Post: #576

Just finished A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Quick read at ~100 pages. I can see some guys interested in Japanese culture, kendo, or zen really appreciating this book, but barring those interests, I would not recommend it.

Musashi was undoubtedly a bad motherfucker. He was born in 1584 and would live his adult life under the relative stability of the Tokugawa shogunate. This stability meant samurais, the elite class, were unneeded and often put down their swords for more profitable vocations. An increasing outlet was competition and sponsorship between the growing number of kendo schools.

Musashi was noted for winning all of his 60 duels. He even stopped using real swords part way through as he was already deemed invincible. Near the end of his life, Musashi sequestered himself in a cave and wrote this book. The book is a guide for mastering strategy and its advice often transcends swordsmanship. It contains 5 chapters: Ground, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void. An annoyingly large number of paragraphs end with "you will need to research this thoroughly". Below are some of my favorite quotes...

"'To become the enemy' means to think yourself into the enemy's position. In the world people tend to think of robber trapped in a house as a fortified enemy. However, if we think of 'becoming the enemy', we feel that the whole world is against us and that there is no escape. He who is shut inside is a pheasant. He who enters is hawk. You must appreciate this."

"When you have grasped this principle, whatever the enemy tries to bring about in the fight you will see in advance and suppress it. The spirit is to check his attack at the syllable "at...", when he jumps check his jump at the syllable "ju...", and check his cut at "cu..."."

"What is known as 'getting someone drunk' is similar to this. You can also infect the enemy with a bored, carless, or weak spirit."

Post: #577

Outwitting the devil: The secret to Freedom and success by Napoleon Hill.

To summarize, this is probably the book everyone must read. It's filled completely with redpill knowledge. This book was written in 1930's and published in 2011. The reason why this wasn't published at that time is because they felt that it's too controversial

You need patience to read this book. You need to "think" all the time. Nothing is presented to you at face-value. I'm pretty sure 99% of people will give up before completing the book. To make matters worse, it's large (310 pages).

Summary: First he talks about knowledge from his other books and his discovery of "the other self". It's kinda boring until the interview with the devil starts.

The devil keeps on dropping redpill bombs in every page. First he talks about how he uses the six fears to control people (fear of poverty, criticism, loss of love, ill health, old age and death). Then he talks about how he controls those who drifts and move without strong purpose in life. He talks about over indulgence of sex and cigarette smoking (remember that this was in 1930's. Smoking was social norm at that time).

He talks about the "bribes" he use to control men ie., love, thirst for sex expression, money-addiction, a desire to gain something for nothing (gambling) and egotism.

He then talks about the habits and how your habits, thoughts and beliefs shape your reality. It's called a "harmonic vibration".

He also talks about how schools, parents and the whole society spoils kids from young age. He criticizes organized religion because they force you to please GOD and fear him(DEVIL) which is good because fear paralyzes men.

The last two topics are failure and environment. Instead of posting the same old bullshit that failure is a stepping stone, this guy proves it very clearly. He talks about how failure is a great tool to shake up your harmonic vibration. Finally he asks us to get rid of junk from out life including parents, friends and relatives who bother you.

He talks about self-discipline and the three major appetites responsible ie., 1) desire for food 2) desire for sexual expression 3) desire to express loosely organized opinions. I don't want to explain all of these in detail right here but he says that if you control these three appetites then you can master self-discipline pretty easily. (Will try this from tomorrow!)

I am not very good at summarizing this book because it's way too complex. I think this is the best book I've read in a while. You wanna be a "real" alpha male? Then read this book. This is my third time reading and I still have a lot to learn from this.

Post: #578

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris.

I know the man has a lot of haters, and I do think he oversimplifies how easy it can be to grasp difficult tasks like learning a foreign language, but his basic principles outlined in the book of "time versus money", minimalism, leveraging and automating your business flows are all still relevant years after the original book has been published. It is a good foundational read for an entrepreneur, then you go out and find the tools needed to apply his methods. Lastly, the man makes for an interesting story if you look over his youtube channel and blog. He knows that narrative and asking great questions draws a crowd to yourself. You can learn a lot about marketing from paying attention to him. Recommended for the business owner or Bootstrapper, especially if you want to have a location-independent business.

Post: #579

Yumeno Kyuusaku's 押絵の軌跡 (The Miracle of the Oshie)



This one's been sitting on my kindle account for literally 4 goddamn years, and after upgrading to a shiny Kindle Oasis for Christmas last month I decided it was time to finish it.
Yumeno Kyuusaku is best understood as the Japanese Poe, for lack of a better term. He lived in (kind-of) the same era, and wrote detective stories. But if he's the Japanese Poe, he's also the JAPANESE Poe, if that makes any sense, and his writing is very, very Japanese. Solemn, elegant, and oftentimes just outright beautiful, it's a joy to read.

I love my new Kindle Oasis and can't recommend it highly enough to any serious reader. I had an old touch from 2011 or so, and this is just so much faster and smoother. The increased smoothness makes reading a lot more pleasant, and I'll probably be reading many more books on this than I was on the old one.

Post: #580

The charisma myth.

Recommended reading for guys who often need to present material to groups.

Post: #581

A Knight of Seven Kingdoms.

Post: #582

Art of the Deal.

This book needs no introduction, obviously. All I will say is that it's a quick read. I finished it in about 3-4 hours. If you haven't read it yet, it's worth your time.

Post: #583

Dark Pools
Physics of the Impossible
Outliers
Tools of Titans
Nineteen Eighty-four
Elon Musk Biography by Ashley Vance

Post: #584

@The Final Epic:

Tools of Titans is on my possible to-read list. Is it any good? Could you give us a short summary of your thoughts on it? Thanks!

Post: #585

(01-21-2017 08:44 PM)John Michael Kane Wrote:  @The Final Epic:

Tools of Titans is on my possible to-read list. Is it any good? Could you give us a short summary of your thoughts on it? Thanks!

If you listen to Tim Ferriss' Podcasts, then he essentially takes the best bits and threw them into a book. That being said, he does include some great stuff on morning routines, meditation, workouts, and business. I would recommend it.

Post: #586

(01-21-2017 08:44 PM)John Michael Kane Wrote:  @The Final Epic:

Tools of Titans is on my possible to-read list. Is it any good? Could you give us a short summary of your thoughts on it? Thanks!

I'm almost done with tools of titans. Curious to see what finalepic says on it too.

My 2c is it's definitely a worthwhile read. Some intriguing health insights (microdosing psychedelics, keto/low carb, fasting as a precancerous purge, bizarre potentially beneficial supplements like lithium orotate). Lots of other unique advice that pops out to you personally. I think ferriss is a great questioner and asking things like "What does that first 60 minutes of your morning look like?", "What's your most gifted books?", "If you could put anything on a billboard what would you say?", "Best $100 you spent this year?"...often leads to insightful answers. Book is pushing 700 pages too.

But I can't help but get annoyed with ferriss in anything larger than a ~20 minute dose. He loves information acquisition, hyping overly simplified solutions and breaking every day down into a multitude of routines. The vast majority of people I know that listen to his podcast make near-zero life changes.

Post: #587

I think the challenge of Ferris is that he investigates a lot of various angles on things, and that starts with him asking great questions. The real challenge for any of us is to take action. I think Anthony Robbins is also an excellent question asker. What really matters is that you take someone's practical advice, wither it be Ferris, Robbins or someone else and formulate a gameplan for action. Ferris did this very well in my opinion in The 4-Hour Workweek. Robbins did it well in Awaken The Giant Within. Jack Canfield did it well in The Success Principles.

Above all else, you have to have an action plan, and better yet, someone to hold you accountable. Could be a friend, family member, personal coach, or even forum members that you check in with.

The bottom line is, most of us aren't dedicated on our own to self-motivate completely. We need a friendly kick in the ass of accountability to get results.

Post: #588

Just finished Brian Tracey's Time Management. Highly Recommended. Only ~100 pages, each of the 21 chapters is only several pages, and the pages are all 6''x 8''.

GreekGod covered this book a few pages back and his notes are here.

I'm just going to list my favorite quotes & takeaways...

"There is a big difference between action that is self-determined and goal-directed and reaction, which is an immediate response to external pressure. It's the difference between feeling positive and in control of your life and feeling negative, stressed, and pressured."

"This is a powerful technique that you can use, too. Project forward one, two, three years and imagine that your life situation is ideal in every way. Create a clear mental picture of what your work situation would be if it were perfect. From this vantage point of the future, look around you, and describe your ideal life and work situation. Then, ask yourself if what you are doing now is consistent with the creation of your ideal future."

"If I were out of town for a month, starting tomorrow, what activities on this list would I want to be sure to complete before i left town?
The Greatest enemy of time management and personal productivity today is 'majoring in minors.' Because of the natural tendency for each person to follow the path of least resistance and to settle into a comfort zone, it is normal and natural for people to begin with small, easy , fun, enjoyable, and usually unimportant tasks and activities at the beginning of the day
But alas, whatever you start doing at the beginning of the day quickly becomes the pattern that you will follow in the hours ahead. By the end of the day, you may find that you have spent all of your time on small and meaningless tasks, and you will have accomplished nothing of real value."

-Self-esteem is highly correlated to how efficient you are with time. Feel better by being more productive.
-Examine your innermost values and make an effort to bring your activities, on the outside, into alignment with your life priorities, on the inside. This is a prophylactic for burnouts/nervous breakdowns.
-Gauge your outlook by asking deep formative questions "I am..., People are..., Life is..., My biggest goal in life is..."
-Every minute spent planning saves 10 minutes of execution. Take extra time planning and organizing.
-Write a daily to do the night before (subconscious mind begins processing when sleeping) and triage each activity into A-must do, B-should do, C-nice to do, D-delegate, E-eliminate. If new tasks appear add and label their priorities before you begin.
-Constantly organize by 80:20 analysis. Good heuristic for finding these, "If I could only do one thing on this list, all day long, which one activity would contribute the greatest value?"
-Focus on single-handling > multi-tasking. Completing a task in one deep session saves precious time that is wasted by taking breaks and reviewing to get back into the zone.
-Do it now! Action begets motivation and momentum
-Carve out blocks of deep work time before/after work while you dodge rush hour
-Batch your tasks
-Be selective about what you read. Screen low-value material ruthlessly.
-Compound interest of time is real. Spend 1 hour/day on a skill and you'll be 1%er within a few years
-Clean desk=clean mind
-Be aware that that work-life balance is synergistic. Having an off switch for work and enjoying time traveling/with friends helps recharge your batteries and feeds back into work productivity.

Post: #589

'Worthless: The Young Person's Indispensable Guide to Choosing the Right Major' by Aaron Clarey

An absolute must read for everyone who wants to go to college. Also, a very good insight on academia scam. Unfortunately not much of a use for me as I am almost done with my wortheless degree. Buy and read it if you want to know what to major in or if you have any young relatives/loved ones you care for and do not want them to fuck up their future, give it to them as a gift. Bought one for my younger sister as a X-mas present.

Post: #590

Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence by Bryan Burroughs
I'm in the middle of this book and wanted to give it a mention. Its the story of the Weather Underground and their bombing campaign against "The Man" in the early 1970's. There is a good summation of it here by this blogger:
https://storify.com/sphenoid/days-of-rag...it-portend
What disturbs me is how similar the situation is to what we are seeing today. You have a group of well-educated, smart, and wealthy Poindexters who have decided everyone who doesn't think like them is either a tool or Nazi. In other words, fair game.
The author of the book doesn't quite understand how different the country was back in the later 60's and early 70's. In those days, most people, the vast "silent majority", were on the side of the government, who wanted to take down the radicals. Shee-it, I can remember my dad and uncles grumbling about Kent State and saying the government DIDN'T KILL ENOUGH STUDENTS.
Now what happens when ten percent of the country starts to cheer on the mad bombers? Twenty? Fifty? Civil War, Phase Two, baby!
It's hard for me to finish this book. A lot of what is in here I knew from reading earlier accounts of the 60's radicals, but Burroughs has a weird way to put it all together.
And do you know what really sickens me?
Most of the assholes in this book got away with it. Other than the few who did do time, died in police shoot-outs, or blew themselves up, they're good. The guy who built most of the bombs retired as a school teacher. As one commentator has pointed out, can you imagine the same thing happening to a bunch of abortion clinic bombers?

Post: #591

Warning: Nothing in this list has anything to do with making money or getting laid. That said, a few that I've read in the last year I highly recommend:

- Vox Day's SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police
Good strategy on how to deal with SJWs. Worth the read if for no reason than his basic three rules that SJWs: always lie, always double down, and always project.

-Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius and Meditations (Illustrated) of Marcus Aurelius (2 books)
Once you get past the hypocrisy of the emperor of Rome trying to convince you that external life does not equate to happiness, these are good guides to achieving happiness.

- Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe
Reread these long essays in one book. Still highly relevant in our SJW world.

- BUDGET TRAVEL - The Ultimate Guide by G. Gabrielle
I rarely find anything written by women to be worthwhile. Usually when it come to travel, books written by women could best be summarized by "OMG, that is awesome." This is an exception with plenty of helpful tips.

- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Has been mentioned beore on ROK but the philosopy it contains is relevant to all aspects of your life even though you only need to read 1/3 of the book to get it.

-The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise
One of the key ways that the left sells the idea of multiculturalism is through the dream world of the Moor domination of Southern Europe. This work goes back to text from that era to debunk the claims of a multicultural paradise. Worth a read.

People's Republic
Set in an era where Hillary won the election. the rest of the seceded. A bounty hunter goes into the People's republic of CA to bring back a lass who has been held their against her will. Everything in the novel is understandable given today's modern PC world.

Six Years With the Texas Rangers: 1875-1881
This came out in 1925 when the author was old. One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. Injun wars. Mexican wars. Train and stagecoach robberies. Vigilante justice. This has it all. If you only read one one book this year, I recommend this is the one to select.

Post: #592

The Time Machine by HG Wells, it is available on Gutenberg and a short read. Very good and interesting book with red pill ideas. Written in 1895 it is remarkably prescient in predicting the effects of technology and socialism. I won't spoil it all, but this is one of those books that show you that 100 years, people were already fully aware of redpill/bluepill concepts and r/K selection. Recommended.

Post: #593

I was listening to Roosh's podcast on the serenity of stoicism and he touched upon a lot of ideas that made great sense to me. Much of he what he talked about was similar to my own thoughts and musings I have been having about life recently. In need of some structured direction to guide me on a new path, I decided to research stoicism more as a potential philosophy of life.

In the stoic threads on the forum the book A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine was recommended as a good introduction to the philosophy by a few different members.

Now that I have completed the book I can vouch for it as well as an easily digestible and approachable introduction to stoicism as a philosophy of life. The book provided a nice overview of some varying schools of philosophic thought and teachers, but mainly focused on 4 of the great stoics of the past-- Seneca, Musonius, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.

Now that I have a better understanding of the basics of stoicism, I am sold that it is a decent philosophy to embrace if I want to live a good life. Next I will read some of Seneca's letters and essays, before diving into Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

While stoicism seems to be the middle ground, I am also interested in learning more about the other two extremes, epicureanism and cynicism. Anyone have any good suggestions on books to read about either of these subjects?

Post: #594

Just finished Crime and Punishment - absolutely fantastic. I read Notes from the Underground years ago and it never grabbed me. Now, after reading this book, my respect for Dostoevsky has been cemented. He deserves his place in the pantheon of great writers.

There are so many great themes in the book (i.e. the nature of evil, forgiveness, etc.). However, in terms of the Manosphere, one thing that grabbed me was when Raskolnikov (the main character) confesses a double murder to his girlfriend Sonia.

“Then you won’t leave me, Sonia?” he said, looking at her with almost hope.

“No, no, never, nowhere!” cried Sonia. “I will follow you, I will follow you everywhere…I’ll follow you to Siberia!” (p. 608)

Chicks dig a serial killer, even in 19th-century Russia. It's that red pill perspective that make the book a classic (amongst many other things).

Post: #595

I saw Hyperion recommended by a couple guys on the forum and checked it out over the last two months via audiobook.

I loved this book and also The Fall of Hyperion and am slowly listening to them through audiobook again before moving on to the last two novels.

The author does a lot of things very well, but one facet that stood out to me was how he portrayed the future equivalent to our modern day smartphone addiction, in stunning detail, set in a world where people are constantly plugged in to the 'datasphere,' which is an ever-present internet. Hyperion feels timeless and prescient, especially since the author wrote around the early 90s.

There's a lot of good things about these books and I'm not a good enough writer to do them justice. If you like sci-fi, I suggest reading some reviews to see if you want to check these books out. They are very good and many forum members have recommended them, which is why I decided to pull the trigger.

Post: #596

The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Heavy stuff. The Soviet Gulag system, this regime was so rotten and evil, it's nearly unfathomable. Really puts our modern lives in perspective. Why aren't we taught any of this stuff in school?

Post: #597

Peak: Secrets From The New Science of Expertise
Anders Ericsson

Author studied experts from many different fields, music, chess, athletics, academics for decades. Examined what they do that separates them from others in their field. Are they experts because they possess some innate talent that others don’t have, because they work harder, work smarter?

He found a common thread with all cases. Yea, they all worked hard, but they had a specific approach to improvement. They practiced with full attention and focus, got feedback on their weaknesses and strengths from other experts, and then re-focused specifically on the weaknesses to fix them. Ericsson calls this deliberate practice. When analyzing the relationship between performance and preparation, Andersson finds levels of performance are completely explained by time spent in deliberate practice, while almost none is explained by total time spent engaging in an activity.

Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘10,000 hour rule’ from Outliers is bullshit, just a neatly packaged number that appeals to readers. To become a sick tennis player you can’t just go out to the tennis court over and over with your buddies and hopefully eventually you hit 10,000 hrs and ding ding you’re an expert tennis player. You have to break down your game into different parts and target the weak links. If your backhand is wack you fix it; study the technique of pros, target the specific joints and muscles that control that motion, etc.

What this means is that it is possible to achieve expertise in far fewer than 10,000 hours, as long as you spend your time fully attentive, addressing specific components of the skill, rather than just dicking around for fun. It also means that if you just dick around for fun for, play the same chords on your guitar over and over for 10,000 hours, you aren’t guaranteed anything, other than getting stuck at the same plateau never to move on.

Overall it was a good read. Sheds light on the immense adaptability of mind and body that all of us possess, and basically calls bullshit on anyone who says “i’m just not a natural athlete” “i’m just not good with languages” “I just don’t have a musical mind,” etc.

Post: #598

Just finished reading Dan Brown's Inferno recently. I hadn't enjoyed a good thriller book in a long time and this one was just perfect for me.

The way he describes Florence makes me just want to fly there solo, stay for few days and simply just get immersed in the Renaissance and its history.

Post: #599

(02-05-2017 09:34 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Just finished reading Dan Brown's Inferno recently. I hadn't enjoyed a good thriller book in a long time and this one was just perfect for me.

The way he describes Florence makes me just want to fly there solo, stay for few days and simply just get immersed in the Renaissance and its history.

Brown's a great fucking writer. I don't really care how much people hate on The Da Vinci Code or whatnot, he know how to entertain and keep you flipping the pages.

I also like the answer he gave when asked about his style and his critics:

Quote:"I do something very intentional and specific in these books. And that is to blend fact and fiction in a very modern and efficient style, to tell a story. There are some people who understand what I do, and they sort of get on the train and go for a ride and have a great time, and there are other people who should probably just read somebody else."

Post: #600

(01-21-2017 02:14 PM)Coldfire Wrote:  A Knight of Seven Kingdoms.

GRRM? Liked this book more than ASOIAF