101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

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There is also an extreme level of repetition in subject matter. Some of these essays could very easily be viewed as exactly the same, just paraphrased different. Some key points: The fastest way to sound unintelligent is to say, This idea is wrong. (That idea may be wrong for you, but it exists because it is right to someone else.) Intelligent people say, I don’t personally understand this idea or agree with it. To speak definitively about any one person or idea is to be blind to the multitude of perspectives that exist on it. It is the definition of closed-minded and short-sightedness. In this essay, the major take home is how disparate generations have multiple differing and often conflicting ideologies about their personal search for 'truth' versus the consensus monocultures wherein subjectively identified insights can become hypocritical and difficult or taboo, to objectively accept an idea/belief or faith as the "Truth" if it doesn't register as part of your cultural heritage so in essence not your personal subjective. It seems people believe the most intelligent thing to do is not have emotions at all. To be effective is to be a machine, a product of the age. A well-oiled, consumerist-serving, digitally attuned, highly unaware but overtly operational robot. And so we suffer.

Have you ever felt joy for more than a few minutes? What about anger? No? How about tension, depression, and sadness? Those have lasted longer, haven't they? Weeks and months and years at a time, right?

Sometimes the book provided sources used to influence the author’s essays. Sometimes scholarly references were in footnotes. There were several features of the book, as published in Kindle format, that disappointed this reviewer. In terms of formatting, when highlighting sections to be extracted (as allowed by the publisher), the numbers were somehow embedded in the format and were NOT highlighted for extraction. These are the same people who have communicated to us some of the longest-standing conventional wisdom: that to believe is to become, that the mind is to be mastered, that the obstacle is the way ². Often, our most intense discomfort is what precedes and necessitates thinking in a way we have never conceived of before. That new awareness creates possibilities that would never exist had we not been forced to learn something new. Why did our ancestors develop agriculture, society, medicine, and the like? To survive. The elements of our world were once just solutions to fears.

I found myself dreading going to this book. When I did read it, I would get annoyed or just fall asleep.Because we are programmed to believe that success is somewhere we arrive, when goals are achieved and things are completed… Achieving goals is not success. How much you expand in the process is…. You think that “problems” are obstacles to achieving what you want, when in reality they are paths… Simply encountering a “problem” forces you to take action to solve it.”

Your brain can only perceive what it’s known, so when you choose what you want for the future, you’re actually just recreating a solution or an ideal of the past. When things don’t work out the way you want them to, you think you’ve failed only because you didn’t re-create something you perceived as desirable. In reality, you likely created something better, but foreign, and your brain misinterpreted it as “bad” because of that. (Moral of the story: Living in the moment isn’t a lofty ideal reserved for the Zen and enlightened; it’s the only way to live a life that isn’t infiltrated with illusions. It’s the only thing your brain can actually comprehend." 2. The PSYCHOLOGY of DAILY ROUTINE Your brain can only perceive what it’s known, so when you choose what you want for the future, you’re actually just recreating a solution or an ideal of the past. When things don’t work out the way you want them to, you think you’ve failed only because you didn’t re-create something you perceived as desirable. In reality, you likely created something better, but foreign, and your brain misinterpreted it as bad because of that. (Moral of the story: Living in the moment isn’t a lofty ideal reserved for the Zen and enlightened; it’s the only way to live a life that isn’t infiltrated with illusions. It’s the only thing your brain can actuallycomprehend.)Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. 2008. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Some of the most difficult people to be in relationships with are those who are so threatened by even the slightest suggestion that their behavior is hurtful that they actually end up getting angry at the person suggesting it, reinforcing the problem altogether. Socially intelligent people listen to criticism before they respond to it—an immediate emotional response without thoughtful consideration is justdefensiveness. You think that to change your beliefs, you have to adopt a new line of thinking, rather than seek experiences that make that thinking self-evident. All of the essays were short and some of them were excellent and “spot-on”. Other essays seemed as if they were more appropriate for a self-help therapy session book that may or may not apply to the reader. Some of the essays were fascinating and some were a struggle to finish reading. One of the 101 essays is entitled: “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think”, that is, the exact same title as the book, which rather begs the question of what is added by the other 100 essays. Here are some good summary quotes on the 'nutshell' of this essay here: "The objectivity required to see the effects of present monoculture is very difficult to develop. Once you have so deeply accepted an idea as “truth” it doesn’t register as “cultural” or “subjective” anymore."