Reddit mentions: The best biographies

Congratulations on being wise enough with your money at such a young age to do your research and ask questions. That's exactly what you should continue doing, as it will pay off in the long run far more than any single investment you can make right now.

Along those lines I would invest a small amount of that money in some basic books about money that will help you develop a fundamental philosophy about your relationship with money and building wealth. Ebook, blogs and apps all have their benefits, but you really should have a basic financial library of physical books you can have on hand.

Your Money or Your Life:
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143115762

The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926%5D(https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118921283/

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/

That short list is in no way complete, but will get you started.

As far as websites/blogs/free reads here's a few to consider:

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page

https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com/book-summary/

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/blog/

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/

It's great that you have a nice little lump sum of money to invest right now, but the key to building wealth generally won't involve lump sums every now and then and finding places to put them. The key is to discipline yourself to set aside portions of any amount money that comes in and have an automatic system to invest it and let it grow without touching it.

Have a plan for every paycheck, bonus, tax refund, inheritance, bank heist money :) you come into to have a portion funneled into your investments before you're tempted to find other, unlimited, things to do with it.

This is the greatest book probably ever written on that concept:

http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf

Having a goal, a plan for getting there, and the discipline to actually execute it will make you wealthy. Wealth gives you choices, freedom, and opportunity, and the earlier you start building it, the easier it will be to have these things. If you don't appreciate how important those are to living a good life, I guarantee you will in the years ahead.

At some point you will hear the name Warren Buffett (if you haven't already). He's the single greatest investor who's ever lived and my personal favorite. Once you have the basics down, and you might have further interest in investing I would recommend studying him. Even though there are countless books and websites devoted to him, he's already left us nearly everything you need to know about investing right there on his simple company website in the form of his annual letters--basically a free master class on investing, written by a genious who also happens to have great wit:

http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

In a much broader sense beyond investing, there is a book more than a hundred years old that discusses getting to wealth in a very interesting and powerful way. I've used it as inspiration from a standpoint as a business person, but I think it's worth studying seriously for anyone trying to build wealth.

I believe you can still get a free copy here:

http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html

If you don't want to subscribe, just Google "The Science of Getting Rich".

And here's a good audio version as well:

https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich

No matter what philosophy and path you take, I always include another personal recommendation to set aside a small portion of your portfolio into something "alternative" that interests you and might have the potential to build or at least preserve wealth. For me it's basically precious metals, and more specifically collectible silver and gold coins. I've also collected old paper money, stamps, stock certificates, rare books, and music and movie memorabilia all to a lesser degree. Keeps things interesting, and sometimes you can do pretty well with experience and a little luck.

And best of luck to you!


*Edit: Sp+fixed links, and here's my best TLDL:


Buy physical copies of some basic wealth building books. Consider :

Your Money or Your Life: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143115762

The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1533667926/

The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118921283/

Read "The Richest Man in Babylon" and follow the concept of always paying yourself first:

http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf

Warren Buffett is an investing God. If/when you're ready to learn more, just start here:
http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

Read and/or listen to "The Science of Getting Rich":

http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html

https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich

Diversify a small portion of your wealth with physical assets you can hold and that might have a lifelong interest to you. A quick recommendation would be to start with 5% of your portfolio in precious metals, perhaps a small variety of silver bullion coins and bars. (I'd be happy to give you specific suggestions on these if wanted).

First, if you really want to know. Read a book on Sirah (biography).

My favourite.

I have not read this one but it's getting a good reception.


Anyways, some hadith. This is only a small portion. Note, I got many of these from reading Abu Amin Elias's blog, so I relied on his translation. These are Sahih.

>Sa’d ibn Hisham reported: Ammar said, “O mother of the believers, tell me about the character of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” Aisha said:

> أَلَسْتَ تَقْرَأُ الْقُرْآنَ فَإِنَّ خُلُقَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ كَانَ الْقُرْآنَ

> Have you not read the Quran? Verily, the character of the Messenger of Allah was the Quran.

>Source: Sunan Abu Dawud 1342

.

>Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

>لَا تَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّى تَحَابُّوا أَوَلَا أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِذَا فَعَلْتُمُوهُ تَحَابَبْتُمْ أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ

>You will not enter Paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love each other. Shall I show you something that, if you did, you would love each other? Spread peace between yourselves.

>Source: Sahih Muslim 54

.

>Anas ibn Malik reported:

> مَا رَأَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ رُفِعَ إِلَيْهِ شَيْءٌ فِيهِ قِصَاصٌ إِلَّا أَمَرَ فِيهِ بِالْعَفْوِ

>I never saw a case involving legal retaliation being referred to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, except that he would command pardoning the criminal.

>Source: Sunan Abu Dawud 4497

.

>Aisha reported:

> مَا ضَرَبَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ خَادِمًا لَهُ وَلَا امْرَأَةً وَلَا ضَرَبَ بِيَدِهِ شَيْئًا

>The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not strike a servant or a woman, and he never struck anything with his hand.

>Source: Sahih Muslim 2328

.

>Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> مَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ أَغْيَرُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ حَرَّمَ الْفَوَاحِشَ

>None has more self-respect than Allah, so He has made obscenities unlawful.

> Source: Sahih Bukhari 4847

.

> Abdullah ibn Umar reported: A man asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, “Which Islam is best?” The Prophet said:

> تُطْعِمُ الطَّعَامَ وَتَقْرَأُ السَّلاَمَ عَلَى مَنْ عَرَفْتَ وَمَنْ لَمْ تَعْرِفْ

> To feed the hungry and to greet with peace those you know and those you do not know.

> Source: Sahih Bukhari 28

.

>As reported by Anas ibn Malik:


> أَنَّ يَهُودِيَّةً أَتَتْ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ بِشَاةٍ مَسْمُومَةٍ فَأَكَلَ مِنْهَا فَجِيءَ بِهَا فَقِيلَ أَلَا نَقْتُلُهَا قَالَ لَا فَمَا زِلْتُ أَعْرِفُهَا فِي لَهَوَاتِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

> A Jewish woman came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with a poisoned sheep and he ate from it. She was brought to him and it was said: Should we kill her? The Prophet said no. I continued to see the effects of the poison upon the Messenger of Allah.

> Source: Sahih Muslim 2190


.

> Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> لَا يَنْبَغِي لِصِدِّيقٍ أَنْ يَكُونَ لَعَّانًا

>It is not befitting the truthful that they curse others.

>Source: Sahih Muslim 2597

.

>Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, reports:

> خَدَمْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَشْرَ سِنِينَ وَاللَّهِ مَا قَالَ لِي أُفًّا قَطُّ وَلاَ قَالَ لِي لِشَىْءٍ لِمَ فَعَلْتَ كَذَا وَهَلاَّ فَعَلْتَ كَذَا

>I served the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for ten years. By Allah, he never even said to me: Uff! He never said harshly for anything: Why did you do that? Why did you not do that?

>Source: Sahih Bukhari 5691

.

>Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> لَيْسَ الْمُؤْمِنُ بِالطَّعَّانِ وَلَا اللَّعَّانِ وَلَا الْفَاحِشِ وَلَا الْبَذِيءِ

> The believer does not taunt others, he does not curse others, he does not use profanity, and he does not abuse others.

> Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 1977

.

>Aisha reported:

> لَمْ يَكُنْ فَاحِشًا وَلَا مُتَفَحِّشًا وَلَا صَخَّابًا فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ وَلَا يَجْزِي بِالسَّيِّئَةِ السَّيِّئَةَ وَلَكِنْ يَعْفُو وَيَصْفَحُ

>The Prophet was not indecent, he was not obscene, he would not shout in the markets, and he would not respond to an evil deed with an evil deed, but rather he would pardon and overlook.

>Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2016

.

>يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَلَا إِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ وَاحِدٌ وَإِنَّ أَبَاكُمْ وَاحِدٌ أَلَا لَا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلَى أَعْجَمِيٍّ وَلَا لِعَجَمِيٍّ عَلَى عَرَبِيٍّ وَلَا لِأَحْمَرَ عَلَى أَسْوَدَ وَلَا أَسْوَدَ عَلَى أَحْمَرَ إِلَّا بِالتَّقْوَى أَبَلَّغْتُ

>O people, your Lord is one and your father Adam is one. There is no virtue of an Arab over a foreigner nor a foreigner over an Arab, and neither white skin over black skin nor black skin over white skin, except by righteousness. Have I not delivered the message?

>Source: Musnad Ahmad 22978

.

>Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was told, “O Messenger of Allah, pray against the idolaters!” The Prophet said:

> إِنِّي لَمْ أُبْعَثْ لَعَّانًا وَإِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ رَحْمَةً

> Verily, I was not sent to invoke curses, but rather I was only sent as mercy.

> Source: Sahih Muslim 2599

.


>Abu Ad-Darda reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> أَلَا أُخْبِرُكُمْ بِأَفْضَلَ مِنْ دَرَجَةِ الصِّيَامِ وَالصَّلَاةِ وَالصَّدَقَةِ

> Shall I not tell you about what is more virtuous in degree than fasting, prayer, and charity?

>They said, Of course!” The Prophet said:

> صَلَاحُ ذَاتِ الْبَيْنِ فَإِنَّ فَسَادَ ذَاتِ الْبَيْنِ هِيَ الْحَالِقَةُ

>It is reconciliation between people. Verily, corrupted relations between people are the razor.

>Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2509,

.

>Ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> إِنَّ عَبْدًا مِنْ عِبَادِ اللَّهِ بَعَثَهُ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ إِلَى قَوْمِهِ فَكَذَّبُوهُ وَشَجُّوهُ فَجَعَلَ يَمْسَحُ الدَّمَ عَنْ جَبِينِهِ وَيَقُولُ رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

> Verily, a servant of Allah was sent to his people and they denied him, rejected him, and made blood spill from his forehead and he said: O Lord, forgive my people for they do not know.

> Source: Musnad Ahmad 4047

These are sahih.

>What about when he was criticized, or when Islam was criticized, how did he react to or deal with the criticism?

Note: "Mudhammam" is a kind of insulting pun. Change on letter in Muhammad for Mudhammam. Muhammad means "one who is beloved" and Mudhammam is the opposite.

>Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Doesn't it astonish you how Allah protects me from the Quraish's abusing and cursing? They abuse Mudhammam and curse Mudhammam while I am Muhammad (and not Mudhammam). [Bukhari]

.
>non-muslim friends

Does Rabbi Mukhayriq count? He had a great relationship with Abu Talib as well but he was family.

Also watch this lecture on Mut`im b. Adi.

I think it's worth restarting your reward loop by taking small steps.

I'm not sure what your situation is, but most people I've met who "lack drive" have trained themselves to dislike doing hard work and have gotten used to low-effort dopamine hits (here goes hand wavy psychology!). So fundamentally, you have to think about routines, habits, and projects that will help your brain appreciate doing hard work again, putting in the extra work / grit, and persevering and delaying when you feel that dopamine.

It may be worth focusing on setting some reasonable personal goals and creating / iterating on routines to help you meet those goals. These goals should be attainable but require effort.

Look around and think about what in your life you've given up on or no longer pursue because they're difficult / annoying to do.

Phase 1

Restart your reward loops that are lowest on Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Some examples:

• Losing weight (if you're over weight), opposite if you're underweight. Set a realistic goal (lose 5 pounds in 1 month), track progress daily on a notebook / calendar (I prefer to get out of apps / screens for these simple things), and start / end your day looking at it.
  
• Improving your diet. Write down what meals you eat daily and try to make 1 improvement daily (skipping 1 junk food, 1 snack, reducing sugar, skipping sodas, etc).
  
• Reading a difficult book. Something that's difficult. Set a reasonable goal (1 month or 2 months) but hold yourself accountable to making progress daily.
  
• Agree to a set amount of chores and do them daily. Write down in a notebook every day
  
  Some even simpler examples:
  
  
• Make your bed every day. Take a photo and print it out. Every day, see your photos from the day before. As the pile builds up, you like seeing that chain. Your only goal is to not break the chain. Jerry Seinfeld was famous for talking about how he practiced comedy in this way - https://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret
  
• Structure your computer / phone usage. Don't cut out social media and email day 1. Just delay when you let yourself check it. Check it at scheduled times (1 PM for 5 mins, 2 PM for 5 mins, etc). Avoid checking social media as a reaction to "I'm bored" or "I have 5 mins I'm in line". Practice rejecting giving your brain what it wants in the moment, and scale it up slowly (a great goal for many is no social media for an entire day!). Cal Newport's recent 2 books are great on this topic, here's a sample blog post: http://calnewport.com/blog/2016/02/16/write-an-attention-charter/
  
  By committing to chores, routines, and tracking goals and celebrating your progress with family (and explaining your high level plan like this), it's possible your parents are relieved and are more patient with you as you shift and improve.
  
  Phase 2
  
  Try to find a craft / skill that you want to get better that could one day lead to job. Look to the skills / jobs / etc you already have some knowledge about. People think being a barista is a dead-end job, but I know someone who worked their way up (got promoted yearly) from Starbucks barista to National Manager. I know someone else who got really deep into the craft of coffee, eventually starting their own roastery and coffee shop (and they sold for millions, etc). I recommend reading https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469
  
  If you become very good at a single craft (Cal Newport's book is great here - http://calnewport.com/books/so-good/) by doing sustained improvement, you can trade that unique skill / position for improved life traits (working less, more money, more creative work, more autonomy, more ownership, etc). But keep in mind that when you're starting out, you're at the "bottom" and you need to focus on just getting better. Another Cal Newport post coming your way (http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/11/12/the-pre-med-and-ira-glass-complicated-career-advice-from-compelling-people/). You may also find that you have multiple interests and instead of being top 5% of a single craft, you become top 25% in 2 or 3. Scott Adams (from Dilbert) talks about that here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2013/10/23/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-reveals-the-simple-formula-that-will-double-your-odds-of-success/#41a096f42dbc
  
  What else?
  
  I would say more, but to be honest doing all of the above \^ will be PLENTY for you to restart your outlook and habits. It takes time and if you can find a life situation that will allow you to be patient (staying with supporting parents at home is a great way to do this) and improve, then that's excellent. If you try living alone and changing your habits alone while also trying to scale up your job, it may be difficult. But who knows, I don't know you, and maybe the "wake up call" is actually what kickstarts your journey.
  
  I'll just end with:
  
  
• Don't beat yourself up if you "cheat" one day.
  
• Work with others to help keep you accountable. Trustworthy friends, parents, etc. Check in with them, keep them in the loop about both your wins and struggles.
  
• Explore and try to learn as much as you can. Learning something new is hard and is uncomfortable and you'll want to just check texts or social media (or w/e distracts you), but learning to love the learning process is the ultimate life skill / source of fulfillment.
  
  Okay this has gone on too long, I thought I was only leaving a 1 paragraph reply ><

Caution: Wall of text to follow.

Firstly, congrats on caring at a young age about your finances. That's something not a lot of people can say. With that being said I'll like to take each of your paragraphs in turn and answer your questions at the end.

NOTE: If you just want answers to your questions and not my advice skip ahead.

> While I believe that there are some truths behind "Money doesn't buy happiness", it is a lot easier to be happy knowing that you are well-off.

As a word to the wise from someone a little further down the road let me just say there is more truth than you yet realize in those 4 simple words. Many people don't come to see the truth till their old age looking back on a life filled with regret, so take some time now and seriously contemplate it, because the reality is in 85 very short years you'll likely be dead, and all you ever had will belong to someone else. If the only happiness you get in this life is seeing dollars in your bank account you'll miss out on a lot.

> The leading cause of divorces are because of financial issues. I mean, that has to speak for something.

In the vast majority of divorces it's not a lack of money that's the problem, it's a lack of agreeing on what to do with the money that is. Marriage can work below the poverty line, and above the 1% line. The financial issues of marriage aren't solved with just "more money!"

> I want to be able to support myself, other family members who aren't as well off, and be able to buy my kids (if I have them) a car, pay for their college funds, etc.

Supporting your own family is honorable, but beware when helping out "less fortunate" family members. There are many, many problems that can arise from that if not done properly, and enabling a family member will only make their situation worse, not help them.

> I don't want to be a doctor. Or a lawyer. . . . . who can bank at least a million in one year.

That is a very big dream, but it's not unrealistic. Big dreams are good, and as long as you can approach them level headed they help give you focus. I say that your dream is worthwhile, and although I caution against greed as it can destroy you and your life, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a CEO making $1,000,000.

ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS

> So tell me. Where do I start investing and also building my way up to becoming the CEO of a company?

You start right where you are. There is nothing stopping you from pursuing your dream now. Begin with learning. Learn what it takes to be a CEO, learn how other CEO's have done it, learn what your talents are. There will be much learning for you starting out.

I recommend the internet and a library card. Read a CEO's biography (it's as close as you'll come to getting to interview some CEO's). How is it that Donald Trump was able to go from rags to riches twice?! What would it take for you to do that? Learn all there is to learn about running a business, being a leader, and leading a successful venture.

> At what age?

NOW! Bill gates was already writing software and starting Microsoft at your age (not to say you're behind or anything like that.) There is no age limit on being a CEO, and there is certainly no age limit on learning and working hard.

> What majors in college should I be looking at?

This will be up to you and what you feel you would be good at. Do you want to be a CEO just to be a CEO, perhaps some business major then? Learn from other CEO's stories and what they majored in.

> And at what colleges?

Personally there is little impact based on what school you choose. There are CEO's that never went to college, and there are CEO's that went to Yale/Princeton.

The fact is it takes maybe $200 to start an LLC and call yourself a CEO, no college degree needed. What comes after that is actually making the money! In order to do that you have to provide a good or service that people want. The more people you make happy, the more money you'll get.

Something you should know now is that starting a company, and running a company is HARD WORK. I know some owners of start-ups that had to work 60 - 90 hours a week with little to no sleep to build their business. I know others who fell into the CEO position because their daddy owned the company, and they were lazy, and thanks to their lack of action the company collapsed.

> And of course, looking to do this in a legal way.

Welcome to America :), where hard work, sacrifice and the willingness to learn and strive can and do payoff.

One last piece of advice: Don't be a jerk. When you become the CEO of a company and you are making the millions, when you someday are the hotshot, don't look down on those around you. Remember where you came from, and those that helped you along the way, and there will be those that will help you!

People will always respond better to someone who is nice than someone who is a jerk.

Here is some recommended reading once you get that library card:

• Start by Jon Acuff
  
  
• EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
  
  
• I will teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi
  
  
• The millionaire next door by Thomas Stanley
  
  
• The seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey
  
  There are many more books, but that's a start.
  
  Jon Acuff went from amateur blogger to best selling author, and is a great motivational writer. His books make me want to run a marathon, and are good for motivating you.
  
  Dave Ramsey went from bankruptcy to running a 300 person business and earning in the %1 of earners in the nation with a national brand. His book is about being a leader in business and you'll need to lead if you want to be CEO. It's a hard job, and not nearly as cushy as you might think.
  
  Thomas Stanley is a researcher who studies those with a net worth over $1M and his book will show you that being rich doesn't contradict with a frugal lifestyle.
  
  The others and highly recommended in general!
  
  The fact is you'll need to grow up, turn off the TV, and look weird to your friends. How many 15 yr olds do you know reading books about how to run a company and studying up on what it takes to be a CEO, or how to start a business? I don't know many, but I do know that at 17 years old William Gates III started a joint venture with Paul Allen (their first business). They both went on to make the top 20 richest billionaires list. Bill still holds the top spot.
  
  If you want to be rich, you want to be a CEO, then work at it. Work at it now, work at it often, and work at it always. I have no doubt if you dedicate yourself you can do it. The fact of the matter is that most people reading this are tired just thinking of the work it takes to be CEO, and that's why they never will be.
  
  Best of luck on your future success, and don't forget the little people.
  
  ~ Dragon J.
  
  Edited for formatting.

Welcome to the community! Happy to see a new face join in; I'm a little new to reddit myself, but, I've got a few places and lessons that have helped me develop my craft in a major way.

1. You don't need film school to be a filmmaker. Period. The only things you need are an idea, the ability to make the time develop it, and the passion to see your project through to any kind of distribution. Actually, coming from an IT background might put you in a better position than many of us; some of the more customizable screenwriting tools like Scrivener could benefit from an understanding of coding so as to make the program truly your own. Never feel like just because someone has a degree in the field that they are somehow more qualified to tell a story than you; write, write honestly, and write often. Those are the only prerequisites.
   
   
2. I recommend two books as primary sources: Story by Robert McKee and The Screenwriter's Bible by David Trottier. The former is for actual story development and the latter is the only formatting book you'll ever need. These books were very formative for me, but, it still takes a lot of practice to master the craft; above all things said in these books, nothing replaces sitting down and just writing. That first draft will be rough, because it is for everyone. To keep yourself grounded when it feels like it's impossible to save your current draft, I read Stephen King's On Writing. This book, while not directly related to screenwriting, is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. It's so much more than just instruction, it's an honest memoir that is meant to speak to the writing process and its tribulations. I cannot recommend it enough.
   
   
3. For free blogs, I recommend https://johnaugust.com for anything screenwriting. His prose is fantastic, and always a joy to read, and most of his blogs actually center on aspects of screenplays oft neglected by theory and craft books.
   
   
4. Video Essays are a mixed bag. Some channels are fantastic and consistently informative, like Lessons From The Screenplay (YouTube). Others are designed to hook you in to a watch loop; which is dangerous when you're starting out as a writer. It's recommended to disengage and recharge your batteries with these between writing sessions, but, be careful not to over-indulge. The worst thing you can do is get caught up in criticisms of other works and neglect creating your own.
   
   
5. There are dozens of legitimate options for screenwriting software, each with their own merits and drawbacks. Final Draft is the (expensive) industry standard, Fade In is an emergent favorite among some circles, Celtx is web-hosted freeware, and Scrivener is a robust and intimidating toolbox with nigh-infinite possibilities. At the end of the day, it will not matter what you use, just the efficiency at which you write with it. Experiment. Try each one when you have the ability to use their trials. Decide for yourself, because no one can be certain they'll love any particular software over another.
   
   
6. Finally, read screenplays! It is so under-spoken how much reading produced speculative scripts (meaning scripts that were sold for production) will help your writing. My personal favorite screenplay is Bill Lancaster's second draft of The Thing (1981 for the draft, 1982 for the final film). Study how the characters interact with one another, the situations their own paranoia brings them to, and how the author creates mystery through ambitious writing. Just as in the final film, Lancaster is able to evoke unease in the reader by scene set-up and bare-bones character conflicts. It differs wildly from the film at many points, and arguably would have been a worse film had it been produced verbatim. It's a perfect example of how the first, or even the second, draft will not be the end of things; you will ALWAYS rewrite, and that is a god send! Your script may become a classic in the third or fourth draft, but you'll never know if you're satisfied with the first.
   
   Welcome to the craft. If you want some coverage on your draft, I'd love to give feedback once you're ready. Cheers!

This question really piqued my curiosity, because it reminded me not to take the things I know for granted. Being born in the early 80s, and having been introduced to videogames by older siblings and my parents in that decade, and then being involved with videogames either in the industry or as an avid enthusiast, the obscure (and most times useless) history of the medium is something I've taken for granted.

Recently, as older millennials and younger Gen X'ers have reached maturity (or middle age), there have been a surge in books, documentaries, and other materials about videogames... As they're seminal in many of our lives and so now we're looking back and writing these nostalgic retrospectives. Many are trash, even some of the best are still trash, but I'd recommend a few of them... The following are either entertaining, informative, or some balance of both:

• Blake Harris' Console Wars Amazon, a book released in 2014 that details the rise and fall of Sega of America. I think the writing is rough, at least, it tries to Aaron Sorkinize too much of the history and comes off insufferably cheesy at times, enough so that I just had to put the book down and shake my head with douche shivers, but because Harris' has one on one interviews and access to Kalinske, the head of SoA at the time, you get a lot of first hand details that just aren't available anywhere else.
  
• David Kushner's Masters of Doom Amazon, written in 2004 was one of the first contemporary books to get into the details of the videogame industry. This was mostly an untapped medium when Kushner was writing the book, as writing about a videogame company was just not in fashion in 2002 or 2003. Like Console Wars, the conversations are fictionalized but most match up to the actual events detailed in the book. It follows the origins and rise of id software, one of the most influential western developers who more or less invented the first-person shooter (even if they weren't truly the first, they certainly popularized the genre and most of what we take for granted in the first-person genre, id pioneered and introduced). id's fingerprints are on thousands of modern games, and the two founders of the company -- John Carmack and John Romero -- are often considered father's of modern action games, they also have a tumultuous relationship with one another, at the time often likened to John Lenon and Paul McCartney, and so the story of id software is also the story of their personal relationship.
  
• Gaming Historian YouTube Channel (google it, it should come up). Many of these videos are dry and some border on clickbait, but the majority are well researched and provide a good nugget of history into videogames.
  
• The King of Kong Documentary. It's not completely factual and it takes artistic license to make a better story, but it's probably the best videogame-focused movie ever made, even despite those inaccuracies. Why you should watch it? It's a great introduction into competitive gaming in the 1980s and how videogames worked. There are other materials that have informed this movie and you can start with the movie and just google questions, and because the movie was so popular there's a lot of interesting research that goes into the mechanics of it.
  
• NoClip, a Youtube Channel. NoClip has only been around for a year or a little more, but they're well funded and produced videogame documentaries... Most focus on some new aspect of gaming, but still walk back into the influences of the developers, which aren't cheesy... they're well informed and well made. Particularly, the interview with the developers of CD Projekt and how being under the heel of communism influenced how they built games and ultimately what makes a game like The Witcher so compelling.
  
• SuperBunnyHop YouTube Channel. Guy who does breakdowns of videogames and his informative retrospectives are some of my favorites. He introduced the concept of, "But what do they eat?" to me, which goes into a wider theory about creating realistic or believable game worlds. If you're in any game world, walking around, and there are creatures living there, if the game subtly answers the simple question "But what do they eat?" it makes the game world so much more believable because it's an indication that the developers/designers have really put more thought into the believability of their world. Most great games answer this central question or punt on it in a convincing way.
  
• Joseph Anderson YouTube Channel. His video breakdowns of games are just so good. He's probably most recently gotten notoriety by being critical of Super Mario Odyssey, at least, critical enough to say "the game isn't perfect..." And after playing Odyssey and feeling kinda meh on it after a while, I watched his video and it just felt so apt for me. He also does great analysis of mostly recent games, but most of those are informed by previous games, and goes into the mechanics of balance, pacing, mechanics, and the simple systems that inform most good game.
  
• RetroGame Mechanics Explained YouTubeChannel. These are typically technical breakdowns of how concepts in retrogaming worked, and are usually pretty involved. Not always light watching but informative.
  
• Mark Brown's Game Maker's Toolkit YouTube Channel. Breakdowns of videogame theories/concepts, largely.
  
  This is by no way supposed to be an exhaustive list, just a list of stuff that I enjoyed and others might too... Part of these videos/movies/books is video game theory, part is history, part is just sheer entertainment value, but I think anybody who is into videogames enough to talk on 'True Gaming,' would probably enjoy most of those.

Rich Dad Poor Dad catches a lot of flak, but it's actually really good at teaching the absolute basics in an easy-to-follow manner. Like, learn what a Cash Flow Statement is, increase your asset column, learn basic accounting language, separate emotions and money, minimize taxes. Just glean the overall principles he's teaching and don't blindly follow his specific strategies.

The Richest Man in Babylon is another great, easy to read, investing 101 book.

And The Millionaire Next Door is a research-based book on Millionaires in America and what kind of habits and mindsets got them to their current wealth. It's a wonderfully refreshing read after being brainwashed by tv and movies saying that millionaires won it or stole it and live lavish lives. Most actual millionaires are pretty frugal and hard working with modest lives.

---
And here are some resources to help you learn all the new words and concepts:

• Investopedia
  
• Bogleheads
  
• Khan Academy
  -- Microeconomics
  -- Macroeconomics
  -- Finance
  
• Personal Finance subreddit
  
• Investing subreddit
  
• Finance subreddit
  
• Accounting subreddit
  
• Financial Independence subreddit
  
• Business subreddit
  
• Economics subreddit
  
  ---
  And when you get pretty familiar with the basics and want to start messing with stuff, I've enjoyed the Think or Swim paper money route. They give you $200,000 in fake money to play around with and invest and practice your strategies. It helps you get acquainted with the research and the interface and the fees for investing. It's a wonderful tool.
  
  And then The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is supposed to be a pretty good comprehensive guide the advanced basics (is that a term?) of investing.
  
  ---
  Or if you want to skip alllll of this and just hire someone, I've read in those subreddits that you want to find a fee based financial adviser. Which you can do here.
  
  .
  
  
  I hope I've helped man! It's a lot of fun to learn about. I wish you all the best.

My big-picture recommendation would be to learn proofs. Can you read and understand proofs? If asked to justify a proposition, can you produce a coherent, rigorous proof that unambiguously communicates your understanding to others? Learning how to do proofs is, as I mentioned above, its own skillset, one that's a necessary condition for being able to do any kind of serious mathematics.

From my perspective, if you're interested in mathematics, then the specific content—i.e., analysis vs. abstract algebra, combinatorics vs. number theory—is secondary to two things:

1. Are you exploring parts of mathematics that you find interesting and accessible?
   
   After all, you don't want to burn yourself out with something you find boring, nor do you want to overwhelm yourself by trying to bite off more than you can chew (such as EGA).
   
   
2. Are you learning how to do proofs?
   
   Proof-writing is simply the lifeblood of doing mathematics, and the only effective way to learn this skill is by practice.
   
   One book I often recommend to people in your situation is Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham. It's not really a textbook, but it's still a really interesting introduction to mathematics. It's a bit like a sampler plate, too, since it covers examples from all sorts of topics: number theory, set theory, calculus, and others, as I recall.
   
   One of the challenges of learning how to write proofs is that it can be difficult to do so as an autodidact; it really helps to get feedback from people who can help you sharpen both your thinking and your writing. This next recommendation may be more logistically challenging (or expensive) for you to pursue, but I'd nonetheless recommend that you look into summer math camps whose focus is teaching fluency with proofs. Three in particular include the following:
   
   

• The Ross Mathematics Program at Ohio State University
  
  
• PROMYS at Boston University
  
  
• Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics at Hampshire College
  
  All three have good reputations, but you might have personal preferences that would lead you to prefer one over the other two. All three, as I understand it, use number theory as the entry point to teach you how to think about math abstractly, though Hampshire's program is a bit more eclectic than the number theory-specific focus of the Ross and PROMYS programs. Which program, if any, might be your best fit could turn as much on outside issues like when their sessions are held, how much you'd have to pay (US$3,800–4,000 for program costs alone, from what I could tell), and travel logistics (especially if you'd be an international student), separate from any narrowly mathematical considerations. Oh, and another advantage to attending one of these programs is that you're surrounded by fellow students like you who are really interested in mathematics. There's no way to replicate the value of that from any single textbook, no matter how inspired.
  
  Anyway, that's a starting point. If you have local, regional, or national mathematics competitions—e.g., AMC, ARML, as well as other assorted city, state or provincial, or regional competitions—then that's another good entry point into interesting math. From my experience, the main advantage of math contests is that they expose you early to concepts you might not otherwise see for years, and, again, you get to spend time with fellow math students like you.
  
  Competitions, whether individual or team-based, often have more of a proof-based focus than, say, typical the typical high school curriculum (with the exception of geometry), but "contest math" has the danger of students inferring a distorted picture of what it takes to become a mathematician. Namely: you do not have to be a prodigy in math competitions in order to become a good mathematician, let alone a mathematician. Separately, if there's a Math Circle near you, that might be another valuable resource.
  
  As a high school student who will have already completed Calculus BC before your senior year, you might be able to take college-level classes next year, assuming there's a nearby college or university that has some kind of arrangement with your high school. (Some public school districts even cover your tuition, too.) If that's an option for you, free or not, then I'd recommend coordinating with your school's guidance counselor and a professor in the math department to discuss your options.
  
  Oh, and as an obliquely-related topic: if you have time, now would be a good time to teach yourself how to use LaTeX (or one or more of its siblings) to typeset mathematics. (LaTeX may be useful to you if you pursue other scientific field, too, but it's especially useful in math.) If you're serious in pursuing math going forward, you'll inevitably be using LaTeX, and better to get a head start today on scaling its learning curve.
  
  ---
  
  I'm sure I will think of half a dozen more suggestions an hour from now, but I'll leave things here for now. I hope something above will help, and good luck!

For 2016 I am working on opening a second location for my IT services company in Detroit and growing my client base.

Here are a few books that I really enjoyed.


Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian

I found this book inspiring and really showed me the persistence that he has to keep going and the value of just reaching out to other business owners to get things going.


Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

WOW, Elon is very driven, very focused and keeps his companies on the cutting edge by investing heavily on growth and innovation. He has a very clear vision for his companies with an exit strategy for himself that includes retirement on Mars. That sounds very far out but he has thought so far ahead and to calculate the launch schedules needed to make populating Mars viable.

Smarter Than You Think

This is a good book showcasing how technology is enabling those you who use it in new and creative ways to work and think more efficiently.


Screw Business as Usual

I am a big fan of Richard Branson and in this book he showcases how he has been disruptive to the establishment while at the same time being ethical and environmentally friendly. He touches on social issues and creative ways he has solved those issues.

The Go Giver
This short book by Bob Burg is a story driven book about a fictional character named Joe who is working hard to be more successful but seems to keep falling short. Joe is introduced to Pindar & he introduces Joe to a series of successful “go-givers”. This book showcases the power of connecting with other successful people and show their willingness to help.




I listen to a lot of podcasts mostly IT industry related but there are are good for business

The Art of Charm

They have some great topics on self growth or just ways to handle life situations. Their recent episode with Jay Samit was really good


Triangulation on Twit


I listen to this podcast based on who the guest is. Leo does a good job interviewing and keeping the conversation moving forward.

Entrepreneur on Fire

While I am not the biggest fan of the pumped up over the top style of this podcast they do have some great guests on here that share their failures and successes.

Note: I am not an engineer, but I do have some suggestions of things you may like.

Books:

• Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Krantz: Great book about the beginnings of the NASA program, Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, and later. Gene Krantz was a flight director and worked as a test pilot for a long time, and his stories are gripping. Beyond engineering and space, it's a pretty insightful book on leadership in high-stress team situations.
  
  
• Kelly: More Than My Share by Clarence "Kelly" Johnson: This is on my shelf but I haven't read it yet. Kelly Johnson was a pioneer in the world of flight, leading the design and construction of some of the most advanced planes ever built, like the U2 and the SR-71. Kelly's impact on the business of aerospace and project management is immense, definitely a good guy to learn about. Plus he designed the P38 Lightning, without a doubt the most beautiful plane ever built ;)
  
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of my Years at Lockheed by Ben Rich: A fantastic look at the inside of Lockheed Martin's advanced projects division, the Skunk Works. Ben Rich succeeded Kelly Johnson at Lockheed, so this one is going to overlap with the book above quite a bit. I loved the pace of this one, and it covered a lot more than just the F-117, as the cover would suggest - cool info on the SR-71, U2, F104, the D21 supersonic drone, and stealth technology in general. Beyond that, it provides an inside look at the intricacies of DoD contract negotiation, security/clearance issues, and advanced projects. Awesome book, highly recommend.
  
  
• Elon Musk's Bio by Ashley Vance: A detailed history of all things Musk, I recommend it for the details about SpaceX and the goal to make humans a multi-planetary species. Musk and his (now massive) team are doing it: thinking big, getting their hands dirty, and building/launching/occasionally blowing up cool stuff.
  
  Videos/Games/Blogs/Podcasts:
  
  
• Selenian Boondocks: general space blog, lots of robotics and some space policy
  
  
• Gravity Loss: another space blog, lots about future launch systems
  
  
• The Age of Aerospace: Boeing made a cool series of videos last year for their 100th birthday. Great look at the history of an aerospace mainstay, though it seems a bit self-aggrandizing at times.
  
  
• If you want to kill a ton of time on the computer while mastering the basics of orbital mechanics by launching small green men into space, Kerbal Space Program is for you. Check out /r/kerbalspaceprogram if your interested.
  
  
• Subreddits like /r/spacex, /r/blueorigin, and /r/ula are worth following for space news.
  

Einstein's books about relativity written by Einstein for the non-expert
-Helps you understand not only his theories well, but piques your interest in science a lot, and improves your way to approach all problems. His essays (in particular The World As I See It, be careful of edited versions on the internet which cut out parts they don't like about God, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y0_aNvH0Wo) are amazing as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Relativity-The-Special-General-Theory/dp/1619491508/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1347758889&sr=8-3&keywords=einstein+relativity


Middlesex By Jeffrey Eugenides
-A novel, Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction (called the great american epic), will increase your understanding of those with LGBTQ considerations, but mostly an amazing book
http://www.amazon.com/Middlesex-Novel-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0312427735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347759265&sr=1-1&keywords=middlesex

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers By Robert Sapolsky
-Entertaining book, will increase your knowledge of a whole lot of things, and increase your interest in psychology and statistics. Also Freakanomics by Levitt/Dubner and Outliers/Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. All good to get your foot in the door to approach the complicated world we live in logically.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third/dp/0805073698/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347759102&sr=1-1&keywords=why+zebras+dont+get+ulcers

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman
--Autobiography of a nobel prize winning physicist, very funny. Will (again) demonstrate how a brilliant person approach the world. Very funny and easy read.
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347759305&sr=1-1&keywords=Richard+P.+Feynman

This book by Marcus Aurelius has transformed my life from one crippled by generalized anxiety into one that is still troubled, but with a definite method to press on. It is easily the most important book I've ever read. (Make sure you check out the Hays translation, the others are quite stiff. This is normally $10 so it's on sale on Amazon.)

What you are talking about is more properly called mindfulness, which was the first tool I tried. I had some success, in particular with Full Catastrophe Living, and if you find mindfulness effective then I would recommend simple mindfulness meditation (just sitting and letting thoughts pass through you--noticing that you have them and not responding to them or labeling them as good or bad, just resting in the moment and accepting that you have certain thoughts or feelings but also watching them pass by).

However, stoicism takes these ideas further and embues an element of self-trust that was much more effective for me. While mindfulness emphasizes the importance of the present and minimizing your immedate negative emotional responses, stoicism includes these elements but also says: there is nothing that can harm you. All I can do is act best I can, and not worry about the rest. Control what you can, but accept what you can't control. External events are uncontrollable and with practice you can remain completly resilent to them--metnally and emotionally accepting that you are in a certain situation but retaining the ability to deal with it in the best way you can.

It is difficult at first, but your everyday difficulties with anxiety are a perfect opportunity to practice. When you face situations and get through them, you hold the realization in your mind that that situation did not harm you--while it may have been unpleasant, you survived and moved straight through it. The unpleasantness was bearable, and you are no worse a person for dealing with it, in fact you are much the better. You can trust in this realization as you look forward toward future events. These little successes can accumulate in a big way if you take the first big step to accept your current limitations and trust in your current ability.

A fantastic example of the will's ability to persevere in impossible situations is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl faces this daily horrors without anxiety because of his complete trust in his ability to face it squarely and overcome it.

So a stoic isn't someone who is passive or emotionless, but someone who is resilent and extremely proactive in response to difficulty. In terms of specific negative emotions like anxiety, anger, or fear, it's important to remember that you are not trying to ignore or not feel these things. That is a misconception about stoicism. These feeling are natural and in fact necessary for life. However, you want to domesticate these negative emotions and remain in control in spite of them, as much as you can. Everyone is overcome by anxiety at times, but the Stoic bounces back that much quicker.

tl;dr I have recommended a lot of books but everything I wrote is firmly based on the many times I have read Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It is truly worth your time.

I love science books. These are all on my bookshelf/around my apt. They aren't all chemistry, but they appeal to my science senses:

I got a coffee table book once as a gift. It's Theodore Gray's The Elements. It's beautiful, but like I said, more of a coffee table book. It's got a ton of very cool info about each atom though.

I tried The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks, which is all about the people and family behind HeLa cells. That was a big hit, but I didn't care for it.

I liked The Emperor of all Maladies which took a long time to read, but was super cool. It's essentially a biography of cancer. (Actually I think that's it's subtitle)

The Wizard of Quarks and Alice in Quantumland are both super cute allegories relating to partical physics and quantum physics respectively. I liked them both, though they felt low-level, tying them to high-level physics resulted in a fun read.

Unscientific America I bought on a whim and didn't really enjoy since it wasn't science enough.

The Ghost Map was a suuuper fun read about Cholera. I love reading about mass-epidemics and plague.

The Bell that Rings Light, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, The Fabric of the Cosmos and Beyond the God Particle are all pleasure reading books that are really primers on Quantum.

I also tend to like anything by Mary Roach, which isn't necessarily chemistry or science, but is amusing and feels informative. I started with Stiff but she has a few others that I also enjoyed.

Have fun!

Welcome to RDR! Congratulations on publishing your first thing for critique, it's a big step as a writer.

Disclaimer: The usual - I'm just an amateur like most people here, take my comments (and everyone elses) with a healthy helping of salt, pick the comments that resonate with you. You're the writer, not us.

Disclaimer 2: You're a special snowflake, because you get a second disclaimer that nobody else gets :) I have to admit I feel a bit uncomfortable critiquing a submission about suicide if you tell me upfront that the guy who told you it was good was your psych. I'll just assume that you didn't come here to hear the fluffy duffy "things get better" stuff, so i'll just focus on what you wrote, and give you my blunt impressions as a reader, same as I would with anyone else.

GENERAL REMARKS

I think you're an asshole for being able to write this well at 15yo. Shit man, the stuff I wrote at that age was nowhere near this. So yeah, good job in general. There's plenty of room to polish and learn to improve, but I would say you have definitely got talent, and if you develop it well you can build yourself up into an awesome writer. Don't underestimate how long that takes though - people sometimes forget that a guy like George RR Martin had been writing professionally every day of his life for 25 years by the time Game of Thrones came out.

Every now and then there will be people on r/writing asking for tips on how to become a better writer, read some of the tips there, like the responses to this guy's thread. As resources, I would definitly recommend Brandon Sanderson's lectures on youtube, Stephen King's book, and the Writing Excuses podcast.

OVERALL STORY IMPRESSIONS

I'm not the intended audience for this. I'm a 34yo with 3 kids, I've had my teenage angst years and I'm glad I'm past them. I'm also glad facebook and whatsapp weren't around when I was your age. I liked the quality of your prose and the overall style. I didn't enjoy the 2nd person POV (more on that in a second), and I wasn't a big fan of the ending. Some parts got a bit repetitive, and I found the story a bit lacking in interactions. That is, what makes a character in a story interesting is the interactions with other characters or explorations into the setting; we got very little of that here, and spend most of the story inside his head.

MECHANICS

Okay, let's talk about the big one here: you choose to write this piece in the 2nd person. Writing in 2nd isn't easy, and there are not many people doing it. Most people nowadays write in a tight 3rd person limited POV. This article has some good insights into the effects of writing in 2nd person.

For me, 3rd person allows us to empathize with a certain character, and go through their emotions by mental association. But 2nd person more or less forces the emotions down my throat. When you write something like this:

> You laugh at yourself. “Oh wow, you really fucked this one up man… priceless”

That doesn't work for me, because my psyche rejects it like a bad transplant. It's like you're forcing me to feel those emotions, and it feels dishonest because I don't feel that. But if you tell me in 1st or tight 3rd person about somebody else who does genuinely feel that, chances are very good that I will empathize by association.

HOOK

> “Fuck it. If I’m going to die before the next time I wake up, I might as well ask her out… just to see what happens.”

• Works for me as an opening, although on a technical level the sentence can be improved.
  
• I'd question whether you really need "before the next time I wake up" in there.
  
• The "just to see what happens" is already more or less implied in the "might as well", so explicitly spelling that part out for us felt a bit redundant to me as a reader. But whether or not you cut that should depend a bit on your audience - in prose for a Young Adult audience, writers tend to leave stuff like that in to make it a bit more obvious to the readers, while in prose for an older audience it tends to be left implied. Basically YA books are sort of "training" the audience in this type of things, while older audiences tend to be better at filling in the blanks.
  
• The sequence you chose for the "if i die - ask her out" construction is descending in tension rather than building up, which makes it less punchy. Consider flipping it around into something like "I might as well ask her out, if I'm going to die anyway." That is of course, assuming that you consider "asking her out" to be a less daunting prospect then "dying" (which you really, really should :p ).
  
• There's a concept in writing called "promises" which basically mean that the start of your story more or less telegraphs to your audience what the story will be about. The start of a James Bond or Indiana Jones movie show them in full action, which tells the audience what to expect in the rest of the movie. You do this well, although my expectation after the opening line would be that the story would be about MC asking out the girl, not about MC killing himself.
  
  ENDING
  
  > With a push, an asphyxiation, and a squeak of wheels against bamboo floor,
  > You end it.
  
  
• So the main character dies. Too bad, I was just associating with this guy.
  
• For me as a writer, this felt like the easy way out of the story (I don't mean to imply that suicide is the easy way out of whatever problem, that's a whole different can of worms which I am not equipped to have an opinion on, I mean this just from a writing point of view as a way of resolving the story here).
  
• The "asphyxiation" is too on-the-nose in my opinion, too much rubbing it in our faces. We know quite well what's happening and don't need it spelled out for us. Trust your audience to fill in the blanks, your writing will be better for it.
  
• Same with "You end it." It's not needed, the previous sentence implies it.
  
• So a simplification could be something like "With a push, the wheels squeak against the bamboo floor.
  
  (more to come in part 2, gotta run to a meeting now, will continue this evening)

Some of the best I've used:

Story by Robert McKee -- As its title indicates, this book takes a look at story construction from a more theoretical perspective. McKee works mostly in the realm of screenplays but the ideas he puts forth are universally applicable and have already helped my writing immensely -- story itself was one of the big areas where I was struggling, and after reading through this book I'm able to much better conceptualize and plan out thoughtful stories.

Stein on Writing by Sol Stein -- if McKee's book is written from a theoretical perspective, Stein's takes a practical look at how to improve writing and editing skills. The mechanics of my writing have improved after reading this book; his examples are numerous and accessible. His tone may come off as a bit elitist but that doesn't mean he doesn't have things to teach us!

On Writing by Stephen King -- A perennial favorite and one I'm sure you've already received numerous suggestions for. Kind of a mix of McKee and Stein in terms of approach, and a great place to start when studying the craft itself.

Elements of Style by Strunk & White -- King swears by this book, and although I've bought it, the spine still looks brand new. I would recommend getting this in paperback format, though, as it's truly meant to be used as a reference.

Writing Excuses Podcast -- HIGHLY recommended place to start. Led by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells and Mary Robinette Kowal, this is one of the places I really started to dig into craft. They're at Season 13.5 now but new listeners can jump in on Season 10, where they focus on a specific writing process in each episode (everything from coming up with ideas to characterization and world building and more). Each episode is only 15(ish) minutes long. Listening to the whole series (or even the condensed version) is like going through a master class in genre fiction.

Brandon Sanderson 318R Playlist -- Professional recordings of Brandon Sanderson's BU writing class. Great stuff in here -- some crossover topics with Writing Excuses, but he is a wealth of information on genre fiction and great writing in general. Covers some of the business of writing too, but mostly focuses on craft.

Love this idea - hopefully I've sent a couple you haven't received yet!

---

_____INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM__

• [Web] Islam Explained - brief 1-page explanation of Islam and other Islam-related topics.
  
  
• [Video] The DeenShow - a talk show that introduces many of the basic teachings of Islam and addresses common misconceptions. Their website here.
  
  
• [Book] The Complete Idiot's Guide to Islam - Yahiya Emerick, Ignore the title, it's a decent clear-English guide to explaining what Islam is about and it's practices.
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Khalid Yasin, gives a comprehensive lecture on the fundamental question that every human being must ask: "What is the purpose of life?"
  
  
• [Video] Foundations of Islam -Hamza Yusuf, discusses Quran compilation & preservation, articles of faith, ihsan, and the signs of the Last Day.
  
  
• [Web] Al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah - Islamic Creed written by the popular, 10th century scholar: at-Ṭaḥāwī
  
  
  
• [Book] Islam and the Destiny of Man - Charles Le Gai Eaton, introduction to Islam aimed at the Westerner.
  
  
• [Web] What is Islam? - Jamaal Zarabozo, if you're looking for a more concise introduction to the fundamental beliefs and practices of the Islamic faith, then try this free ebook.
  
  
  
  
• [Video] Understanding Islam Video Series - Abdal Hakim Murad, discusses the Qur'anic view of Christianity & Jesus, historical Muslim tolerance of Jews, free will vs. determinism, the problem of evil, etc.
  
  ---
  ___QURAN____
  
  
• [Web] Quran - The Noble Quran in various translations.
  
  
• [Book] The Message of the Qur'an - Muhammad Asad, if you're looking for the Quran in book form, this has helpful commentary to provide a thorough understanding.
  
  
• [Book] Quran - Abdel Haleem, another Quran in book form, this one is written in extremely clear modern English that makes it easy and pleasurable to read.
  
  
  
• [Web] English Tafsir -Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, English commentary of each chapter of the Quran in clear English. Extra link
  
  
• [Audio] Bayyinah Quran Commentary Podcast -Nouman Ali Khan, highly recommended audio commentary of the last 37 chapters of the Quran. Entire Quran commentary with BayyinahTV purchase.
  
  
  ---
  ____LIFE OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD___
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources - Martin Lings, very detailed and thorough biography based on the earliest sources. Recommended by many, (but relies on a few unauthentic sources).
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet - Adil Salahi, a Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
  
• [Video] Biography of Muhammad (pbuh) Video Series - Yasir Qadhi, detailed, very lengthy biography video series. Condensed video series here, Mufti Menk
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  
• [Audio] The Life of the Prophet Muhammad - Hamza Yusuf, brilliant narration that was originally presented in a twelve week course based on the above book by Martin Lings.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad (Critical Lives) - Yahiya Emerick, a simple concise, informative biography.
  
  
  
  
• [Web] The Sealed Nectar - Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Popular and accurate account of the life of Muhammad (pbuh). Alternative link.
  
  
  ---
  
  ____CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM AND ISLAM___
  
  
• [Video] How the Bible Led Me to Islam - Joshua Evans, former Christian youth minister conveys his journey to Islam.
  
  
• [Book] The Cross & The Crescent - Jerald Dirks, former minister (deacon) of the United Methodist Church explains how coherent Islam is with the roots of Christianity, provided with verifiable proofs.
  
  
• [Video] Early Christianity From Jesus to Muhammad - Jerald Dirks, discusses the roots of Christianity and the transition to the emergence of Muslims.
  
  
• [Book] MisGod'ed: A Roadmap of Guidance and Misguidance in the Abrahamic Religions - Laurence Brown, examines Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for truth in revelation, and trace the chain of revelation to its logical conclusion.
  
  
  
  ---
  ____ATHEISM AND ISLAM____
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Jeffrey Lang explains how he came to Islam after being an Atheist.
  
  
• [Book] The Divine Reality: God, Islam & The Mirage Of Atheism - Hamza Tzortzis, Islamic arguments for God's existence, oneness and worship, while thoroughly addressing popular and academic objections.
  
  
• [Book] Even Angels Ask: A Journey to Islam in America - Jeffery Lang, a former atheist takes the reader along the path by discussing conflicts between faith and reason.
  
  
• [Book] Struggling To Surrender : Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam - Former atheist, Jeffery Lang, gives a personal account of his search for God when he found out that his inherited religious beliefs could no longer answer his questions.
  
  
• [Video] From Strong Atheist To Islam - Tim, a former atheist used to debate religious people and tried to convince them that there is no God, until he met a Muslim.
  
  ---
  ____LEARN TO PRAY (SALAH)____
  
  
  
• [Web] Prayer Booklet - Easy and concise guide that explain the prerequisites and actions of prayer. Goes well with prayer videos below.
  
  
• [Video] Step by Step Guide to Prayer - Video explains the necessary steps needed to pray.
  
  
• [Video] How to perform all 5 prayers - Demonstration of all 5 mandatory prayers.
  
  
• [Web] How Do I Pray? - Interactive tutorial of all 5 prayers. Includes English transliteration.
  
  
• [Web] Prayer Mat - Contains all the necessary Arabic sayings that are needed for prayer. Print it out and place in front of you for ease. Convenient!
  
  
• [Web] Prayer Times - Online tool for calculating prayer times based on your exact GPS location
  
  
• [Web] Mosque-Finder - helpful tool that lets you locate your closest mosque.
  
  ---
  ____HADITH/SUNNAH____
  
  
• [Video] An Introduction to Hadith - Jonathan Brown, 1 hour introduction to the narrations of Muhammad (pbuh). Some questions about hadith answered.
  
  
• [Web] Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith - Learn and study 42 popular hadith compiled by the famous al-Nawawi with audio commentary. Notes on al-Nawawi and his compilations for more clarity.
  
  
• [Book] Riyad-us-Saliheen - Imam Al-Nawawi, A popular and useful compilation of authentic hadith, covering every aspect of Islamic belief and moral conduct. Read it online or listen to audio.
  
  Full list here
  
  

The purpose of frugality is to save money in some areas of your life so that you can live the life you want. What are your goals in life? If you want to travel, travel. If you want an iPhone, get an iPhone. If you want to learn to fly, learn to fly. If you want to buy a house in 5 years, save! I want to retire pretty early and build a house, so I am saving/investing a large portion of my income like you.

It sounds like you've got this Frugality thing down pretty well, so here are some Personal Finance basics:

1. Start an emergency fund in a new savings account with 3-12 months of expenses. Don't touch this unless there is an emergency (job loss, car repairs, etc.). This will keep you from acquiring any debt and allows you to be bold with your savings/investment and other life goals.
   
   
2. Take advantage of any/all tax-advantaged investment vehicles that Australia offers. (American equivalents would be 401Ks, Roth IRAs, etc.)
   
   
3. If you've made it this far, all you have left to do is live your life. You're making all the right decisions, so do what you want. Save for a house or a car, start a family, give to charity, take time off from work, travel, etc.
   
   
4. If you don't know what you want, continue to save, save, save so when you DO find out you can do what you want. If you can max your retirement accounts every year, you'll be well on your way to financial security. But those are your retirement savings, and you won't be able to utilize them for a while. So your best bet is to save and invest a large portion of your remaining income - this will ensure that you will not have to take on any additional debt and can save thousands if not hundreds of thousands along the way (think paying cash for a house vs. a 30 year mortgage)
   
   I would also start reading some about personal finance. It sounds like you might benefit by reading Your Money or Your Life - it's a good philosophical read for those that are thinking about a money/life balance. For a little motivation to keep up your frugality, try The Millionaire Next Door - It's pretty eye-opening and I recommend that to everyone regardless of their personal finance goals. For starters in investing, The Boglehead's Guide to Investing is great, and a lot of the information can be found free at the wiki.
   
   Good luck!

> I think I get just as much rejection as a guy would get

Doubtful. In Self Made Man, a woman lives a year undercover as a man. It's a really enlightening story, but one of the biggest realizations she comes away with is the massive amount of rejection men face. It blew her mind doing speed dating and things like that, being perceived as a loser and/or predator before even having a chance to open her mouth.

If you have approached 50+ men in a row and been laughed at, scorned, or ignored by every single one of them, you'll start to understand what it's like for many guys.

I'm really good at approaching women now, but it's because I spent decades trying and failing. I remember the first time I tried to cold approach a woman in a bar (she wasn't even all that attractive, I just thought she looked nice enough for me to get over my anxiety):

I walk up to her and her two female friends, timing it so that I don't just interrupt what they are doing but find a natural break in their interaction. Then I moved up close to her and said "hi, I'm /u/autopornbot."

She looked at me like I had just shat on her new rug and said "So?" and looked at me with such disgust that I couldn't speak. I just turned and walked away.

I had friends who simultaneously encouraged me to keep trying, and made fun of me for not wanting to. So over the years I kept trying. And for years, the most I ever got from a woman was a polite brush off. And this was when I was young (18-22) and in great shape, pretty good looking - I was told by women that I knew as a part of my friend circle that I was good looking and dressed well and a lot of them liked me - I had girlfriends, but they were all women I had met through work or through friends, so we knew one another for some time first and I never had to come up and introduce myself or anything.

Most of the guys I know have had the same experience. Most guys rarely ever go talk to a woman they don't know, because the fear of being seen as a creep are too high. Nowadays, I know how to walk up to an attractive women and strike up a conversation, and a lot of times it actually goes well. Doing this around most men will absolutely blow their mind. Simply walking up to a woman and talking to her for a couple of minutes is so far out of the realm of experience for most guys, that they act as if I have magical powers.

But that ability only came after suffering through hundreds of failures.

You are right, though. Women rarely do this. Of course the few that do don't land every hot guy they approach. But women are far more gifted socially than men, so they are a lot better to begin with, and most men are so happy to have any woman acknowledge their existence that attraction or no, they are pretty receptive to at least talking - though admittedly there are exceptions.

But do keep it up. Just having a woman come up and talk to us can make our entire week, even if it goes nowhere at all. And it's a really difficult thing to do - especially in a bar or similar environments where there is pressure to act really cool. It's far easier in friendly, daytime events and casual environments.

I havent read "Candlestick Charting Explained", but as far as candlestick charting goes... Steve Nison's "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques" is considered the bible. Candlesticks is really a discussion on price action... I think candlesticks can get you into a lot of trouble.

I think that Edwards and Magee "Technical Analysis of Stock trends" is looked upon more more favorably than Murphy for an overview of TA and methods. Though, IMO they both leave a lot to be desired. Really the best way to learn technical analysis is to find someone who uses these methods to execute trades and can explain the reasoning and risk-reward metrics behind their trades. If this interests you, I recommend Peter Brandt https://www.peterlbrandt.com/ He has a track record and has even written a book.

If i were to recommend a couple books

For true beginners in investing and don't want to spend time doing the "work": I recommend "4 pillars of investing" it discusses asset allocation and investing in a broad sense 4 Pillars

For beginners that want an intro to stocks: Greenblatt's "Little Book that beats the market" is the best book that I know of for an intro to stock investing. And it can be read in one sitting. Little Book

If you want to be a more active trader/investor in the market then I recommend:
Oneil's [How to make money in stocks] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00916ARYS/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)
Minervini's [Trade like a stock market wizard]
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C1NKPUE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)
Lynch's [One Up On Wall Street]
(https://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)
Cramer's [Real Money]
(https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Cramers-Real-Money-Investing/dp/0743224906/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0743224906&pd_rd_r=156ZB32KPJ8XN7V9K1HQ&pd_rd_w=Anlpz&pd_rd_wg=aZn7O&psc=1&refRID=156ZB32KPJ8XN7V9K1HQ)
Town's [Rule 1] (https://www.amazon.com/Rule-Strategy-Getting-Rich-Minutes-ebook/dp/B000GCFCQE/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1479913887&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=rule+no+1+investing)

These picks are all different styles and have something different to offer. A lot of the advice you are going to get is going to be bent towards value investing, diversification, and asset allocation... This is good advice, and will make you a smarter investor but not a richer one.

If you are interested in day trading or swing trading then you will probably need to find some personalized training and I wish you the best because there is a ton of crap out there... I dont think that many people are willing to put in the time and effort to be sucessful at this and so I don't recommend it.

This is going to seem like a really strange choice, but it's coming from another 16 year old. I recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, as it is one of my absolute favorite books. It may only appeal to him if he likes science or engineering, but it's worth a shot regardless.

In a similar vein to the Chronicles of Narnia, may I recommend The Hobbit/ The Lord of the Rings? Both are great stories that he may like. Although they are not the best written books in terms of writing quality (in my opinion), the Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini might appeal for entertainment value. Perhaps a lesser known author that I greatly enjoy is Megan Whalen Turner, author of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. I just became aware of this book and have thus never read it, but A Conspiracy of Kings by the same author is bound to be good.

Steering away from fantasy, he may also like science fiction. I recommend any Ray Bradbury. Most of his stories are short, so for someone who doesn't read often they are great. My favorite are the Martian Chronicles, but R is for Rocket is also a good compilation. All of the Artemis Fowl series are recommended as well.

If I think of any more, I will certainly edit this post.

I have not read many books explicitly devoted to the history of mathematics, such as those recommended in this math.stackechange post #31058, so I will refrain from recommending any of them. Instead, I'd like to mention a few books that do well discussing aspects of mathematical history, although this is not their main focus.

• Journey Through Genius, by William Dunham. This is a survey of some of math's creative "landmarks" throughout history, as well as the contexts in which they were achieved and the people who worked on them. (Ok, now that I write it out, this is clearly a "history of math" book. The others in this list, not as much...)
  
  
• Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved, by Robin Wilson. Clear and (relatively) brief description of the development of the proof of the 4 color theorem, from the birth of graph theory to the computer-assisted proof and the discussions that has inspired. The newest edition is now in color, not black & white, and that may not sound like much, but the figures are genuinely awesome and make the concepts so much more understandable. Highly recommended.
  
  
• In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation, by William J. Cook. I lectured about the TSP briefly in a course I taught this past semester. I read this book in preparation and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I found myself quoting long passages from it in class and sharing many of its examples and figures.
  
  
• How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff (illustrations by Irving Geis). I recommend this because it's a modern classic. Written in 1954, the ideas are still relevant today. I believe this book should be a requirement in the high school curriculum. (Plus, available as free pdf.)
  
  
• The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference, by Ian Hacking. "A philosophical study of the early ideas about probability, induction and statistical inference, covering the period 1650-1705." Ok, this one is really specific and I often found myself rereading sentences 5 times to make sure I understood them which was frustrating. But, its specificity is what makes it so interesting. Worth checking out if it sounds cool, but not for everyone. (FWIW I found a copy at my public library.)
  
  
• Understanding Analysis, by Stephen Abbott. You mentioned you're learning real analysis. I taught a real analysis course this past semester using this book, and it's the one from which I learned the subject myself in college. Abbott writes amazingly well and makes the subject matter clear, inviting, and significant.
  
  
• I also recommend flipping through the volumes in the series The Best Writing on Mathematics. They have been published yearly since 2010. There are bound to be at least a few articles in each volume that will appeal to you. Moreover, they contain extensive lists of references and other recommended readings. I own a copy of each one and am nowhere near completion reading any of them because they always lead me elsewhere!
  
  Hope this is helpful!

All of them, really. Absolutely no harm will come from reading all the books out there (for a while). At worst, you'll learn ways of doing things that DON'T work for you but it's still good knowledge to have.

After a while, eventually, you'll start noticing though that all the new books out are just copying and rephrasing the books that came before them. That's when it's time to stop.

Some of the popular ones are syd field's book, Robert McKee's book, Joseph Campbell's book (and imo a book called The Writer's Journey by Christopher something that analyzes Campbell's book and puts it into modern story telling terms). That'll get you started. I have varying opinions of each of those books and none of them should be adhered to by law, but they ALL contain concepts and theories that, as a professional writer, you'd do well to expose yourself to. If for no other reason than that you can be aware of the concepts when others talk about them.

Tangentially, Stephen king's On Writing and William Goldman's books are great reads but don't necessarily apply to the craft of screen writing directly. Also useful to read any interviews or collections of interviews with screen writers. You may also want to check out some podcasts, Jeff goldsmith's interviews with screen writers is great and I have no idea if it's still available or even what it's called but I used to listen to one titled something like Sam and Jim Go to Hollywood (I am positive I got those names wrong) about two guys who up and quit their careers as restaurant owners and moved to Hollywood to become writers and share what they've learned. Ted Rossio and Terry Elliot also run, or ran, a website with forums (which are eh) and and a collection of articles about screen writing which are fantastic.

This was all stuff I was into years ago, so I don't know how much of it is still relevant, because like I said when you get to a certain point you've kind of read everything out there and it all starts repeating itself, and you realize all that's left is to read screenplays and write a ton.

Good luck.

e: back on my computer, here are some links:

Syd Field's Sreenplay (he has several books out, that's the one you should start with as it lays the foundation for basic story structure of nearly all modern movies. IMO, it's also the best one out there because he never says these are rules in any way, he simply analyzed a bunch of movies and lays out his findings for you to do with as you wish)

Robert McKee's Story

Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces

and Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey

Stephen King's On Writing which describes his writing style and, while I don't prefer it, is a very interesting style similar to the Cohen Brothers

William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie did I Tell? two accounts of William Goldman's experiences as one of the top writers in Hollywood, and dealing with the business. Writer of The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, and many others. Dude's a legend.

Jeff Goldsmith's Q&A podcast he also did the same style podcast while working for a screenwriting magazine, though the name escapes me right now

Sam and Jim Go to Hollywood holy shit I got their names right I can't believe it. Seems to be dead for a few years but it looks like their podcasts are still up.

Wordplay, Ted & Terry's website read every single one of those articles

e: BONUS! Not that useful as an educational resource, but it's fun to read Ken Levine's blog, writer on MASH and Cheers Ken's blog (no, not the guy who made BioShock)

> I don't see God as a person or personality but rather as infinite intelligence which we are connected to

What do you mean by infinite intelligence? Where does it come from and what is it based on? How do you view the world in light of this infinite intelligence? Was it created by this intelligence or did the intelligence pre-exist or is the infinite intelligence part and parcel of the universe? And if it's the latter, then how did the world come about, i.e. do you believe in a creator?

And if you don't mind, what do you base your view on? What I mean is that there is usually some basis for one's belief, some scriptural source which is believed to be divinely revealed or inspired, some reason based argument, etc. How do you come to this particular belief? Is it just one that appeals to you?


In Islam God is the creator and sustainer. He is distinct from creation. When we pray to God, we are declaring that we are slaves in submission to Allah and such a status is the highest and best a creation could possibly be. Praying for something (ex. a job) is recognition that we have no power and all power and provision lies with God and it is only through Him that we may obtain something we want.

Angels and Jinn are creations just like us. Angels are made from light and Jinn from fire, so in a sense, I suppose you could consider them as made from energy though not in the new-age energy kind of view.


>I find it hard that there's a person who listens and is then like "Yes/No" and decides everything.

Why do you find it hard to believe that there's an infinite One entity that decides everything? The God of Islam is not a man in the sky with limited time and resources. He is eternal and knows everything, decides everything, and does everything. You wouldn't even be typing this reddit post without His willing to do so. He encompasses everything and is closer to you than your jugular vein, yet is distinct from his creation.

And though He has infinite intelligence, to say that this is all He is would be to limit Him. Have a look at the 99 names of Allah, each a characteristic of His.

My recommendation would be, if you haven't already done so, to read a biography of the prophet Muhammad (sawa). And the Qur'an.

What everyone said is correct: math, math, math, and enjoy your last summer ;) You may also want to learn how to code in C++ or Fortran (yes, yes, it's ancient, but pretty much all NASA codes are written in C++ or Fortran) or even Matlab, if you have access to it.

Also, if you want to read some inspirational type books: Kelly Johnson's Memoir, the man basically invented Skunk Works. I also loved Flying the SR71, which is all about the Blackbird. It may sound corny, but Rocket Boys is my go-to book and/or movie when I feel discouraged and like I can't hack it as an engineer. And Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was really interesting to me.

What I found pushed me through the grueling classes, assignments, 50% on a test... was my passion for space exploration and propulsion methods. So I suggest in addition to the math and enjoying the free time you have left that you find what makes you passionate to be an engineer :). Because sometimes, at 2 am in a computer lab, after staring at the same chunk of code for 3 hours and not understanding why it doesn't seem to friggin work out... passion is all you have!

Best of luck to ya!

If you don't run barefoot, but think you could be interested, I suggest that, as it will strengthen your feet like mad...but take it easy and pay attention to what your feet are telling you. No pain, no gain, won't pay off here, just make you miserable. Before beginning a running routine, I'd suggest reading Born to Run for a fun, interesting, and enlightening true story read...it is very motivating, and will lead you to the rabbit hole. To go down the rabbit hole, I highly recommend reading Barefoot Running: Step by Step...do this before starting any barefoot running. This book the real deal, with very helpful and accurate information, with references to literature and research for you to follow deeper. The explanations of what to do, how to do it right and wrong, and why, but in very easy to understand language. IMHO and professional opinion. The only drawback is you have to wade through his personal story, but's still worth it.

For the issue of some or a lot of people having problems with what you do with your feet. Educate them, if that is a possibility...win them over with a dose of red pill. If not, and for other reasons, such as misguided store owners, restaurants, etc...I recommend Xero huarachas. The Ventures are the next best thing to barefoot me. They are inexpensive, and you can buy kits for DIY. I started with Ventures, then a kit. Nowadays, I make my own from scratch with my design improvements. Any of these suffice for shoewear where it is required. I've never had someone snicker at my sandals, rather I get positive comments, and "where can I get a pair".

If education doesn't do it, and your tribe/village are too intolerant, find new ones. I know, it's easy for me to say this...I live in an incredibly tolerant city (Asheville NC) where it is almost impossible to stick out like some weirdo. I was initially concerned about what people thought of what I have going on below my ankles, but with experience and time, I grown in confidence, and my care for what others think has unraveled to nothing...if they don't like it...pffft! It's their problem. I'll still be running when they are likely hobbled by knee replacements, thousands spent on crippling shoes and foot orthotics, and otherwise buckets of pain. I'm 51, and do about 20 miles a week, and only saw the light 3 or 4 years ago, thanks to the books mentioned above. I now hike barefooted, even a late summer trip up to a glacier field in Alaska last year.

> That might be true for a small minority. Almost all rich people get rich by virtue of being born rich.

That used to be more or less true, but since about the 1980s, the new rich have vastly outnumbered the old rich, especially in the USA. Now inherited wealth accounts for a really tiny percentage of the population of millionaires. Go check out the Forbes list of the richest people in America and you'll see that most of the richest people in the country are first-generation billionaires.

> If you really believe that a substantial number of rich people are rich because they saved every penny and ate beans, you're being naive.

Actually, if you believed that, you'd be not too far from the truth, though obviously simply eating beans doesn't guarantee wealth.

If you want a detailed exploration of the trends around this (based on actual research), The Millionaire Next Door is a good place to start. Most people worth over a million dollars got that way either by living frugally while running their own businesses, or via a liquidity event such as their company being bought out.

Hiya! I'm a recent physics/computer science graduate and although I can't think of any super cool handmade options off the top of my head, there are some physics books that I find interesting that your boyfriend may enjoy. One solid idea would be just about anything written by Richard Feynman. Reading through the Feynman Lectures is pretty standard for all physicists, though there are free versions online as well. There are a few others, such as The Pleasure of Finding things Out and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. There's also a cool graphic novel that recounts the events of his life called Feynman by Ottaviani. If you're not familiar with who this guy is, he is a colorful and concise orator who won a nobel prize in physics. His biggest contributions were in nuclear physics and quantum computation, and his quirks make his explanations of these topics very interesting. The Feynman Lectures are more formal, while his personal books are a mixture of personal experience and explanation.

 
Something else that I typically gift all of my friends who are problem solvers interested in physics is the book Thinking Physics. This book is great for developing some high level intuition in every field of physics (mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, etc.). This book is great because it's broken into small digestible sections that build your knowledge as you solve more of the questions (solutions are given).

 
Good luck!

I’ve become consistently profitable for a little while, so here’s a brain dump of the things I wish I had caught on to slightly earlier. Sorry for the novel...

You can use investopedia to look up anything you don’t understand, but most any site or you tuber is going to try to sell you some sort of system. Honestly these are for suckers and the best thing you can do is just get in there, trade the minimum and garner up some experience. The psychology is different and you’ll likely have a lot more nerves once you have lost a handful of trades with real money. After a few wins you’ll likely be tempted to up your lot size but you really shouldn’t and instead pace yourself until you’re really confident. Stick with one or two pairings at first to really understand the tendencies, not all charts and indicators are created equal.

As far as books, my favorite is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. It’s something you’d likely want to give a read or listen a few times as you gain experience. There’s a decent number of lessons in there that will resonate at different stages in your career. I’m on my third listen and still finding things I didn’t see as relevant at the time. https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lefèvre/dp/0471770884

Other than that one book, I wouldn’t suggest spending any money on educational materials. Youtube should be sufficient, but don’t be tempted by the shiny offer at the end of each video. Instead try and just take the good. These guys don’t make money from trading, they make money from selling manuals. If they had a magic bullet, they’d use it and be driving their Bugatti or what have you instead.

Side tips: Trade, don’t gamble. If you’re unsure, it’s a gamble. Stick to your time frame and don’t rely on indicators to tell you when to trade. This can be tough, but you’ll understand how to use them as confirmation instead of signal in due time. Always take the time to understand what the indicators are telling you and always take news into consideration before making a trade. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. I use almost all of the default time frames to paint a complete understanding and as additional confirmation to what I think I should do (M1 M5 M15 M30 H1 H4 D).

Finally, if you feel like you’re most of the way to your profit target, I (personally) like to just take the guaranteed profit and move on to my next idea. The market can have unexpected changes in sentiment and it’s often not worth throwing away profit for the last 10-15% of a movement.

My mantra is “modest daily gains are best gains.”

I don't remember if I had finished it, but I found What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry to be interesting (and it's especially interesting to consider in light of the trend toward cloud computing - if counterculture influenced the personal computing revolution, what cultural force is pushing us into the cloud?)

Not related to hackers or the computer revolution at all, but I also very much enjoyed Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture.

There are also a lot of fun stories on https://www.folklore.org/ relating to the creation of the original Macintosh. Along those same lines is the documentary from 1995 called Triumph of the Nerds. You can find it on YouTube.

If you want to see something truly amazing, go watch The Mother of All Demos. Or rather, first imagine yourself in 1968. Intel had just been founded earlier that year. The moon landing was still ~ 6 months away. Computers were things like the IBM System/360. UNIX was at least a few years away, much less the derivatives like BSD. OK, now that you have the proper mindset, watch that video. It's pretty amazing to see all the things that they invented and to see just how many have survived to this day.

Welcome to /r/Islam :)

About the basics of Islam, read this
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Firstly, Praise to God. I am sure alot of other people will answer better than me, but I'll try. First off, for Muhammed (saw) in the bible, here is a very interesting video by a former Christan youth minister titled - "How the Bible Led me to Islam"

His story is so interesting because he figured out that a through read of bible itself made him realize something, and convinced him to study other religions in which he found finally found Islam, his story is something every typical Christian should hear.

Secondly, You said:

>I'd like recommendations for a quran translation.

I personally believe that people willing to learn about Islam should read the biography of Muhammed (saw) first to get a grasp of the message of Islam, how it spread, and how we come to respect this man as the greatest of all creation. The best book I recommend is Tariq Ramadan's Book about Muhammed and his life.

Once you've done that, I recommend an exegesis over a translation because your understanding is enhanced.

But a good translation is: http://quran.com
An exegesis (recommended) is: http://www.amazon.com/The-Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199535957

Hope that helps.

A complete defense of the character of the Prophet is a bit of a tall order for a reddit comment, and I'm much too underqualified to provide it given that I myself am a recent convert still learning the seerah.

If you'd like, you could bring up specific claims and I could do my best to point you to answers, but frankly, though I know relatively little about the life of the Prophet, his family, and his companions, what I do know about him couldn't be further from the barbaric, power-hungry sexual deviant that people might try to portray him as.

In 1928, Mohandas Gandhi is recorded as saying the following of the Prophet in Young India:

>I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet and the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.

As far as I can tell, this is the best English language resource on his life. I think all serious thinking people owe it to themselves to honestly investigate why this man is held dear by almost two billion people. Instead of dismissing his followers as poor souls misled by malevolent forces, he should be approached without the biases of a religious agenda.

Salaam Sbadiglio. Thanks, but the important thing to remember is that there are other Muslims just like me all around the world, and I'm not even that good. I'm not a shiek/imam, and I do sin, whether I know it or not. However, I do ask Allah for forgiveness for the sin I do. Alhamduallah Allah knows best.

Are there sins so great that could get someone beyond redemption? The most dangerous sin is shirk, that is idolatry or polytheism. It is important to emphasize that in Islam, there is no God but Allah. Can shirk/murder/fornication/etc be forgiven? It is up to Allah. However, it is important for Muslims to quickly recognize that if they are sinning to quickly stop doing the sin and ask forgiveness and to prevent themselves from sinning again. Intention is also important; what is in your heart is the true intention.

are you free to read it and take "lessons" from it by yourself or is there only one way for everyone? A couple of things: 1) Translated versions of the Quran are not the Quran. The Quran is only the Quran if it is in Arabic. In addition, the Quran is an -immensely- complex and logical book. True scholars in Islam do not just read the Quran, they read the hadiths (stories of the Prophet Muhammed peace and blessings to him) associated with the sura (chapter), they study for years and years the scholars before themselves, they spend incredible amount of time, wisdom, and energy deriving lessons from the Quran. But you might ask yourself, if the book is so complex, then how is it supposed to be a manual for humanity? Well, at the same time, the Quran lays out simple laws for the common man to obey. Do not cheat on your wife, do no injustice to your fellow man, do not oppress, eat halal and spend your money on charity, pray 5 times a day, fast during Ramadan. These are simple laws that everyone can follow. So, in essence, yes you can read the Quran, but -understanding- it is a different thing. To understand the Quran, I highly recommend going to a mosque, watching Islamic videos (the good, authentic ones with sources), taking classes, talking to fellow Muslims, reading Islamic books and really diving into the history of Islam. I really recommend you read this book. It is about the Prophet Muhammed, peace and blessings upon him. It's a good first step.

do you think that muslim face discrimination in the world nowdays? No doubt about it. Somewhere around the world, there are people being discriminated for their race, belief, ideas, religion, etc. One of the worst sins is oppression. Oppressing others/not treating them fairly is very bad. We must be mindful and proactive about stopping this discrimination/oppression. If you see a child treating another child unfairly, we must teach them the right way to treat one another.

Yes, well media is media, they have their own agenda and their own intention. But alhamduallah there is no greater force than Allah, and I would rather be a bum who is a devout Muslim than the King of the finite world
who is not Muslim. It is this inner serenity, this peace that Islam has that cannot be brought or challenged.

Salaam friend!

I plot out the major arcs of both the story and the characters. I make sure to nail down the essentials of what is happening when, as well as developing a good understanding of my character motivations.

For me, a lot of planning involves just taking the time to mull over the themes I want to work with, or explore questions I want to raise. This involves asking a lot of questions to everyone I know, everyone I meet. It makes for great party conversations!

It takes a few months, during which time I'll also explore what's already been written/said about what I'm hoping to do. I look at similar movies and books, anything at all that's already been produced that has themes or topics similar to what I'm developing.

I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books.

As a concrete example, my most recent novel is about what would happen if everyone in the world stopped sleeping.

I spent months asking everyone I knew what the longest was that they stayed awake. I also read pretty much the only comparable thing on the topic, a fictional novel called "Sleepless" by Charlie Huston. I also read articles on sleep and neuroscience, as well as watched TED talks and other related videos.

Then I conducted a sleep-deprivation experiment on myself. I wanted to know what it would be like to not sleep. (I am a wuss and didn't make it that long- I need sleep more than the average bear apparently!)

This novel is in the style of World War Z (early title: World War ZZZ, huehuehue) and so it involved a lot of characters. Too many to keep track of in my brain, unaided.

I had index cards for each one, as well as drafts notes (using Scrivener- hurrah!). I got really comfortable with character creation. I read Stephen King's On Writing and O.S. Card's Characters and Viewpoint.

I was able to craft an overarching narrative by determining which characters would inject the story with which elements, and placing them where they needed to be. They got moved around a bit as I went on, but throughout I was very aware of the overall flow of the work.

Through careful planning, the actual writing (80,000 words) only took about seven weeks. I am a machine when it comes to word output, if I've done my (months and months of) homework. A second draft saw a lot of that cut, and more added in to bring it up to 86,000 words in three weeks of the hardest work of my life.

For me, planning is super important. If I don't plan well enough, I waste days. Days where my story goes off the rails, or my characters do things which don't make sense.

It's wonderful to see some things happen more fluidly, and I've had lovely surprises this way, but I always stop and think about if that is really what I want to be doing before I proceed.

I hope this long winded reply answers your question. I do enjoy sharing this sort of thing, and I hope it helps other writers do what they love to do.

This is it man, You've got to treat this moment as your last chance. You will fail but you will recover.


Whatever your feeling is temporary. It's ego death.
Figuring from your username, you think a lot.
That's a good thing in general, it means you care. But it's debilitating.

Quite simply, grow a pair of balls. Quit trying to live the world through your thoughts, live in the real world, be present in every moment.

Personally, I would wrap myself in my thoughts as a safe haven. I have tons of good ideas, but I never had the balls to manifest them. I liked being in my safe world where I was god and nothing could harm me.

The only problem with this is that it's fucking lonely. I may elevate my ego by convincing myself the world is shit and I know better than everybody else. I believed that I had the solution to everything; but it's shit, it's all shit, it was me lying to myself to stay in my protected metaphysical bubble where I'm god. Nothing could humble me.

There's nothing wrong with such a meaningless existence, I didn't harm anything, I didn't bother anything, I was miserable but I didn't make the world a worse place. I rationalized that what I did was ok.

But that was bullshit: That's me, that's my story.

But that's also past tense. I would get glimpses into this other realm of consciousness; a feeling of oneness with everything, or belonging, or happiness. It's why religion is so popular, we'll all suffer through this shit together praying that such and such will stave off our meaningless existence; give purpose to a purposeless world.

You have to find something important for yourself, this feeling will go away. How do you get back to it?

Mainly, how do you quite the rational mind, and let the intuitive self guide you?

• Remember when you rationalize, when you put your awareness to that component of the mind, everything else gets less energy. The world is not nearly as linear as your rationality would have you believe.
  To fix this I read Chaos by James Glieck. It thought me how much I can actually gain by thinking; it's not much. We can only grow through new experiences, if we think all the time, we don't get to work with new information.
  
  But that only led me to understanding, how do I take it to the next level of application?
  
  
• This is where I am 98% sure you will fail. The only reason I am writing this post is an exercise to experience my own growth. From a philosophical sense, I can't even verify your existence; how do I know reality isn't just a computer simulation and everything else is a program. The truth is I can't. You'll fail unless you except that this is the only truth. This moment, there is nothing else. The thoughts you have are very real, but only in the certain synaptic patterns your connectome has involved into. In the grand scheme of things, no matter how smart you are. That is your whole worth, that is all you are. If your only your thoughts, that is all you are. Only the neurons firing in your brain. The brain is powerful and can trick yourself into believing that your thoughts are more important than your physical surroundings, but that's your choice.
  
  Quit philosophizing. There is nothing more paralyzing than searching for an overall understanding. That understanding is god, or what people like to call god, or faith, or being, or whatever strokes your ego. I'm an atheist. But I pray to God ALL THE FUCKING TIME. The truth is God does exist. But it's in the manner of his existance. God is your brain, your brain is God. That is all. You are a fucking human. You are a part of the species that eats and shits and dies. You are the part of the species that can contemplate its own existence, sends rockets to mars, manipulate genetic information, communicate 5,000 miles away instantly. You are part of THAT FUCKING SPECIES. Your potential is just shy of infinite. The choice is yours. You have the power of God, not in some benevolent, bullshit, religious, make myself feel good about my self sense. But in the sense that YOU can make the changes you see fit in the world. If you're a thinker, and seek understanding, your ideas are better than 99.9% of the world.
  
  What I did:
  read proverbs in the bible. No bullshit, it talks about God's true being. But it has to be dug out. The beginning of knowledge is fear of the lord. And fear of the lord is fear of death. Hopefully that's a big enough hint on how it should be read. It can't be read with any preconceptions about anything, it has to be read when your experiencing the experience you felt earlier.
  
  Exercise: So FUCKING important. And where you will fail. Start running, read this book www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347142293&sr=8-1&keywords=born+to+run
  we are much more like animals than you wish to believe. don't give up.
  
  Have sex. But not in a nondiscriminatory manner, find someone who you can make feel special And have AWESOME FUCKING SEX, ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Because there are few things, and especially few natural things which will make you feel this good, especially with and for someone you care about.
  
  Solve problems, seek understanding, hold wisdom above all else.
  If you have the balls, do yoga.
  
  Be accountable, I'll be that person for you, keep this post as a journal. It can be something we share. Maybe other people will read it and learn. Most likely not, I doubt you will. But I will, for what it's worth. I'll post every fucking week. Because fuck it; I'll expose my life to the world. It's the least I can do.
  I hope you choose to do the same. We could help each other, I just started on this path and could use advice as well.
  
  Most importantly, quit searching for meaning and be the meaning.
  Become the change you wish to be in the world.
  
  To answer your question, How do I give a shit about the world again?
  Give a shit about yourself first. Then you can have the capacity to give a shit about the world.
  
  tldr:
  
  Good now your getting it. This was too long, you shouldn't have read this post. Get the fuck of Reddit, Get the fuck off the internet. Get the fuck out of your mind, grow a pair of balls, do something you think you can't.
  
  Always remember you can. You may think you can't, but it's only a thought.

Let me start with the basic. We love all of our Prophet's like you love Jesus Christ, but we do have a special place in our heart for Muhammad. He was a man who was deeply worried about peoples soul. He told people to avoid the temptation of Satan and to worship the god of Abraham. No one can be a Muslim and reject Jesus Christ at the same time. So when Jews become a Muslim they accepted Jesus. He was very compassionate and caring

I had a Funny conversation with a christian once. He came up to me and we talked about religion. He then concluded that I didn't worship his God. I replied thank goodness.. Because I worship the lord who created the heaven and the earth and everything in between and then I asked him who he worshiped ( BTW the conversation ended with him telling me who I worship, because he refused to let me worship ' The one true God, God ' )?




Start with lectures to actually see what Muslims lecturer teach their general population (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLVPT3bB9nk).

http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Life-Based-Earliest-Sources/dp/1594771537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449867261&sr=8-1&keywords=prophet+muhammad

I know it's not explicitly geared for short stories but The Nighttime Novelist is my go-to text for how to think about structuring a larger work. Though I have yet to publish my first novel.

Short story writing is very different. Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction and Stephen King's On Writing are both wonderful craft books that shed some of the practicalities of the Nighttime Novelist and look a good writing in its simplest form.

Much more important than nonfiction books, though, is finding short story markets you'd like to read. Figure out what kind of place might accept the most perfect form of the fiction you'd like to write, and then read those magazines religiously. While you're reading, do what you can to consider what these stories are doing well and how they are pulling off what they are pulling off. Use the vocabulary learned from craft books to better articulate (to yourself, mostly) what these stories are really doing, and begin to generate a sense of what good writing looks like. Then practice, practice, practice, write, revise, and write some more until you've got something worth sending out.

At this point in your writing development, the name of the game is simply learning to write well--keep that in mind, and try to make decisions based on what will help you become a better writer. And finally remember, there is such a thing as "practicing well."

The answer, as usual is: it depends.

If you want to invest your money, then there's no better time than now. However, the implication is that when you invest that money you have to leave it sit long enough to do it's work.

At 19 and wanting to invest, you have time on your side. You need to be able to stomach volatility in the market and not get excited when your stocks rally for 30%, nor should you despair when the stocks plummet by 40%.

Traditionally speaking, the stock market averages between 6%~8% a year, which is much better than any savings account you're going to find. However, you shouldn't treat it as a savings account because volatility will almost certainly put you in a bad position to sell whenever you need the money most.

If you feel like you can stomach that volatility and turn a blind eye to both the rallies and collapses, then the stock market may certainly be for you. If you are NOT looking to place your money in good companies for a long period of time (10+ years), then it's my opinion that you are simply speculating... in which case you may as well go to the casino.

If at this point you have decided that you would like to invest in the stock market, you now need to figure out the degree of involvement you would like to dedicate.

If you're looking for a simple hands off investment, then you should just invest in an index fund such as VFINX, SWPPX, or QQQ.

Index funds closely track the performance of the market and charge minimal fees. They are pretty much totally hands off on your part, and are the Ronco of stock investing. Just set it and forget it, and enjoy your ride on the market.

A step above that are mutual funds. They actively try to beat indexes, but charge a fee to do so. There are mutual funds for any style of investing, and people tend to choose mutual funds that coincide with where they think success will lie. That means choosing foreign or domestic, stocks or bonds, and even individual sectors like technology, retail, energy, etc.

The world of mutual funds is vast, and provide an opportunity to beat the market, but it comes with a price. I'll leave the rest up to you to do your research.

Finally comes individual stock picking. Picking individual stocks is the highest risk, but also have the potential for the highest returns. Also, there are no fees except for the fee for purchasing your shares.

There is also a lot to this world, as I'm sure you know, but if this route interests you, then I would suggest you pick up a few books, beginning with The Intelligent Investor.

This book is, in my opinion, the best introduction out there to investing for long term wealth.

Finally, since you're so young and you seem to have an eye out for your personal finances, I absolutely recommend you read The Millionaire Next Door.

Good luck!

Meditations is a great book. That's one of the only books I'll almost always have on me. I've been focused on coding books lately, but otherwise I'll often pick that book up if I have a few minutes to read.

Regarding habit building and practicing, there were a few books I've skimmed over the years regarding that topic, but a lot of them feel like they're saying the same thing. Many habit forming books are a bit more like a self-help book, which is totally fine of the book gives you ideas and insight that you apply in order to acquire the results you want in life.

I'm a bit more interested in science and philosophy for 'managing myself' style books, so I have two recommendations.

Buddha's Brain - This book talks about meditation and mindfulness from a neuroscientific perspective. It shares ideas and practices based on facts and does a fantastic job of connecting a lot of 'woo woo' meditation gospel to measurable changes in the brain. You'll learn about ways you can train your brain while learning about what's going on under the hood, that way it isn't just about finding your center (which is a bit too abstract for me).

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - This is possibly one of the greatest philosophy books ever written (in my incredibly limited opinion). It's a story about a guy traveling on a motorcycle across the country with his son. During the trip, you get to follow along with the guy's deep trains of thoughts as he mentally works through an enormous body of thought surrounding ideas like values and quality.

The first book is more practical. You'll get step-by-step methods for meditating and nurturing the growth of your brain, and those ideas can also be applied to forming habits. Forming habits can also be thought of as training your brain to handle routine tasks with as little resistance as possible. If you're trying to exercise more often, resistance might pop up in the form of "I'm tired" or "This is uncomfortable" or "I can skip today and start up again tomorrow". Ideas like that take practice to notice and disregard in order to move forward with something you know you should do but may not fully want to at that moment. Overcoming those internal objections is quite possibly one of the hardest steps in the process of forming habits because your mind will come up with all sorts of escape routes to get away from something that makes you feel uncomfortable (like exercising for the first time in a while). Discipline is the act of staying with the habit by catching yourself when you start looking for these escape routes.

The second book is still plenty practical if you give the content the time and patience it deserves. There were a lot of points in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where I had to put it down for a few days and think through what I just read. It's a deep book, but it has the potential to give you an idea that could fundamentally change the way you approach skill development and application.

Enjoy!

So, I have some audiobook recommendations for you. In your learning you may have come across a theoretical physicist named Michio Kaku he is an incredibly intelligent person who has an excellent way of phrasing things to keep them understandable as well as an entertaining overall style. He has lots of great video clips on YouTube

I have two of his audiobooks (you could get the regular books instead if you want I suppose) and they are absolutely fantastic to listen to on a long drive (I have a 9 hour drive each way a few times a year to make) or even just chilling in the bathtub for a bit. Any way Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future are amazing.

Another person worth getting into if quantum mechanics tickles your fancy is Richard P. Feynman....that there is an entertaining man. Again you can find really old lecture videos he did on YouTube as well as I highly recommend his autobiography (which I again have on audio) is fantastic. Now, a disclaimer about that, there isnt much actual science talk in it but he explains, from his very interesting point of view, how he goes about learning and discovering the world. It may very well help you shape a new understanding of the world around you and grow a greater appreciation for material you are learning. The greatest thing that struck me in the book was when some fellow students of his asked a question about French curves, and he had a very simple and obvious answer but they hadnt put it together....he mused that it meant their knowledge was fragile and not well understood, that they merely could regurgitate a product but did not have a true grasp on what it is that they were doing....Ever since then I have been so frustrated (in a good way) while getting my ME degree because I WANT TO DEEPLY UNDERSTAND. I'm sick of just knowing on the surface and being able to go in and pass the test...I want to build an incredibly solid foundation of understanding.

Also, if you go on YouTube, check out TEDTalks as they are very informative and knowledgeable about many different things not just math and science.

Also, some channels I subscribe to on YouTube are Numberphile, MinutePhysics, Periodic Videos, Sixty Symbols, and VSauce ....oh and look on the sidebar of the VSauce page for other channel recommendations.

In all seriousness, welcome to the fold, its comforting in here.

Excellent write-up but missed a few things. The first (minor one) is losses to transmissions; the more fancy the transmission the more likely it is to steal some of that sweet, sweet horsepower on its way to the wheels. CVTs are nice for the obvious benefit of infinitely variable ratios, but they lose a fair amount in the process.

Transmissions aside, the main factor you excluded was the ratio speed per energy used rather than power per energy used. The easiest example of this for ELI5 is the SR-71. They found that it was most efficient at max throttle, it would be burning twice as much fuel but it would be going more than three times as fast. Pointing out the integral of distance vs speed is probably above the ELI5 level but power per gallon per hour isn't the measure of automotive efficiency over MPG for a reason. If you make 200 hp at 8 gallons per hour, but can make 180 at 9 gallons per hour going 30% faster (perhaps losing the 20 hp to drivetrain at speed) you are still going to go further with the same gas. The most efficient RPM/throttle at the highest point on speed per fuel is going to give you the best MPG.

Airplanes have a lot of great data that shows all the variables if you really want to geek out about it. PDF page 132 of the Cessna 172 POH has some great tables showing all the variables of altitude, temperature and RPM setting with % maximum power, air speed and fuel used. Ben Rich's book [Skunk Works] (https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003) also dives into great detail on the efficiencies at high mach.

I pretty much only read non-fiction, so I'm all about books that are educational but also interesting :) I'm not sure what your educational background is, so depending on how interested you are in particular subjects, I have many recommendations.

Naked Statistics and Nate Silver's Book are both good!

Feeling Good is THE book on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is good, as is Eating Animals (granted, Eating Animals is aimed at a particular type of eating)

Guns, Germs and Steel is very good.

I also very much enjoyed The Immortal Live of Henrietta Lacks, as well as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman :)

edit to add: Chris Hadfield's Book which I haven't received yet but it's going to be amazing.

I just came across this post via I-don't-know-how (this isn't my area of subreddit), but really enjoyed your posts.

> I was being "brainwashed" into choosing this life

What society thinks it knows about successful marriages couldn't be further from the truth. Given that you play the crucial role of housemaker, you will truly appreciate, and learn from, this read:

Millionaire Next Door

Research shows how vital you are to your family's success, and so many of your details line up with the demographic in the book. You are truly an unsung hero in society today, and a blessing to your family.

> I struggle with the opinions of others frequently as my friends will make snide/rude remarks regarding my life

Haters gonna hate. They wouldn't know what a strong woman looked like if they were slapped in the face by one. (You will really enjoy MND)

One book that may be helpful for answering your questions is Self Made Man. The author spent about 18 months living as a man, in some all-male spaces (the monastery seems cool, but I'm positive that if I went to one of those Iron John camps, I'd be murdered). In the end, she had a nervous breakdown. Along the way she learned totally positively that she is neither a transvestite nor transgender. If Norah (the author) ever comes to Denver, I'd like to buy her a drink.

Two previous links on this subject that I've saved are:

http://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/271fnm/changing_sides_in_a_sexist_world_share_your/
http://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/2797ax/ftms_how_jarring_is_the_switch_to_the_male_social/
I'm certain that there are others. But I think these anecdotes from people who have been both genders, and the jarring differences that they experience might be something you ought to read. Things like:

> I wouldn't call it the better gender, though things are much easier in a lot of respects. I was recently promoted to electronics at Target. My boss basically said, "you're a guy so you must know a lot about electronics". My female coworker, who obviously knows more about electronics, had to fight tooth and nail to get the same position. She and our boss still but heads occasionally because he treats her as if she is incompetent. I think that's it really. When you're a guy, for the most part you are assumed competent until proven otherwise. With women, the opposite happens. You have to prove yourself competent before you're offered anything.

Another good book that I think you might be interested in is Whipping Girl.

Your Writing;

Some good writing in your details and solid word images. You have a good sense of humor, I would have enjoyed more of your dry timing. The story and characters, that was very difficult for me to follow. The paragraphs seemed to dance, move to one thing or another, almost like it didn't need to connect. They did connect but It felt to me I had to work hard to get it.

I stopped when Owen got to Lake Tahoe.

I found it hard to understand when it's the Mc thinking, or a dream, or something else. It didn't feel very real to me. I didn't get a any sense of a 'when', no sense of time passing, nor a viewpoint that let me understand what I was reading.

I thought Owen was a type of kid I wouldn't much like to hang out with. The red haired girl, not sure. Good world building, a firm start.

Other ways to get better feedback;

If you want to avoid bad habits before starting, be clear about how much help you can get here. Ask specific questions about areas you think don't work. Post a small intro, maybe just a scene or two from a chapter. Start a bit smaller. Build up from there.

The best help I see comes from very specific questions about your work.

More detailed critiques can be found at the link shown below. There they will read all of it and give very detailed responses, however there is a catch. You have to do a 1:1 ratio of other works in order to receive the same. So you'd have to complete a high level critique of a 2,500 plus story, then you would get the same.

If you don’t follow this rule, your post will be marked as a leech post. And if your leech post has been up for 24 hours without any new critiques from you, it will be removed.

[Destructive Readers](https://www.reddit.com/r/DestructiveReaders/ "The goal: to improve writing and maintain the highest standard of critique excellence anywhere on Reddit. DestructiveReaders isn't about writers being nice to writers; it's about readers being honest with writers. We deconstruct writing to construct better writers." )

Sharing the writing process;

A lot of us here are working and struggling with becoming better writers. So you are not alone in this painful process.

I myself find the task of becoming a good writer very daunting. I only keep going because I create a belief in myself. After that I go through the slow hard swim in the deep dark oceans of the unknown. I have no directions, no compass, only fear which if allowed becomes an anchor.

It would be good to know something about your skill level, things you've already read to improve crafting stories, classes you've taken, daily exercises or how much you write each day.

Myself; I do a daily poem, then write from 5/6 am to 9 am, that will be either my current novel or on a short I plan to submit to a magazine. I listen to Podcasts and do exercises from Writing Excuses

Books I use as my reference on writing;

• Song Writing Without Boundaries by Pat Pattison
  
  
• Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
  
  
• On Writing by Steven King
  
  
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr and E.B. White
  
  end
  
  
  
  
  

Here are a few I think are good:

Getting Started

On Writing: This book is great. There are a lot of nice principles you can walk away with and a lot of people on this subreddit agree it's a great starting point!

Lots of Fiction: Nothing beats just reading a lot of good fiction, especially in other genres. It helps you explore how the greats do it and maybe pick up a few tricks along the way.

For Editing

Self-Editing For Fiction Writers: there isn't anything in here that will blow your writing away, land you an agent, and secure a NYT bestseller, but it has a lot of good, practical things to keep an eye out for in your writing. It's a good starting place for when you are learning to love writing (which is mostly rewriting)

A Sense of Style by Steve Pinker: I really loved this book! It isn't exclusively about fiction, but it deals with the importance of clarity in anything that is written.

Garner's Modern American Usage: I just got this about a month ago and have wondered what I was doing before. This is my resource now for when I would normally have gone to Google and typed a question about grammar or usage or a word that I wasn't sure I was using correctly. It's a dictionary, but instead of only words, it is filled with essays and entries about everything a serious word-nut could spend the rest of their^1 life reading.

^1 ^Things ^such ^as ^the ^singular ^their ^vs ^his/hers

Publishing

Writer's Market 2016: There are too many different resources a writer can use to get published, but Writer's Market has a listing for Agents, publishers, magazines, journals, and contests. I think it's a good start once you find your work ready and polished.

There are too many books out there that I haven't read and have heard good things about as well. They will probably be mentioned above in this thread.

Another resource I have learned the most from are books I think are terrible. It allows you to read something, see that it doesn't work, and makes you process exactly what the author did wrong. You can find plenty of bad fiction if you look hard enough! I hope some of this helps!

I think that sort of forgetting about the inheritance is maybe the best thing you could have done.

most inheritance is wasted.

you knew you were over your head, so you did nothing and went about your life as normally as possible. many people wouldn't have the discipline to do what you did. they'd have bought a new BMW, flown to Cabo 8 times, etc. and now they'd have only $15k left and be kicking themselves wondering where it all went.

I think you're trying to honor your grandmother's memory, and don't want to screw it up. is so, that's the right attitude. and I think you have the right foundational skills. you also live frugally, you made wise choices with your education etc.

if you want to visit a financial adviser, I'd recommend a few things.

• first, shop around. visit multiple people until you find someone who makes you feel comfortable.
  
  
• second, look for someone who is more a teacher and less a salesman. they shouldn't bully you, pressure you, or talk to you like you're inferior. they should use their education and expertise to give you advice and help you decide. don't do something simply because an MBA tells you. do it because you understand it and think it's a good idea.
  
  
• keep it simple. one of professor thomas stanley's findings (see below) was that most wealthy people have investment strategies of almost brutal simplicity. they don't go for the fast buck, get rich quick. they invest slowly, steadily and consistently over a period of decades. they rarely invest in anything other than mutual funds and property.
  
  
• finally, don't mention that you're sitting on half a million during the first consultation or two. you want someone who's gonna give you good advice, respect your time and goals, and take you seriously as a client, whether you've got $4000 or $4million to start investing.
  
  > She was by no means living a fancy lifestyle
  
  most millionaires are actually very frugal. you might want to go to the library and see if they have copies of Thomas J Stanley's books. he was a professor who studied finance, specifically high-wealth people. he basically found that you can either be rich (lots of cash or investments) or you can look rich (fancy lifestyle, cars, etc). many who earn high incomes are actually broke, because they're spending all their income on status items, high-end new cars, huge houses in upscale neighborhoods, boats, etc. they're so busy trying to look rich that they don't have cash left over for savings and investing. in contrast, people like your grandmother are truly wealthy specifically because they lived modestly, didn't care about impressing anyone, didn't go to the country club, and made a priority of building wealth.
  
  his first and maybe best known book was "The Millionaire Next Door." one of his findings was that there were more millionaires in blue collar/middle class areas than in upscale/white collar areas. why? because doctors and lawyers etc are under more pressure to live a fancy lifestyle. nobody expects a farmer or a plumber to drive a BMW and send their kids to private school. so if a farmer and a lawyer both earn good incomes, who's actually more likely to save and invest? That's right: the farmer. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1478299059&sr=8-4&keywords=thomas+j+stanley
  
  I also like his book Stop Acting Rich. https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Acting-Rich-Living-Millionaire/dp/1118011570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478299059&sr=8-1&keywords=thomas+j+stanley
  
  and stanley's website. he died only last year. http://www.thomasjstanley.com/publications/

There are a fair number of popular level books about mathematics that are definitely interesting and generally not too challenging mathematically. William Dunham is fantastic. His Journey through Genius goes over some of the most important and interesting theorems in the history of mathematics and does a great job of providing context, so you get a feel for the mathematicians involved as well as how the field advanced. His book on Euler is also interesting - though largely because the man is astounding.

The Man who Loved only Numbers is about Erdos, another character from recent history.

Recently I was looking for something that would give me a better perspective on what mathematics was all about and its various parts, and I stumbled on Mathematics by Jan Gullberg. Just got it in the mail today. Looks to be good so far.

I second the reading idea! Ask your history or science teachers for suggestions of accessible books. I'm going to list some that I found interesting or want to read, and add more as I think of them.

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Title explains it all. It is very beginner friendly, and has some very entertaining stories. Bryson is very heavy on the history and it's rather long but you should definitely make every effort to finish it.

Lies my teacher told me

The greatest stories never told (This is a whole series, there are books on Presidents, science, and war as well).

There's a series by Edward Rutherfurd that tells history stories that are loosely based on fact. There are books on London and ancient England, Ireland, Russia, and one on New York

I read this book a while ago and loved it- Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk It's about a monk who was imprisoned for 30 years by the Chinese.

The Grapes of Wrath.

Les Misérables. I linked to the unabridged one on purpose. It's SO WORTH IT. One of my favorite books of all time, and there's a lot of French history in it. It's also the first book that made me bawl at the end.

You'll also want the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Federalist Papers.

I'm not sure what you have covered in history, but you'll definitely want to find stuff on all the major wars, slavery, the Bubonic Plague, the French Revolution, & ancient Greek and Roman history.

As for science, find these two if you have any interest in how the brain works (and they're pretty approachable).
Phantoms in the brain
The man who mistook his wife for a hat

Alex and Me The story of a scientist and the incredibly intelligent parrot she studied.

For a background in evolution, you could go with The ancestor's tale

A biography of Marie Curie

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is a quick and easy read, and very heavy on the adventure. You'll also want to read his other book The Hot Zone about Ebola. Absolutely fascinating, I couldn't put this one down.

The Devil's Teeth About sharks and the scientists who study them. What's not to like?

Elon Musk's [biography] (http://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233) if you don't own the book look [here] (http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37839.0):

"I mean, if you do a densified liquid methalox rocket with on-orbit refueling, so like you load the spacecraft into orbit and then you send a whole bunch of refueling missions to fill up the tanks and you have the Mars colonial fleet - essentially - that gets built up during the time between Earth-Mars synchronizations, which occur every 26 months, then the fleet all departs at the optimal transfer point."

“And then one of the key questions is can you get to the surface of Mars and back to Earth on a single stage. The answer is yes, if you reduce the return payload to approximately one-quarter of the outbound payload, which I thought made sense because you are going to want to transport a lot more to Mars than you’d want to transfer from Mars to Earth. For the spacecraft, the heat shield, the life support system, and the legs will have to be very, very light."

I think MCT is going to be really really big and feature a lot of Raptor engines so that it can cut the travel times to Mars. It is probably going to have the highest propellant to mass ratio ever. Every drop of performance is required, but SpaceX isn't a fan of having multiple fuels, Merhane/Lox is going to be the only fuel type to reduce complexity and cost (Methane is the cheapest hydrocarbon.)

Earlier posts by me:

"The performance gain for a fuel tank using densified propellants vs a non densified one isn't so great but it certainly gives a small boost to the rocket. You aren't doing a densified rocket because you want more thrust from the engine, you want slightly more fuel to fit in the tanks so that it has increased performance. As I (amateur rocket scientist) understand it, the reason why Merlin 1D+ has more thust is because the LOX and RP-1 molecules have a higher density so that the mass flow increases. By consuming slightly more mass with the same volume as well as driving the turbopump harder the engine has more thust with no physical changes. By using Methane the same applies, only that here the slightly higher performance of using densified propellants is essential to be able to transfer really heavy cargo to Mars in a fully reusable configuration. Here every single drop of performance is needed and example the heatshield, and landing legs need to be very light."

"Yes, currently boil off is a great deal but long term storage of cryogenic liquids are possible as long as the fuel tanks have good insulation properties which would also increase mass. Supercooled Liquid Oxygen would boil of at a higher rate than a supercooled liquid Methane tank. A Methane rocket can have a common bulkhead and requires no pressuration system which would decrease the mass of the vehicle. This 'lost' mass can be used elsewhere, example to insulate the tanks or make a cooling cycle."

Summary:

If the MCT has an efficient fuel cooling cycle the vehicle doesn't need to be fueled with densified propellants because it will cool them down by itself when the time comes to depart or the final refueling ship arrives. When coasting between Mars and Earth the tanks will be mostly empty and the contents will float inside the tank only needing a little insulation in the tanks and a cooling system that maintains the temperature. When it arrives at Mars the fuel is cooled down and the MCT lands propulsively.

It's very important that the rocket engines uses densified propellants to not encounter combustion problems! Otherwise it would be like trying to run a petrol car with diesel. The Raptors are made to combust densified methane and lox, not wormer methalox

yes in the physics community Feynmans like a god

He's well known for many things in popular culture. He was on the committee that investigated the space shuttle Challenger disaster and on live TV he showed that the o-rings lost their elasticity in the cold by simply dumping the o-rings in ice water.

He was also an artist and a very good bongo drum player. He was instrumental in popularizing Tuvan throat-singing in the West. Back Tuva Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00000GC1U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_H01vDb1JENG4N

He was perhaps the father of nanotechnology. He wrote a very famous paper and presented at a conference called "there's plenty of room at the bottom" it sparked people's interest and imagination in the field of nanotechnology.

But of course the most interesting aspect to Feynman was his combination of genius, intellectual honesty, and curiosity. One book that I couldn't recommend highly enough is the one I mentioned earlier
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_D31vDbF44F7T1

Along with some really great critiques of modern science such as "Cargo cult science"

and of course if you like physics he wrote a great book called "six easy pieces" along with a three-volume set called the 'Feynman lectures of physics"

I did a double major Electrical Engineering / Physics at the undergrad, and did advanced study in quantum mechanics. Look at the Nova series The Elegant Universe. The book is also very well written and highly recommended. Brian Greene is very good at explaining the flavor of advanced physics.

Honestly, I would learn this level of physics, and be satisfied. You can dive deeper and learn proofs and equations, but that won't really enrich your understanding. At a certain point, most of what you do are looking at is just equations that describe things that are true, because the numbers tell you are, but don't have any macro correlation.

Here is an example: it's neat to know what the impact of something "spinning" one way means in terms of what other elementary particles it can pair up with, but this doesn't help you understand quantum mechanics. Spin has no meaning at these sizes, yet they have angular momentum. Why? Because the numbers tell us it does.

If you do want to dive deeper in to physics, like people have recommended, the Feynman lectures are the go to standard for Physics texts. In fact, "surely you're joking, mr. feynman" is a great biography of an interesting man.

So TL;DR - you can get a good understanding of quantum mechanics at a high level, but diving deeper won't really teach you much more at a fundamental level.

Wow, that is a question I haven't gotten for a long time. My fav. books are mostly the ones I wrote actually - all of them are in Swedish, but this one made it over seas - sadly it became digital and not a paperback, but I guess it is the change of time.

I find it really hard to tell you my fav. books by other authors - there are so many and I appreciate them all for different reasons. I am going to say Treasure Island for a list of 20 specific reasons (that I can't list here because I would probably come up with even more...), Masters Of Doom - for the pop-culture explosion and the thrilling documentary way it is told and finally Roald Dahls "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More". This book have some of the strongest, scariest, interesting and beautiful stories I ever come across.

Oh, and I totally agree with plays. I am a huge fan of screenplays. I actually wrote an Episode to the 2011 animated show "Thundercats" but it never made it to the show before it was canceled :(

The struggle with all new writers is that your taste will always exceed your ability in the beginning. You want to write because you've got a story or an idea that speaks to you. You probably know what makes a good story, which is what makes writing so enticing.

But like an art critique who wants to try their hand at painting, it can be a frustrating experience. You just have to keep trying.

As far as writing materials go I personally recommend On Writing by Stephen King. His methods don't work for everyone, but it's a great start. Try listening to the Writing Excuses Podcast, or watch Brandon Sanderson's creative writing lectures on youtube. (Here's a link to the playlist I am currently watching. It's fabulous.)
I also enjoyed Make a Scene. It is excellent at breaking down difficult concepts.

Other than that, just look around. Google writing blogs for tips, track down the blogs of authors you like, read as much as you can in the genre that you want to write. If you're consistently working towards improving your craft, you will improve. The more time you put in, the faster your improvement will be.

I've been reading this book recently called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I've not finished it yet but I couldn't recommend it highly enough to everyone here.

He talks about ultra runners, people who run 50+ miles. The best runners, he notes, are those that do it for fun. It applies to anything in life, and his examples are amazing to read and something I shall apply to every important area of my life.

When I found the right reasons & goals for running, in this case, I made it fun and I've not had to struggle to get out of the door like I used to. I've always been competitive so I currently use my previous times and distance as goals to beat. That will eventually need to change as I hit my limits.

I understand you're just starting out so you're still finding your feet, so to speak, but if running is something you truly want to incorporate into your lifestyle, C25K is the right springboard to start with and maybe check out the book too for some inspiration.

For anyone saying that Islam is only a political system coupled with bible verses. Political interpretations of the biography of the Prophet (pbuh) have been made in the last 100 yrs in the midst of decolonization mouvements in the middle East. Political power was not what motivated Muhammad. If it was, he would have accepted the deal the Quraich tribe came with, which was to give him any riches, any power that he wanted in exchange of stopping to proclaim that there was one God. Slaves, poor people and some youth were attracted to his message (because it was empowering) and it was causing trouble to rich and powerful members of the tribe that saw that as an assault on their honor and a challenge to their authority and customs. So to the propositions, he answered : "May you would to put the moon in one of my hand, and the sun in the other one, I would never stop to say that there is one God." Something like that. Along with reciting verses from the Quran. How about considering that he had very very few follower for 12 first years, that they were prosecuted and banned from their city only for saying that they believed in one God. I mean, what are the chances that this strategy would have been seen as the most effective and the best one to gain power over the arab tribes and form a state ? Like, seriously ? You have seen a lot of historical figures that were politically motivated that their main strategy was to proclaim that there was one God against all of people around them. Give one example of an historical figure that used that deliberate strategy to gain political power. So, read another biography that is not motivated by political ideologies applied on history. I recommend this one and a contextualized version of the Quran like this one for furthering research outside of anti-muslim or pro-islamist narratives. Peace !

Congratulations on your new job!

I applaud your desire to learn more about investing and finances. One of the earliest influences (and had the biggest impact) on my life in that area was my high school American History teacher, and I'll never forget what he taught me. I learned that it was important to save early, use the power of compounding, and take advantage of employer matching whenever it is offered. If you can do the same for your students, you will change their family trees forever.

You don't need a financial planner. They don't have a crystal ball that tells them how the markets are going to perform. You have what it takes to become educated in the world of finance, and are intelligent enough to choose your own investments. It's not even that complicated, what it boils down to is LBYM (living below your means), saving regularly, and investing your savings. Read about, and practice the Bogleheads investment philosophy. There is a lot of information in that link, so take your time and go through it all. If you want some reading that isn't so dry, you can check out The Wealthy Barber from your library. The Millionaire Next Door is also a great read. And if you want an inspirational read, The Millionaire In You is one of my all time favorite personal finance books.

Good luck!

This is like a super-sized version of the Globe and Mail's Financial Facelift column: Our net worth is $2M, can we afford to retire?

Personally I'd start by reviewing The Millionaire Next Door. The authors point out that most millionaires -- i.e. people with net worth of $1M or more -- basically live the same way as everyone else. It's a good perspective to keep in mind: it's a lot easier to do financial planning when you're planning for a normal lifestyle ($50,000/year, maybe up to $100,000/year), not something crazy.

They also have some useful advice about making sure your children don't become financially dependent on you. (Not sure that buying your child a house is a good idea. From the child's point of view, being able to say "I did it on my own" is worth quite a lot.)

How old are you? Planning is easier if you're older. You'll probably live to about 85; say 95, to be safe. If you're 50, you need to plan for 45 years. If you're only 30, you need to plan for the next 65 years.

Are you going to continue working? Or will you need to support yourself entirely from your capital?

Let's assume you won't be working, and that you have a long time horizon.

The usual advice is to follow the "investment pyramid" idea: have more of your money in low-risk investments (the bottom of the pyramid), with less money in higher-risk investments.

I'd suggest putting 3/4 of the money into GICs (you don't need to take big risks, so it's probably a good idea to keep most of the money safe); that'll earn about 2% at the moment, maybe 3-4% over a longer time period (expected nominal return on bonds is about 3.7%, according to the Canadian Couch Potato). At 2%, that would be $300,000/year.

Bank deposit insurance via the CDIC (covering the risk of bank failure) only guarantees $100,000 at each institution. If you're trying to make sure your entire $15M of GICs are covered, you probably want to look into provinces which have unlimited guarantees for credit union deposits.

And then I'd put the remaining 1/4 into equities. Canadian Couch Potato suggests 1/3 in the Canadian index (VCN), 2/3 in equities outside Canada (VXC). This portion will go up and down, but over the long term, expected nominal return is 7.2% (again, according to the CCP).

> Realistically, what sort of lifestyle do you think I can afford now? How much money would you spend on a house, how much would you save for a rainy day?

I'm basically saying I would put all of it away for a rainy day, and continue to live a regular lifestyle. You may be thinking, well, what do I get out of having $22M in the bank?! Two things: you don't need to work, ever (of course you can continue to work if you enjoy it), and you have ironclad financial security. You're only living off your investment income, not your principal.

What if you want a more extravagant lifestyle -- say, putting $5M into a house in Vancouver, and spending $500,000 a year?

Then I'd start looking at annuities. If you're getting closer to the margins, you want to make sure you're not going to outlive your money. You want to find an insurance company that you're pretty sure will be around 65 years from now (!), and that will sell you an annuity. Basically you give them a giant lump sum, and they pay you a fixed amount every year until you die.

I think you should also submit this question to the Globe and Mail's Financial Facelift, see if they print it.

I highly recommend "Journey Through Genius" by William Dunham for people with an interest in math, but maybe with not much background yet.

Each chapter talks about one of the great theorems in math, starting with the ancient Greeks and ending with Cantor. The chapter explains some history behind the problem, and provides motivation for why the question is interesting. Then it actually presents a proof. It's a great way of getting exposure to new ideas, proofs, and is a nice survey of a wide range of math. Plus, it's well-written!

Personally, I don't think learning something like, say, category theory makes sense unless you've had some more higher math that will provide examples of where category theory is useful. I love abstraction as much as the next mathematician, but I've learned that it's usually useless unless you have a set of examples that help you understand the abstraction.

Awesome! I recommend taking whatever physics classes your High School offers along with as much math as possible. I also suggest taking advantage of the website Kahn Acadamy. Another good site for asking questions and learning more is http://www.physicsforums.com/ it's very active and you can learn a lot there. For keeping up with physics and science, I like the site http://phys.org/

A good book I would suggest starting with, while non-technical, but is an interesting read is Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynmann. Another good resource is the Feynmann Lectures on Physics, you can read them for free online now here: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

And another awesome resource would be the Physics teachers at your school. Talk to them about what your interested in and they might be able to talk to you more about it!

If your high school doesn't have what your looking for you could also look into taking classes at your local community college as well.

Not a book, but I can share a few videos that I've found inspirational during some rough times with mathematics...

Fermat's Last Theorem -- This is a documentary on Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's last theorem. It's also probably the most emotional video I've ever watched about math. Highly recommended.

Fractals -- This is a neat NOVA documentary on fractals. In particular, it provides some inspiring history regarding Mandelbrot's discovery and journey with this subject.

Everything is relative, Mr. Poincare -- Another exceptional and inspiring documentary.

The only book I can recommend is Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, which provides an excellent treatise on the history of mathematics. From the book description

> Dunham places each theorem within its historical context and explores the very human and often turbulent life of the creator — from Archimedes, the absentminded theoretician whose absorption in his work often precluded eating or bathing, to Gerolamo Cardano, the sixteenth-century mathematician whose accomplishments flourished despite a bizarre array of misadventures, to the paranoid genius of modern times, Georg Cantor. He also provides step-by-step proofs for the theorems, each easily accessible to readers with no more than a knowledge of high school mathematics.

It's a very good read, and not too gigantic. Good wishes your way, mate.

> When I see bizarre, broad generalizations being made about women

When you run into something like this you should always try to think about what the other person's life experience might be that leads them to their beliefs.

For example: Let's say you meet a man, or a teen, who tells you "women don't like sex". A man who thinks this may have a life experience of growing up both unattractive and being surrounded by male friends & family who are also unattractive. In his life experience, as well as those he is close to, women will express little to no sexual desire in front of them. Sometimes women will do this as a self-defense measure against catching the attention of men they are not interested in. Other times this man's life experience will be constrained because he's never been around when women meet attractive men. This can happen because we all live in our own social bubbles and often don't pay much attention to others outside of our bubbles.

An unattractive man who lives his life around other unattractive men may spend his lifetime never seeing the "I want you" look in a woman's eyes. If he never sees that look, weather at himself or those around him, he may not believe it exists.

Back in the days we all lived in small towns you may have an entire town of unattractive men who have never seen women expressing sexual desire. With our more mobile country and social media it's becoming harder to be so sheltered, but it still seems to happen from time to time. I think it probably is more common among teens because they tend to be more self-focused.

>If someone, especially a women, wants to give you a little nudge in a different direction it might actually, maybe be worth considering.

If she's a lesbian who's been in relationships, than sure. But if you've never had the experience of seducing another woman then any advice is dubious at best. Most people lack a good amount of self-awareness so to believe that women know what they want or what they respond to is just incorrect. Even the NYT knows that women don't know themselves:

>All was different with the women. No matter what their self-proclaimed sexual orientation, they showed, on the whole, strong and swift genital arousal when the screen offered men with men, women with women and women with men. They responded objectively much more to the exercising woman than to the strolling man, and their blood flow rose quickly — and markedly, though to a lesser degree than during all the human scenes except the footage of the ambling, strapping man — as they watched the apes. And with the women, especially the straight women, mind and genitals seemed scarcely to belong to the same person. The readings from the plethysmograph and the keypad weren’t in much accord. During shots of lesbian coupling, heterosexual women reported less excitement than their vaginas indicated; watching gay men, they reported a great deal less; and viewing heterosexual intercourse, they reported much more. Among the lesbian volunteers, the two readings converged when women appeared on the screen. But when the films featured only men, the lesbians reported less engagement than the plethysmograph recorded. Whether straight or gay, the women claimed almost no arousal whatsoever while staring at the bonobos.

One woman learned the difference between men & women when she went undercover as man and she wrote a great book about her experience. Here is an interview with her.

And I have these in my list on amazon. Would love to get some opinions on them:

 

How to Win Friends and Influence People

by Dale Carnegie

 

Secrets of a Freelance Writer: How to Make $100,000 a Year or More

by Robert Bly

 

Words that Sell

by Richard Bayan

 

Tested Advertising Methods

by Caples and Hahn

 

Writing That Works

by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson

 

Confessions of an Advertising Man

by David Ogilvy

 

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

by Al Ries and Jack Trout

 

The Robert Collier Letter Book

by Robert Collier

 

Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose

by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee

 

Letting Go of the Words

by Janice (Ginny) Redish

 

Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers

by Harold Evans

 

Can I Change Your Mind?: The Craft and Art of Persuasive Writing

by Lindsay Camp

 

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

by Roy Peter Clark

 

Read Me: 10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy

by Roger Horberry and Gyles Lingwood

 

Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: The Classic Guide to Creating Great Ads

by Luke Sullivan

 

WRITE IN STEPS: The super simple book writing method

by Ian Stables

 

On Writing Well

by William Zinsser

 

The Wealthy Freelancer

by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage and Ed Gandia

 

Write Everything Right!

by Denny Hatch

 

The Secret of Selling Anything

by Harry Browne

 

The Marketing Gurus: Lessons from the Best Marketing Books of All Time

by Chris Murray

 

On Writing

by Stephen King

 

Writing for the Web

by Lynda Felder

 

Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

by Ann Handley

 

This book will teach you how to write better

by Neville Medhora

I'm a software engineer here. I made mediocre money with 10+ years of experience. I freelance now, make less but do things on my own terms


Programming in Japan is not what it is in the U.S. or other tech hubs around the world. You're more likely to make 4 - 7 million / year ( roughly 40 - 70K USD ) instead of the starting 8 - 9 million yen ( 90K ) / year in the U.S. Entry level in Japan is both competitive and hard to get (IMO). There are a lot of talented junior engineers or soon to be engineers so the market isn't really in need of them. It's mid - senior positions that are obtainable.

I also fancy myself an amateur writer, but could never go through what Steven King details in his book, "On Writing." Reading every moment and writing 8+ hours a day just sounds daunting.


If you really do want to get into programming, I would bank on your personality, language skills, and tenacity to get you a job vs. your programming skills. My recommendations:

- Start going to dev meetups and make some friends. People are often the best way into a good position. Finding a mentor is good, too.

- Put 40+ hours into a personal project that you show off to people. Could be a command line utility or some sort of web application that makes your life better.

- Start practicing with leetcode.com. You should aim to solve easy problems in less than 45 minutes. Don't let "easy" fool you, optimal solutions are difficult. You'll need to start studying CS concepts to get through them.

Based on your questions and lack of knowledge, keep your money in a savings account. Spend a couple of months learning about investing, how to read financial reports, how to decipher an 8k and 10k report. I don't mean this to be condescending, but if you start investing now or in six months, there will be almost no difference in your earnings, but there could be a huge difference in your losses unless you take some time to learn about the various investing methods, theories, and the actual hows and whys.

Start reading Peter Lynch's One Up on Wall Street, Beating the Street and Learn to Earn.
Each brings different things to the table. Again, please take no offense, but Learn to Earn is probably where you should start. It's aimed at teens/young adults learning about investing for the first time.

I'd recommend hitting up the library for these. When you get to the library, you'll find shelves of books on how to invest. Some are useless and others really good. Read a few chapters in each. If you have questions, run it by this board. There are plenty of people here who are more than happy to share their mainly educated opinions. And the good thing about reddit is that if one of us says something wrong, others are quick to correct or offer their two cents.

I'd also recommend The Millionaire Next Door, The Black Swan and the Richest Man in Babylon. while these last ones aren't how to invest, they are books about why and how we invest.

I'm a Taleb groupie and read everything by the man. I loved Black Swan, and also loved Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorderso you may want to try that one when your reading pile dwindles.

Keep saving, but take your time investing. Learn the basics, stick your toe in and then take the plunge.

Mr. Baird, I believe you and I are on the same page. There has to be the situation and an awareness on the part of policymakers for an industry to grow. For instance, my hometown Shreveport, Louisiana invented the modern video game industry, but there was no sense that this was a real industry and once they had the money they were gone. Here is a great book about that: https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155

In a case like that I just wonder if Shreveport ever had a chance, because it is anything but cool and I don't know how you could hold on to a bunch of young rich guys who could live anywhere.

Perhaps it was the same thing with Microsoft which was born in Albuquerque and moved to Seattle as soon as it was a money making business, but I don't think Seattle was that cool. For young guys with a lot of money cool does matter.

Lincoln, Des Moines, and Columbia, Missouri can compete on good schools, cost of living, and general quality of life to people in their thirties, but not to people in their twenties. They really want to live somewhere cool in a way old guys often forget - unless they sell real estate or sports cars.

I enjoyed your answers.

I don't think there will ever be a perfect rule that can be applied across all possibilities without fail, but for me one of the major things I look for is whether the author is a respected scientist actively working in the field (or, if they're retired, had an active history in the field).

So your Gazzaniga and Brown books I wouldn't even hesitate to recommend to others, without even having read them. It helps that I've read other books by those authors and their research, but their names alone are enough for me to give them a tick. Of course that doesn't guarantee that they're good books, but if you're asking for a rule on how to judge a book before reading it, then that's probably going to result in more success than failure.

The second thing I look for is whether the author has a history of writing polemics and intentionally controversial books in order to increase sales (a sort of "clickbait" approach to books), and whether their names are associated with criticism for misrepresenting basic issues in the areas they discuss. As such, people like Gladwell and Pinker would be ruled out by this.

>I'd also love to hear /r/skeptic 's suggestions for reading specifically about learning, drive, motivation, discipline...

My personal suggestions would be:

Understanding Behaviorism - William Baum (touches a little more on rigorous academic work rather than being a purely pop work, but still has some good pop chapters).

The Science of Self-Control - Howard Rachlin

Breakdown of Will - George Ainslie

Some related books but not directly on those topics:

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks (It's a cliche suggestion but still a good book).

Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience - Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld (More methodological issues with neuroscience research and reporting).

Delusion of Gender - Cordelia Fine (Critical look at some of the research on gender differences).

Your Money or Your Life was a pretty good book that explained this well. The audiobook is narrated by the author and if given the chance, I'd hold her underwater until the bubbles stopped. She had the worst voice I've ever heard.

The Millionaire Fastlane was also a readyy good read. Highly recommended.

The Millionaire Next Door was a fantastic read and the book that got me started thinking about financial independence and the concept of FIRE. It's a bit dated (late 90s I think) but still some amazing information in there.

Check us out at /r/financialindependence and /r/leanfire. If you haven't, definitely visit /r/personalfinance and check out the sidebar and wiki - there's some AMAZING information and guides for all ages and walks of life.

I wish so hard that I found out about this stuff and had the resources available now when I was 18, and not when I turned 31. But oh well, such is life.

/u/typhuslol do feel free to PM me if you want to chat! I'm happy to share the lessons I've learned in the past few years of pursuing financial independence!

Masters of Doom. Fantastic book. I grew up around the time it was all happening, but never knew what was going on, just that these amazing games were being released by this tiny company. The two Johns and Chris Roberts (who created Wing Commander) made me want to be a game designer. Or rather, I had wanted to be one from the age of 4, but they showed me that it was possible for one person to come up with something amazing. I've read this book about once a year for the nostalgia.

I also recommend reading Jordan Mechner's journals on the making of Prince of Persia. The guy kept tons of records of everything about making the game. It's pretty amazing to read. His journals are available on Amazon as well.

So, I think I am the kind of person you are describing. I have a pretty great job, so I usually just buy my own technology stuff. Not only that, but I am rather picky with technology stuff, so even if someone did get me something like that, I would act excited and happy, but in the back of my mind I would secretly wishing they did more research before buying the thing that they did.

That said! If I were buying for me, I would go with something like the hyperbole and a half book (http://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179), or something by the creator of the XKCD comics (http://www.amazon.com/Thing-Explainer-Complicated-Stuff-Simple/dp/0544668251/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449202837&sr=1-1&keywords=xkcd).

If it has to be tech related, there is always http://www.thinkgeek.com - they have tons of fun, nerdy gifts that I would like. All of these things combined are probably way less than $1,000. That is just a lot of money.

Another random suggestion - if they were ever into pokemon, this is a dream come true: Gym Badges! https://www.etsy.com/listing/128753018/pokemon-kanto-gym-badges-gen-1?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_b-accessories-patches_and_pins-pins_and_pinback_buttons&utm_custom1=a91c90fb-48c1-4024-87f9-fb14aadac033&gclid=CjwKEAiA7f-yBRDAgdv4jZ-78TwSJAA_WdMaz_NXsXrFH_0f-Mb6ovmqqcCHto-b7S6zm1DplssHQhoCNuvw_wcB

Similairly, it is the first generation(s) of imigrants who historically in America are very productive and start more businesses, while their children often don't inherit that trait at all, but instead already have the wealth they need because of their parents. Read about it in The millionaire Next Door (classic)

Feels like the wealth and riches are more a product of what makes a person productive and happy, but the wealth itself doesn't necessarily create more happiness when only inherited.

>Seems to me, if you wanted to be in good shape, there are much better ways to do it then spending months training to run an large yet arbitrary number of miles.

Most people do not run marathons simply to 'be in good shape.' That's one benefit of many but an erroneous framing of the issue. You can run to set a goal and meet it. It's not arbitrary; it has a history.

This usually starts out running a lower set of miles and working up. It's seeing tangible benefits for a constructive use of time. This is an important mental foundation of any kind of running but it often feeds into shorter-distance runners pushing themselves to a limit they've never envisioned themselves meeting. This is an emotional high that is very hard to match, though it is not exclusive to running.

Also, some people simply enjoy running. The fact that you see it as merely something to do to stay healthy is inevitably going to ignore that it is also something people can do for fun even if it's not your thing. I don't really see why people enjoy yoga even if I acknowledge some health benefits, but people who take part in yoga are also part of a community and a subset of fitness culture and also enjoy the act of taking part in it.

Building on that, there is a running community, ranging from ultra-marathon runners (if you think ~24 miles is bad, try 100+) to Hash Harriers. Individuals coming together as a group to set a goal and push each other is something from which a lot of people derive personal utility.

Finally, there's nothing that says long-distance running is ipso facto bad for you simply because it is long-distance. There is an argument to be made that much of human evolution focused in some part on the necessity of running for survival. You also need to acknowledge that some people, such as the Tarahumara, have an entire culture that revolves around long-distance running that surpasses the average marathon and colors everything ranging from education and holidays to courting and dispute revolution.

I can't really speak for nipple issues because I wear a sports bra, but needless to say it really shouldn't be enough to tip the scales from all of the above just because it doesn't fit one's neat aesthetic preference for athletic beauty.

Doing something for personal reward, community, and culture is not masochism.

EDIT: I forgot to add that marathons are super accessible. You don't even need to formally sign up for an event in order to run one. It's an egalitarian form of competition - either against yourself or others - that basically requires a shirt, shorts, shoes and fortitude. Some even view shoes as optional. Compare that to hockey, golf or football where they require investment in protective gear or pay-per-play course access at the least (at the most, a membership at a club.)

Everyone else can help you figure out how to move jobs/locations etc, but maybe you need some advice on how to deal with the situation now?

Find purpose. Just like people have basic physical needs, like to sleep and eat and drink, we also have basic psychological needs and the need for meaning and purpose is the deepest driver of wellbeing there is. If you find meaning in what you do, you'll be happier. I highly recommend reading the book 'Man's Search for Meaning' - it will completely change your mindset and help you get through every day right now - you don't need to wait or change your job for happiness. It changed my life.

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

It's short and easy to ready so give it go - read the reviews here too - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807014273/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is hands down the best book I've read for creative writing.

Stephen King's On Writing is also very good, but about half of it is a biography more than writing lessons; still interesting though!

Otherwise the best things you can do are to write more, read more (think like a writer though - why did they choose the words they did, the order they did, the perspective, etc.), and seek critique for your own work.

For more formal writing, the most important part is keeping it organized. For example, once you get comfortable with the 5-paragraph formula, you just modify it to fit your need each time and you can pound out an essay in no time once you have your research on hand.

I am super interested with no background too! I read Neuroscience For Dummies on my kindle. The format was a little wonky, so I recommend getting the paperback. It was interesting and a semi-easy read. I went to Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson and the topic was The Science of the Mind. It was great! I chatted with Cara Santa Maria and asked about her recommendations for interesting neuroscience books. She said I'd love The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. I've been meaning to read it! Also, checkout Amazon's best sellers in Neuroscience. Read reviews and see if they fit your interest. Let me know if you find anything interesting.

That's not wholly fair--several of us have provided good information, not faux scholarship or atheist reactionary rants!

I do want to throw in a few extra points to go with yours. I agree that pre-Islamic Arabia was not as barbarous as is sometimes assumed, however the reforms that Muhammad ushered in were often welcome and needed--giving women rights for example, and forbidding female infanticide.

It is true that we have no proof of Muhammad's illiteracy. Indeed, the first word of the first Qur'anic verse (in terms of chronology), 'iqra (أقرا) can be translated either 'read' or 'recite' so it sheds little light on that (source--Dr. Jamal Badawi's writings and classes).

The Qur'an was written down and compiled under the aegis of Uthman ibn Affan, as we've discussed elsewhere in this thread.

I also agree that many joined the early ummah out of a desire to improve their lot. This wasn't limited to Arabia; when Islam began to spread out from there it was originally meant to be an Arab religion and conversion was discouraged, however many converted in order to enjoy the same benefits as the Muslims did.

A lot of this is made very clear in the best seerah (bio of Muhammad) available in English, which is Martin Lings' Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. A caveat on this book: Lings was a faithful Muslim and wrote from a faith-based position, so it does lose some scholarly objectivity. However its a great read and its easy to maintain your own objectivity as you read it.

Also, Ira Lapidus' A History of Islamic Societies has a good section on pre-Islamic Arabia, as does Albert Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples IIRC.

I recommend all three books to anyone wanting to pursue this subject further.

Thoreau: Walden, although non-fiction, may be the closest.

Ram Dass: How Can I Help, also non-fiction, has stories that are perhaps what you are looking for.

Ken Wilber One Taste. Wilber's meditative "journal" for a year. It's one of my 5 top books ever.

Ken Wilber: Grace and Grit. "Here is a deeply moving account of a couple's struggle with cancer and their journey to spiritual healing."

In another area are Carlos Castenedas books, which came out as non-fiction but there have been arguments they are fiction, and I don't know or mind either way. They are based on shamanistic drug use, but I believe it all is possible without drugs.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

I have not read (Lila) Kate Wheeler's works, but I have heard of them. I've not read them mostly because if I can't get them at the library, I am too cheap to buy them.

Not Where I Started From

Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree is a collection of works and the authors there might lead you to more of their works.

I did read Bangkok Tatoo which has some Buddhist meditation themes in it, but it wasn't really to my liking.

The Four Agreements is said to be like Carlos Casteneda's books, but I have not read it.

Bottom line, I've read a lot, and I can't find any matches in my memory for Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. If I think of any I'll add it as an edit.

If you find anything interesting, please pm me, no matter how far in the future it is!

---

Edit: as per the reply below, I've added here if anyone has "saved" this post:

I thought of two more, these actually should be higher on my earlier list:

The Life of Milarepa : "The Life of Milarepa is the most beloved story of the Tibetan people amd one of the greatest source books for the contemplative life in all world literature. This biography, a true folk tale from a culture now in crisis, can be read on several levels.... "

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which was the start of all books titled, "Zen and the Art of ____." "One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better."

> I am fairly ignorant on the different options available to me as far as investing goes, but that's what investment companies are for, isn't it?

Absolutely. We have a financial advisor that keeps a close eye on our money, and he's more than earned his pay. But I think it important to educate yourself enough to develop a functional BS detector. Otherwise, you won't know what to expect in different market conditions and will have a tough time picking an advisor.

We got in with our guy nearly ten years ago because he maintained the value of his clients' portfolios in the dot-com crash while still delivering good returns during market upswings.

I'd recommend interviewing a couple of advisors before picking one. Don't be shy to ask how they get paid. Many of them get commissions based on selling particular financial products. Get up and leave as soon as you hear that. Others are limited to selling a particular set of products. That would also make me nervous. Part of the reason we picked our guy is that he takes a flat commission off the value of our portfolio (originally 1%/year, now around 0.75%) and can get us into all manner of financial products including options, commodities, etc. We primarily hold mutual funds and individual stocks, though.

> but if people who are making moves on Wall Street do what they have done recently, there is no guarantee that my retirement fund will have any value by the time I'm ready to draw on it. My dad has been investing in his retirement for decades, and in the last two years, it lost $50k in value.

There's no sure thing. You have to do something with your money and realize that holding cash has its own set of risks, particularly now that we have a madman with printing press in charge of our central bank.

FWIIW, our portfolio value dipped in 2008/2009, but we were fully recovered in value by mid 2009. We recognized the housing bubble for what it was and stayed out of that sector. My parents were blindly turning over their money to a manager who had them heavily invested in Fannie and Freddie. They lost a couple hundred large in the 2008 crash, and it's not coming back.

> Do you have any advice on where to start learning without having to spend every hour after work piddling with it?

Four of my favorites include One Up on Wall Street, Fail-Safe Investing, The Black Swan, and How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes. The first book talks about picking individual stocks (gave me the confidence to load up on AAPL back when it was trading under $100/share), the second about structuring a portfolio for growth while still playing defense, the third about common fallacies and hubris, and the last about what drives an economy (particularly useful for recognizing bubbles).

Is this at all helpful?

Our first home computer —
Was a Dick Smith "System -80" with fake wood
panelling and a built in tape deck. It had a pretty
awesome keyboard and 16 Kb on a green screen.

The 1st game we bought in 1981, "Penetrator"
came in a plastic ziplock baggie with photocopied
manual. I think we played this for months, until
we found the local TRS -80 meet up at some high
school after hours.

A bunch of shady middle -aged men standing
around high speed cassette duplication machines,
with pocket knives jammed between PLAY and
FFWD buttons for high speed dubbing. We'd go
home pretty excited with C90's filled with Scott
Adams text adventures.

_

In hindsight, after reading David Kushner's
"Masters of Doom" I'm even more impressed by
the relatively smooth scrolling, sound and overall
production on "Penetrator" given the hardware.

I'm pretty sure it was also the first game for
a home computer to ship with a level editor that
you could use to build your own maps and save
them to cassette back in 1982.

Funny how things come full circle —
That cover art for "Penetrator" on ZX Spectrum
to portray the expected gameplay [ ! ] looks a lot
like "Eve Valkyrie". In turn, Philip Mitchell was the
Carmack -like figure at Melbourne House. Mad
respect to the early explorers.

There are two books that I recommend reading. On Writing by Stephen King and The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White. I have learned a lot from both. One of the best pieces of advice from King was; read a lot and write a lot. It seems too obvious to be helpful advice, but I started a reading regiment that matched my writing regiment. Soon I was studying books as well as reading them, and I learned a lot more about wordplay, grammar, and vocabulary.

As far as grammar is concerned, I want my writing to communicate my emotions to the reader. That's my ultimate goal. Sometimes that requires perfect grammar, sometimes that requires breaking the rules. Take The Road by Cormac McCarthy for example. He's basically thrown all grammar rules out the window for the sake of his story, and it's an excellent story.

One of my writing professors told me there are three rules to breaking rules, and they have become my favorite rules of all. They are:

1. You have to know you're breaking a rule.
   
2. Your audience has to know you're breaking a rule.
   
3. Your audience has to know that you know that you're breaking a rule.
   
   If you can accomplish those three than it's a safe bet you haven't lost your reader. However, readers will put down a book just because of the grammar, so we must be diligent.

VFFs are good for allowing barefoot form and not altering it otherwise. They need a strong warning, though...they are too good at protecting soles, and it is much easier to do too much, and overuse injure yourself. If bf from is not good, you'll get abrasive/sheering stress on the skin on the bottom of your feet. If form is dialed in pretty good, no blister problems. VFFs can protect the skin abuse, preventing you from receiving the message that form is not good enough, which can allow over-stressing other anatomy (Achilles and other tendons, calf muscles, etc...). They can mask cues that something is amiss, leading to false sense of security of good form, and you end up overdoing it and soreness or injury results. I prefer these huarachas for when running surface is too hot or sharp/rocky...they look better IMHO, but more importantly, they aren't so problematic as VFFs described above. Also, they slap loudly when form needs work, and are ninja silent when it is perfect.


Read this for fun and motivation, then this
for easy to understand details of kinesiology, and good bf from...it is spot on...everything you need to know is here.

With these questions you may really enjoy reading the book Masters of Doom. It's about id Software but it was the same time period as when Cliff Bleszinksi gaining popularity with his games (it mentions several of his games like Jazz Jackrabbit and Unreal).

It'll give you a great understanding of what the wild west of game development was like. It's really well written and surprisingly engaging.

Advice from Jerry B. Jenkins, and Stephen King's On Writing

For the writing process: be consistent. Try to write every day, or almost every day. Try to write for a set time or reach a set word count each day. Try to do it in the same place each day. Make it a part of your life. And don't be hard on yourself if life happens, you can always adjust and customize, but establishing those habits now will help yourself be more disciplined for professional writing.

As far as constructing the story, most writers start with some kind of a plan, whether it's doing all of the detailed outlines and research first, or just jotting down a few ideas to get started, or something in between. ALL professional writers then create the first draft, get the whole thing out of their head, then go back and revise it. They may do all of that differently, but the important part is that the first version of a story is never perfect, and you'll need to look it over for more than just spelling errors and such.

If this is truly an interest, just start writing. As others have said, it's going to take a while to learn "how to write," as well as to develop your own writing voice and style. It'll come with time, and it'll change over the course of your life.

For advice: an idea is not a story. That's why jotting down notes can be so useful, you can turn it from an abstract thought to concrete words and figure out what the actual story is, or if it's just an element to use in a story. Especially with fanfiction.

Don't get too attached to your prose, because sometimes you'll write the most amazingest scene ever, but it doesn't add squat to the story so it'll need to be pruned out. You can stick it in a folder somewhere "to use later" if you must, just accept that not all the words will make it to the final version.

When in doubt, look it up. There's a whole frikkin internet and so many people don't use it.

Check out the other /writing subs too. Writing prompts and challenges are a fun way to get in a little practice. There's also NaNoWriMo each November, and come to think of it Camp NaNoWriMo starts today.

Get a mug. Writers have a mug, sometimes for beverage and sometimes just for pencils or something.

And don't forget to stand up and stretch now and then. It's good for both body and mind.

Oh, and the old computer mantra: save often and back up your work. Flash drives are cheap and awesome.

Awhile ago there was a woman who dressed up as a man - IIRC it was for like a magazine article or a book or something. But she documented her life as a woman, for a period of time - a week or a month or whatever it was. Then dressed up as a man and did the exact same things over again. Went to the same places, did the same things, etc. She even dated as both genders. She concluded that there are good things and bad about both genders so largely it ends up pretty even. i.e. - women had to put up with subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) harassment, but men couldn't get any special treatment like talking your way out of a speeding or parking ticket. The one conclusion that stuck with me (and the reason I actually remember any of this) was that dating in particular was harder as a man. As a woman she could dress up a little, go to a bar, and a couple of guys would buy her drinks and virtually all of them would ultimately ask her out. But when she did the same thing as a man she found it was a lot harder to get positive responses from women. She could dress up as a good-looking man, but just approaching and talking to women and buying drinks wouldn't guarantee her a date. Then, once on the date, a lot of pressure is on the guy to be a gentleman but not too old-fashioned or overly formal. Do you open her car door? Hold out a hand to help her out of the car? Open the restaurant door? Let her go in first? Help her off with her coat? Pull out her chair at the restaurant? Stand up when she gets up to powder her nose? Order a bottle of wine for the table? Order dessert? Pay for the whole check or take her up on splitting it? Help her put her coat back on? Hold the door again? Open her car door? Help her into the car? etc... And none of that even went on to the things that are traditionally seen as the man's responsibility to initiate, like the first kiss, sex, etc.

(sorry I searched for the source but couldn't locate...guess reddit will have to take my word for it)

tl;dr => There was an author/reporter who did this and found that in life male/female kinda balances out, but in dating men have it harder.

edit: found it - http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702 - it was a book and she was "undercover" for 18 months

First off, read this book! Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard Feynman made some really important discoveries in the particle physics world and I think it's cool (and hilarious) to look at the way he thinks about everything, not physics alone.

Secondly, make sure you understand math. Don't kill yourself over it, just remember "physics is to mathematics as sex is to masturbation."

Third, enjoy what you're doing. It's hard to get a lot out of a class or a book if you are just struggling to get through each assignment. Try to make it fun for yourself.
Also, making friends in the field and study groups help a lot. I firmly believe that the classroom is not the ideal place to learn physics. It is a science about discovery and understanding the world around you. Even though other people have done so before, it really helps to sit around with a few people at about the same level as you and help each other find solutions. There's a good reason these guys smoked pipes. It's simply the perfect thing to do while sitting around with others thinking.

Overall, be sure to enjoy yourself. Being a physics major is tough, no doubt, but it's also super interesting and a ton of fun!

I highly recommend Masters of Doom, it covers the story of John Carmack and John Romero from their pre-id years up until around 2002 or so and goes over the development of early id games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake as well as other companies at the time like Apogee/3D Realms and Softdisk and of course Ion Storm, Daikatana and the issues with its development.

If you find that interesting i also recommend Jordan Mechner's Making of Karateka and Making of Prince of Persia. These are unique in that they are the journal that Jordan Mechner kept while making these games (start with the Karateka one, the PoP one continues more or less where the Karateka one ends) back in the 80s and early 90s up until he started working on The Last Express and give a unique look not only at how development was done at the time, but also how a very known at the time publisher - Brøderbund - was running during their later years (which sadly ended up collapsing in the midlate 90s just when The Last Express was released, which ended up with TLE becoming a commercial failure despite the critical praise it had, in large part because the marketing team left the company weeks before the game's release and nobody was around to market it :-P). Also there are several bits about Mechner's attempts on movie writing since that is another passion of his, although that wasn't as successful (he did write the Prince of Persia movie though and was a moderate success).

Another interesting book is Hackers. This is an older book, written in early 80s about the "computer hackers" that influenced modern computing. A large part of the book is about the earlier communities, like those at MIT from where the free software and open source movement began, but there is also a sizeable part about the early days of gaming companies that would later become powerhouses like Sierra and - again - Brøderbund. This last one is very interesting because you can see the shift from the early Brøderbund days in Hackers towards the more boureaucratic and sterile environment in their later days as shown in Mechner's journals. This also makes me curious about their last days and i'd like to see Mechner writing about the development of The Last Express if for no other reason than that.

Finally a book that i also liked a lot, although this one focuses more on a single genre and the games that make it up, is Dungeons and Desktops which focuses on the development of CRPGs from the early attempts at mainframes down to modern RPG games.

Computer and computer gaming history are favorite topics of mine and i tend to buy books about them (and i really like finding common pieces in different books).

Stock and bonds are a good way for the middle class to "keep up" with the wealthy. To catch up, you most likely have to provide a good or service in a new and unique way and build a successful company out of it. The vast majority of millionaires earned a lot of their income from a private business. They some of them invested in securities.

There is a good book on this by Thomas Stanley, a professor that researches wealth, called The Millionaire Next Door. Here is the NYT displaying the first chapter for free. It's a good read, it will tell you a great deal about how people in the United States get and stay wealthy.

That's typically not the way people think of income vs house expenditure. Let's say a couple made only $50k per year, but at age 60 they have a million dollars in the bank as savings. Can they afford to buy a house worth $1,150,000 million? Yes, they can use up their saving and then spend another $150k (3x their income) for their mansion. However, this is not an appropriate house for them, the "3x rule" applies to the total house price. This is an important factor because the costs of a house is not just the purchase price. It's upkeep, mortgage payments, property tax, etc.... which all tend to go up with higher priced homes.

General rule, your home price should not exceed 3x your yearly income. If you guys really want a $320k home. Try to increase your income well above $110k per year.

I would also recommend you read "The Millionaires Next Door." It's a wonderful book and illustrates how to build wealth and the benefits of not spending beyond one's means.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
You can buy it used for $4 (including shipping).

If you're a Nick Hornby fan, here's what you should do - he's got three books that are little collections of the column he writes for The Believer called "Stuff I've Been Reading". They're hilarious, and each one gives you 5 or 6 great suggestions from a guy whose taste is pretty solid.

Start with The Polysyllabic Spree and then go to Housekeeping vs. the Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money.

He's always saying his favourite author is Anne Tyler - I can corroborate, she's pretty good.

This isn't really "literature" but you also might like Mil Millington. He's funny in the same way and even though as I'm reading I'm like "huh.. this isn't that great" his novels are the ones that I end up reading in one 8 hour sitting.

You might like David Sedaris - I'd start with Me Talk Pretty One Day

And someone else said John Irving - he's my very favourite.

A good psychology book (and I'm a major layperson, so it's definitely accessible) is The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks and Mad in America by Robert Whitaker.

I'm a self made millionaire but from all the hostility and drama I see here I would NEVER do an AMA.

I've quickly learned that most people don't have the resolve to live by basic principals that have gotten me to where I am now. So in a very general nutshell here it is from me for the umpteenth time...and for the few who say these are obvious, then I counter, why the fuck aren't you guys REALLY doing this...

1. Learn to live FAR below your means and DELAY gratification. I basically gave up most of my 20's working my ass of to raise the principal required for investing. And I REALLY MEAN WORKED MY ASS OFF.
   
   
2. SAVE at least 40% of your take home pay
   
   
3. LEARN to do the math and homework of investing and I mean DO IT yourself, no stock "tips" (which are 99.9999% bullshit). Don't know how? Educate yourself. A decent start is Phil Town's Rule #1 Investing and Peter Lynch's One up on Wall Street. Again, not the end all be all, but it's a start. Also, it's fucking amazon, be smart and buy those books USED. Sites like the Motley Fool can be helpful but I suggest read the articles and DON'T buy their products...lots of good stuff for FREE there. LEARN what an exchange trade fund and dividend reinvestment plans are.
   
   
4. DON'T choose to live like the Jones'...they are fucking broke.
   
   
5. ABSOLUTELY budget for adequate health insurance as one single catastrophic event could wipe out years of earnings quickly.
   
   
6. Learn to be on the POSITIVE side of compound interest. If you can't afford to pay for something outright in cash, then don't fucking buy it. Credit cards are for SUCKERS.
   
   
7. DO THE MATH if you want to buy a home. Honestly, sometimes renting is the better choice.
   
   I STILL to this day buy groceries with coupons, wear the SAME Timex watch I did when I was in high school, drive a car from the 1960s, and RENT a small but nice house with an incredible view, most of my close friends have no idea how much I'm worth and many complain about how "cheap" I am.
   
   I don't give a rats ass if you decide to believe me or not. The sun will rise tomorrow and I'll still never have to call anyone boss or punch another fucking clock in my life EVER. You follow the basic advice, you might stop living paycheck to paycheck.
   
   
   Don't be a dick. I just gave you free legit advice. Now you're on your own. I'm not your mommy.
   
   
   /retired in my 30's with liquid assets in 8 figures.

(courtesy of /u/lightnlng):


Check what you like from this list of Resources. I recommend starting with the Quran and a biography of prophet Muhammad (pbuh). If you want books, these ones are popular:

• [Book] The Message of the Qur'an - Muhammad Asad, if you're looking for the Quran in book form, this has helpful commentary to provide a thorough understanding.
  
  
• [Book] Quran - Abdel Haleem, another Quran in book form, this one is written in extremely clear modern English that makes it easy and pleasurable to read.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet - Adil Salahi, a Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  ----
  
  Introduction book to Islam:
  
  
• [Book] Islam and the Destiny of Man - Charles Le Gai Eaton, introduction to Islam aimed at the Westerner. Online PDF
  
  -----
  
  Some popular videos on YouTube:
  
  
• [Video] How the Bible Led Me to Islam - Joshua Evans, former Christian youth minister conveys his journey to Islam.
  
  
• [Video] The DeenShow - a talk show that introduces many of the basic teachings of Islam and addresses common misconceptions. Their website here.
  
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Khalid Yasin, gives a comprehensive lecture on the fundamental question that every human being must ask: "What is the purpose of life?"

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

> A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith

https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

I hope these are what you're looking for.

If I find any additional stuff, I'll edit the post - also if anyone else finds stuff similar to what I linked, feel free to drop info, i'd love to read more of this stuff!

Obligatory Subreddit Plug

/r/TheMakingOfGames - A subreddit featuring a lot of behind the scenes stuff.

Books

Masters of Doom is a book that follows the lives of John Carmack and John Romero, the creation of what became iD Software, and some of the most memorable games of our generation. (Daikatana's failure, Doom, The super mario clone that eventually became Commander Keen, Quake, etc.)

Jacked is a book that follows the creation of what became a memorable game studio (Rockstar Games) and one of the most memorable franchises of our lifetimes. (Grand Theft Auto)

Stay Awhile and Listen is a book that tells the story of the company known as Blizzard and the difficulty of creating Warcraft as well as the fight to create Diablo.

[Hourences] (http://www.hourences.com/product/the-hows-and-whys-of-the-games-industry/) is a book written by someone who's worked freelance / contract for quite some time now. The basic questions this book will attempt to answer are: Why would one want to work in the games industry? Or why not? And, if the decision has already been made, then: What would one look for or expect? How can one pick a good mod (modification) team or a development studio that will fit one’s personality and meet one’s expectations?

Minecraft: The Story of Notch A story about Notch before, during, and after the rise of Minecraft - talks about his family, his life, etc.

Rise of the Dungeon Master the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story.

Documentaries / Movies

Double Fine Adventure - A game following the conception and delivery of what would become "Broken Age"

Indie Game: The Movie - Follows the trials and tribulations of indie developers trying to "make it big" and/or "continue to succeed".

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang - Follows how Minecraft was formed, Notch, and the impact the game has made on generations.

Amneisa Fortnight 2012 A documentary that follows various groups doing a "game jam" that eventually became published games.

[Amneisa Fornight 2014] (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd7Y5qXNqV1wDPtdNPjZ-tw0) Same as the 2012, just a documentary following the game jam.

GDC Post Mortems A good variety of games, the ups and downs, from indie to AAA.

> The fact that you've convinced yourself that people can't have decent vocabularies without the help of Google says a lot about you.

Nope. Not people. Just you. See, I looked at your previous posts before calling you out. You're as pretentious as they come. You use words that do not belong to daily vocab and are clear indicators of being synonym look ups. This isn't an assumption. It's an observation. You're a pseudo.

>Once again, these aren't some esoteric words. They're common. You gotta move past comics and children's book like Harry Potter.

This is why it's hard to take you seriously. Your analysis of me is entirely based on an assumption you made. No indicators anywhere of my reading habits. Still, I humored you in my previous response. I thought it would be fun to take you down a notch or two. But now you're just boring me. In any case, Harry Potter is a classic. I think I might up pick up the series once again. You gave me the hankering. Thanks!

> I've seen the channels you've mentioned. But they're not a valid substitute for actual textbooks. Watching a 30-minute video isn't commensurate with working through a textbook with exercises and practice problems.

Do you comprehend my entire argument at all? Forget that. Did you even read my responses in their entirety? Or are you just debating for the heck of it? When did I say youtube videos are substitute for actual textbooks? They're not. But they are excellent diving points. Also, there are plenty of youtube videos that deep dive into topics eloquently and comprehensibly. Your silly stance that youtube videos are sciolistic (cue eye roll for the synonym lookup) and vapid is what got me going. That and the fact that you really do sound like a miserable, failed college professor.

My final, unrequited advice to you is this - get off your high horse. If you're trying to put a point across and you use vocabulary that is incomprehensible by a majority, then you've failed. Look up Richard Feynman's technique and use it not just to learn but also to put your point across. The TL;DR version of this technique is this - use simple words. Also, while you're at it, pick up Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. - a great book about the most glorious human being to have ever lived! Atleast in my opinion. Fair warning, it uses vocabulary more suited for simple folks like me. :)

You should read the Qur'an. That might help increase your faith. Also, read about Imam Ali (a.s) the son of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him and his progeny). There is a good book called "In the footsteps of the Prophet (a.s)". You can look it up to see how our Prophet lived. Also look up the Nahjul Balagha, or "Peak of Eloquence" which is about Imam Ali (a.s). This book has strengthened countless people's faith in God. There is a hadiths which I roughly translate saying "If I am the city of knowledge, then Ali is the gate".

We are translating from Arabic to English, so if anything upsets you please send me a message. I have come across bad translations, and passages which need clarification. That said, this is my favorite English Qur'an, because it is so well translated, and it's language is not Old-English.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199535957

This is a free online link to the Nahjul Balagha. I have not read it, but I do have two copies of this book with different publishers. One of them slanders Imam Ali (a.s), because of the terrible printing job they did. Know that this man did not commit any sins, because he is a part of the household of the Prophet that was purified by God. This is a major event, and you can research it. Tell me if there are errors, and I can try to send you a better link InshaAllah. I highly recommend going to the sayings, and then going back to the lessons.
http://www.al-islam.org/nahjul/index.htm

Again Arabic can be poorly translated, and context is often left out in these quotes. For ex. There is a saying where he compares women to scorpions. I told my friend, and he told me it meant bad women, and not all women. ( phew )

http://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Prophet-Lessons-Life-Muhammad/dp/0195374762/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372348452&sr=1-1&keywords=tariq+ramadan

This book is pretty clear, and is also popular. The guy is an excellent translator.

In that case I have two books that explain this issue pretty well and give multiple answers to your question. Both of these books are pretty simple and you can probably find a lot of other ones that discuss the topic but these are the two I've found explain in simplistic terms.

The Universe Next Door --- This books gives a great look at a large range of different world views. It answers your question for each of those world views and pretty much leaves it up to the reader to think what they want.

Man's Search for Meaning --- This book is a specific account of a guy who spent time in the concentration camps during WWII. The first half is his account of that and the second half is his explanation on why he kept on living. Very interesting read.

This question you ask is a huge philosophical topic and it's hard to give a simple answer. Good luck.

You have to understand that the majority of Reddit has this belief that those who are successful got there mainly because of luck.

Oh, this entrepreneur found a niche market and it exploded? How lucky, I wouldn't have that much success if I started a business.

People who are rich, and who stay rich, often work their asses off. There are a lot of intelligent people on Reddit who don't want to admit that.

</soapbox>

To anyone who believes that the rich are lucky, fat-cat type people, go read The Millionaire Next Door.

The journey begins! Welcome to the club man, there's no going back. I highly recommend buying the shop manual for your bike and perhaps this book. Both will give you a good idea on how to maintain your motorcycle and fix majority of the problems you run into while saving you money! Not to mention the satisfaction of doing your own work.

Definitely get a set of frame sliders asap! I don't know a single person that hasn't dropped their bike at one time or another. The first bike i had i dropped pulling into my brothers gravel drive way literally 5 minutes after buying it. My second bike (SV) I've dropped once from losing my footing and again not putting the kickstand down entirely. Only thing you can do is laugh and do your best not to do it again. This might be helpful to! Best of luck to you, ride safe out there!

Honestly, clean concrete or asphalt is probably the easiest surface to run on. I didn't believe it either until I got the technique down. But, it's true.

When I started barefoot, I ordered a couple books and did some reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189
and
http://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Running-Step-Shoeless-Technique/dp/1592334652/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1WV43D698B0HHYCVA8FJ

The first book is entertaining. The second book is instructional, and the most help in understanding the mechanics. Telling someone how to run barefoot is like trying to explain to someone how to chew. Think about that for a second, explaining a basic body mechanic isn't that simple to do because people just do it.

Barefoot running, when you're doing it properly, is like that. If something hurts, you're doing it wrong.

Now, I wont say that I run 6 minute miles. Again, I like running, but I wish I were more into it, I have a desk job and I'm old. My best mile is probably around 10 minutes or just under it. But, I usually keep that speed or around it the entire run. I can usually run the fastest at the end of my runs, after all of the joints have loosened up and my form is at it's best.

Buy a book and read if you're interested in it.

Great list! I have read all the above and totally agree that their value is worthwhile to anyone seeking to improve their life -- regardless of financial status, relationships, profession, etc. A couple others that I've found useful along the road:

6. The Six Pillars of Self Esteem by N. Branden. During the reawakening stage and after a particularly painful breakup, I found this book helpful. Learning the concept of "alone-ness" versus "loneliness" continues to drive many motivations.

7. Games People Play by Eric Berne. Want to understand why your plate/gf/wife went batshit insane over the stupidest thing, and how to counteract it in the future? Read this book. Want to understand why your coworker was making those strange comments to your boss? Read this book - a must for anyone wanting to learn more about game theory and its application to everyday life. (Next on my list is The Art of Strategy ).

8. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. In many ways this is an antithesis to Freudian thought -- whereas Freud argued man is happy when seeking and obtaining pleasure, Frankl postulates that finding meaning and understanding is what makes us happy. In the context of TRP theory, meditating on, if not fully understanding, these concepts is absolutely necessary.

9. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. The seminal work on the concept and application of persuasion. From negotiations to dating/relationships to job performance, I would rank this book at the top of many lists.

A few other authors/books I've seen mentioned elsewhere that are worth checking out: anything by Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of War by Sun Tzu (which goes hand in hand with The Prince for a great East/West study), and Rollo Tomassi. I've also found some of Oscar Wilde's writing to be both amusing and insightful.

[edit: formatting.]

Thanks for all the love. "This time is different" is literally the best indicator that you should reconsider your thinking. In the end you are the owner of a (digital) asset and you are telling me you cannot place a value on it? That would bother me.

But you are indeed right, I am coming from the stock world and tend to look at those crypto currencies that are linked to a venture (or better yet where the coins are direct share ownership in the company such as Lykke). In this way I can try to ascertain a value because I can see an underlying business model.

I usually try to avoid pure crypto currencies because they have no ascertainable value to me. You are buying hope that one day they will be used for payments or as a store of value. That being said, I do own BTC and a few others where I see this may one day be the case. I am painfully aware however that it can go to zero tomorrow and that could be perfectly plausible. Something like BTC is based on what people believe it's worth, it can be $5'000 just as likely as it can be $0. Be prepared to lose everything and invest accordingly. I like the optionality to the upside as long as I can afford to lose 100%.

And no, you shouldn't listen to investment advice on this space specifically form finance people. But you should respect investment and speculation wisdom that has recurred over centuries stretching from [tulips] (http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160419-tulip-mania-the-flowers-that-cost-more-than-houses), to [stock certificates] (https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lef%C3%A8vre/dp/0471770884), to [real estate] (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/01/06/reference/lessons-from-when-the-bubble-burst/#.WVye_BOGPUI) to [Beanie Babies] (https://qz.com/114753/meet-the-family-who-lost-100000-when-the-beanie-baby-bubble-burst/).

There is nothing new under the sun.

Constructive criticism accepted? If you're trying to live up to your blog's name, then you're succeeding. Lines like "The cinematography was pretty decent. Nothing really ground-breaking, but it was a really pleasant movie to look at during some scenes." do very little to tell your readers anything. Who was the cinematographer? Did they do anything else of note? IMDB is your friend. In this case, Spanish cinematographer Oscar Faura; probably not many American readers are familiar with his work, as I believe it's his first English-language film. Same goes for the Norwegian director Morten Tyldum. What was interesting, or can you use more evocative language? Do you understand the visual language enough to recognize and describe things like tracking shots, handheld shots, framing, lighting? "I only have one minor complaint about this movie, which is the CGI." Cut off the "which is the CGI" part. I'm pretty sure no one calls it CGI anymore (just CG), and the phrase isn't necessary because you spend the rest of the paragraph talking about that very thing. Don't sound like Perd Hapley. Remember that it's not just about your impression of the movie, but why you felt that way. And, too, that you're writing about the film, not about how you felt about it. It's your opinion, sure, but there's a balance between putting yourself on the page and putting your recommendation or lack thereof on the page - the line between being Harry Knowles or Roger Ebert. Make the reader feel your joy...or pain...or indifference.

I used to be a semi-pro film critic and editor of other people's reviews. I learned a lot from reading the great critics - Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert - and from books about film. A Short Guide to Writing About Film, Film Art: An Introduction, How to Read a Film. All books I remember reading. And not just those, but books about writing. Particular favorites are The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing. If you want to brush up on your knowledge of what you're seeing, Every Frame a Painting is a stellar look at film's visual language.

Hadith book collections such as Al-Buhkari are basically a collection of hadiths organized topically. It doesn't provide much in the department of context and what rulings can be derived from each hadith. some hadiths were valid for a set period of time for specific circumstances and then the rule changed later. Scholars call this "Al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh" and it is found in the hadith as well as the Quran.

My point is that books like Al-Buhkari are meant as raw data for scholars who study the context and the reasons and the conclusions of rulings in the hadith. Not for the layman to causally read through.

If you want to read hadiths that are organized for the layman here are a few suggestions from the sidebar:


---
____LIFE OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD____

• [Video] Biography of Muhammad (pbuh) Video Series - Yasir Qadhi, detailed, very lengthy biography video series. A condensed video series here.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet: A Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet of Islam - Adil Salahi, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources - Martin Lings, very detailed and thorough biography based on the earliest sources. Recommended by many, (but relies on a few unauthentic sources).
  
  
• [Audio] The Life of the Prophet Muhammad - Hamza Yusuf, brilliant narration that was originally presented in a twelve week course based on the above book by Martin Lings.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad (Critical Lives) - Yahiya Emerick, a simple concise, informative biography.
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  
• [Web] The Sealed Nectar - Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Popular and accurate account of the life of Muhammad (pbuh). Alternative link.
  
  
  ---
  
  ---
  ____HADITH/SUNNAH____
  
  
• [Video] An Introduction to Hadith - Jonathan Brown, 1 hour introduction to the narrations of Muhammad (pbuh). Some questions about hadith answered.
  
  
• [Web] Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith - Learn and study 42 popular hadith compiled by the famous al-Nawawi with audio commentary. Notes on al-Nawawi and his compilations for more clarity.
  
  
• [Book] Riyad-us-Saliheen - Imam Al-Nawawi, A popular and useful compilation of authentic hadith, covering every aspect of Islamic belief and moral conduct. Read it online or listen to audio.
  
  
• [Web] Sunnah - Hadith books. Note: some of these hadith compilations are specialized books and not for the layman to causally read through. This link is for reference.
  
  
• [Book] Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World - Jonathan Brown, provides a detailed exploration of the collection and criticism of hadith and examines the controversy surrounding its role in modern Islam.
  
  ---
  
  
  ^^credit ^^for ^^preparing ^^the ^^list ^^goes ^^to ^^/u/LIGHTNlNG
  ^

Well I think you might find it easier if you dispensed with all those categories (economics, gender, law, etc.). They are useful in terms of specialization, but unless you're doing a specialization, I find it most helpful to try to get to the bottom of things and ignore categories. Most of these overlap.

The great book that taught me to think this way, and after which a lot more in the world started to make sense was Surely you're joking Mr Feynman. Essentially the difference is between trying to get it right (makes everything overwhelming/confusing) vs understanding it (looking for good explanations).

The beginning of infinity by David Deutsch has something similar.

I know this may seem totally irrellevant, but for me this was the thing that removed that feeling of being overwhelmed by knowledge forever.

That said, I am too consuming incredible amounts of JP. Probably an average of.. wow, maybe 2 hours per day since I first discovered him 5 months ago or so.

Thanks for the question. Wish I was there myself but not yet ;).

The average Millionaire is not what you think.

Thomas J. Stanley wrote "The Millionaire Next Door"

He highlights critical pieces of advice for any entrepreneur.

First income doesn't equal wealth. We see this a lot on r/entrepreneur that people have a lot of revenue but their margins are slim. Net Worth is what matters.

Also, work your budget. If you don't have a budget get one. You Have to do it. It's a pain but table stakes.

He also speaks about how where you live has an enormous impact on how you spend your money. The key is to live in a neighborhood where most people earn less than you.

And here's an interesting fact: 86% percent of “prestige/luxury” cars are bought by non-millionaires. If someone looks rich they probably aren't.

In the end, save money.

As a way of background I have newsletter where I share proven case studies of successful entrepreneurs. Many of them are quiet successful. If anyone's interested let me know and I can PM you the link. (I've gotten about 10 PM's asking for the link so I thought I would include it here.)

Here's my list of the classics:

General Computing

• But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone
  
  
• The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
  
  
• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
  
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  
  Computer Science
  
  
• The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science
  
  
• Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd Edition (aka The Dragon Book)
  
  
• The Art of Computer Programming
  
  
• Algorithms, 4th Edition
  
  
• Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (aka CLRS)
  
  
• Essential Algorithms: A Practical Approach to Computer Algorithms Using Python and C#, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide for Programmers and Other Curious People
  
  
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition (aka SICP, available for free on the MIT website)
  
  
• Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 4th Edition
  
  Software Development
  
  
• Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems by Martin Kleppmann
  
  
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (aka The Gang of Four)
  
  
• Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: your journey to mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  
  
• Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things
  
  
• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  
  
• Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual
  
  
• Hello, Startup: A Programmer's Guide to Building Products, Technologies, and Teams
  
  
• Hacker's Delight, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 3rd Edition
  
  Case Studies
  
  
• The Soul of a New Machine
  
  
• Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
  
  
• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
  
  
• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet
  
  
• Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer, 3rd Edition
  
  Employment
  
  
• Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions, 6th Edition
  
  
• The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job
  
  
• The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally
  
  
• The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
  
  Language-Specific
  
  C
  
  
• The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition
  
  Python
  
  
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
  
  
• Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python
  
  C#
  
  
• The C# Player's Guide, 3rd Edition
  
  C++
  
  
• The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with C++: from Control Structures to Objects, 9th Edition
  
  Java
  
  
• Introduction to Java Programming and Data Structures: Comprehensive Version, 11th Edition
  
  
• [Java: A Beginner's Guide](https://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Seventh-Herbert-Schildt/dp/1259589315/, 7th Edition)
  
  
• Java: The Complete Reference, 11th Edition
  
  
• Core Java Volume I - Fundamentals, 11th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through Objects, 6th Edition
  
  
• Effective Java, 3rd Edition
  
  Linux Shell Scripts
  
  
• The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Wicked Cool Shell Scripts: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and UNIX Systems, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible
  
  
• Mastering Linux Shell Scripting
  
  Web Development
  
  
• Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics, 5th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming, 3rd Edition (also available for free on the author's website)
  
  
• JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
  
  
• HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
  
  
• You Don't Know JS: Up & Going
  
  Ruby and Rails
  
  
• Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails, 4th Edition (Note: this book is somewhat out of date compared to the live version on the author's website.)
  
  
• The Well Grounded Rubyist, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer
  
  
• Agile Web Development with Rails 5.1
  
  
• Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, 4th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent Ruby
  
  Assembly
  
  
• Assembly Language for x86 Processors, 8th Edition

• Don't worry about plagiarism. Some people believe that there are only seven basic plots while others believe there are Thirty-Six basic plots. The point is that you wish to write, so go ahead and write what you wish. If it seems like someone else's works, you'll be bombarded with people telling you, "Hey, this story was similar to X, Y, Z story". Here's an example of what you are worried about. I've had 2 stories that people mistakenly thought were very similar to other sources. People thought my story called Aiden's Special Power was based on a video game called "Beyond Two Souls" which a character was named Aiden that vaguely had a similar power. I never played the game and yet managed to hit upon two common similarities despite the inspiration coming from a dream that I had and the fact that my girlfriend loves the name Aidan. The other story was Declassified: The Last Transmission which the first comment was saying that this was the ending to Pacific Rim, another movie I never watched, and the inspiration to write this was more Cthulu and monstrosities from other dimensions invading our world.
  
  
• This is unfortunately one of the bad parts about writing online. People like to take credit for your blood, sweat, and tears. My best suggestion is to start an independent blog or website and post your stories there too. Google does it's magic and sifts through the most direction version of what you wrote. For example, I Googled my story I Have Evidence My College Covered Up A Murder and here are the results. The Top 8 results link back to either Reddit or my own Blog page. The 9th result is from another website that posted my story (without my permission) but at least they credited me as the author. It's not going to completely stop theft but at least you'll be able to curb the results in your favor.
  
  
• There's no avoiding people attaching the Creepypasta label to your stories. That isn't a bad thing though. In fact, it might actually help. There have been a few of my stories narrated on YouTube that have reached audiences I never would have gotten. Linking back to my answer to your first question, Aiden's Special Power has 65,000 views and is considered Creepypasta. A Letter to My Future Self has 9,000 views and was read on the NoSleep Podcast. I guess what I mean to say is that you shouldn't try to push away an audience that is willing to embrace you.
  
  
• As the common advice goes, "Read alot. Write alot". I also suggest listening to the Writing Excuses Podcast which is pretty awesome. The Round Table Podcast is awesome too. Read On Writing by Stephen King. Mostly, try to read the works by the masters of horror, Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft. Also read outside of the horror genre. You'll get ideas from places you never imagined if you combine horror with elements of something else you might be interested in.
  
  I hope I helped.

• The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
  
  
• Security Analysis - Benjamin Graham
  
  
• The Interpretation of Financial Statements - Benjamin Graham
  
  
• Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports - Howard Schilit
  
  
• Applied Value Investing - Joseph Calandro
  
  
• Analysis for Financial Management - Robert Higgins
  
  
• Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman
  
  
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings - Philip Fisher
  
  
• One Up On Wall Street - Peter Lynch
  
  
• Beating The Street - Peter Lynch
  
  
• The Essays of Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett
  
  
• Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life - Alice Schroeder
  
  
• Buffett Beyond Value - Prem Jain
  
  
• Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond - Bruce Greenwald
  
  
• You Can Be A Stock Market Genius - Joel Greenblatt
  
  
• The Little Book That Beats The Market - Joel Greenblatt
  
  
• The Big Secret for the Small Investor: A New Route to Long-Term Investment Success - Joel Greenblatt
  
  
• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Leferve
  
  
• Fooled By Randomness - Nassim Taleb
  
  
• The Black Swan - Nassim Taleb
  
  
• Poor Charlie's Almanack - Charlie Munger
  
  
• Rediscovered Benjamin Graham - Janet Lowe
  
  
• The Theory of Investment Value - John Burr Williams
  
  
• Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger - Peter Bevelin
  
  
• Security Analysis and Business Valuation on Wall Street - Jeffrey Hooke
  
  
• Value Investing: Tools and Techniques for Intelligent Investment - James Montier
  
  
• Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset - Aswath Damodaran
  
  
• The Dark Side of Valuation - Aswath Damodaran
  
  
• Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports - Thomas Ittelson
  
  
• Buyout - Rick Rickertsen
  
  
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini
  
  
• Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics - Gary Belsky
  
  
• The Warren Buffett Way - Robert Hagstrom
  
  
• The Most Important Thing - Howard Marks
  
  
• Competition Demystified - Bruce Greenwald
  
  
• Accounting For Value - Stephen Penman
  
  
• Distressed Debt Analysis - Stephen Moyer
  
  
• Bankruptcy Investing - Ben Branch
  
  
• The Vulture Investors - Hilary Rosenberg
  
  
• Creating Value Through Corporate Restructuring - Stuart Gilson
  
  
• Distress Investing - Martin J Whitman
  
  
• The Aggressive Conservative Investor - Martin J Whitman

buy this book and start reading it
https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1479256656&sr=8-2&keywords=born+to+run

I always wanted to do sports in high school but never did because I thought I wasn't good enough for it. Then, in my senior year I decided to join anyways and I have to say it was probably the best decision I made. I wasn't fast at first, but just a few months in I shed all my excess weight and started to become exponentially faster. I didn't get tired anymore and I made a bunch of friends and met a bunch of chicks. It was awesome. Also, if you're gonna run and actually want to be a God at it (and to not look like a scrawny anorexic) you should also hit up the gym once or twice a week on the side. 50% of running is upper-body strength (for short-mid-distances)

Well, hopefully others who use it have a better feel for what it's really like day to day. I hope your interview goes well. Ever read any Feynman about his time up there? It's pretty entertaining.

Edit for link to book: "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393320928/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ilGzDbPP6AZHQ

Wolfenstein 3D was written mostly in C, with some assembly, presumably hacks to make the game run faster.

You should read Masters of Doom, it gives a very non-technical(but technical) perspective of how some of these early 3d shooters (wolfenstein 3d, doom, quake) were made.

These guys were revered not just for the games they created, but the ways they could seemingly crush and optimize code to be as efficient as humanly possible. For example, Carmack popularized a use of the Fast inverse square root function as one of the ways to quickly render and maximize performance of lights and shadows across 3d models. One story from the book I mentioned recounts how he was able to recreate a fast, efficient version of Super Mario Bros on PC. This revolutionized side scrolling graphics on PC, because it basically didn't exist in a form fast or smooth enough to make game development viable until that point.

P.S. If you're really interested in this stuff, instead of a "quick google", you should maybe try a "slow google". Tortoises vs. hares. That kind of thing. :P

I'm sorry you feel that way but you obviously came here and felt the need to say something. If you have questions I am happy to answer for you so that I may shed some light into your darkness.

Edit: I would also like you to notice that you are the only person who is being negative. This community is far more understanding, forgiving and accepting than you realize and I implore you to do some research into what Islam really is. If you would like to check these out

The New Muslim's Field Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981328998/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OsN1Cb99E8BEQ

The Clear Quran https://www.amazon.com/dp/097730096X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ItN1CbGKXHNWW


In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195374762/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PuN1CbMBE7QD9

If you want to really understand what you are making assumptions about DM your information or email I would be happy to send you some information so you may better educate yourself. Then you can formulate an educated opinion.

>Maybe it’s networth that makes you feel better and not necessarily the income?

Think of it like this, who is truly wealthier in this scenario the person making $60k\year and saving $15K after taxes or the person making $200k\year and only saving $5k?

I would suggest you read "the millionaire next door" by Thomas Stanley it changed my entire outlook on money. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474

It seems like you have a lot of expenses right now and at your income level you should be able to easily cut back in certain area's in order to save over a million dollars in a few short years which will probably help to alleviate those feelings of "not feeling rich." If I was at that income level I would be living like I only made $75K\year and saving the rest and within 10 years would probably never have to work again. It seems lifestyle creep is what significantly delays building true wealth and could delay your retirement.

Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss


The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason

The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

*****

You can look at these books if you like. The Millionaire Next Door would probably be the one I would gift him first.

>I really don't buy that one's wealth can indicate so much about an individual's character.

It very well may be that it's not necessarily "wealth" that indicates these tendencies, but rather these tendencies seem to correlate with a higher likelihood of attaining that higher level of wealth at some point. From the research that I've seen, these tendencies are present in the majority of the test sample.

>I have a feeling that socioeconomic status of your family is much more important than whether or not they are 'excessively educated".

It could. I think the level of education point was meant to demonstrate either:

• Concordant with their tendencies towards entrepreneurship and working more hours, they value entering the market as soon as possible at the expense of further education, and seem to view a bachelor's degree as the minimum bar to clear before "getting to work."
  
  
• Concordant with their tendencies towards frugality and heavier emphasis on financial planning, they generally view continued education beyond the minimum as a poor return on investment.
  
  It's not really clear, unfortunately. The research on this topic is not particularly deep or ubiquitous, and is primarily reliant on what's effectively a census -- it's not as a result of controlled experiments or peer-reviewed psychology materials. It's demographics, polling, and interviews, which can establish trends and correlations but not the full explanation of the "why" behind it.
  
  Additionally, these tendencies are simple majority percentages, and while some show very clear trends (hours worked, age, level of education, starting economic class, etc) in the form of very high percentages, others are in the 55-60% range, which is not always indicative of a trend and could be in the margin of error for any conclusions that might be drawn.
  
  >Have a source for all those stats?
  
  There's a few. To be fair most of this is recalling my notes from a freelance article I did 6-7 years ago on the traits of millionaires. I used these two books and an aggregate of data I found on Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and a few others. As I stated earlier in my post, the data and the methods behind it appear to be sound, but they don't provide the amount of depth that I'd prefer.
  
  >The rate of millionaires who are 3 generations of less removed from an immigrant has no bearing on how likely everyone else is to become one, unless you are assuming there is a fixed amount of millionaires in the U.S. or those are two separate statistics.
  
  I may have misrepresented that one, or at least worded it poorly. The research showed that people whose grandparents or parents were immigrants to US achieved millionaire status at a higher rate than those who came from families that have been present in the US for longer than 3 generations.
  
  Overall, even if the research isn't perfect, it still seems to clearly demonstrate to me that the incentives behind work are far more complex than what OP posited.

The Elements of Style is the classic reference and I've probably read it over a dozen times, but it has seen a pretty big backlash and it does contradict itself in some humorous ways. I'd recommend Style: Ten Lessons In Clarity And Grace by Joesph M. Williams. I found it much more clear and sensible than TEOS. In addition, I'm a big fan of Garner's Modern American Usage, not as a book on grammar but as a reference for use during composition. For what it's worth, I got both of these recommendations from professional editor John McIntyre. (But TEOS has Stephen King's blessing, so there's that as well.) Those and King's On Writing are the only writing books I've ever been able to stomach.

Barbara Tuchman was brilliant writer of history.

Albert Camus was a brilliant absurdist philosopher and novelist.

Jared Diamond has written some brilliant books at the intersection of anthropology and ecology. Another good book in this genre is Clive Ponting's A New Green History of the World.

Gwynne Dyer is an acclaimed military historian turned journalist on international affairs who has written a number of very engaging books on warfare and politics. His most recent book Climate Wars is the ONE book I would recommend to someone, if so limited, on the subject as it embodies both a wonderful synopsis of the science juxtaposed against the harsh realpolitiks and potential fates of humankind that may unfold unless we can manage to tackle the matter seriously, soon. Another great book on climate change is Bill McKibben's Deep Economy.

For social activists interested in ending world hunger and abject poverty, I can recommend: Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom; Nobel Prize winning micro-financier Muhammad Yunus' Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism; UN MDG famed economist Jeffrey Sach's End Of Poverty; and Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea

For anyone of Scottish heritage, I heartily recommend Arthur Hermann's How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It

For naval history buffs: Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought.

Last, but not least: Robert Pirsig's classic Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Enjoy!

My mind is filled with factoids like this, but they tend to just flow out when I read something that works as a trigger. :-P

I do highly recommend reading the books I mentioned above. (Sled Diver is a bit overrated, though it does have a few fascinating stories. Skunk Works however is brilliant if you like technical factoids like this.)

The story of Henrietta Lacks is super interesting, but also really sad. Her cells were harvested at a blacks only hospital without her consent or notification. Later, the doc who harvested them went on to make buckets of money selling the cell line to researchers all over the place. People still make buckets of money off that line, and her family never saw, and will never see, a dime of it.

It wasn't all bad, though, as her cell line also helped to produce standards for cell culturing/storage/growth/an entire industry that all began with her cell line. It literally started a new era of research.

If you ever get a chance to read Skloot's book give it a read. Very eye-opening for me in terms of patient rights and medical ethics at the time.

EDIT: As /u/Halsfield pointed out, there actually has been a legal development in the situation. Two of her surviving family members now sit on a committee that controls scientific access to the DNA, as well as recognition in published papers using this line. There's no reported financial compensation, but apparently the family wasn't all that interested in cashing in. In fact, it sounds like it's opened up a ton of lucrative speaking engagements for her remaining family. I'm glad to see a happy ending, hats off to Rebecca Skloot. Without her, Henrietta would be nothing more than a footnote in history.

EDIT2: I am not as good with details as I'd hoped. Hopkins, where she was admitted, had a black wing and a white wing, and the Dr. who collected the sample did not make buckets of cash. It did spring a healthy business producing/shipping the cells to other researchers, but buckets of money might not be the best description. For clarity's sake I'm leaving my original comment as is.

For me, the short answer is I spend less money.

The long answer, though, has to do with the YNAB method, reading some key financial books and ultimately changing the way I view money. Earlier this year my soon-to-be father-in-law gifted me The Millionaire Next Door. Then I read Your Money or Your Life. Those two books, combined with being so exhausted from living paycheck to paycheck, got me started down the path of actually really caring how I handled my money.

I had been using a basic spreadsheet to track income and expense but after finding YNAB, via Reddit of course, things just started to change. I stopped buying stupid shit I didn't need. I eliminated impulse buying. I stopped buying coffee and going out to eat a few times a week. Those little things add up. I saved for things I wanted instead of putting them on credit and paying for them later.

It sounds like you've got a lot of that under control already though. Like /u/ASK_IF_IM_PENGUIN said, it's the method. The four rules. You can absolutely incorporate those four rules into your existing spreadsheet and not pay a dime for the software. But the software they've developed is so goddamn good it just makes doing it myself so unappealing.

The other thing that helps is their support system. There is so much content available on YouTube. The podcast is awesome. You can even take their online courses for free.

Give the trial a go. You can use it fully featured for 34 days I think. There's a good chance it'll drop to $15 whenever the steam sale happens in a week or two. Pick it up then if you like it. If not, no harm!

I'll give you some books to use as a starting point. You want to start out as generally as possible and then follow what interests you. Someone can give you a list of top books, but if they don't fascinate you enough to really dig in deep and reflect on them to sate your own curiosity, you'll just be scratching the surface. I don't care what it is, you can make money anywhere in the markets. So starting generally will help you find out what direction to go.

So, that said, these are the ones I'd recommend starting out with
https://www.amazon.com/Market-Wizards-Updated-Interviews-Traders/dp/1118273052
https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lef%C3%A8vre/dp/0471770884
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400063515/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684840073/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809045990/

Some less conventional ones I really liked
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578645018/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422121038/

Chaos theory describes some properties that pop up again and again in markets. I really liked this one.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Simplicity-Bringing-Order-Complexity/dp/140006256X

I also highly recommend finding a few good books on behavioral investing, just to get acquainted with the common mistakes investors make (how you can avoid them, and how you can exploit them). I don't have a lot here because the books I read are outdated and you can find better. So one example:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470067373/

But in general reading about psychology will help you understand the world better, and that's always a good thing.
https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202

Read The Millionaire Next Door. It goes through the difference between inherited and earned wealth. The TL;DR of thr portion you're interested in is that those who inherit wealth squander it, those who earn it raise their children in a way that allows them to earn it as well. If you want your kids to be wealthy, teach them the value of money and give them the tools to earn kt themselves.

I am considering setting up a trust fund for my children that will make them FI once they turn 30 or 35 or something, but I'll give them very little before then. I'll also give them lots of opportunities to earn extra money so they can support themselves through school.

My parents could have paid to put me through school, but instead they only paid half. It was just enough that I could work my way through school without taking on extra debt. They also gave me a 0% loan to buy a house, but I had to pay it back on a schedule. I think this is the right approach to wealth propagation.

And you're right, I don't know any really wealthy people (well, some, but not inherited, it was earned). And I'm glad I don't.

So I have a friend in jail that I regularly send books to. This doesn't cover every situation, but I assume the circumstances will be similar.

He says that the (meager) prison library is very skewed towards religious books, classics, GED materials, and low-difficulty grocery store novels. Anything other than that will be appreciated. The books most requested are thick fantasy books, activity books (sudoku, physics workbooks, etc), science non-fiction, and coffee-table books or magazines with lots of pictures. These will be swapped with other inmates so that anyone interested has a chance to read.

Some things to keep in mind:

• There is often a limit on how many items can be kept. 3-books-in-1/omnibus editions help get around this.
  
• There may be monetary limits on gifts. Shop for deals and choose the cheaper mass market paperbacks whenever possible.
  
• Mail a receipt ASAP! She might not be able to pick up any books until she has that.
  
• Mail books through a big company (e.g. Amazon, B&N) or they might be destroyed. No third-party Amazon sellers or used book stores in most cases.
  
  Books that have gone over well and can be found in cheap forms:
  
  
• Mistborn trilogy
  
• His Dark Materials trilogy
  
• The Name of the Wind
  
• The Best American Science Writing/The Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies
  
• Sudoku
  
• Hyperbole and a Half
  
• A Song of Ice and Fire

As long as you put your desire and hope in the act of writing itself, as opposed to the desire of wanting to have written something, you will do well.

I would suggest a few pieces of light reading, a few pieces of heavy reading, and some listening for you too.

Light reading:

Stephen King's "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" This book is not meant as a book of lessons so much as the formula that assembled one writer. It's short, it's heartfelt, and it has some wisdom in it.

The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. - This is a short book, it gives a good starter set of rules that we accept for communicating with one another in the English language.

Heavy Reading:

Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. - This is a short book but it is very thick with information and esoteric names from all cultures. Why is that? Because it deals with, very succinctly, the fundamental core of nearly all human storytelling, Campbell's "Monomyth" premise can inform you all the way from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Star Wars a New Hope

Writing Excuses This is a Podcast about writing by Brandon Sanderson, of "Mistborn," "Way of Kings," and "Wheel of Time" fame, Howard Taylor, the writer and artist of Schlock Mercenary, a webcomic that hasn't missed a day for a long while, Mary Robinette Kowol, a Puppeteer and Author of "Shades of Milk and Honey" and Dan Wells, from the "I am not a Serial Killer" series It has been going on for more than a decade, and nearly every episode is a wonderful bit of knowledge.

I think that you should look into Richard Feynman. This man was a truly influential member of the scientific community. There are several books about his life and findings. I think that all engineers should envy his lust for balance.

I think that the most interesting thing about him is his passion for his children. They were truly the center of what he focused on and that intellectual curiosity is reflected in his offspring.

I don't know what else I need to write to convince you to read books about his life; however, I will claim that learning about this man has made me into a better engineer, son, and SO. Just thinking about this book gives me goosebumps because I appreciated it so much.

The U-2 was an amazing airplane.

At cruising altitude of 70,000 feet (over 13 miles) nothing else in the world at the time could even get close to touching it. When the US started using the U-2 to fly over the USSR the Russians were able to track the flights, but even their highest performance jets and surface to air missiles were unable to take out the U-2. Russia spent a considerable amount of time and money working on a way to stop these flights. For 4 full years the US was able to photograph any part of Russia with amazing resolution before the Soviets managed to shoot one of the planes down with their newly developed SA-2 missiles. According to people who worked on the U-2 program around 90% of US intelligence information for those 4 years was provided by the U-2.

I highly recommend Skunk Works by Ben Rich. He worked on the U-2, SR-71, F-117A, and several other top secret aircraft. His book is probably the best I've ever read. https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486248583&sr=8-1&keywords=skunk+works

If you know the basics of how markets work, read "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator". If you still want to pursue trading, when finished, you will have a great base of knowledge and can delve into the more technical and academic readings that are mentioned.

If you decide that your mental make-up is not suited for trading, you will save yourself a lot of time and money. Here is the best part...it reads like a brilliant work of fiction, yet many traders consider it the most influential book they have read. Don't take my word for it

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lef%C3%A8vre/dp/0471770884#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1518440446692

If you read the original "Market Wizards", the book is recommended more than any other.

Allow me to help on a few notes, listen if you want

1. Asking people for stories isn't really a great way to find a good story. If people have a good story, they can probably write one themselves. If it's not a good story that they'd want to write... then why would you want the crappy story? It's also lazy and won't help you yourself build a good story, that's part of being a writer.
   
   B. Often times your story starts with a character idea. Seriously, it doesn't even need to be the protagonist, but most of the time it will be, or the antagonist. A story doesn't need to be thought as a lego building instructions, you don't have to follow the steps from beginning to end. You could write from the middle out, just as story building you can start with a character and world build around that character. Ask yourself why this character exists. What kind of story would fit this character? What event would they be good at. Then figure out how they got there, how they are in the state they're in, and what they'll do till the end of the story.
   
   3 or C or the little roman numeral triple "i" thing: Stephen King made a fantastic book on writing. It's titled: On Writing: A memoir of the craft.
   Amazon has it for like 11-12 bucks, and by personal experience it's a must have in any writers arsenal from novice to expert.
   Link: http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Anniversary-Edition-Memoir/dp/1439156816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367567721&sr=8-1&keywords=on+writing
   
   4,D,iv: Good Writing my friend

• JOB: Go for the Hartford position with the better company and leadership rotational program. This type of position is geared to get you fantastic experience and a better shot at increasing your salary. The East Coast location will also help with future international positions versus something in the midwest.
  
  
  
• BOOKS: Start with The Millionaire Next Door: Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
  
  
  
• CAR: There's no return on your investment here. Buy used, buy reasonably priced and follow the guidelines in "Millionaire Next Door."
  
  
  
• Pay off your student loan - both due to the 6% "return" you would make (not lose) on the interest and the freedom you gain by not having debt.
  
  
• Max out your employer match for the 401k
  
  

Have you read this? Haven't read it myself but I've heard good things and it seems like it was written for people like you. I'd love something similar about VR with a smaller section devoted to how we got here, but the brunt of it focused on this VR gen and in particular the beginnings and the stuff that happened prerelease.

I got your list right here:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - great story about finding your way in life, destiny, etc. One of my personal favorites and a real life changer for me personally (read it when I was 14, very impressionable)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominigue Bauby - memoirs of a magazine editor who has a stroke and goes from being a hot shot playboy to being paralyzed. He loses all motor function and the whole book is written by him blinking out the letters. Despite it all he has a razor wit and such a positive outlook it really makes you think about your own life and what is important to appreciate.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig - kind of an interesting book that gives you a historical breakdown of philosophy all through a somewhat biographical story about a motorcycle trip with his son. Has some really insightful views on what is quality and what is the point of education. Highly recommend for anyone just starting college.

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P Feynman - Autobiography/memoir of one of the greatest minds to ever live. From learning how to pick locks while working on the manhattan project, experimenting with acid, and learning the bongos. Dr. Feynman has such a passion for life, science, and learning it's contagious. Seriously, just see how excited he gets about rubberbands.

Basically what souzaphone711 said.

Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibram_FiveFingers

Vendor: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm

A cool info site: http://www.youarethetechnology.com/

The MOST IMPORTANT thing if you decide to give these a try is to EASE into using them. Luckily the guy who sold me my first pair was a true believer and walked me through it. My wife also. Do NOT put these things on and go. Your foot is weak from years of having been encased in shoe support. It takes some time build the muscles back up. If you don't already spend some time in your bare feet start doing so.

Sub-reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/BarefootRunning/

Sub-sub-reddit (for hardcores who want NOTHING on their feet, at all - too extreme for me): http://www.reddit.com/r/barefoot

Read "Born To Run". Though not the focus of the book, this is the book (plus a guy I know who bought some shoes) that got me to try the shoes out: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/

The shoes did not just work for me - they helped my wife also. She'd had shin splints, plantar fasciitis, shoe inserts, etc. and she now has six pairs of FiveFingers. She runs much farther than I do (I only go a few miles, she'll do five or six).

If you try it you'll find that people seem to have strong opinions pro or con. The longer someone has been running and buying super expensive shoes and/or been educated in the status quo the stronger they will react.

>>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.
>
>Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy.

Yeah, that bit made me laugh. $3m isn't even remotely close to private jet territory. Try $300m. Lol

Most people that receive a large windfall like this do not fare well OP. At all. Be extremely careful with this money and do not tell anybody. Check out the "Windfall" section in the /r/personalfinance wiki. Also check out /r/fire and /r/fatFIRE.

What do you define as successful?

SpaceX has won contracts to resupply the ISS (not sure if they still do this or not)
and
also won a contract to bring US crews to and from the ISS
.


Not to mention their huge progress toward re-usable rockets. Fairly recently they landed a rocket on a platform after it had been launched into orbit. I can't really go into the science because I don't understand it, but I'm pretty sure that by almost all accounts, SpaceX has been VERY successful. They entered a "market" that had zero competition and were told by everyone that they'd fail.

Read the book about Elon Musk.

SpaceX is pretty lit.

If you liked Musicophila, I would definitely recommend some of Oliver Sacks' other books, such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which is collection of case studies about people with unique neurological disorders. Understanding how the brain falls apart gives an entirely new perspective into what's going on when the brain is working.

I also love the book The Most Human Human by Brian Christian. It's a fascinating mix of tech and philosophy and psychology - one of my favorite non-fiction books.

Maybe look into some of Malcolm Gladwell's books too. They're pretty quick reads - entertaining and thought-provoking, very sociology/social psychology based.

Well this was an ... exuberant start to the episode. The song is "On My Radio" by The Selecter. There's a delightful music video for it. Jeff's musical choices are particularly peppy this week.

They're on segment overdrive! Things Dan Shouldn't Be Allowed to Complain About, Connor's Conundrums, Jeff Describes People -- even an Evernote update (Dan abandoned Evernote temporarily for some reason) and the riffed My Favorite Cereals.

Blindness + flight is a dealbreaker. I'd want to fly almost exclusively to see stuff. I'd pick blindness over deafness, though, because I couldn't do without music and the human voice in general. There's still the internet ... I'd have to give up gifs, though. I'd prefer losing my hearing over being born deaf because I could at least recall my favorite music and have an easier time speaking.

Siike returns! The procedure he's talking about is apparently called endovascular coiling, and the procedure is pretty fascinating. I'm kind of reminded of some patients in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, such as the titular man who couldn't identify everyday objects or people by sight. Great guest segment, of course.

I love Jeff's invocation of a centurion as a Hollywood archetype. It just puts the perfect picture in your head.

The metagaming discussion is taken up once more -- this time in gory detail. Their confusion is kind of amusing ... it's not the most difficult concept, especially for people who either are or work with actors.

> If done right, science is science.

THAT'S THE KEY. SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY ARE NOT DONE RIGHT.

SCIENCE DEMANDS THINGS LIKE REPEATABILITY. THIS IS RARELY DONE IN PSYCHOLOGY STUDIES.

SCIENCE ALSO DEMANDS THINGS LIKE THE ABILITY TO OBJECTIVELY OBSERVE THINGS. BUT YOU CANNOT DO THIS IS SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. YOUR OWN PERCEPTIONS DEEPLY COLOR YOUR INTERPRETATION OF OTHERS.

SCIENCE ALSO DEMANDS MATHEMATICAL RIGOR. AS ANOTHER POINTED OUT, THIS STUDY INVOLVED SOMETHING LIKE 311 INDIVIDUALS, WHICH IS AN ASTONISHINGLY SMALL NUMBER.

NEUROSCIENCE WILL BECOME THE PROPER SCIENCE THAT PSYCHOLOGY CURRENTLY CLAIMS TO BE.

THIS BOOK HAS AN INTERESTING SECTION ON THE SCIENTIFIC SHORTCOMINGS OF PSYCHOLOGY.

PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY ARE GREAT THINGS, AND I'M HAPPY FOR THEIR EXISTENCE. BUT PEOPLE WHO CLAIM "SCIENCE IS SCIENCE" NEEDED MORE CLASSES ON MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, AND CHEMISTRY.

EDIT: HERPADERP "SCIENCES" ==> "STUDIES". ALSO, WHEN DID REDDIT BECOME SO STUPID?

If you want to be an active investor in any way...

• I'm a really big fan ofWarren Buffet's Ground rules. Somewhat biased since it was the first book I read, but it's a great analysis of Buffet's evolution as an investor. Buffet has never written a book himself, but he HAS written a lot of letters through his hedge fund and then later Berkshire Hathaway. This book basically breaks down all of those letters, and provides commentary on his style and how he has invested over the years. IMO, it's a much better read for value investing these days than something like Graham's Security Analysis, and even goes over some items of how value investing has changed, what is different now than back in Graham's days, etc. I do a lot different from this book now, but I think it laid a great foundation for me.
  
• I haven't read it myself, but I've heard One Up on Wall St. is a generally good read.
  
  Beyond these, I would 100% say, get some practice buying stocks / funds. Open a Robinhood account with a very small amount of $. Buy some individual stocks and set rules about when you can or can't sell them. At the end of the sell or hold period, evaluate what went wrong or right. Learn to understand if there was an error in your process / analysis, or if it's just the nature of the market as a whole. These things will never be straightforward, but I know I personally learned a lot when I started as I tended to get caught investing in a lot of value traps. Alternative to Robinhood, you can use Investopedia, although it's probably better to learn when you actually have some skin in the game so you can understand aversion to loss.
  
  If you don't care to be an active investor...
  
  Just buy an index fund. You can read stuff like Boglehead's guide to investing, a Random Walk on Wall St, or any other index fund bibles, but the main conclusion to all of these books is that you are going to suck at beating the market, and you should just buy index funds. So if you don't care to try to beat the market, you can just skip most of the reading, find a passive portfolio (3 fund, all-weather, or just buying SPY since you're young) and just build up a base in a passive way and ignore returns until you're over 50 years old.

The real bad thing with trading (which investing actually is, just longer term) is that there really is no place to go for a good advice.

If the OP doesn't have time to do the research, then I would recommend looking into some managed accounts or funds (and doing the research there - it still requires research work).

I trade differently from the parent, I'm a techie/quant (well I do some fundie stuff too) so depending on your history, I would look into different methods on how to trade. There are plenty.

Buy and hold is what some people praise, especially those newbie stock books but I really wouldn't like to advocate that approach but that's just me.

edit: As some people posted links, I'll post some good books - forums tend to be full of crap and it takes at least of 6 months (at least, possibly years) to be able to understand who know something and what really is somehing you should be reading so here are some great books:

This is an easy to read, good book for beginners in a form of a story

http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Currency-Trader-Trading-Courage/dp/0470049480


These two are must

http://www.amazon.com/Market-Wizards-Interviews-Top-Traders/dp/0887306101

http://www.amazon.com/New-Market-Wizards-Conversations-Americas/dp/1592803377


This is a real classic and still relevant

http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Investment-Classics/dp/0471770884


This is good if you are interested in technical analysis/trading system design (and not too complicated)

http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Investment-Classics/dp/0471770884

This is just from me having read 20% of a biography about him. Note that this was not a biography by him and he originally did not even want to contribute to it. He did end up contributing, but the book is based upon interviews with hundreds of people and the writer makes very clear that it is not 'Musks truth'.

He made his own rockets during his childhood, including rocket fuel.

He coded a lot of stuff, releasing a video game at age 12

The only reason he ever studied anything is because he thought it was advantageous for him. He always visited the least amount of classes necessary, and only got good grades when he needed to. At first, he sucked at school. Then someone told him you need certain grades to advance. Next time he got the best grades possible. Other examples of this is him inquiring about the highest paying job possible and ending up shoveling out boilers in a hazmat suit for 18 dollars/hour. He was one of 3/18 to keep doing it after a week.

If he has a goal, he works until he reaches it, no matter what anyone tells him. There are plenty of examples were engineers told him something is impossible, and he then went ahead and fixed the code behind their backs. With his first startup he worked 16, 18 hours a day, sleeping in front of the computer, instructing employees to kick him awake when they arrived at the office.

He apparently takes active part in the design of SpaceX and Tesla components. As in, he actually stays up to date on everything and gives his input. He is definitely not just a CEO doing buisiness stuff in the background. Read his twitter and it will be apparent that he takes active part in the engineering side of things.

In fact, he can be considered a pretty bad manager. If someone is wrong about something, using wrong equations or whatever, he is very brusque about correcting them. He expects everyone else to work as hard as he does, and is not really a charming, social, outgoing guy. It seems like the only reason people work for him is that they share his vision (to colonize mars).

My suggestion is starting with easy to read books that you connect to. I highly recommend Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. The stories there have something everyone can connect to, they're easy to read, and you will piss yourself laughing.

If after that, you still want to read, you should hunt for more books that you can relate to. This can be hard - especially if you like reading non fiction. I've helped a friend pick books that I found easy to read and not too wordy in the past. Once you make a habit of it, and you start finding books you enjoy, it gets much much easier.

Also, almost every book has something you can learn from - you just need to find what that is. While I've never felt bored or like I've wasted time after reading a book, there are certain books that make me want to punch the wall in frustration of how terrible the pace/writing/character is, and I tend to take a lesson of some sort from them. It can be a life lesson from that character, a lesson on what not to do if you're narrating a story to someone, or a simple "how could this situation be avoided."

Also, as /u/macksting suggests, try audiobooks. The audibles are amazingly well performed, and they're fun to listen to.

you should read this- a lot of millionaires live a pretty modest life. part of "being rich" is all about being better than someone else. i don't mind everyone having a certain standard of living that most people would consider "millionaire" lifestyle of free healthcare, good housing, free higher education. that's too easy. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474

Check out some pop math books.

John Derbyshire's Prime Obsession talks about today's most famous unsolved problem, both the history of and an un-rigorous not-in-depth discussion of the mathematical ideas.

There's also Keith Devlin's Mathematics: The New Golden Age, which, to quote redditor schnitzi, "provides an overview of most of the major discoveries in mathematics since 1960, across all subdisciplines, and isn't afraid to try to teach you the basics of them (unlike many similar books)."

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott is an interesting novel about dimension and immersion. An absolute classic, first published in 1884.

You should also check out the books on math history.

Journey Through Genius covers some of the major mathematical breakthroughs from the time of the Greeks to modern day. I enjoyed this one.

Derbyshire wrote one too called Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra which I've heard is good.

And finally, you should check out at least one book containing actual mathematics. For this I emphatically recommend Paul Halmos' Naive Set Theory. It is a small book, just 100 pages, absolutely bursting with mathematical insight and complexity. It is essentially a haiku on a subject that forms the theoretical foundation of all of today's mathematics (though it is slowly being usurped by category theory). After sufficient background material is introduced, the book covers the ever-important Axiom of Choice (remember the Banach-Tarski paradox?), along with its sisters, Zorn's Lemma and the Well Ordering Principle. After that it discusses cardinal numbers and the levels of infinity. The path he takes is absolutely beautiful and his experience and understanding virtually drips from the pages.

Oh yeah, there's an awesome reading list of books put out by the University of Cambridge that might be of interest too: PDF warning.

Happy birthday, /u/purebredginger!!

I am totally going to make that delicious bacon-wrapped asparagus this week - looks divine! I'll probably add some lemon juice to it, because lemon and asparagus are a match made in heaven. I hope you have a fantastic week, month, year!

link~

This isn't heavily science-y and a bit journalized, but I really enjoyed Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadaver's by Mary Roach. I also like Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. There's a lot of overlap with what he teaches at his UChicago Eco & Evo course. Bad Science by Ben Goldacre is also wonderful, but will likely make you angry. Yet another interesting read is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

>my brother also has Mars conjunct Virgo Ascendant

It's funny how that works. You see a lot of heredity happening in astrological charts. My mom, paternal grandmother, and I all have Moon in Sag, maternal grandma had Moon conjunct Jupiter, and my kids have Moon in the 9th opposite Jupiter. There was an article years ago in The Mountain Astrologer about hereditary astrological signatures. It's pretty freaky.

>Another person mentioned strong Leo/sun influence

I haven't seen an association between Leo in women and gender-bending in practice. I mean, Madonna is a Leo and Marilyn Monroe had Leo rising--they're both pretty hyper-femme, not masculine at all. One thing strong Leo placements do is give a strong will, the opposite of a compliant nature, and in women some old-fashioned reptiles associate that with "masculinity." I don't.

I wish I could find chart info for the writer Norah Vincent. She's a tall (5'11" I think) lesbian who lived as a man for a year to find out what being a man in modern America was like, and wrote a great book about it: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702

Does he like reading? If he does, buy him these books:

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character

The man who loved only numbers

Those are amusing biographies of two scientists, Richard Feynman and Paul Erdos.

The wishlist is pretty awesome, but if he likes writing I'd also reccommend this. Its a book that Stephen King wrote about writing and we used it a bit in my creative writing courses. Its informative but also interesting to read. Its not just strictly a writing manual.

And moleskin notebooks are awesome!

In no particular order but all of the following are great.

• Skunk Works by Ben Rich - I reviewed it here
  
• Ignition! - It's an informal history of liquid rocket propellant and I did a more in depth review of it here
  
• The Design of Everyday Things - A book about how objects are designed. It changed how I look at the world and approach design. It took me few tries to get into it the first time.
  
• Introduction to Astrodynamics by Battin - A great textbook on the basics of astrodynamics that is both easy enough for undergrads to start, and rigorous enough to keep you interested as your math skills improve in grad school and later.

The F117 was designed to be as invisible as possible. When Ben Rich was trying to sell the plane to goverment personnel he would walk into their office and roll a marble across their desk and say "heres your plane", because that represented its radar cross section. That seems pretty damn invisible to me.

I highly recommend the book Skunkworks to anyone interested in first hand accounts of producing some of Lockheed's greatest creations.

EDIT: I was just looking through my copy of Skunkworks to find the passage. Here it is! I found another interesting passage where they were having a F117 model tested by a government official to verify Skunkworks radar claims, and it was virtually invisible.

Well the thing with older cars is that there's never just "one last repair". When things start breaking, there's no end to it. I'm currently wondering about replacing my wife's 2011 Peugeot 508, the only standing cost for it is insurance at about €110/year, but it has cost me about €1800 in repairs in 9 months and I can only see it going downhill from there.

​

On the subject of luxury vehicles - a surefire way to never get rich is to try and look like one from the getgo. Sure it's pointless being 100% frugal in everything and as a young man one must also has a ride the ladies would be interested to ride in. But speaking from experience if I had only known anything about money that 7-series BMW on steamroller wheels I bought at 25yo would have been better off as a decent stock portfolio by now.

​

I suggest reading this book before going into stocks, definitely an eye-opener for me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0743200403/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=AR4DC9FBOWIX7&psc=1

​

What are you saving up for? The more money you just bury away, the less profit you see from your investments, as inflation eats it away.

Well, if you can sink as much time into Wikipedia as I can, that's a good start. And don't skip the references and links at the bottom; that's 90% of the fun!

There are a lot of good, popular-audience books on these topics. I don't know any about BCI in particular, but check out The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (and other stuff by Oliver Sacks) and Phantoms in the Brain. Those are the ones we read in COGS 1 and they're great. Right now I'm reading Jonah Lehrer's Proust Was a Neuroscientist; How We Decide was also good. Also, don't shy away from academic literature. It's not really so hard to read if you're interested.

Are you or could you be in college? Check my advice here. If you at least live near a college, sit in on some classes. Write to a professor and see if there's lab work to do, maybe as a volunteer. That could get your foot in the door.

For a lot of my basic knowledge I browsed investopedia and clicked on anything blue I didn't understand and held legitimate conversations with peers both on and off of reddit.

For example, take this submission about CDOs

Just start reading. If you don't understand something that's highlighted, like "derivatives" or "defaults", click on it and read that page. This can help you understand a lot of the technical terms and see how they're all related to one another.

I don't read many investing books as much as I try to absorb things about economics itself. Understanding how an economy functions is essential to trading. A good youtube channel that talks about economics can be found here. The videos are dense in information, but the input the creator gives is very solid. Not all of what he says should be taken as fact, but really it's just an analysis by a fundamentally sound economist.

Netflix has a few documentaries that are captivating. One is called Betting on Zero

The series "Dirty Money" has some interesting content within as well.

The Big Short is a movie that has valuable content if you watch it while considering what we know in hindsight of the 2008 financial crisis.

The most important part of investing is understanding what stimulates an economy or drives one into a recession.

My father is a successful investment banker and the two books he's always recommended are:

The Intelligent Investor

The Millionaire Next Door

According to The Millionaire Next Door, 80 percent of millionaires are first generation wealthy.

Other interesting notes:

"PNC Wealth Management conducted a survey of people with more than $500,000 free to invest as they like, a fair definition of “wealthy,” and possibly “millionaire” once you begin including home equity and other assets. Only 6% of those surveyed earned their money from inheritance alone. 69% earned their wealth mostly by trading time and effort for money, or by “working.”"

Source

"about 90% of people who "become millionaires" do so through gradual accrual of assets — they "earn it” — whereas only about 10% are given a million bucks by mom or dad, or inherit a business worth that much, or something."

Source

"Overall, the research revealed current millionaires are, on average, 61 years old with $3.05 million in assets."

Source

"Most Americans with $1 million or more in assets made their money on their own, according to a study by BMO Private Bank released today. Sixty-seven percent of high-net-worth Americans are self-made millionaires, according to the survey. Only 8 percent inherited their wealth."

Source

Socks is incredibly nice to get. I also enjoy any running material....if he's newer to running then perhaps the following books (which are super cheap) would interest him:

1. Feet in the Clouds
   
   
2. Eat and Run
   
   
3. Born to Run
   
   There's plenty of others....but a good read is nice after a nice run.

You may not like my answer, but in the end it's up to you how you feel about this issue. First let me say that wikiislam is a propaganda islamophobic website. If I were to want information on Christianity, I would ask a Priest or a scholar of Christianity. So please don't read what you find on propaganda websites, some things are outright fabrications, others are taken out of context, others are misattributed etc. etc. So please don't read from those websites, but read from Muslim sources. If you are really sincere in what you say, you can do various things.

Read ''In the Footsteps of the Prophet'' by Dr. Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University. He's a Muslim. He's well versed. He writes amazingly.

Read ''Muhammad: Man and Prophet'' by Adil Salahi. Book is somewhat expensive, but just read the top review by 'Mary' and I think that will tell you everything you need to know, haha. A biography on the life of the Prophet SAW! What more would you want!

You can always read the Qur'an - but that can be taken out of context. Muhammad Asad has a great translation of the Qur'an containing many footnotes describing the context of many verses. After all, in a book that was revealed over 23 years every verse has a context of its own.

The issue with all the above is that they cost money.

So in that case here is Dr. Yasir Qadhi's ongoing series about the life of the Prophet Muhammad SAW discussing many many things going on around his life from beginning to end. There are 98 videos and each has 1 hour.. And it's still going, so this can be really time consuming.

In the end I want to say: If you don't have the time to watch the series, or the money to buy and read the books (which are all sourced from Muslim scholars and even then the muslim scholars cite muslim scholars, the companions of the Prophet, and even the Prophet SAW himself) - then please hold your judgement on Muslims and do not let yourself be distracted by anti Islamic sources. To learn about vaccines, we learn from Doctors, not from anti-Vaccination supporters!

Here are a couple of books and a few other things you can do to help you improve. Generally speaking I would only use books to learn the nuts and bolts of writing (grammar, passive vs. active voice and Point of View - stuff like that). Everyone writes in a different way, there are a thousand paths up the mountain as the saying goes, so learning how Stephen King writes (On Writing) may not help you understand how you write.


If you only read one book on writing, make sure it's Elements of Style by Strunk and White - It's short and covers all the basic mechanics of writing.


As others have said, read widely. This is probably the most important thing you can do. Read and then read reviews and critiques. You will begin to see common themes to what people like and dislike. If you can spot these in the work of others, you will learn to spot them in your own work.


Join a critique group. This is basically the same thing as reading Goodreads or Amazon reviews, but supercharged. You see the raw material, warts and all. You will probably get more from learning to critically assess the work of others than you will from their critiques of your work. Lots of libraries have writers groups or you can join one online like Critters.


I would suggest not to jump straight into a novel. Learn to write short stories and polish your craft there. A 3000 word short story is less of an investment in time than a 100,000 word novel. You will make mistakes in the beginning, best to make them quickly and get them over with, learn and move on.

Here are some books, but nothing specific to injuries.

If she likes the Oatmeal, this is a must-have.

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances

The classic. It's a good read. Take the science with a grain of salt.

Born to Run

Bill Rodgers auto-biography. An entertaining read, but not greatly-written.

Marathon Man

If she's science-oriented, this is a great book. I love this thing:

What Comes First, Cardio or Weights?

First off, thank you--I always appreciate commentary from teachers/professors/academics/educators on reddit--the insight is invaluable, and you clearly know your stuff. This looks to be a wonderful curriculum, and I hope to be able to work my way through it or something similar eventually; after all, money's tight for me right now as a student.

Second, you say you prefer the topical approach, so maybe you could speak to this: my primary reason for posting is that last year I read Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and thoroughly enjoyed it. Recently, I had time to read it's sequel, Lila: An Inquiry into Morals and found it to be even more complete argumentatively-speaking. Almost all of his points were genius in my opinion, but what I found most compelling was the manner in which he argued that modern scientific reasoning is a flawed, incomplete way of looking at the world. I suppose on the surface you could call it epistemological, but he also engages metaphysics and ethics heavily in these two books. I'm fascinated by Pirsig's work, but just feel as though I need to be more well-read in these areas to really engage with it and better evaluate it's merit.

You asked for everything really, but here is a selection I personally like that is more focused on the biography of Muhammad.

For Muslim books on the biography of the Prophet, I highly recommend:

A Biography of the Prophet of Islam: In the Light of the Original Sources, an Analytical Study

In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

On the more academic side of his life and following centuries, I recommend:

Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World

In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire

The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam

For the four best primary sources of his biography translated into English:

The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi's Kitab al-Maghazi

The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya

The Life of Muhammad

The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad

I'm personally getting a lot of great recommendations who cares if Grey's assistant likes them.

[TLC: High middle ages]
(https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/high-middle-ages.html)
Really interesting professor does a very broad overview of the changes happening in Europe during this time period.

[Unfamiliar Fishes]
(https://www.amazon.com/Unfamiliar-Fishes-Sarah-Vowell/dp/159448564X) Actually most Sarah Vowell books are pretty interesting and entertaining. This one covers the time period of Hawaii from when it was a kingdom to a state, when it's soul is being fought over by missionaries, fruit companies and shipping.


[What I talk about when I talk about Running](
https://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/0307389839) I'm not a runner, neither is Grey, still a really interesting reflective book.


[Cod: The biography of the fish that changed the world](
https://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-Fish-Changed-World/dp/0140275010/ref=sr_1_1?
keywords=cod&qid=1566160678&s=books&sr=1-1)
You need to read this just for the charming cod wars Iceland engages in, also a ton of history and geography.

[Stephen King: On Writing](
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816) Very nuts and bolts book about the physical act of writing and a lot of inside baseball about the state of mind King was in while writing some of his most famous books,

If you don't know much about physics I would recommend The Dancing Wu-Li Masters by Gary Zukov. That's one of the main books that got me interested in the field. Clearly written enough for a 9th grader to understand. Also, It explores some philosophical parallels to physics which I enjoyed quite a bit (don't worry, it's nothing like What the Bleep)

Also, if you'd like some insight on how a genius thinks, I would recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman? It's one of my favorite books of all time. There's actually no science in this book - it's basically a collection of anecdotes from Richard Feynmann's life. He talks about his experiences in college, grad school, and working on the A-bomb in Los Alamos among other things. Incredibly entertaining stuff.

Do you have any strong interests? For example, I love math, and the book The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, which is a biography of Paul Erdos.

If you are interested in graphic novels, and they are allowed for the assignment, Logicomix is the quest of Bertrand Russell for an ultimate basis of mathematics, and how the journey of understanding can often lead towards obsession and madness.

If you're interested in physics, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman is a great book that is arguably a biography.

So, what are you most interested in?

Have you seen balance sheets/know true net worth for these people who you think are wealthy? Or do you assume they are wealthy based on conspicous signs of "wealth" (aka cars, houses, boats, etc.)? Most people who flash their cash really have a low net worth, and finance most of those purchases. Meanwhile the truly wealth, are usually self made millionaires who do not show their wealth. They live in working class neighborhoods drive a used car and send their kids to public school.

Most millionaire who inherit their wealth blow it soon after and have to be supported buy their parents, because they over consume for their income level.

Read The Millionaire Next Door for more insight into how most people become rich and stay that way. It is typically the small business owner not the trust fund baby.

>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.

Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy. I know several that make that amount in less than 2 months, and you wouldn't know it, because they live frugally and humbly, including driving beat-up old minivans. Some of them do have nice shit (e.g. palace-sized mansions) but out in the street, they don't flex, and others live in small, modest homes in middle class neighborhoods. At best, they might have a Model 3, S, or X that they also use.

​

For the sake of argument and with some fuzzy math, if you put all $3 million into an index fund that's earning you 6%, that's $180,000/year. That is a lot of money for a 20 year old, and an obligatory Uncle Ben quote goes here. You're virtually set for life and can do anything that you want, and I'd probably use that time and money to go become a full time student in any number of mediums: Udacity, College, Trade School, Real Estate, etc. which would further your skill level for other interests, including but not limited to said rental houses. If you got licensed in trades, you'd be able to legally (well, from a liability angle - nothing is really stopping you from your own maintenance anyways) do your own repair work on your properties, which would save you even more money. I'm not saying that's the most logical option, but it's something to bear in mind.

​

To answer the relationship/cash aspect (and because I got f'd on this) you'd want a pre-nup, and as others have advised, a great attorney. Some of the relationship warning signs that I wish that I had known, and was covered in this forum yesterday. When it comes to getting serious about a relationship (and until then, if you're going to be active, use protection - child support and/or divorce rape should be a part of your threat vector) then you might want to ask an attorney about shifting assets around to where you're then an employee of yourself (e.g. form an LLC, hire yourself, and pay a meager wage, with the option for bonuses.)

Reminiscenses of a Stock Operator is a pretty good and easy read to start with. 2,3 & 4 are good. Michael Lewis' Big Short and Liar's Poker are pretty entertaining and definitely worth picking up.

It depends on your budget. I got this for my dad as a "thank you for helping me fly" present and he loved it. The pictures are what really got me to purchase it. The new edition is available on his website and is slightly cheaper than the original (250ish?). I think it was worth it my dad talked about it for months. Read skunkworks http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0316743003/ref=redir_mdp_mobile my dad said if you loved that you would enjoy Sleddriver as well... Ah ur link was cheaper mi scusi! I guess the new ones reached amazon now!

Writing a Christian book without actually writing a Christian book.

Read on Writing.

>Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

Love you

I would recommend "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. It does have some formulas but it is otherwise a pretty easy ready and shows you how to value companies. Hope this helps! http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417723295&sr=8-1&keywords=one+up+on+wall+street

Absolutely. You're probably just concerned about scale. You may think earning 3% is small when investing $1,000 ($30 ROI), but scale that up to say $25,000 and you get an ROI of $750. Still not a great deal of money, but way more than the smaller investment.

The problem becomes getting your foot in the door to earn those higher returns. You could take out a loan and make your bet on the market to build your bankroll (Buying on Margin), but if your first bet goes bust, you could easily be in trouble/debt for a very long time. This is Risk and how much you're willing to take on.


A great book you should read is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre. It doesn't outline any trading strategies (that are useful today), but gives you a good idea on the philosophy of trading. Good luck to you if you decide to start trading.

If you enjoyed Cosmos, I would also recommend Demon-Haunted World. Excellent for cutting through some of the bullshit that surrounds our day to day lives.

I would recommend reading some Richard Feynman too. Surely You're Joking is one of the favorites. He doesn't talk about lofty subjects or anything. He was just a down to earth guy from a working class family in Queens who happened to be a Nobel-prize winning physicist and a great storyteller. He was a genius without the facetious smartypants attitude.

This is a famous lecture of his if you want to get a feel for what his writing is like.