What changed your life?

[Mouthwash]

Please share something that changed your life. It might be a book, a YouTube video, a social tip, or philosophy course, as long as you believe to the bottom of your soul that every human being should not be without it.

I'll recommend Permutation City, which is almost certainly the best work of science fiction ever written. This book spawned the concept of event symmetry. There is no such thing as putting it down and saying "but he didn't go far enough with the idea." Egan didn't just take hard sci-fi concepts and create an interesting or contemplative scenario from them, he uses them to shatter your entire conception of reality and bashes you over the head with everything that you thought was true. There are no words to appreciate it. Even the peripheral aspects of this book are mind-expanding; you just have to get used to different degrees of amazement as you read. Unless you're simultaneously a quantum physicist, an evolutionary biologist, a philosopher specializing in metaphysics, and a computer scientist, your life will be changed by Permutation City.

(You should familiarize yourself with Conway's game of life, first. It'll help you grasp some of the concepts.)

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, at first i thought this would be a thread asking posters to mention their own life-changing occurrences, not having to be something they deem others would definitely need or stand to gain an equal lot from

So i will try to answer both, although the latter is not as characteristic of my mindset.

1) Reading literature in the final year of highschool had a very clear effect on my future, since up to one specific night i had no prior intention to apply for a uni degree in Literature. Following that night and the reading of a number of short stories, i wrote my first short story, finishing it at 3 hours, by 6 AM that morning. Later on i started reading philosophy books as well, so in the end my university future was centered on courses of that order.

2) I think the most general answer would be to become familiar with the world of art. From anyone's perspective it can offer an environment for examining thoughts and images which usually are not there directly in the more mundane day to day life.

 

[Mouthwash]

Anything in particular?

 

[Kyriakos]

I can mention my own favorites, i just am not really sure they would produce an analogous effect on others.

At any rate: pretty much everything by Franz Kafka, most of De Maupassant's work, the early (up to late 40s i guess) work of Borges

 

[IAM]

Being Betrayed.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I'm not sure how to feel about people who get their entire world view swayed by a single book or other piece of media. Seems like the sort of thing a marketer would promote. I'd say make sure it actually is accurate before investing too much into it.

 

[AdamCrock]

"Róża" movie ..... in english it is "Rosa" ...

Spoiler :

some spoilers : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPfDoX8c3xk

 

[Kozmos]

I'd recommend almost dying at least once a year just so you can feel things have some kind of importance.

 

[downtown]

The events that have dramatically changed my life are generally not things that I would recommend to others.

If you somebody who was raised in relative privilege though, I think it is critical to spend a fairly significant amount of time really working with people who are not (like, multiple months). My time spent as a missionary, and later, inner-city school teacher, have framed the way I look at the world more than any college course, or post-teaching job, I've ever had.

 

[AdamCrock]

I'd recommend almost dying at least once a year just so you can feel things have some kind of importance.

Almost dying ? What do You mean ?

 

[BenitoChavez]

The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. It wasn't really life altering, but at the time I read it, it introduced to me to ideas I hadn't really given much thought before. It basically explains why Eurasian civilizations have historically been more powerful than other civs. It essentially revolves around geological and ecological advantages rather than Eurasians having some sort of inherent superiority.

 

[AdamCrock]

Personally I think it was warfare and strife but I will look into it ! Thx Benito Chavez.

 

[schlaufuchs]

The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. It wasn't really life altering, but at the time I read it, it introduced to me to ideas I hadn't really given much thought before. It basically explains why Eurasian civilizations have historically been more powerful than other civs. It essentially revolves around geological and ecological advantages rather than Eurasians having some sort of inherent superiority.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I'll recommend Permutation City, which is almost certainly the best work of science fiction ever written.

Hah I actually read that book and even bothered to write a critic at Amazon (though not the English version).
I cease this opportunity to repost it here.

This book is abysmally poor. That was my thought while line after line Maria worked with the auto universe for the first time. The passage could not have been exceeded in lacking narration skill and boredom. Even though the book knows a few of such moments that one was the worst for me. When I had read about half of the book I only continued out of poor spite as I finish every book I once started out of principle. At this time one thing seemed certain: I would definitely not rate this book as one of the best ones I have read.
And yet that is what I did.

Permutation is a steeplechase. The hurdles are confusing changes of the point of view, endless discombobulated lines of thought and detailed descriptions of things about one doesn't really want to know. And so are the warnings of other commentators more than justified.

However, what all of them unites is that they didn't finish the book. A big mistake. Because if one keeps at it in spite of all the torture, if in spite of the growing disinterests one continues to follow the ideas presented and to try to understand what one reads, saying if one overcomes the hurdles one will find oneself having read a very valuable novel. A novel which will make the tedious explanations in the beginning seem logical, yes even necessary, without such a great piece of work would not have been possible.

It is true, on the way I wanted to discard the book, let it catch dust and have it forgotten, but after the last line I was full of amazement.

I have to wonder how it changed your life though?

The book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

I believe in the history section of this forum there is a thread solely dedicated to mocking the book. Just saying

 

[warpus]

I don't think everyone needs to do this at all, but one event that had a lot of impact on my life was my trip to southern Patagonia in 2008. A friend randomly asked me one day if I wanted to go on a trip to Chile with her. I had just bought a house and had some money left over and a bunch of vacation time and I'm always open to trying new things.. so I said let's go!

She explained that it would involve a 5 day long hike, and I did some research, so I sort of knew what I was signing up for.. but I didn't know what I was signing up for.. At the time I'd never been on a trip like that. I was used to moving to different countries and having to adapt to the local culture, but never flying to a far away foreign place to explore and have some sort of an experience. Hiking was not something I did frequently or even at all either and this was a journey to a fairly remote place - the southern tip of the Americas. It was definitely more intense than I imagined it might be beforehand. It changed my life because it made me want to explore other beautiful places around the world.

We went to this place - Torres Del Paine National Park.

Spoiler :

I didn't take this picture, but it's a good one of the centrepiece mountain range that we were hiking around - the Cordillera del Paine.

There were three defining aspects of the hike that significantly contributed to it becoming a life changing event. The first one is always seeing the Cordillera del paine mountain range on the right. There was always stunning scenery.

The sidetrip on day 1 of the hike to a lookout point that was the highlight of the park was intense, because it took over 6 hours there and almost 5 back. It was a real challenge - I was not ready for it. It was all uphill and got steeper and steeper as we went. The last hour was a part you had to climb uphill over rocks and boulders.

Spoiler :

It was a crazy climb but when we made it it was totally worth it.

Spoiler :

But it also sort of destroyed a lot of energy we had going into the hike. The next 4 days of hiking weren't as intense, but by the end of it all we were BEAT. And the most amazing thing is that at the end of the hike you get to this beautiful glacier and get to camp right beside it. Here it is still a couple hours away.

Spoiler :

After the hike we went to the southermost city in the world and did some hiking there. It was definitely a lifechanging trip. It didn't make me a better person or anything, and it wasn't earthshattering in its implications, but it did make me want to travel to far away unique places and to throw myself into more things that I've never done before. And I've definitely been doing a lot of that since, my life would be a lot different if the trip to Patagonia didn't happen.

 

[BenitoChavez]

I believe in the history section of this forum there is a thread solely dedicated to mocking the book. Just saying

Interesting. I took a quick glance through the forum and couldn't find it. It does help explain Owen Glyndwr's post though.

 

[Mouthwash]

I have to wonder how it changed your life though?

I don't think you really understood the core concepts of the book. Yes, Egan concentrates on science more than story, but not being written well? I assume the German translation just isn't very good.

As to how it changed my life; everything is different. The universe is no longer impossibly bigger than I am.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I can't argue with you now weather I understood them because it has been such a long time when I read it. But I am puzzled what style has to do with its core concepts.
Though also keep in mind that I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked it up. I expected an ordinary sci-fi novel.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Deciding to walk away from the Christian sect I was raised in (Oneness/Holiness/Apostolic Pentecostalism). Going to a forum for ex-pentecostals introduced me to freethought, and by a related accident (meeting another ex-pente who linked me to a Christian apologist), to philosophy in general. I began thinking more deeply about my own biases and assumptions, becoming more mindfully aware. Eventually I discovered Stoicism, which would lead to my interest in virtue and the force of character. Philosophy, and the reasoned life, have been with me since 2006, from my start as a we-can-figure-everything-out-and-fix-it rationalist progressive, to a much more cautious moderate with a strong respect for intellectually-based conservatism.

 

[Mouthwash]

I can't argue with you now weather I understood them because it has been such a long time when I read it. But I am puzzled what style has to do with its core concepts.

I think they might have not been properly presented. How can you read it and not be amazed? Do you understand how Durham survived being "paused" in the middle of the book?