Self improvement general /sig/

What are you guys reading?
What did you learn today?

If you're reading, do so with a highlighter at hand and post quotes you find valuable or interesting in this thread.

I'll be posting some quotes from Bob Hoffman's "how to be strong, healthy, and happy"

A short discussion on self reliance by Robert Greene:
youtu.be/qsjI8dG7Gok

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectangular_potential_barrier
epicurus.net/en/principal.html)
epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html)
thewisesloth.com/2015/02/09/the-confidence-talk/
thewisesloth.com/2014/11/11/tips-on-impressing-women/
doctornerdlove.com/2014/03/find-true-confidence/
doctornerdlove.com/2011/10/build-your-confidence/all/1/
doctornerdlove.com/tag/confidence/
jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

"Not wasting too much time in bed permits you to live longer"

"Too much sleep is not a benefit. Rather it is depressing, causes sluggishness and a state of lethargy. In fact it produces lassitude and may even stupefy the mind"

"It is distinctly unhealthy to overdo in any way. You must contract the habit of moderation in all things if you wish to be strong and healthy. Too much of work, play, rest, or sleep is not good for you. You must hit the happy medium."

"Regardless of your age, you should make it a rule to learn something new each day and to do something each day to improve yourself physically."

"It takes two to fight and if you don't, soon the others will be ashamed of themselves. No matter what happens don't let it disturb you, at least on the surface. Go through the jungles of trouble that may beset you on every side, as calmly, majestically, serenely and powerfully as a huge elephant in his native jungle, which, knowing the he's too big to be harmed by any other animal, leads a calm and happy life."

"Determination self denial and practice all lead to the maintenance of a tranquil mind."

"Do you constantly say, "I can't I'll fail"? Then you have learned to practice evasion and you are permitting yourself to be mentally weak.

Be positive, build positive traits. Know what you want to do and do it. Promise yourself not to let worry, anger, envy, jealousy, hate or any forms of mental restlessness steal into your being."

"Determine to be calm, that you will avoid negative mental processes. Get out and seek real interests, work, hobbies. The best hobby of all is physical training. Concentrate on your activities. Instead of worrying about the future, welcome the opportunity to face problems, ordeals or the battles of life. You can build yourself so that you obtain pleasure from overcoming, from defeating problems, apparently insurmountable difficulties. You can overcome all your difficulties and win. You will find the next encounter easier. You will have greater confidence in your own ability.

Each morning when you arise, repeat this magic formula to yourself: "I will be calm. Nothing can upset me or worry me today. I will not lose my temper, I will overcome all obstacles."

"Don't have mental ups and downs. Do not permit yourself to become too enthusiastic, too excited, over desireous, or covetous. Develop mental stability."

Bump

I've been reading the Art of War. It touches a lot on being opportunistic, to take opportunities as they come and to not procrastinate, as attacking early may not be good, but waiting has never been a better move. Don't have the book on me, but it's something like that.

bump.

under appreciated thread

people who mark the text disgust me

I am busy reading this book list.

The sex god method
Sexual intelligence
48 laws of power
Dress like a man, a style guide for men
Dave ramsay, The total money makeover
Adulting, how to become a grown up
Verbal judo
How to talk to anyone, 92 tricks
What everybody is saying
Think and grow rich napoleon hill
The war of art break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles
How to win friends and influence people
Rational male
Book of pook
99 attractive traits that drive women crazy
Women like meat, Megan Biesele
No more mister nice guy
The manual what women want
Models: attraction through honesty
The gallic wars, Julius Ceasar
Mary beard, SPQR
Infantry attack erwin rommel
Tommy: The british soldier on the western front
Storm of steel
The price of admirality, John Keegan
Lords of the sky, Dan Hampton
Overcoming gravity

There are some cringey books in there but there is no harm in reading them.

The Book of Pook is really good, there is a free pdf on the red pill subreddit.

there is actually great harm in reading the wrong material at the wrong time, or any material you are not prepared for.

ideas are powerful, dangerous things.

Fair point.

I feel like im in a turning point in my life, for the first time I am actually working on improving myself.

I find that I want to read a lot, I used to read a lot of fiction and now I want to replace that by reading non fiction, hence the list of books.

How do I avoid filling my mind with bad ideas?

The oxford handbook of philosophy of physics
How the laws of physics lie
A history of political theory
Heidegger: a very short introduction
German for reading
Hegel's philosophy of history

Goals are a very important part of self improvement.

I have made a list of long and short term goals for myself and whenever I have some free time I try to work on these goals.

Also I have a few daily goals like meditating, learning german, practice writing.

Striping a goal of my list works really motivating, I can recommend this to everyone.

I almost got mugged a couple of weeks ago. It shook me up a bit, but I've reached the point where I am somewhat thankful for the wake up call the senseless act of violence gave me. I got my ass back into jiu jitsu, which is a goal I've had for years but couldn't find the time for. I started going to muay thai once a week too, which is something I gave up in frustration after disheartening sparring sessions and injury. Most importantly, the random assault reminded me how unpredictable things are in life. I got out without a bruise or scratch, but that could have been different. Treasure life and spend time wisely (yet here I am, contradictions much). Getting back into martial arts has helped me discover my competitive side and masculinity. I highly recommend doing some kind of martial art to everyone. Teaches humility, dedication and discipline. Anyway, I just started reading some Marcus Aurelius, with the hope that his insights are rightly timed for where I am in life, and might provide some inspiration for keeping focused and disciplined as I take on new endeavors (I start a new job next week and am working on a grad school application portfolio for next year). These threads are under rated. Keep em going.

Can I trip regularly in here?

Do mods delete this thread?

We should take it to trash if mods are huge faggots.that's where miscellanoud threads go

I recently did a trial lesson of MMA, but I think im going to do muay thai since I already have 11 years of judo experience.

Lessons start in august, looking forward to it.

I'm not in any position to give advice.

But that feeling of finally improving yourself is familiar to me, too. I also used to read a lot as a kid, and when I picked books back up I felt very relieved.

Well I'm just going to need to find out for myself then.

I hope that reading different books will give me different views so I can compare them and see what fits me best.

Some of the books I'm reading confirm thoughts I already had so thats positive I guess.

Stop watching porn, masturbation is fine but do not overdo it. Once or twice a week max.

Porn is like fast food and you should avoid it, that probably means not visiting /b anymore.

Why even try if you have a small penis?

I bought this book. It's pretty based, Carnegie knew what was up. He's a better person than I am though, with the whole 'don't criticise people, it's counter productive'. That is not easy.

A very good book that I've read recently on the topic of finance is The Education of Millionaires by Michael Ellsberg. No bullshit, straight to the point.

>What are you guys reading?
This page
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectangular_potential_barrier

>tfw listening to Nicomachean ethics and it just keeps reafrirming my belief of balance being lifes key

Thanks man

Robert Greene is my nigga, I always refer back to his books

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Been listening to Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche on audiotape while I drive. Tried to read the book itself a few times and it feels like it sinks in better when inflection and tone is presented to me rather than left for me to discern from his meandering sentence structure.

Its very good, so long as you presume it's also painfully self aware. He displays an incredible understanding of human psychology, introspection and motivation for both his time and his profession.

"Whoever has seen deeply into the world has doubtless divined what wisdom there is in the fact that men are superficial. It is their preservative instinct which teaches them to be flighty, lightsome, and false. Here and there one finds a passionate and exaggerated adoration of "pure forms" in philosophers as well as in artists: it is not to be doubted that whoever has NEED of the cult of the superficial to that extent, has at one time or another made an unlucky dive BENEATH it. Perhaps there is even an order of rank with respect to those burnt children, the born artists who find the enjoyment of life only in trying to FALSIFY its image (as if taking wearisome revenge on it), one might guess to what degree life has disgusted them, by the extent to which they wish to see its image falsified, attenuated, ultrified, and deified,—one might reckon the homines religiosi among the artists, as their HIGHEST rank."

What podcasts does Veeky Forums listen to? I spend most of my day using my hands and not brain and need something to listen to, running out of audiobooks.

I read it when I needed it the most
taught me some valuable lessons
really useful

>Hegel
ma nigga

It's extremely helpful to mark books that you own. They function as references and resources that you can come back to. In the words of Dale Carnegie, "marking and underscoring a book makes it more interesting, and far easier to review rapidly." Knowledge is a tool, and storing it in a way that makes it easier to get at in the future is very helpful.

Interesting point fellas. I was thinking about this last night as I was reading a chapter in 48 Laws of Power. It's a very interesting book and some people compare it to Carnegie's HtWFaIP, but where HtWFaIP encourages you to be a better person, a good person, I feel like t48LoP encourages you to be a bad person, to be manipulative, duplicitous, dishonest. I sometimes wonder if I should even be reading it.

It certainly isn't lol.

Too bad I have to go in 30 minutes 8at least it is Sig related, a meetup.com meetup with important people for networking)

I have a few archived /sig/ thread with all the cool stuff. One day I'm gonna revise them and Dump a good updated version here.
let's hope this thread is alive tomorrow.

Thanks OP!

Ben Greenfield fitness podcast
Live life aggressively podcast
Jocko podcast

Also mbmbam is really good as a light, positive comedy podcast

Lol thats my post.

lol

Its this list.

But in the mean time I added a few more.

Mental health goes on /adv/, Veeky Forums rule number 2

I think this thread is more about aelf improvement.

So changes to your day to day life.

The books we are posting are a helpfull tool for this.

This is a horrific mish-mash of trash and decent books.

Let me offer a more refined list for "self-help" (please note this is just a basic list whipped up on the spot)

Ethics/Philosophy:
The Story of Philosophy - Bryan Magee
Apology - Plato (try to read Euthyphro before, and Crito and Phaedo after)
Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle (you may want to read Politics after)
Principal Doctrines - Epicurus (epicurus.net/en/principal.html)
Letter to Menoecus - Epicurus (epicurus.net/en/menoeceus.html)
On the Nature of Things - Lucretius
Selected Works - Cicero
Discourses, Fragments, Handbook - Epictetus
Letters from a Stoic; On the Brevity of Life - Seneca
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius
The Daodejing - Lao Tzu
Zhuangzi - Zhuangzi
In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourse from the Pali Canon

I know this is mostly classical, but it will suit you well enough. For publishers, go for the following: Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Hackett Publishing.

Fiction/Inspirational/Epics/you know what I mean:

The Iliad & Odyssey - Homer (Fitzgerald, Fagles, or Lattimore are good translations)
The Histories - Herodotus
History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
Anabasis - Xenophon
The History of Rome - Titus Livy
The Gallic Wars - Caesar
The Civil War - Lucan
The Aeneid - Virgil
The Metamorphoses - Ovid
Lives of the Caesars - Suetonius
Lives of Eminent Romans and Greeks - Plutarch
The Cossacks - Tolstoy

Again this is mostly Classical, but there's no point in going through every existent work of literature for a list when these suit the purpose fine. Again, go with university presses for your publisher choice, Penguin are good quality a lot of the time, but sometimes use older translations.

Thanks user :) these will defenitely be added to my list.

What books would you defenitely remove from the list?

A lot of the more contemporary "Self-Help" books.

My main issue is the mish-mash nature of the list, it jumps from banal guides to world war memoirs. I understand the list is just a shopping list, but I wouldn't advise following it.

Have another list.

Thanks :)

no probs lad.

Also check out Montaigne. He's great.

What does he mean by this?
"Arouse in the other person an eager want"

make the other person metaphorically horny for your metaphorical dick

Also wondering what he means by that.

pretentious way of saying, "Withhold information so that the faggot you're trying to scam will take the bait."

don't underestimate the value of an open platform
to communicate with hundreds of others at a time. not only does it give you positive ideas, but it lets you share your own with others, which is just as important

Reading: The Power of Habit.
Would recommend.

Learned about the Basal Ganglia. Its an evolutionary very old part of your brain. It looks for cues and rewards. If it finds them it learns and streamlines them into automatic routines. Your brain, when it notices a known cue, goes into a low processing mode that can perform surprisingly complex tasks.
These are utilized by habits.

I've been trying to identify where I can string behaviors and habits together. Like I'm on Veeky Forums because I just finished jerking off and my tendency to stay off this site just plummets. I've also started reading before bed, and studying french before I get out of bed after I wake up. Sleeping is the most consistent cue I can think to build off of, so it seems like a good place to start.

I've always been resistant to the idea of being slave to a routine. Don't want to sink into a monotonous. But knowing that there is an autonomous part of the brain that is pretty damn powerful, it seems like the best move is to work with it and use it as a tool, rather than letting it run haphazardly. Sort of like controlling fire.

6.5 hours of sleep is choice.
Some times gotta take naps to cover deficit, but its better than taking more of something you can't store up.

I found out today through metacognition that I often fall in to leadership positions in any group activities or work shit. I also realized I hate being the fucking leader, because I'm bad at it. I'm unorganized, lazy, and hate people. However I hate disappointing others so people think I'm a good leader.

I'm going to take this realization and actually work on my leadership skills.

lol

>red pill subreddit

I don't know the book, but I think if you are cognizant of materials intent, and you can keep in mind your our views then you have little to worry about. Might need to read it a bit slower and put in the time of reflecting what is written with what you value.

What are you supposed to do when you can't even ask people on the streets for the time or directions?

I mean, that's an advice people give often, right? If you want to talk to girls, start low, ask random people on the street for directions.

I tried doing that today, but I just couldn't. My heart raced and I couldn't do it. Didn't wanna intrude those peoples' lives. I feel like such a failure. Pls help guys

Someone shared these links one day:

Back in the days, we had an "Fit Information Repository" with over 3.2 GB of ebooks and fitnes information on absolutely everything.

Is the download still available or should I upload everything and share it?

thewisesloth.com/2015/02/09/the-confidence-talk/
thewisesloth.com/2014/11/11/tips-on-impressing-women/

doctornerdlove.com/2014/03/find-true-confidence/
doctornerdlove.com/2011/10/build-your-confidence/all/1/
doctornerdlove.com/tag/confidence/

In my experience:
Read in this order:
"no more mr. nice guy"(if needed)
"how to win friends and influence people"
"Model"

Also get shredded as fuck and analyse your surrounding. As soon as you see that people tread you different when you are a sick cunt, it will be a lot easier.
And start to see females as a "not so important" goal in your life.

start lower - talk to people you already know, get into some social activities where contact is forced, just like urban exploration or whatever you can find on facebook or any other medium.

Oh, and read about progressive muscle relaxation by Jacobson, it's great for anxiety. Do one or two sessions before planned talking. Don't listen to this guy above, unless you want to be hater.

I've worked on some German through Rosetta Stone. do any of you have experience with it? i torrented it, but after looking at some reviews I'm a little worried about its efficacy. the really high price probably has a lot to do with low reviews

Memrise is your friend, it's free, really fast and effective. And they have new German course added like month ago, great stuff.

I've never been in a committed relationship with a girl and I think its because I cum too fast. When I get drunk, I last for a pretty good time and don't have any problems fucking sloots from bars/clubs.

But I'm deathly afraid of not being able to please a girl if I get into a relationship. Please help me out guys, how do I last longer? Right now its about 2-3 mins which is pathetic.

Fap first and switch positions a lot (choose uncomfortable ones and think about your discomfort).

Memrise is great for vocab, Ive been doing the french and its been going pretty well. Just screwed up a 37 day streak, so I'm trying duolingo again. Duo definitely helps improve the understanding of grammar.

>foreplay
>switch positions
>eat her pussy/ass


Just go slow bro. Tease her for a bit.
Like start kissing and then slowly work your way down to her pussy. Play with her pussy for a bit and then as time goes by get more and more aggressive. Then once shes all horny you fuck her right in the pussy.

Side note: Make sure you don't take to much time on the foreplay and ass eating.

you'll be good.
If you want drink a little before you fuck. If shes cool with weed then you both can 420balzeit before you fuck.

good lick nigs

yo, German here. Do you wanna skype or something senpai? I'm bored

what are some social activities I could do, I don't think there's much urban exploration going on here and I can't think of anything else.

>ITT no one will ever know the wisdom

I bought that book, started reading a brief intro to the laws, closed it and never touched it again.
my philosophy is to get what you want be being good and likeable. 48 laws really rubs me the wrong way. I mean, even if you get what you want by being a conniving prick, are you really living a good life?

weed helps a lot but I wanna be able to fuck her without being fucked up all the time.

I don't seem to be able to penetrate for longer than a few minutes when sober without spraying

the book of pook is garbage tier

In terms of investing, this is the only book you need to read.

As a future early retiree, I've done a ton of research, and this is the best book.

It's based off his highly regarded and quite entertaining Stock Series blog. You can also just read that.
jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

>BIG D MONEYS RULES FOR SELF IMPROVEMENT
>1. MEDITATE. EVERY DAY.
>2. WAKE UP EARLY AND GO TO BED EARLY.
>3. RUN. OUTSIDE. IN THE SUN.
>4. SET ATTAINABLE GOALS
>5. IF YOU'RE AFRAID OF DOING SOMETHING, DO IT.
>6. READ MOBY DICK GOD DAMNIT.

Why Moby Dick? Last I recall the book spends like 30 pages detailing the uses of whale fat.

not him, but just skim over parts of a book that are useless to you

They give solid advice.

But by all means ignore it just because it le reddit.

Please upload and share user.

Bump

Keep in mind that quote is from a time when the average man slept 10 hours per night, sleeping less than 7-8 hours has been consistently shown to be very unhealthy

How do I get a stronger voice?
How do I successfully express emotions?

Im a little bit autistic

>Les Miserables
pretty enjoyable desu, not sure how it would help someone

>Notes from the Underground
Literally /r9k/: the book.

>Don Quijote
Ok

>Meditations
It's great but finding a translation that isnt shit, is quite fucked.

Read it 6 years ago
One of the greatest reads of my life

[DISDAIN FOR PLEBS INTENSIFIES]
like cmon nigga just use your fucking brain when reading a book and don't skip chapters

kys friendo

Why?

I thought he gave some decent advice.

book of pook is fine if you can ignore the retarded parts

realistically, anything that says you need to look inward for improvement is going to be fine for most people here

Why should I read Sartre's Being and Nothingness?

You shouldn't. He was a hack.

Books read over the last 6-8 weeks.

Work related.
CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) V9.
CEH 2010
Metasploit Cookbook
NMap Cookbook
Nessus
Social Engineering for Pen Testers
Cyber Crime Police and You
Google Hacking
Instant Metasploit starter
Investigating Internet Crimes
Practical Malware analysis
The art of human hacking

Personal Development Books
4 Hour work week
6 Figure Second Income
Gorilla Mindset
The better man project
7 Habit of highly successful...
Man up
Nietzsche Man alone with himself
Bad men do what good men think

same shit every pua book puts up, except delivered in a ridiculous dramatica theme ala fucking lord of the rings for the "lessons".

its genuinely nothing special/unique/interesting

the only self improvement you guys need
>social skills
>people skills
>hygiene
>hobbies that aren't Veeky Forums or anime
going to the gym is not a hobby. That's like saying going to the dry cleaners or barber is a hobby.

>girl: "so user what do you do for fun?"
>autismo: "uhm, I work out. Do you know who mark rippetoe is? I follow his awesome routine"
>girl: "uhm... okay? What else do you do"
>autismo (read:You): "Oh well all I do besides go to the gym is watch chinese cartoons and post on chinese cartoon forums"

and you neckbeards wonder why no attractive women are interested in you...

"Manual de Derecho Penal" (Zaffaroni), "Starting Strength" (Rippletits) and "El Juguete Rabioso" (Arlt).

You should all read, it expands your mind and makes you overall a better person.

Can someone tell me why self improvement fags think reading will make them any different?

I hope I can do it in the next days.
Can anyone suggest a good file sharer?

Reading expands your mind, it makes you consider things otherwise you wouldn't have considered, it teaches you other things you wouldn't have learned otherwise... It is overall good for you.

>inb4 bait
It's a reasonable question tho.

these people don't read for enjoyment they read so they can tell people that they read books, which makes them better than you because you do not read books.