towards motivation. Existentialism and Humanism by Sartre is quick read that could help to such an end. Get off your ass

Quit your office job and try manual labor jobs, then you'll realize how much worst they are.

lol

I've had manual labor jobs before, I loved it but I was also younger when I did this. At age 26 I entered the corporate office world and I had a lot to learn

Both are good but trades are always top teir

I work in an office and if you get bored with your work and you dont do it, you are looked as the problem. In manual labor or trade jobs, it rare to be bored since you work with a group of people and you can focus on tasks together

>In my field, there's not a lot of teamwork
>Unless you're already good friends
>team work in the corporate world is a joke since everyone is competing for the same job

Most jobs necessitate sitting in an office for a significant portion of your life, whether it be writing, programming, scholarly research, architecture, managing hedge funds, scamming, etc. There's no escaping the leather chair

read max stirner

This. Working in isolation on something that isn't creative kills the soul.
Team work is very gratifying.
As for you, OP all I can say is that everything I want out of life is based on an oversaturated market that I wouldn't be able to make a basic living off of. Understand that you will probably never be completely happy with your occupation, you'll have to settle for mostly satsified.

No such book exists that'll change your life. You most certainly read to stay informed and think about situations you hadn't thought about before. You can read about things that interest you and how you could approach attaining those dreams.

The world is chaotic and life is never linear, your life will be strange and daunting but if you stay informed you will find a place for yourself in it

Who are you quoting?

I suppose it's not really the "sitting down all day" part that gets me but the "slaving away on meaningless projects for a nameless corporation that only exists because the founders thought they could make big bucks" part.

The arts were created to escape that. Try your hand, you might have talent

This. Try being a farmer OP. Surprise! You'll be sitting in a comfy chair operating John Deere equipment all day.

Kierkegaard's "The Sickness Unto Death"

--

When immediacy is assumed to have self-reflection, despair is somewhat modified; there is somewhat more consciousness of the self, and therewith in turn of what despair is, and of the fact that one’s condition is despair; there is some sense in it when such a man talks of being in despair: but the despair is essentially that of weakness, a passive experience; its form is, in despair at not wanting to be oneself.

The progress in this case, compared with pure immediacy, is at once evident in the fact that the despair does not always come about by reason of a blow, by something that happens, but may be occasioned by the mere reflection within oneself, so that in this case despair is no a purely passive defeat by outward circumstances, but to a certain degree is self-activity, action. Here there is in fact a certain degree of self-reflection, and so a certain degree of observation of oneself. With this certain degree of self-reflection begins the act of discrimination whereby the self becomes aware of itself as something essentially different from the environment, from externalities and their effect upon it. But this is only to a certain degree. Now when the self with a certain degree of self-reflection wills to accept itself, it stumbles perhaps upon one difficulty or another in the composition of the self.

For as no human body is perfection, so neither is any self. This difficulty, be it what it may, frightens the man away shudderingly. Or something happens to him which causes within him a breach with immediacy deeper than he has made by reflection. Or his imagination discovers a possibility which, if it were to come to pass, would likewise become a breach with immediacy.

So he despairs. His despair is that of weakness, a passive suffering of the self, in contrast to the despair of self-assertion; but, by the aid of relative self-reflection which he has, he makes an effort (which again distinguishes him from the purely immediate man) to defend his self. He understands that the thing of letting the self go is a pretty serious business after all, he is not so apoplectically muddled by the blow as the immediate man is, he understands by the aid of reflection that there is much he may lose without losing the self; he makes admissions, is capable of doing so -- and why? Because to a certain degree he has dissociated his self from external circumstances, because he has an obscure conception that there may even be something eternal in the self. But in vain he struggles thus; the difficulty he stumbled against demands a breach with immediacy as a whole, and for that he has not sufficient self-reflection or ethical reflection; he has no consciousness of a self which is gained by the infinite abstraction from everything outward, this naked, abstract self (in contrast to the clothed self of immediacy) which is the first form of the infinite self and the forward impulse in the whole process whereby a self infinitely accepts its actual self with all its difficulties and advantages.

So then he despairs, and his despair is: not willing to be himself. On the other hand, the ludicrous notion of wanting to be another never occurs to him; he maintains the relationship to his self -- to that extent reflection has identified him with the self. He then is in just such a situation with regard to the self as a man may be with regard to his dwelling-place. The comic feature is that a self certainly does not stand in such a casual relation to itself as does a man to his dwelling-place. A man finds his dwelling-place distasteful, either because the chimney smokes, or for any other reason whatsoever; so he leaves it, but he does not move out, he does not engage a new dwelling, he continues to regard the old one as his habitation; he reckons that the offense will pass away. So it is with the despairer. As long as the difficulty lasts he does not dare to come to himself (as the common phrase expresses it with singular pregnancy), he does not want to be himself -- but that surely will pass by, perhaps things will change, the dark possibility will surely be forgotten. So meanwhile he comes to himself only once in a while, as it were on a visit, to see whether the change has not occurred, and so soon as it has occurred he moves home again, "is again himself," so he says. However, this only means that he begins again where he left off; he was to a certain degree a self of a sort, and he became nothing more.

But if no change occurs, he helps himself in another way. He swings away entirely from the inward direction which is the path he ought to have followed in order to become truly a self. The whole problem of the self in a deeper sense becomes a sort of blind door in the background of his soul behind which there is nothing. He accepts what in his language he calls his self, that is to say, whatever abilities, talents, etc. may have been given him; all this he accepts, yet with the outward direction toward what is called life, the real, the active life; he treats with great precaution the bit of self-reflection which he has in himself, he is afraid that this thing in the background might again emerge. So little by little he succeeds in forgetting it; in the course of years he finds it almost ludicrous, especially when he is in good company with other capable and active men who have a sense and capacity for real life. Charmant! He has now, as they say in romances, been happily married for a number of years, is an active and enterprising man, a father and a citizen, perhaps even a great man; at home in his own house the servants speak of him as "himself"; in the city he is among the honoratiores; his bearing suggests "respect of persons," or that he is to be respected as a person, to all appearance he is to be regarded as a person. In Christendom he is a Christian (quite in the same sense in which in paganism he would have been a pagan, and in England an Englishman), one of the cultured Christians. The question of immortality has often been in his mind, more than once he has asked the parson whether there really was such an immortality, whether one would really recognize oneself again -- which indeed must have for him a very singular interest, since he has no self.

It is impossible to represent truly this sort of despair without a certain admixture of satire. The comical thing is that he will talk about having been in despair; the dreadful thing is that after having, as he thinks, overcome despair, he is then precisely in despair. It is infinitely comic that at the bottom of the practical wisdom which is so much extolled in the world, at the bottom of all the devilish lot of good counsel and wise saws and "wait and see" and "put up with one’s fate" and "write in the book of forgetfulness" -- that at the bottom of all this, ideally understood, lies complete stupidity as to where the danger really is and what the danger really is. But again this ethical stupidity is the dreadful thing.

Following from the Kierkegaard excerpt above:

What we call an "existential crisis" seems very common these days. It's the same thing as a "midlife crisis", except it is not limited to any particular age. A lot of youth have their "existential crisis" as soon as they are old enough to reflect on their life and wonder what it is about and what they're going to make of it. I believe it is more common in our own time because of the lack of any stable vision of life in our relativist age, a moral abyss that few seem capable of speaking or even thinking about, that is usually papered-over with sentimentality so that we might avoid coming to terms with our despair. People mock the "existential crisis" of youths as though it could be reduced to immaturity and self-absorption, but this usually comes from a position of cynicism which, as Kierkegaard would say, is itself despair - and an inferior form of despair, because it is less conscious of itself as being despair. The cynic mocks the youth for even wanting to have a purpose in life, as though such a thing is mere idealism that one has to grow out of; the truth is that the cynic is just as bitter as the youth, and even more so because he's too proud to admit it.

There are three things that are worth living for - God, country, and family. All literature attests to this. These are the three things that men agree are worth living (and dying) for. The alternative aim in life is individual pleasure or ambition, which again, literature and the common wisdom of mankind states is unstable and unfulfilling, and ultimately not worth living for. People might say that a lover or a friend is worth living for, but these can fall under one of the aforementioned categories. Others might say that the pursuit of art or science are themselves worth living for, but art is God viewed under the aspect of beauty, and science is God viewed under the aspect of truth. In the final analysis, only God is really worth living for, because the value of the country or the family is derived from the supreme and eternal value which is God; if country is valued simply for its own sake you can easily end up with nationalism or fascism, and if family is loved solely for its own sake it can lead to petty tribal ambition as well (wanting to make your own family more prominent than others). However, an atheist can enjoy a partial happiness and a partially fulfilled life by sacrificing himself for the good of his country or his family as something greater and more enduring than himself, as there is a great deal of natural happiness to be had in these things - but it is an incomplete happiness, due to man's spiritual nature that yearns for the infinite, which neither the country nor the family really are. 19th century materialism with its denial of man's spiritual nature has fostered an environment where an "existential crisis" is unavoidable for anyone with the capacity for self-reflection, as no amount of material prosperity - either real or imagined - could ever possibly satisfy the human soul. Hence:
>I suppose it's not really the "sitting down all day" part that gets me but the "slaving away on meaningless projects for a nameless corporation that only exists because the founders thought they could make big bucks" part.
As one of the roman emperors put it - "I have been everything, and everything is nothing." You can rule the world, but in the end all that will pass away, and you'll be left with your soul and it's need for the infinite. Read the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Principles: Life and Work.

Just B.E. yourself

It won't come from reading a book.

I never understood the country and family thing. I have no problem believing in God (I am a believer), but I never felt the urge to fight for my country or to have a family. I don't want to abolish these structures, but I do think that people who blindly follow their country or want to have a family because their society is constantly telling them to are stupid.
I just want to live for myself and help people closest to me, without fighting for a country or establishing a family, are you implying something is wrong with that?

>Country sounds like cunt
>if you have a wife, your wife will have a cunt
ergo protecting your country is protecting your wifes cunt

Throw in some other junk about love and shit and that's how you get to there

source: some homo on the internet

It can come from reading lots of books

...

This and the stoics. GO

Start with the caves

I appreciate you, whoever you are. I been trying to find an answer to whats been plaguing me, and thanks to you, I've discovered it.

Just become a truck or taxi driver lol

all of them
if you don't know where you want to be headed then you should examine your options-- different jobs, different hobbies, different ways of thinking

are those dicks hahaha

I have talent, but the arts have been thoroughly professionalized. Without networking or an arts degree it's over.

indie film developers are getting big film contracts more frequently than in the past.

indie game devs are chugging along well.

2d art can survive on high quality commission work.

it's shit to be an artist, harder than office job to get stable work, but it's out there

this. so much this.
marcus aurelius is a great starting point

I'm working part time at a real-estate office right now and I don't do shit. it's great. browse Veeky Forums and listen to podcasts. can't really read cuz that's obvious but I can write cuz it looks like I'm working on something. the right office job is an idler's paradise.

>Read books
>Decided to go for philosophy as a result
>Ultimately understood that this was a mistake
>Will not be able to find a job
>Vast majority of it is mental masturbation
>Even if its not mental masturbation, its terminological wordplay
>Even if its not terminological wordplay, it has no consensus in any aspect
>Even if it has consensus, it has no pragmatic value

Too bad I've slept throughout the high school and failed to realize my passion for maths and physics early on. At least I'll get a chance to study law in grad school so I won't be out of the job market in the end.

upvoted

>I don't want to spend a significant portion of my life sitting in an office.

well too fucking bad

Oh look its this thread again.
I swear over the course of a month this board has the exact same threads only slightly modified over and over and over and over and over and over and oooo

>make art
>decide to go for art as a result
>ultimately understood that this was a mistake
>will not be able to find a job
>vast majority of it is provocative masturbation

>love science
>decided to go for STEM as a result
>ultimately understood that this was a mistake
>will not be able to find a job
>vast majority of it is grant-begging, performing tedious labor for large corporations, or rubiks cube autistic puzzle-solving in theoretics that will never have applicability

>love music
>decided to study it as a result
>ultimately understood that this was a mistake
>will not be able to find a job
>vast majority of it is begging for patronage, massaging the cultural palates of upper-middle class bureaucrats who's trophy wives want to believe themselves artistically experienced, or making repetitive jingles for local businesses to run in unseen commercials

dude thats literally every major

read this essay
weeklystandard.com/so-youre-getting-a-ph.d./article/1059359#!

because country and family = responsibility to something greater than yourself
and god = responsibility to your own morals

you're selfish, to put it simply.

Sounds like something a quitter or an untalented person would say.

>weeklystandard

Welcome to humanity, enjoy your stay.

You need to get out more to squash that naivete.

>law
I would kill myself if I had to study law.

map of meaning: architecture of belief by jordan peterson.
it changed my life

>dude that's literally every major
>doesn't provide a potential solution
WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO???????????? EVERY OPTION IS SHIT

Hunter by Andrew MacDonald

(assuming you are not inheriting a lot of money) your options are
>win the lottery
>suicide

The prose in this is clunky and bad.

Who says that you have to earn a PhD? Just get a Bachelor's + MS in Computer Science, or an MBA if you have more managerial aspirations, and you'll be set.

Also, to answer the OP: Start reading the Western Canon, from the beginning.

Wtf douche I pointed you this way at beginning of thread and you ignored

>Start reading the Western Canon, from the beginning.

So he can work out what he wants to do in life by the time he reaches the end?

He should read the WC(lmao) so he can develop a richer perspective on life; doing so does not require *finishing* the entire WC.

What do you do with that perspective, though? Even if you knew everything about why the world is the way it is today, you still have to deal with the world as it is. You alone can't change it, so you must concede and live in it as optimally as possible by, e.g., getting a job.

This