Reddit Reddit reviews Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness

We found 23 Reddit comments about Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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23 Reddit comments about Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness:

u/SmegmataTheFirst · 16 pointsr/psychology

There's quite a bit of evidence that intellect is a very malleable factor, and does not necessarily remain stable over time. In other words- it's entirely possible that a person can raise their IQ (not that I think IQ is a comprehensive measure of intellect to begin with.)

There's also quite a bit of evidence that a person's intellect is more an accumulated product of their ability to focus their attention and filter out distracting thoughts, than it is some kind of "bigger brain" or "faster recall" phenomenon.

It works like this: your attention (working memory capacity) is one limiting factor on how much of the information you've been exposed to is encoded into secondary memory (long-term memory). "A bigger garden hose fills a pool faster" would be a good analogy.

That being said, it appears there is very little variation in people's actual working memory capacities - but people who are "intelligent" are better able to focus on items and thoughts they wish to attend to. It is currently thought that this relationship between attentional filtering and intelligence is not just a correlation, but a causal one.

In other words: We think filtering extraneous thoughts and information so you are better able to focus on the operation (whatever it is you're trying to do) at hand is a primary driving factor in a person's intellect.

Further, other studies have shown that with deliberate practice, you can learn to enhance your ability to "focus" on information at hand. The implication is that you can improve your intelligence in broad strokes.

This is all undergraduate stuff at my University, and being an undergraduate I don't have the exact papers on hand to give you references, and don't happen to know a procedure for going about improving your attentional filter, but I know the information is out there.

So, if you don't want to accept what you feel is an unsatisfactory current level of intelligence - I don't think you have to.

tl;dr: Intelligence is malleable, and can be improved quite a lot with deliberate effort!
_

Leaving that, though, I also think that everyone has to cope with this problem on some level - there's always somebody smarter than you. Don't feel alienated or alone about this; know we're all in the same boat with you. Nobody is as smart as they wish they were.

You're probably smarter than you realize, and in fact the perception of weakness in one area will actually decrease your performance in that area - even if no weakness exists.

Also - if you're just not interested in something, you won't be able to focus your attention on it, anyhow. It could be that academics just isn't your cup of tea! That by no means means you're less intelligent than your classmates that are getting As. It just means you haven't discovered your interests yet. It happens, even to people who are actively looking for their intellectual calling. You'll find it.

Academics is just one expression of intellect - there's lots of others: music, art, interpersonal skills, oratory, crafts and trades. If there is something that interests you, and you're still young enough/in a place where you can afford to experiment, you should do it! There is no reason not to pursue happiness.

tl;dr: Just because you're not good at academics doesn't mean you're not very good at something else, equally as difficult and rewarding
___

And lastly, as a personal anecdote: I performed abysmally in college when I first went there. I could not focus on studying, information would just go in one ear and out the other, I took no interest in the courses I was taking, and I utterly flunked out. Twice.

I joined the military, crushed, because I thought I was an Einstein, Jr., like most other people seem to do. Ten years later, I went back to college and found I was just an intellectual late-bloomer. I have no idea what happened to me, but I vastly improved in my academic ability. Now I'm one year from graduating, improved my GPA from 0.9 to 3.4, and have good prospects on going to grad school. I think there's always hope - maybe your brain just wasn't mature enough before.

But if you really feel that you can't better your station in life, I would recommend reading On Living, by Epictetus. It's an absolutely brilliant book, written almost two thousand years ago, and it's purpose is to help people find happiness and come to grips with life, following the principle "Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not."

tl;dr: Sometimes we're just dumb when we're young, and age/experience fixes it. And some things are beyond our control, we can still seek ways to be happy - with effort.

Very long winded answer- but I hope I can be of some help.

u/113CandleMagic · 15 pointsr/Stoicism

When I was in high school, I was close with one of my teachers. When I graduated, she gave me this book with a nice message written inside the front cover.

I didn't touch it for about 2-3 years, but once I did, it changed my life.

u/FinnianWhitefir · 8 pointsr/Stoicism

I thought The Obstacle Is the Way was a really good easy-to-read intro to Stoicism and I give it to people I know.

http://www.amazon.com/Obstacle-Way-Timeless-Turning-Triumph/dp/1591846358/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459132787&sr=8-1&keywords=obstacle+is+the+way

I got started with this version of The Art of Living and thought it was super clear and really easy to read. Everything else I've tried has been very hard, like you said.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Classical-Happiness-Effectiveness/dp/0061286052/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1459132869&sr=8-2&keywords=the+art+of+living

u/illegalUturn · 6 pointsr/Stoicism

Off the top of my head, here are a couple of fantastic Stoic books by female authors:

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Classical-Happiness-Effectiveness/dp/0061286052 - very easy, great read

https://www.amazon.com/Stoicism-Emotion-Margaret-Graver/dp/0226305589 - very in depth but the best discussion of the subject that I've read

u/sigma932 · 4 pointsr/ADHD

I know how you feel. Been working on this myself a lot recently, exercise has been a great boon, stick with it a few weeks and you start to see the results and it feels good every time you catch yourself in a reflection. Seeing the progress on a consistent basis gives me that motivation to keep going with it.

I've also been trying to consciously monitor my thoughts, to try to catch them as they slip to the negative and force myself to a different topic before I start the downward spiral.

As weird as it sounds, Tea has been a big help for me as well. A cup or two of Green Tea in the morning and something soothing and non-caffeinated after work or before bed. I think it's the ritual or the schedule as much as the Tea itself, it kind of gives me checkpoints in the day or something. I don't know why it feels like it helps, but it really does.

I've also started looking into reading material to help me understand the way my ADHD affects my thoughts. Knowing that I have a predisposition to act the way I do makes me feel more in control of it, like it's something I can learn to overcome with effort. Right now I'm reading [The Art of Living] (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Classical-Happiness-Effectiveness/dp/0061286052) because I'd seen it recommended in some articles I've been reading about ADHD and it's been helpful in keeping me from letting myself go to dark places.

Music has been a fantastic help as well, just having headphones on and music playing occupies enough of my brain to keep it from wandering unchecked. I usually go with stuff I already know and either sing along out loud (or in my head if people are around) or whistle.

What it really seems to be is to not give myself a lot of downtime, if I sit still or just piss away time for long enough, my thoughts eventually wander in a bad direction and that's when I start to fall apart. Having a list of things I can go to and say "I'm not doing anything, but I could x,y or z" then picking one and doing it, even for 5 minutes, seems to help immensely.

u/napjerks · 4 pointsr/Anger

The breathing and walking is a healthy distraction. The problem with these videos is they don't bother to explain how/why it works.

When you're annoyed, frustrated, irritated for a long time and aren't able to relieve it, that starts to build up. When it builds up your temper starts to flare up quicker. That leads to anger outbursts. The anger is an attempt to deal with it. It's the fight or flight response. In this case fight.

When anger flares up that's the amygdala in the brain causing chemicals to flood your body. Normally, like after a close call while driving, you're able to calm down between five and twenty minutes. That's the amount of time it takes the chemicals to finish washing through your body and disappear.

So in your normal everyday state, your rational mind is available. You can "think" and make rational decisions. When you get that jolt of anger, your rational thinking mind is temporarily overtaken by the anger. It's unavailable because the adrenaline and anger has taken over. When we scream at another car and flip people off without being able to stop ourselves, that's the influence of anger. Ten or twenty minutes later when we have cooled off and feel a little bit embarrassed for cursing and making hand gestures, that's our rational mind back online evaluating what just happened.

If we're not able to cool down, if our anger lasts hours or days and weeks, that's pent up anger that has become a habit. Habitual anger is what takes a toll on our heart and stomach and head in the form of headaches, stomach aches and ulcers, blind rage, etc.

So we want to work on lessening our daily charge of anger that's always with us. That's what exercising three or four times a week is for. Hiking in nature, anything you can think of that lest you decompress is good too. (Except gaming! Gamings is the latest, newest problem area for anger management.)

And we want to work on prevention. The second you start to feel frustrated and possibly getting angry, disengage. That's what pausing the conversation, breathing, getting a glass of water, going to a different room, etc. is actually for. Intercepting ourselves to dislocate the habitual anger response.

There are online classes (I'd recommend the 8 hour one). Books like Rage or the Anger Workbook for Men. You can grab a pen and get a notebook to keep a journal of what is happening. Write down what techniques you think would be good for you. And write down specific incidents that you've been concerned about and use what you learn to reflect on them. How could I prevent this from happening again? What steps could I take to intervene with myself so I don't get so mad and can control my reaction without popping a blood vessel...

If you'd like to pursue philosophical means of dealing with strong negative emotions there are a ton of articles online such as how to apply Stoicism, etc. Stoicism isn't to be confused with the stereotype of not feeling emotions. Real Stoicism is about truly listening to yourself and understanding your variety of emotions in relation to your personal values so you can make the best decisions even in turbulent moments. There are books like The Art of Living which is mostly Epictetus. Others include the teachings of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.

Hope some of this helps! Hang in there.

u/secret626 · 3 pointsr/MGTOW
u/cleomedes · 3 pointsr/Stoicism

I would recommend Lebell's The Art of Living. It's based on Epictetus's Enchiridion, but rather than being a translation, it's somewhere between a paraphrase and complete rewrite into clear modern English. The "chapters" are a page each at most, and independent of each other, and so you can browse it and just read a page at a time.

Because it is based on a book that is sometimes cryptic or ambiguous, there is inherently some interpretation by Lebell. However, I think her interpretation is much more accurate than that of Irvine, and I think her presentation should be even easier to understand.

u/angry-universalist · 2 pointsr/philosophy

Purists probably hate it, but Lebell's translation of Epictetus' Manual is my favorite philosophy book. (Epictetus is one of the main Stoics.)

u/Divided_Pi · 2 pointsr/atheism
  1. don't stress, your parents are being cool
  2. no one has all the answers if they claim they do they're full of shit
  3. you have to find your own path and belief system.

    Some people might say you can live without some belief, some life philosophy, I don't know if I agree with that. As the great Omar Little said "A man gots to have a code"

    Personally, I've read some western philosophy to help shape my view. I really liked "The Art of Living" - Epictetus

    Now I'm reading some Nietzsche, next I'll read something else. Man has struggled with this void since they stood upright. Clearly no one has found a singularly satisfying answer.


    One thing I've been thinking about the last few days from Nietzsche. (Paraphrased) "if you had to live this life again, in the same order the same way for all of eternity, would you rejoice?"

    Basically, do you enjoy your life enough to want to do the same thing forever and ever, all the pain and sorrow, all the joy and laughter, would you rejoice at that chance?

    I don't know the answer but it makes me think


    Good luck, and don't worry
u/crawly_the_demon · 2 pointsr/neoliberal

when I was at one of the lowest points in my life, one of my friends gave me The Art of Living by Epictetus, who was a Greek slave who lived in Rome. It brought me a lot of peace and perspective.

u/globi227 · 2 pointsr/howtonotgiveafuck

I am reading Epictetus' Enchiridion right now and I suggest buying it. $2 on Amazon.

Enchiridion: http://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Dover-Thrift-Editions-Epictetus/dp/0486433595

Art of Living: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Classical-Happiness-Effectiveness/dp/0061286052

That AoL book doesn't have the most amazing reviews, but I think it is the only version. Does anyone know of another/better version?

u/thatgamerguy · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Warning: Tough Love Imminent

Listen, what the fuck are you complaining about? You have no obligation of debt, more in savings than some people make in a year, a car, shelter, and absolute freedom. You need to look around the world and realize how many people would KILL to have even some of what you have. I'm not gonna try the whole "Your family would be sad and miss you" thing because fuck them, your life is ultimately for you. It doesn't matter how terrible they'd feel if you offed yourself because it's really your decision. The only thing that matters is that you need to find some motivation for living. Don't think that all your friends have this magic source of motivation that you don't have access to. Motivation comes from within, go find some.

If you have all this free time that you're currently using to think sad thoughts, try reading this: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Classical-Happiness-Effectiveness/dp/0061286052

It will help.

u/eight-sided · 1 pointr/AskWomen

Agreed, though I can't help finding Marcus Aurelius a bit of a prig. I like this interpretation of Epictetus:

Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061286052/

u/runeaway · 1 pointr/Stoicism

I've heard of this edition before. I understand that it's a modern, much looser translation of the Enchiridion, but everything I've heard about it has been positive. I didn't know the Kindle version was available for free - very cool, thanks!

Edit: Downloading it and looking it over, I realize that I confused the "Good Life Handbook" with "Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness". That is the translation of the Enchiridion that is much looser that I had heard about previously (and unlike the Good Life Handbook, is not free on Kindle). Still, thanks for making us aware of this edition.

u/modenpwning · 1 pointr/askphilosophy

I second Epircurus. He also wrote The Art of Living, which I believe if implemented properly could produce happiness.

u/TangPauMC · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

The Art of Living by: Epictetus this translation is the best:

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Living-Classical-Happiness-Effectiveness/dp/0061286052/

Also I think maybe even more wise and practical is The Tao of Pooh by: Benjamin Hoff

u/123legome · 1 pointr/Frugal
u/goyablack · 0 pointsr/AskReddit

Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness

-Epictetus

http://amzn.com/0061286052

u/Lunatickled · 0 pointsr/AskReddit

I'm in a similar position. Good news, you can definitely change. Keep in mind that you're only 21 too! The older you get, the more self control and awareness you can develop, especially if you start making the right choices now.

You've demonstrated the most important factor. Which is that you give enough of a damn to write this post in the first place! Seriously. You have motivation, just terrible habits. The solution is to understand what a meaningful and virtuous life means to you and then to apply yourself with HARD WORK and PERSISTENCE to live your philosophical ideals. It takes a lot of work in this day 'n age and culture to go against the mediocre crowd. Here's a life changing book that I've read about three times since buying it a week ago that I can't recommend enough. It's by a greek western philosopher from the times of the Roman empire. His name is Epictetus and he is a stoic philosopher. This book isn't overly dense. It goes over the basics of what must be done in order to live a virtuous, happy, and effective life. And the modern interpretation is wonderful. Check it out! You won't be sorry. Epictetus - The Art of Living.