Life & Perspective
Reflections on how to live, work and learn.
You Are What You Think: Lessons from James Allen's "As a Man Thinketh"
James Allen's As a Man Thinketh is tiny, a little essay you can read in under an hour, written in 1903 in plain, almost biblical prose.
Beyond Manipulation: What Dale Carnegie Really Teaches About People
What Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People really teaches: genuine interest, appreciation and empathy, not manipulation.
The Garden of Simple Pleasures: Rediscovering Epicurus
Rediscovering Epicurus: pleasure as the absence of pain, sorting natural and empty desires, friendship and why death is nothing to fear.
On Love, Work, and Letting Go: Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet"
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is one of those rare books that lives in people's lives rather than just on their shelves.
What "The Alchemist" Taught Me About Life
What Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist teaches about life: following your Personal Legend, reading omens, embracing adversity and the power of love.
What Is and Isn't in Our Power: Lessons from Epictetus' "Enchiridion"
Lessons from Epictetus' Enchiridion: what is and isn't in our power, why opinions disturb us more than events and Stoic freedom as wanting what happens.
Finding Meaning in Suffering: Reflections on Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning"
Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning: lessons from the camps on freedom, logotherapy and why meaning, not happiness, helps us endure.
On Borrowed Time: Lessons from Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic"
Lessons from Seneca's Letters from a Stoic: how we waste time, rehearsing hardship, deciding what is enough and philosophy as daily medicine.