Reddit mentions: The best memoirs

My experience is that grad school is actually a pretty great time to have kids, if you can keep up with your work. Babies aren't really on a schedule too early, and it's a lot easier to spend 40 hrs/week working on your thesis/obligations at your convenience, rather than working 9-5 and looking after young children at the same time. You have to maintain the motivation to keep up with your work when the (baby/child) is down, but it's certainly not a bad time to be a parent. It is difficult not to just want to sleep when everyone is quiet, but if you have the motivation to do that, if I had the choice to go back and re-visit some of my decisions, I would have no hesitation about doing grad school instead of working when I had infants.

You're going to be exhausted no matter what you do (SAH parents are just as exhausted as working parents), and I would rather do something I love, and get paid for, rather than just a job that I had to do.

I don't think that there's a wrong decision here. I've known a lot of people who became very unhappy when they were living the academic life daily, but it does work well for some people. Most of my 'academic' friends didn't have children until after they were tenured, which meant that there were different pressures. I'm also Canadian, which might make a difference in terms of what to expect as a tenured professor.

My best advice (as someone who is currently a mom) is to do what makes you happy, and while you're doing that, also put the rest of your family's needs as a high priority. I've got a pretty complicated family (triplets, all autistic, one cancer kid, one divorce), but I still kind of wish that I was a history prof :-)

Just be aware of what your choices are, because there will always be positives and negatives no matter which road you choose. It's more than possible to be emotionally and intellectually involved in your career choice, and still be a great parent/partner. It's also possible to be so fixated on your own happiness that you neglect everyone else's.

I still haven't found a point where I say "this is absolutely what I want to do, and everything else needs to revolve around that". I've made choices (in full knowledge of what I was giving up or gaining), but I think that it might be less of a choice to your age group, in that you might not have to make an either/or choice. My kids are now 15, and some of them say "but you don't have a full-time job" and some of them say "you actually thought that history was important", and most of the time, all of us agree that I'm a pretty decent parent who is accomplishing good things in various areas. It still makes me twinge when a child comes across an old research paper and says "wow- you used to know stuff?" I still know 'stuff', but it's different :-)

Do what feels right, and good, for you. My guess is that my children's generation would be a lot happier if they had happier parents, and if my generation of women hadn't been faced with either/or choices. Go for what you are passionate about, treat your family with the respect, decency, attentive time, and love that you'd expect for yourself, and do what feels right. If you love (and by "love" I mean respect your children, do what is right for them to the best of your understanding give them care and comfort, teach them basic skills and the knowledge that people are interesting, make different choices, and and are decent people, and you'll probably be fine.

I don't think that there are easy choices to be made for women, but I think that you can't go wrong by trying to set your priorities (if you have common sense), by showing your family (partner and kids) that you are happy, doing what you want to be doing, and still giving love and affection at the same time that you take love and support from them. From what you've written you don't seem oblivious to your partner's/future children's needs, so you'll probably make the right choice.

I'm not sure that there's a wrong decision. After I gave up my hopes of academic brilliance I worked in a (large) University environment for a long time, and although I miss the research and what I hoped to achieve, I sure don't miss academia. Now, you couldn't pay me enough to go back into an academic environment full-time, but I don't regret the time that I spent just learning knowledge and doing research, and I'll probably be doing that again when my kids leave home.

Do what intrinsically feels good to you, and trust your common sense to make up for the rest. It's possible in any field now to make a splash without being an academic- the latest linguistics book that I read was "Don't Sleep, there are Snakes", but one of my kids' speech therapists did her PhD in linguistics before she decided to go back to speech therapy, and she's been incredible for my kids.

Do what feels right (and as you can tell by my babbling, I'm definitely history/english, and not linguistics!)

You'll work it out.

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 ><

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.

Hi, Azalea! It sounds like you guys are in a really tough place right now. I'm on the other side, and have been for 3 years now, and I just want to say, don't give up quite yet. You're only four weeks in, and many things can change over the next several months. Counseling and taking some time to do some reading might help you work through what you really need. It certainly did for me.

It sounds like you married your best friend, which sounds an awful lot like my situation. I met my wife our senior year of high school, dated through college and grad school, and married after 7 years of dating. 5 years in, when I was about 31 and right after our third child was born, she came out to me as transgender. I have to say, I reacted badly. In my case, I was stuck at home with two preschoolers and a baby, and I found out that she was using business trips and after work activities as excuses to dress in secret and go to support groups. I was, frankly, pissed. And I didn't know what she really meant by transgender. At the time, I didn't really know a lot about people that weren't gender typical, but I did understand that gender was a spectrum, and that I was completely straight with zero interest in women. And I had 3 children under age 5, out of state from my family, and hadn't worked in my field since moving out of state.

My wife saw how hurt I was and did not want to hurt me again, so she put off transition for quite a while. She went through a long phase of "If I just attend support groups, I'll be fine...." and that slowly ramped up into fully transitioning, with my full support and with a very strong marriage.

At some point, I realized that no one really cares what you do in your private life except the people in the marriage. No one can decide for you, even your parents, what you want to do with yourself. If you need to leave, then do it. If you need to help her through this very hard thing, do it. In the end, the thing that matters most is that you are happy with yourself and the decisions you have made. You only get one chance to go through life, so try to live it the best way you can, right?

For me, that meant staying. It took a bit, but I discovered that I married a person because he, then she, was that particular person, and not because she was a particular gender. I married my best friend. and now, almost 9 years since this all started and about 3+ years since transition, I still have that best friend, still have the physical relationship, and most importantly, still have the emotional relationship with her.

> I wish I could cuddle up next to him and be wrapped in his arms and know he's my world and our relationship is going to stay the same, that he's going to stay my wonderful husband.

This resonated with me, but looking from the other side of the bridge, the only thing that changed for me is that I now say "she" and "wife/spouse". She's still my world, and she's still my wonderful spouse.

Some of the reading that really helped me was a blog written by someone who went through the process about a year before us, and the Jennifer Finney Boylan books. In Boylan's story, I really identified strongly with what Grace (her wife) was going through. Here are the links:

She's Not There

There's a followup book just published last year called Stuck in the Middle with You that talks about their lives 10 years later.

And the Permission to Live blog series starts here.

Permission to Live has since written two more blog series. One is about life in the opposite gender, guest written by her transitioned wife, and the other is a story of their lives of the year between coming out and resettling in new lives. If you want those links, I'll look them up for you.

I hope you find something helpful in what I wrote. I'd be glad to chat more if you'd like.

You're almost correct on that statement but because I'm actually focusing on the rich, it doesn't exactly work.

The SJW term is a pejorative used by the Right, but I embrace it as Social Justice Worker. Since the very wealthy 1% tend to work against any social safety nets (the social part), if we all worked to even the scales more (that's the justice part) so the average joe on the poor end of the scale had a better shot at achieving the American Dream (instead of being nickeled and dimed to death), then we'd have a strong middle class and a much more robust economy.

But you're right about the fact that we're always pitted against each other. The difference is where you have your sights set.

If you have your sights set on crushing your Left or Right brother in the street, the the rich have won. If you have your sights set on the rich then that's what they don't want and you'll find yourself beset on all sides by the conservative poor that have been endlessly brainwashed by AM radio hate jockeys, right-wing bloggers and media pundits on Fox to hate Progressives, Democrats, Demonrats, The Left, Commie Pinko Socialists, SJWs, Obummers, feminazis, Ivory Tower/Limousine Liberals, etc, etc.

Easy, bumper sticker labels are essential propaganda tools to keep the masses fighting. The question that you alluded to is best put this way: How do 30 guards control 3,000 prisoners?

The answer: Race baiting and increased rations for the winners giving them a false sense of power. You can keep this up indefinitely by rigging the game to switch "power" between the two factions every few intervals.

I understand the game that's being played and I'm trying to explain it to you. It serves no purpose if some rich prick like Trump or Hillary gets in office and we scream "we won" to people in coffee shops. That's a false sense of power and about as useful as feeling elation because the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl. Does it help you? No.

Does the average conservative working joe "win" anything if a gay couple in another state is refused the right to marry? Nope.

Why would he then cheer when this happens? Is it some kind of moral victory even when he loses so much personally?

The more we can all agree what's worth fighting for, then we can all unite and demand our taxes and our efforts be put toward things that help all the working joes, right and left. First though, we have to get our brothers to see how they've been duped and direct their energies to making real progress.

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!

• "On Writing," by Stephen King (http://amzn.com/B000FC0SIM) - The first half is a good biography, and the second half is great insight into how Stephen King comes up with his stories. Not just the genesis of the story, but that actual "I sit down and do this, with this, in this type of environment." And then what to do when you finish your first draft. He is very critical of plotting, though. If you disagree with him about that, it's still good for everything else.
  
  
• "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White (http://amzn.com/020530902X) - This is a handy little book for proper grammatical and prose rules. How to write proper dialogue, where to put punctuation, and how to structure sentences to flow in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
  
  
• "Stein On Writing" by Sol Stein (http://amzn.com/B00HFUJP5Y) - I just picked this book up, so I haven't finished it--but it seems to be a little more in depth than Stephen King's On Writing. For instance, it looks more at not just what makes a good story, but what makes a good story appealing to readers. So whereas Stephen King preaches a more organic growth and editing process to write a story, this one seems to be more focused on how to take your idea and make it a good story based on proven structure.
  
  Honorable mention:
  
  
• "The Emotion Thesaurus" by Angela Ackerman (http://amzn.com/B00822WM2M) - This is incredibly useful when you're "showing" character emotions instead of "telling" the reader what those emotions are. For example, "He was curious," is telling the reader the character is curious. "He leaned forward, sliding his chair closer," is showing the reader that he is curious.
  
  
• I think it's easy for writers (myself included) to get too wrapped up in studying writing, or reading about writing. The best way to improve your is to write more, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, articles or short stories, novels or book reviews. The same principle applies to most skills, art especially. While reading about the activity certainly helps and is probably necessary at some point, you're going to just have to perform the activity in order to improve. Imagine reading about running more than actually running to practice for a marathon. Or reading about flying instead of getting hours in. Or reading about piano theory instead of actually playing piano. But if you're coming from nothing, it would probably help to read those three books before starting in order to start practicing with a good background right away, instead of starting with nothing and winging it on your own.

While you do need a college education in this day and age, it doesn't have to follow a strict formula. My little sister just graduated with her PhD in Math at Rutgers at 36. Her road was a pretty long one. She got married to an asshole at 18, divorced him five years later (thank god no kids), went to community college, then a state school, and then got a fellowship for her PhD. She has ZERO debt. Her bachelor's took longer, because she was working full time and taking night classes at first, but then she scaled down the work to part time and college full time. She was just offered a position by her former employer at $150/hour for 10 hours a week and she has a fully funded post doc at UPenn for another 10-15 hours a week starting mid June.

My point is, you have time. Yes, you do need to get a degree, maybe more than one, but it's also not a race and if you get creative you can do it with a minimum of debt. She's pretty special. I mean, to get a PhD in math you have to be, but she is also EXTREMELY frugal and that made an astronomical difference.

If you have to take a year off to work full time and save money, then that's what you have to do, but SAVE THE MONEY! Don't get sucked into just making that your life, because a lot of people do. Ultimately, you want that degree so do whatever you need to, even if it's just putting inspirational quotes on your mirror to remind yourself of your ultimate goals, no matter how long they may take.

My little sis, who I am so fucking proud of, called me many many times wanting to quit, because she was used to being first in her class and now she was in the bottom third. I finally told her, if she quit now she would forever regret it, because she would never ever know if she could have made it or not. I told her that quitting was the same as failing and that if she just kept going they would either kick her out and she could go back to her corporate job or she would succeed. Even as incredibly smart and talented as she is, she had to face down reality and work hard hard hard and save save save and forego many little pleasures, but she fucking did it and she did it all by herself and you can too. You may not get a PhD in math, but if you get creative, don't spend a dime you could possibly save, and work as hard as you can, you will achieve so much. You will find out who you are in the process, what you want, what you can achieve through hours of hard and often tedious and drudging work with people you don't like very much, but you will come out the other side a complete and whole person. Not many people can claim that, but you have taken the hardest step, which is to be your own person and escape a mind numbing cult, even when it meant forsaking your own parents. That is an experience not many people can claim and it will make you stronger than you could possibly know. You will meet people in college and university who have NEVER had to grapple what you have had to grapple with and that experience will be a strength to you for the rest of your life.

No one can tell you exactly what to do and based on what you have said, it sounds like the road is going to be long and difficult, but that's okay, because when you get out there in the "real world" you are going to find that this experience is an asset, not a disability.

/u/olsh gave some great practical advice. You are in a very tough spot, but you can do it. It will take more than courage. It will also take a lot of endurance through many difficulties. I would urge you to read or listen to Hillbilly Elegy before you do anything else.

> 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 posted this a few days ago. Hope it might be helpful for someone else. :)

> I'm a planner and a plotter by nature...so when I wanted to come out to people, I wanted to have this big speech laid out and a massive carpet bomb of information ready for everyone once I told them. I even wanted to tell people at the right time...not around anyone's birthday or holidays or anything, but when the moment was just right. It was just hindering me coming out. So, first tip: RELAX. Some planning is nice, but don't overdo things. You can take notes in, but don't write a letter or an essay. :)

> The good points I'd take from my experience thus far:

> let your family members know you wanna talk to them before you do. It's a thing they need to make 15-20 minutes of time for and not something you may wanna just casually throw in after dinner while watching TV.

> divide and conquer. Separate out the family members you think will be most comfortable (for me, it was my mother and sister over the phone) and speak with them first in private about it. It's a lot harder to come out to several people than just one.

> when you talk, talk to them about how you've felt first. Tell them it may be an awkward conversation, tell them that you're nervous talking to them, tell them how you've felt uncomfortable or dysphoric or how this has manifested in you. Put the 'I'm trans' near the middle/end.

> they may ask questions about it. You may not know all the answers just yet. That's fine. Stand firm, it's okay to not know everything or where things will end up.

> give them some time to wrap their head around things and don't push them.

> If everything goes well...bootstrap. ask the people you've told to help you with the people you haven't. I told my father and brothers, who helped me talk with my aunt, who helped me talk with my grandparents.

Addendum - good resources on trans stuff that I found:

The Praeger handbook of transsexuality. I was so lucky to have a copy in my local library, has some of the few studies/surveys i've seen, covers a lot of ground, trans guys and trans gals. Kinda technical though and a few years old, but I loved it. Learned so much!


Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. I think it really helps you understand society's fascination with trans ladies, but more mtf and activism focused of course.

PFLAG booklet I think it covers the basics okay for friends and family.

WPATH v7 standards of care Lots of fancy documentation about treatment of trans* individuals, expectations of HRT, etc.

I also read She's not there by jennifer finney boylan. i thought it was okay and I think it provides a more personal narrative to the whole thing, especially for me and my family because she's a fellow Mainer. Also mtf focused. Sorry trans guys, hopefully someone else can get you some cool resources. :(

edit: added some links. Also remember that while books are expensive, library cards are usually free and interlibrary loan is the coolest thing ever. :)

>How is education in your country?

It's complicated. Please keep in mind that what follows is directly from my experience from going to public and charter (primary and secondary) schools, and public community college/university. My experience is also limited to the following states: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Montana, and Wyoming.

First, everywhere I have lived, education has always been the means to a job/career. No more and no less. The humanities and the arts are generally seen as knowledge for the sake of knowledge (or mere "hobbies"), and thus are only really pursued by people from the higher socioeconomic backgrounds, or anyone lucky enough to get a "full ride" scholarship, or anyone who qualifies for loans from the federal government based on financial need and academic merit. Non-STEM people are the academic "second class" who aren't really taken seriously until they are successful (read: millionaires).

Primary school is very general and is usually focused on learning how to read, write, and do basic math, along with social interaction.

Secondary school is also very general and usually has a focus on social studies (history and government), math, science, and English, but students can begin to follow their own direction by choosing from a variety of elective classes to take. These electives are limited to what is available based on the school's budget, what teachers are available, and what the demand is for particular courses. Some schools require that students take language electives and art electives. Some schools offer technical and professional electives. This phase also includes taking regular standardized tests (both from the state level and national level) in reading, math, and science.

As far as I know, the requirements for admission to an accredited college or university vary wildly, but most require a minimum SAT (980) or ACT (21) score and a minimum high school GPA (usually 3.0 on a 4 point scale). Some also require that people take specific courses in high school. Some also require essays. Some also require letters of recommendation. The for-profit schools usually only require someone who is able to pay (or get loans) and occasionally demand that their applicants have a high school diploma or G.E.D.. Tech schools (job training you pay for) requirements also vary widely, but are generally incredibly flexible and can be as minimal as completing an interview.

Once at the post-secondary level, quality of education is difficult to quantify. Each school has its own professors with their own research focuses and specialties. A few schools (including public ones) have been criticized for grade manipulation (in both directions). The trick is to find the school that is focused on what you want to learn and go there. More and more post-secondary schools are partnering with industry representatives to tailor the curriculum to industry needs, but that is usually limited by location (i.e. universities in California teach a lot of tech because they partner with Apple and Microsoft while universities on the east coast teach a lot of finance because they partner with investment firms and banks). Most people assume that the schools on the coasts are the best, but, again, there isn't an unbiased, controlled way to quantify that assumption.

People who do get to post-secondary education have a variety of ways to pay for it. The ones who appear the most exceptional on paper (or are good at sports) get full scholarships that pay for all of their expenses. The ones who apply to the federal government, show academic merit, and financial need (based on family income) can get access to grants, scholarships, and loans. For everyone else, scholarships are available for a variety of qualifications, but are more competitive. There are scholarships for women in STEM, people who have blue eyes, people who wear duct tape dresses to prom, people who like archery, people who intend to enter a certain industry, single mothers, and first generation college students, to name a few. For those who don't qualify for, don't get, or don't apply for scholarships, they either get their family to pay for their education or they hold a job while going to school.

I personally believe that knowledge is a right and should be freely available to anyone who seeks it, but I understand how and why our current system works the way it does, and what benefits such a system affords. The internet is also helping in this respect by making loads of information available for free, but sometimes a good teacher/guide can make all the difference (and not everyone in the U.S. has access to a computer, let alone the internet). People who are smarter than me are working on it, though, so I’m pretty optimistic that we’ll soon find a balance between individual merit, industry, correcting systematic inequities, collective intellectual progress, and paying for it all. Go team!

>Have you heard about our lord and saviour Synthwave?

No. I mostly listen to the radio in my car and Pandora. I occasionally find new music on YouTube and through friends, but it is usually specific to a single artist or band, not really a whole genre. I don't really focus much on music either (I don't like concerts or "live" versions of songs, I don't go out of my way to follow any specific band, and I don't buy merchandise or cds).

>Did you know that it snows in Iran and we have ski resorts?

Yes. This is the first photo I ever saw of Iran. I was writing a paper on Persepolis and had trouble connecting some of the story with my mind image of Iran (sand), so I looked up "Tehran mountains" and got this image. Those mountains look a lot like the Rocky Mountains, but the Tehran is so much more expansive and cluttered-looking compared to Denver (and it looks like Tehran is right up against the mountains, while Denver is several miles from the Rockies).

Let me know if you have more questions for me or if I need to clarify anything! Thanks for the info!

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)

General

• The Righteous Mind - OP, if you only choose one book, it's gotta be this one. Trust me.
  
• The Fractured Republic - Written by a committed conservative, but very fair. Critical of his own side and empathetic of the positive traits on the left. Also one of the best writers in political history/theory imo.
  
  Conservative - I'm keenly interested in the intellectual history of American Conservatism and could make this this list could go on forever. I'll keep it to three, but if you want more suggestions feel free to ask.
  
  
• 10 Conservative Principles - Not a book, but essential to understanding conservatism
  
• Conservatism in America Since 1930 - A reader that guides you along a chronological and ideological path of conservatism in America.
  
• Hillbilly Elegy - Less academic, but very well written and explains the support of Trump from the rural white working class perfectly
  
  Liberal - You may get a better liberal reading list from another user, but I'll give it a shot.
  
  
• On Liberty - Modern political dialog from the left still echos Mill's classic defense of cultural liberty. A must read for all Americans.
  
• American Progressivism: A Reader - As you can tell, I'm a big fan of reading political giants in their own words.
  
• The Affluent Society - The controversial classic that underpins progressive economic policy.

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.

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.

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."

Psychology (studied, but never practiced)

Here are a selection of interesting books:

• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. Easy introduction into behavioural psychology and decision making. I am pretty sure Dan did an AMA relatively recently. He's a champ.
  
  
• Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. This is a great book for those of us whose tendency is to listen more than talk.
  
  
• Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia by Ann Deveson. Ann is a very well respected journalist in Australia. Her description of raising her son who had schizophrenia is well worth reading.
  
  
• Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robinson - lesser-known brother of Augusten Burroughs. I did my research on higher-functioning Autism including Asperger's. This is a great memoir, and wonderful description of growing up different'.
  
  
• First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple by Dr Cameron West. Whether you are dismissive of the validity of Dissociative Identiy Disorder or think it is a genuine condition, I read this many years ago, and found it compelling.

First thing for you to remember: You are the same person you have always been. If you really do have Aspergers, then you always have. This changes nothing.

You might want to get a 'professional' diagnosis, at least then you'll know for certain and you'll have actual proof.

Alright, supposing you do have Aspergers. Where do you go from here? I'd say this could be a good opportunity to dig into some self-improvement. There are plenty of forums (just like this one) full of autistic people going through a lot of the same situations as you. I'm one of them! If you have any questions on, say, "How do I respond to this in a conversation", etc, ask away.

I'm sure there are also books on the subject - but honestly, it's nothing I've read up on. I just sort of played it by ear as I went. Although I did read the book Look Me in the Eye and enjoyed it a good bit. It might not teach you much about handling autism itself, but it'll give you someone to relate to, and John Elder Robison really made something of himself.

Other tips? Study people! Figure out what draws you to someone or turns you off from someone else. Try to take steps to act more like the people you like. (This should actually go for everyone ever, but it also applies here!)

As far as eye contact goes, try actually thinking about eye contact when you're having conversations. Learn to not look at "their eyes", look at "those round white spheres with a black dot in the middle", or their forehead, or their head as a whole. The action of directing your eyes at theirs isn't what's difficult, it's the thought of looking at their eyes. So just give it some practice, focus on it, and you'll get better.

Sarcasm? Sarcasm can be tricky for anyone. If someone says something with a strange tone of voice, or if what they said doesn't make sense for some reason, take a moment to think about the possibility that they were just kidding. If you're looking over a ledge and your friend says "Hey, jump off", obviously that wouldn't make sense, they're probably joking. Stuff like that.

As far as stress having your routine disrupted - that's actually something I struggle with a bit myself, and I personally don't have a great fix for it. If you can, see about finding something happy or distracting to preoccupy yourself with during the distraction. If you're able, maybe text a close friend, or if not, replay in your head some favorite scenes from a movie you like.

Hopefully this is actual the start of some good changes for you. It's not a disease, and it's not a sentence! It's just who you are.

Bless.

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!

A few graphic novels:

1. From Hell - Cerebral, philosophical, and fastidiously researched, this is the story of the most notorious of them all, Jack the Ripper. Masterful, somber drawings and brilliant writing, if a little too high brow for my taste.
   
2. My Friend Dahmer - You won't find gore here, nor a particularly engaging plot. What you will find is authentic autobiographical vignettes written by an actual school mate of Jeffry Dahmer's that try to shed some light on the early years of this nefarious, but fascinating serial killer, but mostly seem to be an outlet for the author to process his own emotions with regards to having known and been friends with such a monster. It's not a very compelling read, i'm afraid, but on the bright side, it's quite short and the artwork is cool.
   
3. The Green River Killer - An account of the investigation of the Green River murders, focusing on one of the lead detectives, who happens to be the author's father. Nice artwork, so-so plot.
   
4. Miss Don't Touch Me - An absolutely delightful fictional novel that takes place in early 20th century Paris. It is fast-moving, suspenseful, sexy and hugely entertaining. Great artwork and a fun story. Highly recommended!
   
   A couple more books that are on my wish list, though i haven't read them yet, are:
   
   

• Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, written by Prof. Robert Hare, the psychologist who invented the standard test for diagnosing psychopaths.
  
  
• The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry - written by the always interesting and entertaining Ron Jonson
  
  
• Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me - A classic true crime novel about Ted Bundy written by a woman who worked beside him and knew him personally. She went on to become a prolific true crime novelist.

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
  
  
  
  
  

I'm surprised people haven't said much about the actual writing itself. Tone is an issue, but the actual structure of your writing needs work. I'll pull a few examples that way you can see what I mean.

"Unless you’re a member of an isolated ancient tribe living under one of the six remaining trees in what used to be the Amazon rainforest, you have almost certainly heard the term “Machine Learning” floating past within the last few years."

Your first sentence is almost a paragraph. This is a problem. Writing should be succinct and to the point. Clarity and strength of word usage will make what you say much more meaningful.

"In fact, personally, I’m convinced that if humanity doesn’t eradicate itself prematurely, there won’t be anything left humans can do that can’t be done much better, faster and cheaper by a suitably designed and programmed computer (or a network of them)."

This is a sentence in your third paragraph, which is again almost an entire paragraph by itself. You also severely diminish the strength of your sentence when you use things like 'In fact', 'personally', 'I'm convinced'. Your readers know that you are convinced because you are the one writing it. You need to convince them.

"Even though a computer can do just about anything, making it do what you want it to do can be very hard indeed."

Adverbs are not your friend. - Stephen King

Strength of sentence structure is impacted when you use adverbs like 'very'. And throwing on an 'indeed' doesn't do you any favors either. Make a point to think about what you are adding to your sentences with these words. Is the answer "I am adding nothing with these words."? Then those words should not be there.


I'm going to leave you a list of books where you can learn from writers that will help you with these things. Try not to get discouraged. We all have a lot to learn, so just think of it as part of the process. I would HIGHLY suggest you at least look into Elements of Style.

Sol Stein's On Writing

Stephen King's On Writing

Elements of Style

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!

Good find! I could watch this for hours.

I wish all anthropology and linguistics departments did this demonstration once a semester/quarter, not just for students, but for the public. It's fun to see structure and rules emerge in only a few minutes of interaction. It's difficult to think about linguistics or cultural anthropology and not start recognizing the arbitrariness of our own ways of thinking and communicating. That kind of confrontation/awareness/seeing is really invaluable; it's good for everyone.

Everett's book "Don't Sleep There Are Snakes" is a really fun field memoir of his time with the Piraha. One need not be a linguist to understand and enjoy it. It's not heavy on the academic linguistic stuff. It's sort of light linguistic and light ethnography. So if anyone finds something in this lecture intriguing, I'd recommend checking it out. Piraha is one of the most interesting languages I've come across. https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386120/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498712271&sr=8-1&keywords=daniel+everett

He also spoke at The Long Now Foundation about the Piraha, and about saving disappearing/endangered languages. https://soundcloud.com/longnow/endangered-languages-lost-knowledge-and-future

If anyone watched "Arrival" and thought "hey that looks interesting", guess what! You can do that! Even without aliens. It's almost just as hard, and definitely a lot of fun.

Actually, if you saw "Arrival" and thought "hey that seems neat" or "ugh this is NOT how linguistics and aliens would work" or whatever, then you might be interested in a collection of articles put together by NASA into one document called "Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication" which goes a bit more into the history of concepts around alien contact scenarios. https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/archaeology_anthropology_and_interstellar_communication.html

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 have four kids, all born within 5 years. When they were small, I found it downright impossible to have proper dinner ready when my husband got home from work. I just couldn't joggle the baby, toddlers and cooking all at the same time.

I found the perfect solution from the book Bringing up bebe. We are European (but not French) and before we had kids we used to eat late. Now we decided to move dinner close to children's bedtime. It turned out to be a real win win solution for everybody.

When my husband now comes home, he first spends an hour or two with the children while I cook dinner. He loves it, children love it, and I have a wonderful stress-free time in kitchen listening to radio all by myself (ok, this is in theory - in practice kids run in and out and I'm needed every five or ten minutes for something. Unless they all go out.) By the time we sit at the table, all children are in their pajamas. Dinner is also much more relaxed, we know that within ten minutes after the children leave the table, they are in bed.

Nowadays we are both working, and late dinner is still the perfect solution for our family.

I've read and loved almost all of the recommendations already here (TAMORA PIERCE). But to add some that haven't been mentioned (and trying really hard to not overload you with 20 books at once), I read and reread Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown and its prequel so. many. TIMES. Maybe even more than I reread Tamora Pierce. Patricia McKillip, Maria Snyder, Patricia C. Wrede (Dealing with Dragons quartet), Althea Kontis, Francesca Lia Block, Libba Bray and Susan Fletcher (Dragon Chronicles) are similar authors to check out for awesome female-driven fantasy, with varying degrees of lightheartedness. Wrede, Fletcher, Snyder and Kontis all wrote books that lean a little less epic/serious, Block writes a lot in prose that's also a very quick (but more intense) read, McKillip tends to be more wordy but beautifully so, and Bray can kind of go either way depending on the series.

For more contemporary fiction, RACHEL COHN (of "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist"). Her Gingerbread series has content a good deal more mature than Angus, Thongs, etc., but her style is similarly irreverent and witty and really fun. Seriously, check her out. Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons is like a much younger version of Cohn, still zingy and sweet. For a quieter modern-day read, Garret Freymann-Weyr writes realistic (more mature) young adult relationships, and introduced me to the idea of bisexuality in a sort of roundabout way.

Julia Alvarez relates stories about the Latina-American experience incredibly well, although I think the first book I read by her takes place solely in the Dominican Republic. According to my reading list, I guess young me got sick of reading about other white people, so I'll add Marjane Satrapi's hilarious graphic novel Persepolis and the more sedate Shabanu series by Suzanne Fisher Staples.

I'd also strongly second comments for Gail Carson Levine, E.L. Konigsberg, and did I mention Tamora Pierce?

(I tried to link a lot of authors to my faves from their work, but I won't be mad if you never look at any of them. Is your reading list long enough now? Also, I know you didn't ask for a ton of fantasy/historical fiction recs, but I think a lot of us defined our teenagerhood by and identified more strongly with one of those series or another.)

tl;dr my top three recs that haven't been mentioned yet are Rachel Cohn, Julia Alvarez, and that one duo by Robin McKinley.

> 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.

Books: I'm reading She's Not There and my wife has found _Transgender 101_ to be very useful too.

Videos: I liked How do I know if I'm Transgender? and the series from "The Transition Channel" (like with Are You Transgender?) was quite good too.

Personally I really liked this article: Transition Deconstructed as it showed a positive story coming out of a spouse transitioning. I find that there are so few of those, and would really love more resources showing a positive outcome for families!

I'm really looking for resources about how to transition with young children (toddlers) and books to help them understand what's going on. Definitely not sure of how to go with that other than _I Am Jazz_, which is aimed at children a bit older than toddlers.

What else has helped you? Thanks so much for sharing!

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.

I would read some more "casual" or pop linguistics books to really cement your interest in linguistics before any of the more heady pieces of literature scare you off. As a side note, I'd learn the English IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) chart before you pursue further literature. Not knowing would be like performing math calculations without knowing what any of the operator signs were. As a high schooler, this is your time to read. God knows you won't have as much time to do it in college. Only after you get a general feel for what linguists actually do and study, would I recommend making a choice, it's certainly not for everyone :)

Great story demonstrating just how different certain languages can be.
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386120/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335511683&sr=8-1

If you want a great pop introduction that'll really help you tap your toe on the vast ocean surface known as linguistics, I'd give this a try too http://www.amazon.com/The-Stuff-Thought-Language-Window/dp/0143114247/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335511905&sr=1-2

If you like what you read, and think it would be admirable to contribute to the swiftly growing pool of knowledge we currently have in this wonderful field, then pursue more academically oriented sources, and as others said, maybe narrow your interests further by contacting a certain professor or researcher. Hope this helped :)

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.

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.

For intro sociology, I'd recommend some preachy nonfiction. They are written for laymen but introduce the sociological style of approach. Something like Fat Land or Uninsured in America.

Freakanomics is not exactly sociology, but could be an interesting read for someone interested in social economics / group behavior. Jonathan Kozol is a reporter, not a sociologist, but his stories mix investigative reporting with a human element to focus on topics of interest to the field of sociology. I remember Nickel and Dimed also being a good read.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is not a book about sociology, but rather a specific example of culture clash within the context of medical care. That being said, it is a big reason why I decided to become a social worker (which is a profession in line with the two fields mentioned in your post).

A Place at the Table is a movie that might fit the bill.

Note: I'm American. I imagine other places would have different topics of interest.

Edited: add movie and fix format

There are other books that the users found interesting. Stranger in a Strange Land was one of them. I've read a few others but the titles escape me.

Basically everybody wanted to try acid. They'd try acid and feel really free. You have to keep in mind that this was a relatively new experience so there were as many hangups. Meaning you could be on acid in public places with others and you wouldn't have to be paranoid.

The effects of the acid caused revelations to happen based on the sensory experience of the user. I imagine anybody who hallucinated recreationally could attest to this effect. It made small things seem more significant. I guess you could say it reset perspectives.

So people would try this drug, experience things, start to think differently (it's important to note that the Merry Pranksters and Timothy Leary were promoting philosophy via the drug), and eventually the number of people who bought into these different ways of looking at the world became large enough to where the movement could reinforce itself. So basically you could go take acid and watch a bunch of bands and when it was over there many people that shared the experience and as a whole they were able to provide positive reinforcement for that experience.

Once that started to snowball it spread and suddenly the bands and movements were no longer local. And then they were no longer regional. And then they were no longer national. There were several places having similar revolutions of the mind. This meant several variations on the culture that was growing. Eventually it would homogenize and you have the 60's scene that everybody talks about today.

That book was specifically about the Merry Pranksters traveling around and meeting people and making things happen.

I'm not the kind of person who would be able to summarize that coherently. Read this if you haven't. I'm sure there are other places to find information about it. Project MKULTRA was kinda interesting as well but it isn't really the happy fun time you are looking to write about.

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

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

>It is how they solve the paradox of arguing that women excerting power over men when it is very obvious that men hold the most places in high power...This text solves the paradox arguing that women excert power over society through men: corporations and parties cater to women, feminists being the biggest lobbies, etc.

I will say this: I don't know who has more power in society. It may very well be men. It could just be a small number of men at the top, who ultimately answer to their wives, who statistically are in charge of them. It could be women who on average cede powet to men and prefer men to be in charge (so long as it benefits them). Or it could be about equal, with men exerting power in some areas, and women exerting power in others.

Many men's advocates like to argue that if you're a "one percenter" you're better off being a man, and if you're part of the 99%, you're better off being a woman.

The point of my post isn't to directly compare men and women as it is to address this argument that you see from feminists. They like to say A) that men can't be discriminated against, and you can't be sexist against men, because men are dominant in society and B) that whatever male problems exist in society are caused by men, not by women, and not by feminists (I think there are areas where any of the above are true: women, and feminists in particular, are not innocent here).

So like my thesis says, I have pointed out areas where women do have power, substantial amounts of power, and I have demonstrated how this power has been used, often in ways that actively create some of the issues that men's advocates like to discuss.

In particular, the role of feminism in creating many of these issues is, I think, fairly strait forward, and I provided plenty of references, some of them from actual feminists, that proves this.

I'm not trying to point fingers, but it is necessary to point this out given the arguments that we're seeing from feminists nowadays (arguments that essentially amount to victim blaming). It's like men's rights advocates suddenly caught their attention, they realized some of our points were valid, and so they had to deflect it instead of addressing it honestly and directly.

>Besides, (transitioned) trans women and trans men have mostly confirmed that men hold control over women socially.

This isn't universally true, and it's not a good comparison. I support trans rights but I imagine a trans women who only has a year of experience being a woman may not fully appreciate the role of "soft power" and other forms of influence that women have. Their gender identity itself may even influence their views.

Besides, check out these two examples:

One trans experience here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/07/20/feature/crossing-the-divide-do-men-really-have-it-easier-these-transgender-guys-found-the-truth-was-more-complex/

And a feminist who dressed up like a man and lived like a man for 6 months: https://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised-ebook/dp/B000OT8GTE/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=se%3Bf+made+man+norah+vincent&qid=1571846622&sr=8-1-fkmr0

What's interesting is the author was a bonafide man-hating feminist who thought women were oppressed and that men had things better, and her experiences as a man completely changed her views.

And in particular, both the feminist "cross dresser" and the trans woman agree that being a man is harder than being a woman.

>What I do find interesting about this control by proxy is why do men are so eager to please women in order to act as proxys for women

My theory is that it is in large part biological. Men naturally want to help women. And women naturally seem to be able to manipulate men. This has been shown in various studies (many of the same ones that I already posted) and is really just common sense to anyone who thinks about it.

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

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).

Gladly!!

Google is the one of a very few fortune 500 companies without a dedicated VP of Marketing http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/

They have seldom run any ads, with only airing just a few for chrome this past year, and one for their search right around the time of their launch.

Most of their advertising comes from the android platform, and is actually marketed by carriers and the device makers, not from google directly.

Co-founder larry page once said "If we've used marketing, we've failed." http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/22/googles-larry-page-once-said-if-we-have-to-use-marketing-then-weve-failed/

They believe that the qualities of their product stand by their own merit (which has proven true), and that if they have to market it to get market share, then they havent created the best product they can. I love Google, but it would be a marketing nightmare to work in that kind of culture. It's a shame because a few smart campaigns showing the integratedness of their products could really help them spread the auxilary services (docs, calendar, etc)

I really recommend reading this book on google if you want to know more, it was a fantastic read.

EDIT: Their sales for adwords is also entirely automated, there is very little selling that google does. Their branding is also very clear, and thus very rigid. They won't be changing anything anytime soon because they dont have to. With their branding the way it is, it would be hard to edge out a new campaign. They have great possibilities, but I don't think they would be a good client.

Unfortunately, I don't have, Not sure if on Archive there's something.
Will Edit this once I can find a way of seeing removed texted.

Edit: FOUND IT

Here's the Text:

"Hi r/sysadmin

Each week I thought I'd post these SysAdmin tools, tips, tutorials etc with just one link to get it in your inbox each week. Let me know any ideas for future versions in the comments.

Here are the most interesting items that have come across our desks, laptops, phones this week. As always, I have no affiliation with any of these unless I explicitly state otherwise

​

A Free Tool

LetsMonitor.org(https://letsmonitor.org/) is a free service that alerts you when your site certificates are misconfigured or nearing expiration. Notifications can be sent to multiple contacts.

A SysAdmin Site

Wahl Network (http://wahlnetwork.com/) is a weekly technical blog with a focus on data-center technologies, business challenges, and new products and solutions. The site was founded by Chris Wahl in 2010, with a goal of providing technical solutions for SysAdmins.

Another Free Tool

Switch Miner (http://switchminer.sourceforge.net/). Ever have trouble figuring out what's connected where? Switch Miner is a port-discovery tool that can help locate all the devices connected to any switch. This handy utility can also discover and scan neighbouring switches via CDP. And best of all, it's free!

A Hacking Story

Ghost in the Wires (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316037729). This is the intriguing true story of Kevin Mitnick, who was the most-elusive computer hacker in history. He broke into networks at the world's biggest companies, all the while being pursued by the Feds. The complex cat-and-mouse game that ensued ultimately inspired permanent changes in the way companies protect their sensitive data.

A Server Room Tip

Here's a simple trick for physically tracing unlabelled server-room cables: Slide a velcro loop or binder clip along the cable until you reach the other end.
​

Have a fantastic week!!

u/crispyducks (-REMOVED 2 NOT VIOLATE SUB REDDIT RULES-)

​

Why am I doing this each week? (Updated)

I want to be mindful of the rules of the subreddit, so if you’d like to know more about my reasons for doing this, please visit the the sister post on /r/SysAdminBlogs here."

I just read the origins of Cloak & Dagger, which was a great story across 4 comics collected into a graphic book. It's out of the 80s but it's darker than most of the time. Would be similar to how Daredevil is portrayed currently.

Amazon Link

Persopolis: I'll be honest, I did not read this one - but saw the movie which was literally animated in the same style and I assume the story was identical because it was soon good.

Amazon Link

Another classic like this is Ghost World from Daniel Clowes. Maus would be another classic in this type of graphic novel. For the super heroes, Killing Joke and Dark Knight seem to be required reading.

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.

I'm reading "Bringing up Bebe," which is all about the French style of parenting. That sounds stuffy, but it's really interesting and a great alternative to books that will make you anxious. It is light and funny. I'm picking up some good advice on how to be a relaxed and patient parent and thus create a relaxed and patient child.
http://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Up-B%C3%A9b%C3%A9-Discovers-Parenting/dp/1594203334

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!

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.

Don’t listen to this person below, like yikes. Have you read any biographies or autobiographies of women who have transitioned? Some of them will have stories that you can relate to and I highly recommend it. They also have written letters to their loved ones and I recommend taking a page from them in how to format the letter and what to say.

Try “She’s not there: A life in two genders” by Jennifer Finney Boylan. She’s an English professor married with two kids before transitioning and her relationship survived with her wife and children. She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385346972/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_UGi8BbB6YG241

I borrowed a lot of inspiration from her letter when I transitioned, and granted I’m not married or have any kid or was even in a relationship at the time.

You also need to see a therapist. You can’t take care of your family without first taking care of you. It’s like the oxygen metaphor for when oxygen masks on a plane deploy. You put yours on first, then help your kids.

When you find a story that resonates with you, have your wife read it too. It sounds like maybe she knows already about your gender crisis, and she’s still here, so she can be a great ally. Don’t push her away.

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

Here in France, kids will eat everything. I'm an American that worked in France as a nanny for two years. The French are very concerned with introducing their children to a wide array of foods--food is very important to the French. If they introduce a food to a child and the child doesn't eat it, then they'll reintroduce it at another time. People can acquire a taste for anything, it's a matter of familiarity. The children that I watched loved salad and vegetables. One of them disliked mushrooms, but he actually began to acquire a taste for them because I would incorporate them into different dishes little-by-little. Another child claimed to dislike deli ham, but he would sometimes eat it anyway.

When kids go to school, they have a varied menu with really awesome foods from fish to asparagus to mashed celery root to foie gras on special occasions. They eat blue cheese, for God's sake.

As an American, I am really surprised by how little American kids will eat, and how easily parents will cater to them. American kids want to eat pasta, bread, and rice, and if they don't like what's been prepared for dinner, then mom will just make them chicken nuggets.

If you'd like to read more about cultural differences in child-rearing, Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman is a really good book!

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.

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/406180/

You are not defective. That would imply that being neurotypical is better. I don’t believe that, except that society’s constructs make it easier to be neurotypical.

One of the coolest guys, who designed the guitars for the rock band Kiss was autistic with Asbergers. You have hidden talents and ways that your brain can organize information that are superior to a neurotypical. You just have to find the way that works for you and train yourself to do it. These books are Asbergers related, I’m not sure what kind of autism you have but they are a good read.

https://www.amazon.com/Look-Me-Eye-Life-Aspergers/dp/0307396185

https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Best-Practices-Marriage-Asperger/dp/1439189749

Good luck and feel better!

Theory of Continuous Groups by Loewner. This book is based on lecture notes which Loewner was planning to turn into a larger book. Unfortunately he passed away before getting much done so some of his colleagues edited and compiled the notes into this book. I'm only quarter of the way in but so far it's given me a really unique perspective into group actions. I'm loving it but it doesn't hold my attention for long spans of time.

Geometry of Polynomials by Marden. Marden is my idol, and I plan to devote my life to studying the zeros of functions. That said, this book is the hardest goddamn book I have ever read. Hell, some of the exercises he gives were actual topics of published research 60 years ago. That seems a little mean to me. Anyway I still love this shit.

Mr. Tompkins in Paperback by Gamow. Alternates between stories about a character transplanted into hypothetical worlds where particular laws of physics are exaggerated and semi-rigorous lectures about the physics itself. The section on gravity as curvature of space was especially enlightening. The author uses the idea of a merry-go-round spinning at relativistic speed, so that straight lines on the surface (i.e. geodesics) are in fact curved to outside observers. You can then imagine that the merry-go-round is walled off from the outside, so that on the inside the centrifugal force can be thought of as gravity toward the edge. This is the concept of acceleration of reference frame being equivalent to gravity. For a non-physicist this kind of explanation is AWESOME.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. My first Heinlein, just started it but I'm enjoying it so far. I honestly confused him with Haldeman... I loved The Forever War and I wanted to get another book by the author. Oh well.

Yeah so what I'm a nerd.

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

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.

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~

>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

My favorite author, and this is his most fun book even if he has a couple better received books

Bukowski is an amazing author regardless of what succs say.

Great book. Brought the term grok into existence

Really cool graphic novel series

David sedaris is probably the best comedic novelist i've ever read/heard. I recommend audio though because he has great delivery, which is what made him such a popular guest on NPR


selfish gene by dawkins. I know Dawkins is a meme, but this book is actually really good along with a lot of his earlier books.

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!

There were many books before Save the Cat (which is an OK book for screenwriting and/or storytelling technique).

The earliest writings on story structure, though, go back right to Aristotle in Poetics.

Humans have been telling stories ever since speech had developed.

There are two kinds of storytelling books. Snyder's method is a perscriptive method. He gives you a formula and tells you that the only way to a good story is to fill those beats. Syd Field does this too in his extensive bibliography on the subject of screenwriting.

On the other hand, Robert McKee gives a more descriptive method in Story and explains the process of "writing" as opposed to "filling a beat sheet".


The best book on writing (that is, the one which gives out the greatest tips on actually taking your own ideas and putting them into a coherent story) is Stephen King's On Writing. It has nothing to do with movies, and everything to do with stories, which is exactly what great screenwriting should do.

Nevertheless all writing books give out tips, tricks and cheat sheets. Good writing comes from within the writer and, as many "gurus" insist, you cannot become a good writer, you have to be born one and get training.

Source: Screenwriter/Writer here.

I used to buy Illusions by Richard Bach for people. The subtitle is "The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah." Very good. Might go well with Ishmael, which others have mentioned.

In the same vein -- it could have the exact same subtitle, in fact -- is Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. If he likes that you could follow it up with other late-career Heinlein, such as Job or Time Enough For Love. All are excellent. Others have mentioned Starship Troopers, and it is also excellent. But his earlier stuff is very adventure-oriented, while his later stuff probably has more potential for life-changing.

Lastly, if he's up for a little ancient philosophy that gives you a different way to look at life, try Marcus Aurelius, which is free on the internet. Tell him not to get too hung up on what goes on in book one. It's almost like an acknowledgements page, but there is some good stuff in there. But once book two gets rolling the life-changing stuff really begins. Tell him it's how to focus on what matters and let go of what doesn't. If people could learn that they'd definitely change their lives.

And good for him. I'm 53 and I started reading philosophy at 50. Learning new things activates the old brain cells and will keep him mentally sharp longer.

I'll tell ya one thing, if you submitted a story/chronicle of how your class responds to this etc I would read the shit out of it.

Good on you for thinking outside the box and trying something new to help engage your kids. I had a spare few teachers back when I was in school who did but I was grateful for each and every one of them.

Keep being awesome!

Edit: Also, ever considered throwing V for Vendetta into your lesson plan? Or Persepolis for that matter.

Last thing, if you can find time or on the occasional handouts to include something from Calvin and Hobbes there's a lot of thought provoking strips that Watterson did that could easily be an aide for struggling readers to help them find deeper meaning in literature. Just a thought. Shouldn't be hard to figure out why my favorite job was working in a book store, heh.

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.

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.

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,

Oh boy have I got some books for you:

• The Conservatarian Manifesto, Charlie C.W. Cooke --
  The editor of National Review Online argues the path to a better conservatism lies in a marriage with libertarianism.
  
  
• The End is Near and it's Going to be Awesome, Kevin D. Williamson --
  National Review's Roving Correspondent argues that the American government is collapsing under its own weight and that's a good thing.
  
  
• Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance --
  A former marine and Yale-educated lawyer gives a powerful account of his upbringing in a Rust-belt town and his family's connection to Appalachia.
  
  
• The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley --
  The Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the House of Lords describes how spontaneous order is behind a great many advancements of the modern age and why centralized "design" is ineffective and prone to failure.
  
  
• The Vanishing American Adult, Ben Sasse --
  The popular freshman senator describes the crisis of America's youth, and how the solutions lay beyond the realm of politics.
  
  
• Our Republican Constitution, Randy E. Barnett --
  One of America's leading constitutional law scholars explains why Americans would benefit from a renewal of our Republican Constitution and how such a renewal can be achieved.
  
  
• A Torch Kept Lit, William F. Buckley, edited by James Rosen --
  A curated collection of Buckley's best eulogies, A Torch Kept Lit provides invaluable insight into both the eminent twentieth century conservative and an unrevised conservative account of the great lives of the twentieth century.
  
  
• Scalia Speaks, Antonin Scalia, edited by Christopher Scalia and Ed Whelan --
  This volume of Justice Scalia's finest speeches provides intimate insight on the justice's perspectives on law, faith, virtue, and private life.

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.

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 don't read a lot of action-y graphic novels, so I can't really help you with finding more stuff like Watchmen, Wanted, etc. (However, you have to promise me you'll read Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.)

But I can recommend more laid-back graphic novels if you're ever in the mood for something different! Give American Born Chinese, Anya's Ghost, or Daytripper a shot sometime.

Persepolis and Maus are also graphic novel must reads, no matter what genre you usually favor. And Scott Pilgrim was super popular recently, with great cause.

And, if you're willing to settle down for a long haul and read your comics backwards, I really can't recommend Fullmetal Alchemist enough. 27 volumes, but it's the best action series I've ever read and one of my all-time favorites of any sort of media. Check out a stack of it from the library and you'll fly right through it. That's what I did one afternoon, and my time has never been better spent.

Edit: More suggestions, typos.

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.

The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon--The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World by Steven Kent

Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World by David Sheff

Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds by J. C. Herz

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner

Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing by Stephen Kline, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig De Peuter

Replay: The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture by Harold Goldberg

Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time by Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton

> A shift to community-based policing and more accountability for cops. An end to discriminatory practices like stop-and-frisk and the uneven enforcement and sentencing of marijuana and other drug laws. Legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. An increase to the minimum wage. More money to public infrastructure, like housing developments and mass transit.

How exactly would any of this help? I lived in Phila. Mass transit there was already great. Most of the people in inner-city communities are unemployed - and haven't had a job for generations, so minimum wage does nothing. Marijuana is actually a source of income - if you legalize it, you cut a money stream and actually hurting the community. Stop and frisk does nothing to economic well-being.

Source: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo18039324.html

> Roll-out of high speed internet to rural communities at affordable prices. Stricter regulation and anti-monopoly moves on large, predatory agricultural companies like Monsanto or industry financiers like Agstar. Worker protections, rather than corporate protections. Federal job retraining grants for dead and dying industries that will not return, like coal, to help workers transition to up-and-coming industries that don't need to be in big cities, like wind. Bringing back rescinded environmental protections (and creating new ones) to protect the game and wildlife of rural areas, keep those communities clean, and to ensure the health and viability of deteriorating farmland for the future.

So I happen to live in Seattle, and I also have a farm in Eastern Washington. So I get exposed to both a super-liberal and super-conservative part of the state.

> Roll-out of high speed internet to rural communities at affordable prices.

My internet access on the farm is better than my internet access in Seattle.

> Stricter regulation and anti-monopoly moves on large, predatory agricultural companies like Monsanto or industry financiers like Agstar.

That does absolutely nothing to a normal person working around here. Farmers are a very small percentage of the population, and they are relatively rich. What you think is a farmer is to a regular "peasant" what a city medium enterprise is to a regular worker. Monsanto is as relevant to a regular person in E-WA as Glass Steagal Act to a McD employee in Seattle.

> Worker protections, rather than corporate protections.

What does this mean for rural areas specifically? A large percentage of the population is unemployed or underemployed. Worker protections are about as relevant to them as caviar inspection to an urban African American - it's pointless to protect something you don't have.

> Federal job retraining grants for dead and dying industries that will not return, like coal, to help workers transition to up-and-coming industries that don't need to be in big cities, like wind.

If you think that wind can replace jobs 1:1 or even remotely that for coal, you need to move out of marijuana legal state. This is laughable. The fact is, ALL industries are dying and are replaced with automation. Some more, some less. Are you going to retrain everyone as a software engineer?

> Bringing back rescinded environmental protections (and creating new ones) to protect the game and wildlife of rural areas, keep those communities clean, and to ensure the health and viability of deteriorating farmland for the future.

How does this help economic well-being of people who live here? Oh yeah, it doesn't.

Source: https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

> Time and time again, Democrats have been the party of the rural worker, pursuing policies that will improve their lives.

You people don't even understand how much you don't know. Really. Read the books above, you will sound less like a Hillary campaign worker and more like someone who can at least appreciate the reality a little bit.

> But because they also pursue policies that improve the lives of immigrants, or gays, or non-Christians,

They pursue these policies because their urban electorate is familiar with these issues. These policies do absolutely nothing to working class or rural people. That is what is called "identity politics".

> But if you're voting for a politician because he's "upholding the sanctity of marriage"

I am sorry to break your bubble, but that's not why people are voting for politicians. That's why SOME people vote for politicians, and it is convenient to push their quotes to dehumanize the enemy. How many rural people - actual, real rural people, not on reddit - did you ever speak politics with?

Source: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/

Actually, it is. He wrote a memoir documenting his experiences with the tribe.

I read it in a summer linguistics class since Daniel Everett is a linguist himself and we watched a little bit of the film version of the book that focuses more on the linguistics aspect of it as opposed to the deconversion. I didn’t end up becoming a linguistics major (and if I had, my dad probably would’ve pulled financial support because linguistics doesn’t result in a real job /s), but I still found the class interesting and I did pretty well for someone who knew nothing going in.

It was my first experience (I read it like a high school AP Lit student would read an assigned book: not really) with a deconversion from Christianity to atheism. I’m sure if my dad’s girlfriend (fundie-lite evangelical) or maybe even my dad had heard what I was reading for school, they’d accuse the university of forcing atheism on people of faith, even though that wasn’t even the purpose of us reading the book.

Are you fucking serious? YOU GOT JENNY LAWSON TO REVIEW YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON?! That is amazing! Talk about a glowing recommendation from a reputable source--her book is one of the funniest things I've ever... ever'd!

Oh. You're funny too. But I haven't read your book yet, so I can't say for sure if it'll be funny... though Lawson's recommendation might have pushed me over the edge. I love her.

Question: what was the funniest part of Lawson's book? Follow-up: why was it the part about the turkey named Jenkins?

Schabacker is supposed to be the bible but it's from 1932 and not modern. That being said, modern isn't the be all and end all. Human mindset doesn't change. We have the same limbic system they did. And battling extremes of greed and fear are no different now than then and tend to play out in similar ways despite our modern tech.

My favorite read for insight from one of history's greatest speculators, Jesse Livermore, is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.

Reminiscences teaches that a trader's greatest battle is not with the market but with his own mind. The most money is made identifying a bull market, getting on board early, or at least when it corrects, and riding it until just before it breaks. Which means basically doing nothing for a long period of time, other than adding on dips. Most people can't stand to do nothing. They try to catch the little swings, playing for peanuts, and end up missing the bulk of the move.

Better to sit tight, forget about it even, as long as the bull remains intact. Like, for example, the people who forgot they mined a lot of bitcoin early, only remembering about it after the price had soared. It's like Rip Van Winkle waking up rich. Do you think they would have had the fortitude or resilience to hold their position to that point had they been watching the market everyday? No. Or maybe perhaps 1 in a 1000. Forgetting was their saving grace. Sitting tight is the way to ride the bull.

A lot of people will suggest The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which is a fine book, but the author didn't do enough research and was just writing a novel.

I'd recommend John Elder Robison's books. He has wrote multiple memoirs and lives a very vivid life; he, his son, and possibly (don't remember if she was diagnosed) his son's mother are all autistic. I loved the books, and I've never seen myself or connected with a book like I did with his. His books aren't hard to read and I believe there are four in total.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time:
https://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717

Look Me in the Eye:
https://www.amazon.com/Look-Me-Eye-Life-Aspergers/dp/0307396185

Okay, everyone's "read and write" advice tells you what to do, but not how to do it. Simply reading will not teach you how to write well; it will only teach you how to write LIKE other people do. If you want to "learn the rules," what you need to do is learn how to think critically about your own writing. For that, either take a creative writing class or read a few good books, or both. I'd recommend picking up a couple books. First, go through The Art and Craft of Fiction (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1457613905?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage) by Michael Kardos, and then read something like Stephen King's On Writing (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439156816?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage). These will provide you with the central problems that writers of fiction must keep in mind.

Then, write regularly. Practice editing your own work. Find some other writers to read it and give you feedback.

People are throwing books that you'll come across as textbooks anyway or books that, while awesome for real-world preparation, won't prove interesting to most high school grads.

I'd recommend Masters of Doom, which is a story and history of CS blended in. It's an excellent, excellent read and should be relatable on some level.

http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155

Enjoy and good luck.

Don't Sleep There Are Snakes - Excellent read about a linguist's study of an Amazon tribe with a language unlike any other. Contains very interesting musings and science regarding how language and culture can affect how we perceive the world around us.

The Evolution of Useful Things - Very cool read if you are at all an engineering or design inclined person. The author has a great way of weaving in cultural and historical context into how all the tiny and useful things around us have evolved and come to represent very specific functions.

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386120

Piraha. A primitive but comparatively incredibly happy and free culture that has no concept or want for math, personal wealth, or material possessions. They have a well developed sense of humor but their humor has nothing to do with suffering, because that type of humor just isn't a part of their society. That book is an extreme eye opener.

> I really hope this doesn't come off as transphobic, but I just don't understand how you can "feel" like you're the wrong gender, because it doesn't really make sense to me to "feel" like a gender at all?

doesn't sound transphobic. it sounds exactly like i would expect a cis woman to feel. would it blow your mind to know that i don't know what it feels like to have sex and gender line up?

> I was born a woman, I identify as a woman, I present as a woman, etc.

wait, what? but i thought you didn't know what gender feels like? sounds like you do know what gender feels like. you just didn't realize it. and thats normal for cis people.

> Something that gets brought up with trying to get people to understand what being trans is like is "imagine if you woke up tomorrow as the opposite sex, wouldn't you be desperate to get back?" and my response is pretty indifferent. Like it'd be a logistical adjustment, but I think I'd be totally fine with it.

well, it doesn't work that way but it's really hard to give cis people an example. if you'd be fine with it, why not get a phalloplasty? start testosterone? schedule an appointment with an endocrinologist to discuss starting HRT? or a plastic surgeon to discuss getting surgery? see how it makes you feel? its one thing to just think that you'd be cool with it, that it'd be some "logistical adjustment" because it doesn't fundamentally work that way. its just a fantasy with no possibility of happening. but, cis gender people have been forced to take HRT in the past before with disastrous results. a prime example is alan turing. he was forced to take HRT and was driven to depression and eventually suicide (although there is some speculation about that).

another good example is a book called Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man by Norah Vincent. Norah just cross dressed for a year and impersonated a man, but had to quit when the stress of being a different gender nearly drove her to suicide.

the point being that transitioning is not something people are indifferent too. if you are trans, its to alleviate dysphoria and likely save your life. for cis gender people, transitioning causes a lot of distress.

> It just seems like gender is such a social construct, that what does "feeling" like one even mean? Liking pink, or wearing makeup, or having long hair, being attracted to men or any other female stereotypes aren't exclusive to women, and the same could be said for male stereotypes and men.

gender is not a social construct. it is very much a part of biology. brains are sexually dimorphic with a trans woman's brain being more similar to a cis woman's brain, and a trans man's brain more similar to a cis man's brains. with hrt, the brain is continually remodeled. it is suspected that the difference between the sexed body and the gendered brain is what causes dysphoria. someone will likely provide a nice copy-n-paste with links to research papers that help to establish this. as a corollary to this, is gender was socially constructed, then trans people could not exist.

i can tell you that hrt has positively affected my life in numerous ways. if gender was a social construct, this wouldn't happen.

As far as fiction goes, the best I have read is "Nevada" by Imogen Binnie. This is one of those books that I immediately started reading again as soon as I finished it the first time.

https://www.amazon.com/Nevada-Imogen-Binnie/dp/0983242232/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466321271&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Nevada+imogene+binnie

Another work of fiction that is not about the transgender experience but does touch on some themes that you may be able to relate to is "Middlesex" by Jeffery Eugenides. It is really well done and has several interesting story arcs that intersect in really interesting ways with the protagonist.

https://www.amazon.com/Middlesex-Novel-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0312427735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466321681&sr=8-1&keywords=Middlesex

As far as bios go I really liked Janet Mock's "Redefining Realness" and "She Not There" by Jennifer Finney Boylan.

https://www.amazon.com/Redefining-Realness-Path-Womanhood-Identity/dp/1476709130/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466321501&sr=8-1&keywords=redefining+realness

https://www.amazon.com/Shes-Not-There-Life-Genders/dp/0385346972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466321522&sr=8-1&keywords=She%27s+not+there

Edit: My auto correct want Boylan to be be Moylan.

Most of my exes remain friends, so I don't really have anything against seeing them. Again I guess I'm also pretty picky so I've never had the misfortune of dating a real psycho. I've also never tried to actually date within my own immediate team (I would agree that that feels a bit incestuous to me for some reason).

Where I currently work (a major fortune 500 multinational), about a quarter of my closest coworkers are married to other people in the company (and a bunch work in the same building. 2 of the 4 in particular work even on the same floor, but different departments). My current boss's wife used to share the same skip level manager with him, several years ago. The rest of us on the team rarely see them at lunchtime since they usually run off to eat with their spouses :) The oldest guy on my team is in his 50s and his second wife works downstairs and it's really cute every day at noon he goes "time to go collect my bride, see ya later!".

For the 2nd point I like to follow the advice given in the title of this memoir..

No its not. Your cynicism is blinding you to the value cultures like these have, that our modern cultures are desperately lacking. Of course they had their shortcomings and some were even violent by our standards, but their cultural pathos pale in comparison to ours. You should check out "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes" by Daniel Everett. It's a first hand account of a missionary in the Amazon who ends up abandoning his Western beliefs for a much simpler way of life. It's a fascinating story and in this ever advancing world, one that is becoming harder and harder to tell. Please don't throw what we could learn from them under the bus because of their shortcomings.


http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Sleep-There-Are-Snakes/dp/0307386120 - Here's the Amazon link, its a great book, you won't regret it!

A couple good recommendations I have (aside from Tom Clancy stuff which I read for recreation) are going to be

Guide to effective military writing

and

AF Officer's guide (Incredibly useful even as enlisted)

​

I'm currently reading Ghost in the Wires, it's pretty neat. It's about this guy who hacked the FBI and then hacked their hack on him... pretty fun stuff. Talks a lot about the social engineering side of security.

​

If you haven't already you should check out On Writing by King. It's incredibly fascinating and gives a brilliant insight into him, how he writes and moreover his process behind it, his absolute revulsion at adverbs, coming up with ideas, advice for beginner authors, etc. It also contains a postscript about his accident (he was hit while he was writing it and it was the first book he finished after it when he thought he might never be able to write again) and how it effected his writing.

And, of course, it's pretty well written too. Informal, pretty short, and very interesting especially when he goes through early drafts of his work (like 1408, indeed he even wrote that short story for this book to be an example) and explains his reasoning behind things, why he cut certain things, put things in, changed things (like changing Ostermeyer to Olin - because it shortened his story by 15 lines and he realized that in the audiobook he'd be better off saying Olin a lot instead of repeating Ostermeyer!), etc.

Would recommend.

Get Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich out at the library. There's an interesting chapter or two in there about the way housekeeping agencies make it hard on their crews. I think it was Merry Maids in the book.

She is definitely better off working as an independent cleaner (and can make her own hours.) I mean, if a homeowner is willing to pay $125 for three cleaners for two hours, one very efficient person can probably do the same work in a few more and pocket 100%. Well, minus materials, etc.

Even if that doesn't appeal and she's busting her hump for less than minimum wage, a different job might be a better way to go.

I think it's great! It's awesome to see the world through different eyes, even if it's still somewhat anonymous. People treat you differently.

If you're interested in reading more into this sort of perspective-shifting, Self-Made Man is a great book.

Plenty of writers started late. You're fine. Do NOT let bullshit like this slow you down. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Have a place where you can easily focus. Whether it be your room, the library, or in the middle of nowhere, just find somewhere you can be without distractions.
   
   
2. Read. Read a lot, and read deeply and critically. Underline parts you like, and try to think about the author's process. Want to write thrillers? Read a bunch of thrillers, learn what's been done, try to think of what hasn't. If there's a story you want to read and it hasn't been written, it's up to you to write it. And you don't have to break the bank buying books to read. The library should be your first resource, as well as any places in your area where people drop off unwanted books. Used book stores if you want to buy something, and there are plenty of places online to get cheap E-books. Project Gutenberg is a good place to start for classics. You may even want to try reading poetry. In my opinion reading and writing poetry is excellent for when it comes time to write some prose that isn't just functional. Here's a good place to start
   
   
3. Write. For fuck's sake just WRITE. Don't spend days just thinking about your story, write it. Or at least write down all your ideas and compose an outline. Outlines are very useful for determining what goes where, and doing macro-level thinking about the overall story. If you feel like you're stuck, make an outline. If you're not stuck and are being lazy, stop being lazy. Write the damn story, and don't stop. Do not stop after 3 paragraphs and start editting. Just write, even if it's shit. Especially if it's shit. Often it's the only way to advance your ideas. It is fine if your first draft is dogshit. What is not fine is not having a first draft after six months.
   
   Here are a few youtube channels about writing, and links to some books on writing.
   
   Lessons from the Screenplay This one is focused on scripts, but the concepts translate well when it comes to the overall story.
   
   Terrible Writing Advice These are all examples of what NOT to do.
   
   Just Write Similar to LFTS, but of lesser quality.
   
   Stephen King talking about writing
   
   The Elements of Style The OG writing book.
   
   Style: the art of writing well
   
   Stephen King: On Writing Part memoir and part writing guide. Well worth reading.
   
   
   These are good, but always be on the lookout for more resources.
   
   
   
   My last bit of advice, and probably the most important, is be authentic. It's your story. Write what you want to read, not just what other people want. Say what you want to say, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it's not profitable. Don't be a pussy, and you'll be ok.

1. I like make up, tv shows, music, cooking and laughing!
   
2. I like to read & laugh.
   
3. No special reason for me to win. Just that it would be neat to get something personalized from you. What a cool idea. I might have to watch how you do this and steal the idea sometime!
   
4. Moon Knight

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders: This would be my highest recommendation. Jennifer Boylan is a great writer, and succinctly articulates what a lifetime of low-level dysphoria is like. This one or something like it, would help greatly with fleshing out your character's personality.

Whipping Girl: Probably needs to be read so that you don't make a tremendous misstep and offend a ton of people. Julia Serrano is an activist. She comes off as a political warrior, which was a bit off-putting for a mostly apolitical person such as myself, but her information is solid and comprehensive.

Warrior Princess, A U.S. Navy Seal's Journey to Coming Out Transgender: I haven't read this one yet, so I can't really say if it's an interesting read but, this one is sure to have some of the qualities that you're searching for. For someone to complete Seal training, and succeed in that extremely masculine environment, while suppressing her female nature seems to be just the kind of insight you need for your story.

Also, you can gain a better understanding by reading up on "dysphoria" here on AskTG. The experiences of the people here are vast and varied, so you may find a better feel for your character by delving into this subject. Does your protagonist just feel as though something is slightly off? Do they feel shame for wanting to be female, because of the lower social station? Does your character experience crippling fits of anxiety and depression, or anger at their plight?

Hope you find what you're looking for. We could use more trans-positive literature to counteract the bile that has been present for far too long.

This is a discussion, and criticism is a part of that, however, I went through art school, and work in an artistic career, and a crucial tool in learning how to make "better" art is getting and giving detailed critiques that offer explanations for WHY something is failing or succeeding, instead of just stating that it is good or bad.

So, for instance:

> massive dip in quality.

What do you mean by this? My guess is that you don't exactly mean quality as in it being poorly written, acted, structured, etc, but that you aren't laughing, so something is wrong with the humor. Something about the writing isn't making you laugh.

So, let's try to pin down what it is that you used to like about the show.

• What season was the strongest?
  
• What episodes worked for you?
  
• What scenes made you laugh the most?
  
• Looking at all the things that you listed, what do those things have in common?
  
• How do the episodes that you liked differ from the current episodes?
  
  -----
  -----
  -----
  
  As a total aside, if you've never read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", it's kind of related to this topic. It takes deep, perhaps overly so, dives into what we mean when we discuss the idea of "quality", and how it relates to all of our experiences, from relationships and love to machines and consumer products.
  Quote from it:
  > “The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility, it's right. If it disturbs you, it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed.”
  
  

You need to read the book Look Me in the Eye. Its a book about this guy growing up with Asbergers and having to grow up feeling different. I had to read it for my summer reading for university, but it was honestly one of the most interesting and changed my view on the whole subject, I'm extremely glad I did (its the only school assigned book I ever liked and that's saying something). If you haven't read it, I would pick it up and read it ASAP, the guy goes through the same stuff as you.

> As for getting it made that will be easy because I'm making it as a comic book not a film.

This is a really good idea. I would recommend checking out MY FRIEND DAHMER which is an auto biographical graphic novel by Derf Backdef as well as his book TRASHED. (Google just told me this was adapted as a film.)
Also look at PERSEPOLIS first the graphic novel and then the movie.
[AMERICAN SPLENDOR] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0305206/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_47) (once again the graphic novel and then the movie.)
FUN HOME, the graphic novel then the stage show any way you can catch it.
ROLLING BLACKOUTS by Sarah Glidden (graphic novel as jouralism)

You should also see CRUMB, which is a doc-- but uses autobiography and comics in an interesting way because of its subject matter.

read Masters of Doom

A really good book about the rise and fall of ID, Carmack, and Romero.

There's a great part about after Doom was put out, got huge, and this dude in Kansas who ran a modem switching service that started a grassroots type campaign getting people to 'matchmake' pretty much.

If you paid him like 5 bucks a month, he'd allow you to call in and make matches or be paired with a random person.

Seriously, he was the original matchmaker. ID caught on, and fully promoted this, he became a ally to ID and FPS multiplayer.

I think you know next to nothing about "the system" nor the people who are part of it. Who, exactly, do you think of as "the poor"? It's not just lazy trailer-park dwellers or single parents anymore. Being poor can mean being a full-time student working multiple part-time jobs. Or not being able to work due to mental or physical health issues. Or even having a job and making so little that you can't make ends meet. It's nice you and your wife have fairly good jobs but I bet you couldn't begin to identify the actual poor among you. This is a good look into how one can work and still be destitute: [Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America] (http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376894758&sr=8-1&keywords=nickel+and+dimed+on+not+getting+by+in+america)

When I was working full-time making what I considered to be a quite good salary, I still qualified for yearly fuel assistance and I was damn thankful it existed. Now I'm thankful that I qualify for EBT. They know all the details of my situation and they made the decision to give me assistance. I don't get unemployment and I don't get disability...not that it's really any of your business.

I have the internet because I pay for it.

You don't know me, my life or my situation, and I honestly couldn't care less what you think about me.

Well, it’s been a hell of a struggle, but as far as them accepting my identity, definitely!

What helped my dad to “get it” was him finally reading She’s Not There. Fun, funny, and insightful; it’s a good book for both trans people and family members (especially for family, actually), and it’s an easy read. I read it in two sittings. I definitely recommend it to everyone, even to those who don’t know any trans people.

If there is such a thing as evil, it wants nothing more than to have us believe that feeling joy is wrong. ~ Andrew W.K.

We we are at birth is less important to us than who we will become. We are expected -- indeed, obligated -- not just to be, but to become. This, in a nutshell, is the American dream. ~ Richard Russo in the Afterward for She's Not There

But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments. Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses. ~Robert Ardrey

I'm a collector myself and have a whole book of them. These are just a few favs that I printed and laminated for my own room.

I recently read Stephen King's "On Writing: a memoir of the craft" and It's very biographical. He tell his story about booze and how It affected his life and writing. It's an awesome book. Read it. You are not the first one to face these things.
Also. It seems like you have 97 meetings to go to, and 20 mile weeks, too.
Run it off. It helps a lot. Good luck on the race! Cheers.

I'd read A Random Walk Down Wall Street first. Then Intelligent Investor before Security Analysis.

The first book I read when I was a n00b was The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing. It's pretty simple and basic and made for total beginner's.

Also, you may want to read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator at some point.

Also, check out Robert Shiller's Financial Markets course.

Stock Charts is a good online introduction to technical and fundamental analysis.

Have fun!!

Edit: correction

Here's a book by a woman that lived as a man for a year.

>Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man


After the experiment, she was institutionalized for depression, and stated that she never felt so glad for being a woman.

>"I really like being a woman. ... I like it more now because I think it's more of a privilege."

>"Living as a man taught me a lot about the things I most enjoyed about being a woman in the world, things I consider to be the privileges of womanhood—the emotional freedom, the range of expression, the sexual and social power we can exercise over men. Returning to my life as a woman was about reclaiming those privileges and taking greater satisfaction in them".

Design with Nature by Ian McHarg

I started reading this one a while ago, but was sidetracked by life and it sat collecting dust. I just started it again, but haven't gone very far. This book is supposed to be the bible for planners and landscape architects, so I'm excited to get back into it.

I just finished reading Need for the Bike by Paul Fournel. This book is a collection of short stories and musings written by a lifetime cyclist. He does an amazing job conveying feelings associated with biking and I devoured this book much quicker than I expected. My wife bought it for me for Christmas because it was supposed to be similar to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, another book I really enjoyed.

I also finally finished The Landscape of Man, which I had been working through. I still don't see how this one was supposed to impact me as much as others claim it should, but it was an interesting read.

Look, I'll give you some straightforward advice. It's up to you if you want to listen to me or not. If you like, you can look at any successful science fiction novel to confirm or disprove what I'm saying, or look at other sources of information such as this or this or this. Or heck, just google "why is info dumping bad".

OK, advice time:

Start the story by focusing on the main character, and give him a big problem to deal with right away. Then proceed with the plot by having him attempt to solve the problem. Don't have characters deliver long, information-dense speeches, the only purpose of which is to fill in the reader on details of the setting. Just let the details of the setting become known organically in the course of the narrative. The reader wants to read a story; they don't want to know about how we're going to run out of usable energy sources in 1000 years, or if the planet is 23 light years away, or the details of the time dilation and on and on. Maybe if any of this was really interesting and novel, you could include details of it up front to entice the reader, but it's just a standard scifi trope that's been done a million times. So, focus on the characters, get us engaged with them emotionally, and trust that the reader will be able to piece together the relevant details as they go instead of spoonfeeding it to them all up front like a baby.

Hello and welcome!

There is a helpful FAQ in the side bar. I'd recommend reading some books on writing, such as On Writing and Characters and Viewpoint. You can definitely get published without a degree (my sci-fi book is coming out in a few months, hurray!) but you do need to put the time in to learn what you're doing, formally or informally.

My best advice is to write, a lot, and keep writing.

Cheers!

There is a book that has had a lot of success in the bourgeois circles recently, to explain the Trump success: The Hillbilly Elegy https://www.amazon.fr/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547

It's about the way polite bourgeois love to hate the dirty proles while doing a lot of virtue signalling to say that they love the Diversity.

You can find many interview on Youtube about it.

Also, take a look at a previous post of mine on the ideological denial of the inconvenient science.

I compare climate denial among the right and intelligence denial among the left.

https://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/68zuum/trump_puts_critic_of_renewable_energy_in_charge/dh4ddpw/?context=3

-----

EDIT: I made another answer with more details if you are interested https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/6du6wb/leaked_documents_reveal_counterterrorism_tactics/di5r7m5/

Have you looked into autism in general? Being in a close relationship with someone who is not neurotypical is difficult and I don't know if doing things with the RPW toolbox will necessarily help. Autism requires a schedule, structure, and a direct form of communication from a logical standpoint.

Based on what I've seen of people on the spectrum in my family and their relationships, the most successful relationship I've seen was actually where the wife acted in far different than a "RPW" way; almost like a manager. Their home is clean, they seem happy, their son is doing well. The least successful; they've been married for almost 20 years and they don't speak, she's cheating, and she's allowed his hobbies to take over the home and between his random hobbies of collecting various things and his failed small business attempts, the house is like an episode of hoarders, and their daughter is open about how miserable she is on social media.

This is anecdotal, and by no means fact. I'm just not sure whether submissive sexual strategy is going to fix this.

There's a chance that he's centered his curiosity on too many things at once and unguided, people on the spectrum can overwhelm themselves. Sounds like this could be happening to him. I don't know how or why he's so against getting diagnosed, in the States it could qualify him for state help and getting a therapist could help him deal with sensory overload. It's as far as I know, illegal to discriminate against autistic people.

This is an amazing book on the experience of someone on the spectrum, by the way, I highly recommend it!

At some point in this beautiful thread you mentioned that you are not well read. What books have you read that you've really enjoyed?

If you haven't read these, they're worth a glance at the description:

• Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein. The perfect read for any martian
  
• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. This is a scifi novel based around the poet John Keats and his epic poem, Hyperion. It is masterful.
  
• Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon. Mind-boggling prose with a vocabulary to match.
  
  Thanks for your time on this thread. You are awesome sir

If you enjoyed this you should read Masters of Doom, or listen to Wil Wheaton's very good reading of it (that's what I did).

It's a very interesting and entertaining book.

You still get a free audiobook when signing up to Audible, right?

You scrimp and you save five dollars here 10 dollars for mowing a neighbors lawn maybe 20 bucks because food was cheaper one week... then bam a part on your car fails you have the choice of letting the car go or paying 200 to fix it and you need that car to get to work. You could take public transportation but it would be an hour one way and 60 bucks a month so you swallow your pride and put that 200 into the car praying hoping that it does not break again. This is just one example of why being poor is so expensive and makes it nearly impossible to save. If you want actual books on the matter http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454131226&sr=8-1&keywords=nickel+and+dimed This is a good one.

So I like comics but I agree with Jacob that overall, comics are simplistic and less interesting than regular novels. They can be charming in that aspect, but I understand why many people don't like them.

With that said, Persepolis fits all the criteria Jacob asked for.

Persepolis is an autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi depicting her childhood up to her early adult years in Iran during and after the Islamic revolution.

Hi u/Calicox,


Brandon Sanderson has a series of lectures he did at Brigham Young University when teaching a creative writing class there. Here's his lecture on character, but the others I've seen are also worth your time.

You may find the following books helpful:

This
This
This
This
This
This
This


Best,

DR-M

I had a modest portfolio that was guided by a traditional broker. He lost money for me every year. So finally I figured out that if he could lose my money, so could I and I started picking my own investments. I've never looked back.

The trick to making good investments is to make small investments at first. Get used to losing a little money. It's important that you don't get spooked after your fist 10% loss... or even your first 50% loss. I usually buy a small amount of a stock that I like and I'll buy more if I still like it later. Especially if the price goes down and I still believe in the company. The best time to buy is usually when everyone is selling.

A great way to get started "buying stocks" is to buy them with no money - Sign up for a free portfolio tracker at Yahoo finance or Marketwatch. It's free. You can add stocks with phantom purchases and "buy and sell" to your hearts content. After a couple weeks, you can see if you like it. Spend a few months doing this, you'll eventually get the hang of it. Use real investment amounts that you might make.

When you do finally decide to invest, make sure to only invest what you can afford to lose and you'll be ok.

Oh... BTW. These are great books. I'd buy and them before you start. They won't teach you how to invest, but they will show you the psychology behind investing, which I think is more important.
http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Investment-Classics/dp/0471770884
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Street-Addict-James-Cramer/dp/0743224884/ref=pd_sim_b_4

As long as you're happy ... you're happy. Why do you care what other people think, Mr. Feynman? (link)

Naturally the true test of a model is "out of sample testing", in which you use the model to predict the results of a new experiment before you perform the experiment. In particular, you predict and then perform a new experiment whose parameter-set was not used in the creation of the model and the fitting of its parameters k_cooler and k_steak.

You would love the book, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes. by Daniel Everett. He was a christian missionary sent to the Amazon to study the Pirahã, a small indigenous tribe, and translate their language so that he could recreate the bible in their native tongue.

He ends up breaking with the "universal grammar theory" in which it is thought all languages have certain common grammatical similarities (he also ends up breaking entirely with his religion). The Pirahã have a completely unique sense of time, evidence, and culture. It truly is a fascinating world they survive in, and an equally well told story.

If you don't understand someone, it's easy to call them stupid. There's a couple of books written specifically to help people understand those who voted for Trump:

Hillbilly Elegy:

>Now, along comes Mr. Vance, offering a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump. Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans.

White Working Class

>White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters.

Respect, and indifference. Those are the two big things, and they are related.

Compared to a woman, people are far less likely to feel sympathy for a man, to offer to help a man, etc. and are more likely to expect a man to be self sufficent. There will be far less, if any, empathy for a man. Men are not generally allowed by society to seek emotional support that women are allowed to - it is part of the expectation of self sufficiency. Men are held accountable far more than women are.

On the other hand, the reason people hold men more accountable, expect greater self sufficiency, and offer less emotional support is that men are more respected, which is not trivial. People unconsciously assume less agency for women. And of course, the whole subconscious understanding that eggs are expensive and sperm is cheap.

Womandhood is automatic. Manhood has to be earned. Everyone, men and women both, constantly hold men to a standard and judge them according to that standard. Men who fail to meet that standard aren't "real men". Women don't experience that at all.

Men are expected to be useful.

Although it has problems, focusing on some fairly marginal groups of men, the book Self Made Man in which Norah Vincent passes herself off as a man for a year, is something that I would recommend to anyone to read.

Relevant reading, and a very good story: The chapter called "It’s as Simple as One, Two, Three…" in Richard Feynman's book, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?."

In this chapter, Feynman explains how he came to discover, with some help from his friend Bernie Walker, how different people think in different ways. In essence that thoughts can be visual as well as verbal.

Highly recommended read.

I'm not really the right person to ask as I'm a day & swing trader of futures (ES, CL, GC)...but I enjoyed "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" (https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lefèvre/dp/0471770884).

Also, you can learn a lot from Buffet's shareholder letters: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html

Lastly, when it comes to technical analysis I'm a huge fan of market profile. Here's a great free ebook about it: https://www.cmegroup.com/education/interactive/marketprofile/handbook.pdf

It would be a fair trade if I were messing up with logic. I'm not. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have the one example - Google. You have zero examples. It is your intuition that Google is unusual amongst companies, fair enough. It is my intuition that a lot of tech companies try to copy Google. Neither of these claims have any supporting evidence. Since we can just dismiss the claims that are made without evidence what we are left with is a single example of a company who would look favorably on world class skill at a game and no conflicting evidence.

> while I don't particularly put much faith in what someone who hasn't worked at Google

The author of the book I cited is a journalist who interviewed a ton of people at many different levels in Google and was invited to visit the company (by himself, not at a press event) a fair number of times. The book has pretty favorable reviews and no reviews claiming "The guy made everything up!".

I noticed you mentioned having Grammar and style errors, if you want some help with grammar and style let me link you two extremely helpful books that are very low bullshit for their price:

The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/020530902X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-YyyCbQ6NC2R1

This is the best book for grammar help in my opinion, it's especially helpful if you still have to write essays.

On Writing: 10th Anniversary Edition: A Memoir of the Craft: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439156816/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_L0yyCb9D4H4SE

The first half of this book is a memoir, but the second half is absolutely packed with good advice for novels, regardless the genre.

The first book will help you catch those Grammar errors before you go back with another story, and the second will help you with Style. IE your "The elf walked with grace to the door." Sentence and how to avoid Adverbs.

Just posting to bump Masters of Doom which does a good job of bringing to light the events which reshaped PC gaming as well as explains Romero's eventual fall from grace.

To sum it up:

-Romero is worthy of a little more sympathy than most give him, but only a little.

-However amazing a programmer that you think John Carmack is, you're mistaken. He's more amazing than that, though possibly at the expense of other things.

You'll have to read the book to know the rest.

Stephen King wrote a book a while back called ON WRITING that, while being more focused on writing novels and short stories, details many of the pitfalls that new writers will encounter when starting a new story. It's a fantastic tool, written by somebody that knows a thing or two about telling good stories, and it can help you get a leg up. I highly recommend it!

As for formatting a document to conform to screenplay requirements, try this wonderful software called Trelby

My Friend Dahmer and yes yes yes I would suggest it. It's excellent.

It's really nice of you to be thinking this way. It's hard to solve a serious illness like depression by a gift, though. A cheery letter may be appreciated, and maybe add in the Hyperbole and a Half book. It is hilarious, and contains some great pieces about depression.
Edited because spelling is nice.

I'm currently reading Stephen King's book On Writing and you are right according to the book!


The book is extremely entertaining and easy to read as well as being extremely motivational and helpful to writers. Even if you don't care about being a writer the book is excellent.

I also liked the dude and the zen master. Probably wasn’t taken seriously but the “dude” character is my spirt animal 😂

I recently got zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance . I haven’t started it yet but I love Zen and motorcycles so should go over well with me

I just finished reading Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's and if your experience is similar, you'll probably be great at advertising. John had to learn how to interact with other people by observing as an outsider, which is a super useful skill for advertising. You might also consider exploring the art side of things, and getting good at InDesign and Photoshop.

I went through a heavy Watts phase in college. A few of his books are just transcriptions of his lectures. Become Who You Are is probably my favorite. Most of what he's doing is taking concepts of mindfulness and self from Eastern traditions like Buddhism, and explaining it through a Western style of understanding.

If you like Watts, you would probably like Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Very similar tones, except this is more of a universal parable.

I'm not sure if people still read this book, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was pretty influential for me.

Theirs was an amazing story, like the dream of every teenager's wish of being a game developer. Then the subsequent nightmare and reality of that success.

Looks like you could use some direction in a comforting form. Some books to consider:

The Tao of Pooh

A great little book to get you to look at things differently at times. I wont go deep, but I think the reviews on amazon give you a good idea of what to expect. It's quite short as well, so it wont be some huge commitment.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

This is not a manual for repairing motorcycles. No, it's a work of fiction that helps you find a more "zen" approach to live. Have you seen "The Big Lebowski"? Yeah, it defends the values in finding peace in the world around you, even if things don't always go smoothly.

Invisible Monsters

Finally a book for embracing and confronting that anger and hurt you have built up. Palahniuk is just the author for the job. Don't read the synopsis and DON'T get the silly remixed version of the book. I've known people who have found this book life changing. It seems to really speak to women.

You bring up a solid point, however you're falling into the just world fallacy. Not everyone that can't put together a 1000 dollars 'deserved' it. My guess is that at least 50% of that 63% number are hardworking americans working multiple jobs that simply can't break out of the paycheck to paycheck trap. The cost of living has been outpacing pay for 30 years.

I agree that some people simply don't budget properly or are miss appropriating or aren't using their time to get skills etc. but that's simply not the entire story at all

There's a good book on this called Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

This is not coming from a bleeding heart liberal either. I'm a libertarian that wants to see welfare reduced but that doesn't mean there aren't some serious problems with the economy right now.

A fun entertainment read is Masters of Doom about the early days of Id pushing the limits on PC gaming.

I don't know what his contraints are, but if he wants to work on games & game design skills without being able to access a computer, but can use art supplies, then you could get him some blank playing cards and some thin-point sharpie markers. I found those were pretty solid for just sketching up random cards on, and can easily be used to whip up card-game prototypes.

Card games aren't video games, but some of the skills are transferable I bet.

Ah, see, I understand where you're coming from albeit on the opposite side of the spectrum. In a strong breeze, I'm likely to blow away. Last week, I started going to the gym. It's full of guys that are likely to break someone like me in two just by looking at them.

But you know what else is interesting? There are a couple of people in terrible shape, totally obese, that are making an effort to shed pounds. No one stares or cracks jokes. If someone has a question, the regulars answer it. They're thrilled to see people that want to better themselves. All you need to do is take that first step.

My best advice is to start walking more, no need to jog. Instead of eating 5 slices of pizza, eat 3 and have a salad. Little cuts will make a large impact.

If you're interested, I can check with my buddy and see what he did to lose weight. On average, he lost 5 pounds a week through diet and exercise.

PS - If you're looking for something to read, check out Feynman's What do you care what other people think? If I can live half the life he did, I will be content.

On Writing by Stephen King is good.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a very entertaining and funny book on writing. Lamott is a well known novelist, but also the author of several essays on religion. She is very funny.

For the record, I'm an atheist and I like Lamott's writing.

These are the sources I would use if I were to give a class on writing. Totaling out at about fifteen bucks if you don't mind used books or, you could go online and find a PDF I'm sure.

This book is widely considered the holy bible for logophiles.

https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X/ref=pd_sim_14_9?ie=UTF8&dpID=51q3tYpGjnL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR101%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=ARMA7SMW0KWG1JSEB0P2

Do that first, practice the core conceptsas you go along, then read this.

https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Fiction-Harper-Torchbook--5069/dp/0465052266/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467830718&sr=1-1&keywords=On+Moral+Fiction+by+John+Gardner

and lastly, since you're interested in fiction, I would read this.

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-10th-Anniversary-Memoir-Craft/dp/1439156816/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467830937&sr=1-1&keywords=on+writing+stephen+king

The take away is understanding, so don't just skim if you can help it. Meanwhile, I'd write short stories. (aim for about 2-3k words at first) Monthly, one hundred words a day and keep at it for three-four months. See how you improve and such along the way and then, increase your goals. two hundred words a day. One story instead of different short stories.
*The most important thing is setting a goal for yourself and seeing it through to the end.

Several things help. I keep character notes which keep me straight on who is who in my books. But the biggest help is my beta readers. I send out between five and six chapters at a time for their immediate feedback. They have no problem telling me when my writing is crap. You have to have a thick skin and keep in mind, they are making your writing better.

A book which is a huge help, even today, is On Writing by Stephen King. His tips can help everyone, from the newbie to the veteran writer.

And YouTube.com is my friend. When I need to know how to do something, such as make a bump key, I can find a video to show me how. I also make use of experts in their fields. I have a national championship marksman, for instance, who advises me on weapons usage.

Here is a link to On Writing. It's worth the money. http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Memoir-Craft-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B000FC0SIM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415897198&sr=1-1&keywords=On+Writing+Stephen+King

> how can one live in a tiny, filthy, rundown apartment with 3 kids and hardly have any food to eat and no disposable income?

I suppose it depends on what your options are. If your choices are between that & death, then that might not sound so bad.

> How much does upbringing have to do with it?

My guess is a lot. Though on the opposite end; Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a great book called Nickel and Dimed. She basically researched how the other half lived for a book. The terms were simple, she could use all of the intelligence, skills & mindset that she had developed over the years of excellent upbringing. However she couldn't use the status. She couldn't tell anyone that she went to college, call in favors from friends outside of her new life, use her savings, etc. It's pretty nauseating how far she didn't get in society.

I'm such a sucker for tech success stories (Masters of Doom was a great book and I loved The Social Network).

I bought this on Amazon a long time ago after renting it from Netflix. Such an awesome movie. I bought it with Revolution OS which I have yet to watch (it's been years. I really should just watch it).

Oh lmao my b

I’ve heard McMillan on Options is a good read, though I haven’t read it myself.

A good book on psychology and market behavior is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Options as a Strategic Investment is personally what I read and it’s very easy to understand and has plenty of examples.

https://www.amazon.com/McMillan-Options-Lawrence-G/dp/0471678759

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lefèvre/dp/0471770884/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=reminiscence+of+a+stock+operator&qid=1565785781&s=gateway&sprefix=reminiscen&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Options-as-Strategic-Investment-Fifth/dp/0735204659/ref=pd_aw_sbs_14_1/132-8096628-1903040?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0735204659&pd_rd_r=311ef362-2080-434e-899b-ea36ca08058a&pd_rd_w=6v6iP&pd_rd_wg=HtwRb&pf_rd_p=3861f3e6-3054-41ac-9570-6a1994716f7e&pf_rd_r=34KSEETK9NV6305R430Q&psc=1&refRID=34KSEETK9NV6305R430Q

Barefoot Gen is written by a survivor of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It's very moving and raw and personally I think it's better than Maus or Blankets. It should be required reading in all schools.

Persepolis is another amazing read. It's written by someone who grew up in Iran and witnessed and ran away from the revolution in the late 70's. It shows that the people in Iran and that part of the world are just like us, though because of America's (and other foreign powers) intervention, has become really conservative and hostile. I think this is another book that should be required reading in schools.

Fun Home is another personal tale about a woman's recollections of growing up and about her father.

Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings Adrian often writes very personal stories that are heart felt and touching.

American Born Chinese Gene Yang writes about growing up as an Asian American.

Epileptic French, David B writes about his Epileptic brother.

Not entirely related, but Masters of Doom was an amazing read. As someone who grew up playing Doom, this is an awesome behind the scenes look as to how it was created and offers insight on other games & graphics too.

I just finished Bringing up Bebe and thought it was really good. I found it funny and insightful, and really made me think about everything start to finish! Congratulations!
I've been reading Your Pregnancy Week by Week - I don't really enjoy it, I feel like BabyCenter is equally informative without trying to scare me.

This has recently changed. Youtube lost Google money for a long time but has now become a nice little source of income. Source: http://www.amazon.com/Plex-Google-Thinks-Works-Shapes/dp/1416596585. --Great book if you like non-fiction business stories. Gives some awesome insight into the inner workings of google through the last decade.

What really surprises me is, well, how women view men. Whenever /r/askmen has threads asking the woman subscribers what they've learned, "that men have feelings/insecurities" is always a popular post. It's great to hear that they've learned that, but kind of worrisome to know that they had to learn it.

To quote from your /r/askwomen thread:

>That people are people, and men aren't these mysterious mystical terrifying powerful unfeeling creatures... they are human beings and not that different from me.

Which sounds beautiful until you realize that was the surprise. Here's what she actually thought about men:

>For a long time, I thought men were immune to that... that they didn't ever feel anything or care about people or women, and never were insecure or worried or anything like that.

I don't mean to pick on /r/AskWomen or that particular user. It's just one example of a common opinion about men. It also bothered me when reading about Self-Made Man. Norah Vincent says that she thought living as a man would be all about power, privilege, and freedom. So shocked was she that this wasn't the case she ended up in group therapy and ultimately cut the experiment short. Along with "men can feel sad too", she also had other revelations, such as "husbands love their wives". Thanks for the insights, Norah. I have always felt that the reason the author had so many difficulties and "revelations" during her experiance living as a man is that she went in with so much prejudice and so little empathy.

Apart from a few aspects of menstruation, nothing I read in /r/askwomen was a surprise. I certainly disagree with much of what is said there, to the point of being an ass, but disagreeing has never prevented me from seeing their perspective. The biggest surprise about women over the past year has been about how they view men.

I never realized how alien I was to women. It's scary and disheartening, and I'm hugely appreciative to the women in my life that treat me like a human being after discovering so many assumed I was an unfeeling robot with a sex-drive. At the same time, it's made me hugely distrustful and unwilling to open up to them, emotionally. And as such I end up perpetuating the myth.

Homogeneous countries win.

If you backed-out the heavily democrat districts, which have a population of more than 9/10 combined in your list, the US would easily climb from 11th. But to what end?

The fact is we have millions of kids that do not care and will not put in effort because they are culturally programmed so. Voting Democrat allows their generational servitude to continue.

Read this: Hillbilly Elegy if you want to know what's going on in the US.

Trust me, if I could send all the Baltimore City Public School kids to any of those top-10 nations, those nations would drop out of the top 40 so fast your head would spin. In fact, given the handicap with which the US operates, it is amazing we are #11.

• On Writing by Stephen King
  
• Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald
  
  These two are the most basic, they're books to read through and soak in the information. The following two are more like reference books, still highly recommend:
  
  
• The elements of style, fourth edition
  
• The curious Writer: Concise Edition
  
  Pick them all up if you can, they are invaluable and go over basics like format, grammar, sentence structure and other fundamentals of writing. Invisible Ink in particular will go over what makes a story impact, how to build armatures for your novel/short story and how to effectively communicate emotions through the written word. Good luck my friend!
  
  EDIT: The Curious writer has a new edition of their book but why pay four times the amount to get virtually the same book? Stick with the fourth edition.

You should either check out this book or go on youtube and find the short documentary about how ID got started and what they went through to go from Commander Keen all the way up to Quake. They were like the rockstars of software development. It's such a cool story. At one point Carmack gave away a Ferrari he owned at a deathmatch tournament. The guy who won it couldn't afford to get it home so Carmack fronted the bill in cash. This was all money from the shareware model with "extra levels you could buy by faxing in orders and sending in by mail!

I suggest the book for sure though, because it goes into way more detail than you can get from a youtube video.

Could it be that all people have challenges and frustrations and sometimes get angry, with varying degrees of justification? Arguing that "my anger is justified and that of another group is not" is likely but won't really lead to deeper understanding or resolution of issues.

There was a book written by a woman writer who dressed in male drag for a year or so. She didn't find the experience as positive as expected.

Here is is: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OT8GTE?btkr=1

From a review:
>For 18 months, she disguised herself as a man, renamed herself Ned, joined a men's bowling league, visited strip bars, and dated women. Along the way, she found that the freedom and privileges enjoyed by men were counterbalanced by a constant testing and severe limits on emotions. She also found women to be distrustful, ever ready to criticize men for being emotionally distant yet clearly preferring men who met stereotypical images of strength and virility.

You're a great santa to care about your giftee/ask how to help them. Pets help a lot with depression. I know you can't give them a dog, cat, etc. but maybe you could find a way to send them a fish/small tank setup like a beta? Or maybe an animal type experience might be available in their area from groupon?

Also maybe [this book by Allie Brosh from Hyperbole and a Half] (https://www.amazon.com/Hyperbole-Half-Unfortunate-Situations-Mechanisms/dp/1451666179) She posted about her depression on her blog

And maybe a little something like this that they can carry with them/hold in their hand just to help them remember that they're amazing.

Intro - check
Wishlist flair - check
I haven't been gifted, so here's my golden foot trophy, and assorted Halloween decorations, on top of my movie shelves. ^alongwithsomedustbewe'llignorethat I won this at my very first Halloween party, which I also hosted. I went as a Weeping Angel, and won Best Costume. Legit votes, too, though I was drunk when I counted them.
Pic me!

I think this is another one of those "actor-audience" versus "actor-writer" things. The powers might appear random to the characters, and if you're in actor-audience mode, that means you feel like it should be random to the players as well. But that's not how Fate works; you have to take a step back from being purely a participant and assume some aspects of the creator's mantle in order to get the most out of the game, and I think a lot of people trip over that, since it's exactly the opposite of what most RPGs encourage you do to.

...which I suppose is all a long-winded way of saying that the best Fate resource books I own are this and this.

http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335567255&sr=8-1

Masters of Doom. Tells the story of John Carmack and John Romero. Touches games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Daikatana and Deus Ex.

It's not the best written book I read, but certainly one of the ones I enjoyed the most.

I read it a few months back and if you have questions about content, lenght or other stuff, feel free to ask.

well, duh, but if you remember that servers are human beings trying to live off what you give them, you probably already tip well so the change in price wouldn't be as much as you might think, or might be close to zero. feel free to read some more about it here,
here, here, or here. and those sources were just what I found quickly searching.

an interesting read on minimum wage in the US in general is Nickel and Dimed, although anecdotal, it is robustly filled out with facts and statistics.

http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Culture/dp/0812972155/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1374812801&sr=8-1

Very interesting book detailing this and their early days. Its a bit dated (was released in 2003), but a great read for those interested in gaming, none the less.

Good that you could jump to a new job. Some cannot. You might find Barbara Ehrenreich's book Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America of interest.

It would be nice if corporations did not exploit their workers, but most seem to eager to cut costs and increase profits, and frequently that comes out of the hide of employees. That's why unions arose and that's why so many laws and regulations are required. Most recently, we've seen many reports of wage theft by corporations.

You might want to look into it a little more.

Hi there! Would love this book by Kevin Mitnick. Thanks for the contest and happy payday.

> I understand a frustration with rigid, societal gender roles.

OK, but please understand that that's not what gender identity is about.

Suppose we tell you, "We're going to transform your body to female, and that's how everybody is going to see and relate to you for the rest of your life. But don't worry! We're not saying you have to be feminine! You can be as masculine as a woman as you like! But you have to be a woman."

I don't think you'd be cool with that. Possibly a few people have a lot of built-in gender flexibility and could roll with that punch. A lot more people think they could handle it, but in reality probably could not - Nora Vincent thought she could, for example, and almost lost her mind, even though her change was only outward/social and not bodily.

Sounds like you had a bad date :-/ Sorry.

Yes, the dating world can be very cold to men that aren't attractive. It's not something that's discussed much, because it's hammered into our heads as kids that all you need to get the girl is a sense of humor, maybe a job, some confidence and a decent sense of style. But women can be every bit as superficial, unfortunately.

I wouldn't defend all the horrible shit that men have done to women throughout history, but this book should be enlightening reading for many women these days:

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Made-Man-Womans-Year-Disguised/dp/0143038702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458690380&sr=8-1&keywords=norah+vincent

All that said, though - if you realize you're a 2 or 3 out of 10, are you taking steps to improve? Have you been working out? Perhaps you need to dress better? Get on a diet?

Literally my parents irl, at least at first. At least they're trying and have gotten better over time. My mom actually read She's Not There of her own volition and really liked it and thought it was helpful, so we're making progress.

> Isn't that the complaint with thots and the like? Basically if all you bring to the table is sex and nothing else why spend money and time on you?

Actually, if you go back to the 1950s, the first sociological studies were coming out and revealed that a surprisingly large number of prostitutes' clients actually did not hire her to f--k: instead they spent the whole visit talking.

At the time, this was interpreted as, "Men are incapable of finding anyone to talk to." Note the self-contradictory nature of this interpretation.

Looking back, I think we can fairly re-interpret that data as, "Female sympathy for a male instead of another female is impaired, and they are intolerant of weakness in a male."

This ties into something lesbian journo Norah Vincent noticed in Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man. After the experiment was over, she was listening to a man in a bar and found herself hanging on every word, not because it was important to her, but because she now knew how important it was for him to be able to open up to a woman who would actually listen:

> Ditto for the stereotype about men monopolizing conversations. Like Sasha, many of my dates - even the more passive ones - did most of the talking. I listened to them talk literally for hours about the most minute, mind-numbing details of their personal lives; men they were still in love with, men they had divorced, roommates and co-workers they hated, childhoods they were loath to remember yet somehow found the energy to recount ad nauseam. Listening to them was like undergoing a slow frontal lobotomy. I sat there stunned by the social ineptitude of people to whom it never seemed to occur that no one, much less a first date, would have any interest in enduring this ordeal.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre. It's from 1923, but it's still just about the best book on trading and speculation that you will find and widely regarded as a must-read for investors. And in addition, it is also gives a very interesting look at Wall Street at the beginning of the 20th century.