These Books Could Change Your Life

For someone struggling with life and looking to overcome those struggles, the Stoic tradition—particularly Epictetus's 'Handbook' (Enchiridion) rather than Marcus Aurelius's 'Meditations'—offers practical teaching on how to live.

“if you're someone who is trying to make creative work maybe you're a writer maybe you want to be on YouTube maybe you want to make great music whatever it is go check out this book”

As people accumulate wealth, they tend to want more and more, and so people who earn more money still find ways to go into debt because their lifestyle continues to grow more extravagant—a hedonic treadmill effect in financial behavior.

“he goes into the fact that as we accumulate wealth we actually tend to want more and more and so people who earn more money still find ways to get into debt because their lifestyle continues to grow more and more extravagant”

Rick Rubin is a titan of the music industry who has been present during the creation of numerous great albums, yet he doesn't play any instruments and barely knows how to work a soundboard, indicating his role is not technical expertise but rather masterfully getting other people to be creative and spark inspiration.

“Rick Rubin is this Titan of the music industry he has been in the room when some of these great albums have been created it would be a much longer video if I tried to tell you about all of the influence that Rick Rubin has had on modern music but the craziest thing about Rick Rubin is that he doesn't play any instruments he barely knows how to work a soundboard”

Morgan Housel's 'The Psychology of Money' focuses not on investment tips or savings rates but on conceptualizing money and our relationships to goods and pleasures in ways that generate long-term financial stability.

“he's thinking not so much about what are the best investment tips what are the right savings rates he's saying how can we conceptualize money and actually our relationships to goods and Pleasures in a way that's going to help us be financially stable for the rest of our lives”

When evaluating founders' success, we are often contradictory: we say someone is a genius when a risky decision pays off but call another person a fool for making the same decision—a cognitive bias Housel identifies that distorts our judgment of success.

“he goes into the way that we evaluate the psychology of Founders on whether or not they succeed often we're contradictory we say that someone was a genius when the risk paid off and we say that the other guy is a fool when in fact they made the same decision”

Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, visited the Oracle of Delphi and was given advice to take on 'the complexion of the dead,' which he understood to mean that he needed to study ancient authors—and this exemplifies how studying great ideas from history is itself a Stoic practice.

“the man who founded stoicism a man named Zeno OB cium part of Zeno's story is that he visited Pia the Oracle of deli and she gave him the advice that he needed to take on the complexion of the dead and Zeno citium realized that what that meant was that he needed to study ancient authors”

The modern United States has seen a massive decline in small farming, an unrelenting embrace of technology, and a cultural love of things that are big, fast, and always changing—a trajectory that Wendell Berry fundamentally critiques by proposing slowness, staying in one place, and building community across generations.

“what we have seen is a massive decline in small farmers what we have seen is an unrelenting Embrace of tech technology what we have seen is a love of things that are big and that are fast and that are always changing”

Harold Bloom was a famous literary critic and professor at Yale who was a lover of the Western Canon, and his book 'The Western Canon' convinces readers that canonical books are beautiful, worth reading despite difficulty, and valuable as a shared cultural reference point.

“Harold Bloom was a famous literary critic and professor at Yale he was a lover of what we call the Western Canon now the Western Canon is actually what I started this channel originally to talk about uh I shifted around quite a bit in my first year on YouTube but originally I thought I would just talk about great books from the West because that's sort of my culture you know it's what I know well”

If we focus on things we cannot control instead, we will always be disappointed because we cannot control those outcomes, our desires will be frustrated, the world won't conform to them, and we'll be left unhappy.

“If instead we focus on those things which we can't control we will always be disappointed because we cannot control those outcomes so whatever it is that we want eventually our desires will be frustrated The World Won't conform to them and will'll just be left unhappy”

Many great men and women throughout history have had great ideas and written them down, and anyone who wants to become a better thinker, a better human being, or improve themselves can study these ancient authors and discover their ideas again.

“so many great men and women throughout history have had great ideas they've done us the service of writing those ideas down and what we can do if we want to become better thinkers better human beings we just want to improve ourselves or we want to expand our minds is to actually go and read those books because those those ideas are waiting to be discovered by us all over again”

Rick Rubin convinced Johnny Cash to record a cover of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt,' which became a legendary recording—a demonstration of Rubin's ability to bring out greatness in artists by creating the conditions for inspired work.

“if you've ever heard the legendary recording of the 9in nail song Hurt by Johnny Cash you can thank Rick Rubin for that recording I believe it was his idea and he was the one that convinced cash to record it”

Slavery degrades slavers and slave owners as well as enslaved people, reducing them to a bestial state where they are no longer truly human, as Douglass observed in his writings.

“he sees that the world has tried to degrade him he also sees that this horrible institution is degrading everyone who participates in it he writes of the slavers and the owners of slaves as people who have been reduced to being like beasts they're not even being human anymore either”

Throughout his life, the speaker has encountered books that changed everything, and he seeks to identify and recommend 'life-changing books'—texts that shift perspective and can potentially transform how one approaches the world.

“throughout my life there have been a couple of books that when I read them they changed everything”

Matthew Crawford has a PhD in political theory focusing on ancient philosophy from the University of Chicago, then worked at a think tank after graduation, but came to hate that life and found meaning and beauty in renting an old garage and repairing vintage motorcycles as a professional mechanic.

“in his life's trajectory he tells his biography in this story but the important thing to know is that he has a PHD in political Theory but U mostly focusing on Ancient Philosophy from the University of Chicago a fantastic institution and then he went to actually go work at a think tank after he finished his PhD and he hated it he realized that this wasn't the life he wanted to live but he found beauty and uh meaning in in renting an old garage and then repairing vintage motorcycles and he became a professional motorcycle mechanic he left his Think Tank job actually to be a motorcycle mechanic”

The Stoics, along with many ancient philosophers (Aristotle, Boethius, Plato), were thinking about happiness as their primary concern and the practices needed to achieve a satisfied life as a whole—converging on the idea that avoiding pain is preferable to pursuing pleasure.

“see the stoics like a lot of ancient writers were thinking about happiness they wanted human happiness was their concern Aristotle is like this boethus is a Roman writer who is like this Plato is even like this we are thinking about one's life as a whole”

Frederick Douglass's 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave' is eye-opening and can change one's life because it demonstrates how reading and accessing books enabled Douglass to discover his own humanity despite institutional slavery and degradation.

“my next suggestion is also a book that makes it onto my list of my top 10 favorite books of all time and it's The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas an American slave and here is why I think this book is really eye-opening and can actually really change your life”

There are common criticisms of having a literary canon—that it is elitist or exclusionary—but these criticisms can be addressed by improving and expanding what we include, while the core value of having canonical works that we all read and reference together remains: it is how culture is built together.

“yes there there are common criticisms of having a Canon like this that it is elitist or that it is exclusionary and we can always work to improve it or to make that better on what we include in the list but having a set of canonical works that we can all read and reference together is really actually how culture is built together”

Literary references in films, books, and other media often derive from canonical texts, making familiarity with the Western Canon practically useful for understanding contemporary cultural artifacts.

“what are all these literary references in this movie that I'm watching or in this other book that I'm reading the odds are that a lot of those references are actually from books that you would call canonical books or part of the western Canon so it's just really helpful to become familiar with those books”

Wendell Berry has personally returned to the place where he grew up and built something real—specifically, he still lives on that farm to this day—demonstrating the viability of the philosophy he articulates in his essays.

“Barry is actually looking at how he has returned to the place where he grew up and he's now trying to build something build something real and that ended up being you know to this day Barry lives on that farm”

If we focus only on things we can control, no one will ever restrain us or impede us, we'll blame no one, we'll have no enemy, and we become impervious to harm—because our sense of freedom and well-being depends only on our internal state, not external circumstances.

“if we're able to do that he says no one will ever restrain you or impede you you'll blame no one you'll have no enemy and that is because you have become impervious to harm”

Creativity and self-expression are fundamentally the same: it may not be possible to know who you are without expressing yourself, making creative work an essential path to self-knowledge.

“I love this this line here which is expressing oneself in the world and creativity are the same it may not be possible to know who you are without somehow expressing it”

Frederick Douglass used words and writing as tools to fight against slavery and work for abolition.

“and then he goes and uses those words as a tool to fight against slavery to fight for abolition”

American slaves were often forbidden to read, and this prohibition was deliberate because the institution of slavery benefited from keeping enslaved people ignorant.

“one of the things that happened to American slaves was that they were forbidden to read maybe not exclusively some slaves could read but many could not and it was because the institution of slavery benefited from them being kept ignorant”

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is primarily a journal in which Marcus speaks to himself, whereas Epictetus's Handbook employs a didactic mode in which Epictetus actively teaches stoic philosophy.

“the meditations by Marcus aelis is mostly a journal so it's Marcus speaking to himself and we benefit from reading his conversation with himself in his journal I've benefited from it immensely but in the handbook we actually have more of a dactic mode epic tetus is saying let me teach you how to live based on stoic philosophy”

At the very beginning of Epictetus's Handbook, the central concept of the 'dichotomy of control' is established: there are two things in the world—things we can control and things we cannot—and we must turn our attention only to those things which we can control.

“at the very beginning of this text we find what's often called the dichotomy of control which is a central concept when people are trying to explain stoicism essentially epic says that there are two things in the world things we can control and things we cannot and we need to turn our attention only to those things which we can control”