The original plan was to write this series of blogs, every month, or every quarter, but plans focussed on curbing "time" in one's favour rarely work (see: distractions, see: schedules).
Different problems faced by humans made us create books which cover different domains of ones life, and different ways of dealing with them. In this post I try to classify and compare all the different kind of books I read, over the last couple of months. I read other things like SciFi, Erotica, and a thing or two about Chaos theory, and Multiverse, and Quantum States (see: Schrodinger's Cat; see: Spiderman: No way Home) but that is for another text.
Classification and Comparison:
Cynical Books
"Good people make world a better place, Cynics make history", is the key idea in this area.
Following them religiously often gets oneself in tough places within one's mind, but obviously at the cost of getting what you crave for, which is the reason why these are loved by people who are living in highly competitive/stressful environments. "Think and Grow Rich", and the "Art of War" are the two books which more or less fall into this domain. I have blabbered a lot about these two in the last post, so skipping some words here. BTW, if religiously followed, these are really powerful books, the first one teaches to infuse a desire, and second one is the sure shot of way doing whatever the fuck you want.
Good Guy Books
Then there are the books which aim to make us a "good guy", teaching someone the ideas about helping others, leading people, apathy, (see: sympathy; see: difference in these two), etc.
The best book in this area is undoubtedly the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. This book has a cult following, and literally every modern age self help book is derived from its ideas. Probably the most thought out book that will ever by written by humankind. 7 Habits are not something on the lines of "getting up early", but these 7 habits are different aspects a "good guy" should master oneself. In contrast to the cynical stuff, this also talks about achieving things but in a sane way. Stephen Covey's take on apathy and his philosophy on time management, is just beautiful.
The other book which I think falls in this area is Atomic Habits by James Clear. One of the modern age books, and the ideas are more or less similar to the ones shown by Stephen Covey. Not really a fan of this book, but it is again a really well planned book. It's basically a cheat code to develop any freaking habit, quickly, which is exactly what it aims for. One reason that I am not a fan of this is because it focuses more on mechanical ways to develop habits, but less on methods about infusing the desire in one's mind (which btw is the core of habit formation; which btw Cynical Books excel at; Cynical Books ftw).
Anti Self Help Books
There are tons of books focussed around getting 48 hour efficiency from a 24 hour day, but not a ton of books about realising that there are only 24 hours, no more no less.
"4000 Weeks Time by Oliver Burkeman" is written around the idea of realising human capabilities, about realising that how it is not important to always give 200% in your game. Books are these are kind of detox to what the Cynical Books teach, and are often called "Anti Self Help" in the pop culture. Many believe that stuff like this can often make one ambition-less. However, being ambition-less, is what makes a person ignorant, and an ignorant person is always a happy person. Ignorance is a bliss, isn't it? Anti Self Help is a powerful domain, and probably the only domain which teaches us to be happy, and this is what I want to read more in the next few days.
By the way, I found an interesting definition of happiness in Atomic Habits, which is "Happiness is state between one desire being fulfilled and new desire forming". This has to be one of the most powerful lines I read in the past months, and deserves a mention.
