Reddit mentions: The best professional & academic biographies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I believe you can still get a free copy here:

http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html

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

And here's a good audio version as well:

https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich

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

And best of luck to you!


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://scienceofgettingrich.net/subscribe.html

https://archive.org/details/TheScienceofGettingRich

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

Get comfortable, I wrote you a book.

tl;dr: You want to make a quick buck and you are letting that desire cloud your thinking. You - and you alone - are responsible for yourself and for the consequences of your decisions. Do whatever you want, but recognize that your decisions now are setting up your future. Your decisions. You came here and posted this question and you got good advice. You can reject it if you want to, but own your choices. No one is impressed by "I wasn't really thinking about it." You are just starting life. Who do you admire? Who don't you want to be like? What do you want in life? How can you maximize your chances of making that happen? What do you have to do? Be sure of yourself. Then do it.

---------

I agree with the majority of what has been written. I also wonder if your mind is made up on this. It shouldn't be, but either way:

You would be doing yourself an incredibly good service by taking your motivation and sense of entrepreneurship and putting it toward something that isn't likely to ruin much of your life while simultaneously closing most of the doors which are currently open to you. (Yes, that means doing something legal. Particularly now.).

From what I'm reading, I suspect that it's important you choose something challenging. Something you think is challenging and which you actively decide to do. Put yourself on the line and work your ass off. Be responsible for your own success and be proud of it. Own your life, because - surprise - you already do. Importantly, put your work in toward something where when you fail you can talk proudly about it with anyone; you can put it on your resume, even use it to show people - yourself - that you are capable. And hell, you might succeed. You will succeed if you learn from your mistakes and keep trying. That's how entrepreneurship works -- through failure. (Reference Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big. Or here, for free

I'll be straight with you: You seem to have a lot of drive and focus for things that you want to do, but your attitude surrounding that is shit. You also don't seem to have learned from your mistakes. You made some quick money with drugs and you now have none of it. (Also, you're comfortable selling drugs but not comfortable collecting a Government benefit which you would be 100% entitled to? One which probably exists for people in exactly your situation, among others? Accept yourself.)

It seems like you think you know what you want to do so you are seeing everything else as pointing you toward that decision. That's normal. But look at what people wrote here. You may think of yourself as restricted, bound, or labeled because of a charge on your record. A charge from when you were a kid, which is probably going to disappear at some point rather soon. You obviously know that school is important but you are blaming cigarettes for your absences? Dude: You control yourself and you are responsible for yourself. You smoke. There are consequences. They aren't the fault of nicotine. No one but you can change things, and that will never happen through defeatism or shifting responsibility. (I have my own addictions, btw.) I get that you don't like school. Pretty much no one loves it. But have you actually tried? Have you worked hard at something you don't like and done well? When was the last time? Have you even talked to people at your school about what you want and what you dislike? What your challenges are? Do you know what you want?

Figure that shit out, man. It's important. Take responsibility for yourself, because everyone else is going to expect that from you if they don't already. You dictate your future. View that as a huge opportunity rather than something negative and you are on the right track.

It seems like you probably know all these things. You are clearly thinking, which is a good sign and is also more than many other people your age are doing. I suggest bringing people in on your thought processes (beyond Reddit), such as a school guidance counselor or someone who you look up to because of what they have accomplished for themselves. You don't have to listen to what they say.

>I feel like I could do better applying my skills somewhere else - >namely, selling narcotics as well as keeping a job.

"Namely"? Those don't follow. It's also telling that you wrote "selling narcotics" and "keeping a job" as separate things. You are looking to make quick cash. My take - a random person on the Internet who has been successful in business and who also likes drugs (too much): the risks FAR outweigh the rewards. That's why the potential return is higher than the pay for flipping burgers. Not because it's harder, but because you don't go to jail and likely ruin the rest of your life's opportunities for flipping burgers. It's too easy to only see the rewards from where you are standing. Remember how the money you made is poof gone? There are a lot more ways in which that same story is likely to replay itself if you keep following the world it came out of.

You know that growing and selling weed is not your only option. You want to grow things? I bet you could make a solid amount of money growing and selling niche plants. Legal ones. I even know someone who does that, though I'm obviously not saying you should do that specific thing. (And be smart, if you don't know a business don't start it. Plants? Get a job at a plant nursery or something.) I honestly agree with the people who are saying "Get yourself a job." Do that. And take heed to the warnings about girlfriend. I'm sure she's great. Don't think with your dick, and don't get her pregnant any time soon.

There's something else I don't know if you see: There are a lot of ways you can improve your situation in life and improve yourself. Things which you can do to separate yourself from your personal history of rocky family stuff, smoking at a young age, drugs, shaky school, iffy decisions, etc. You can also tie yourself to your personal history - very tightly. That's an ACTIVE CHOICE and it's one you are making pretty much right now. The whole "get a legitimate job and try at life" thing? That is a strong way in which you could show yourself and everyone else that you are capable of running your life. Anything which involves intelligently trying to improve your situation is awesome and people will notice it. Get a job, learn from your mistakes, work hard, be entrepreneurial, be smarter than many people and realize that mental health and fitness is important and deserves serious time and attention, figure out school - whatever that means for you, and don't let yourself be convinced by the thought processes you wrote about here and about which no one else seems to be as convinced as you.

Most of all, accept that you are in control of yourself and your future. Fuck it up because you don't try? That's on you. No one looks down on people who try, though. You came on Reddit and posted this question and you got a lot of good advice. Consider it. Reject it if you want, but if you do that you better do it actively. Own it. Don't pretend this page of solicited advice never existed. Today, tomorrow, always - you are making decisions about yourself, your life, and your future. You are in the driver's seat. What do you value? Who do you want to be? Who don't you value? What kind of person don't you want to be? How do people get where and what you want? How can you maximize your chances of getting there? Talk to people about that and think some more. Reread this if you want to. Go.

(Or don't. Your choice.)

Caution: Wall of text to follow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS

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

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

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

> At what age?

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

> What majors in college should I be looking at?

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

> And at what colleges?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm very happy that I was able to help :)

And yes, a lot of people will blame everything around them for the misery of themselves. This seems to be the easy way out, but you must ask yourself what good it does in the end. There are things which are outside of your control. What people might do to you, say to you, and so on. However no matter what harsh things you go through in life it is ultimately you that decide how to respond to them. You decide what to do with it. It is as Epictetus once said:

> "Man is affected not by events, but by the view he takes of them."

Usually I do not actually like to talk openly about the philosophy I follow, for the simple reason that I just try to live by it. Use actions, not words. Also for many people it might seem that you try to push something on to them. However I felt in this case I was justified to give an explanation of what exactly helped me :-)

Anyways, if you are interested in the principles I explained, then what you seek is reading on Stoicism. The book that has especially helped me is this one:
Stoicism and the art of happiness

It has eye-opening/life-changing wisdoms and perspectives on everything that has to do with you. How to deal with emotions, what they are, and what is essential to life a good life. Another interesting fact is that many of the mental exercises and perspectives the stoics used is now today amongst some of the most scientifically well-documented practices used by cognitive behavioural therapy (also with a quick google search, you will find that even the founder of CBT was inspired by the stoic teachings), which deals with practically all kinds of mental sufferings you can imagine.

It's a practical book on the life philosophy of Stoicism, and it is written by a credible psychotherapist who also takes interest in the study of Stoicism (hence the book!). It's not academic in any way, it's meant to be easily approachable and easy to implement into your life. Here's a quick breakdown of it all:

Stoicism is a life philosophy that was founded by the ancient greeks around 301 BCE. It's not a religion, or any kind of weird cult. It is a collection of principles that is meant to guide you towards happiness (in greek context meaning something more along the lines of inner well-being and tranquility).

I would suggest you read the book :-) Maybe you will come to pick up on everything stoicism has to offer, maybe you will only pick up whatever principles and wisdoms that you think are right, or maybe you won't find much agreement with it at all, all which is fine. However I think you will find some wisdoms you will definitely find to your liking, as you sound intrigued by the principles. The important thing is that no matter what, it will most certainly set you out on your way to think more about yourself and how to control your life and achieve your own understanding of well-being.

If Stoicism comes to your liking (start with the above book first, though), I could recommend books by some of the most famous ancient Stoics through time. I will leave some here for future reference for you:

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius - This is one of the most famous stoic texts.

Enchiridion - Epictetus

Dialogues and Essays - Seneca

These books read as manuals, not to be read in one sitting. They are huge collections of letters, essays and short passages from these excellent people about everything that has to do with achieving inner well-being, and how to view the world around you. They are remarkable ancient works, and it is truly inspiring and motivating to open them and just read a few of the lines from time to time.

As with anything, it's a learning process to change mindset. But it slowly comes when you study it. You learn the wisdoms and principles they had, you think about them and if they make sense, you apply them and live them, revisit them and so on, until they really become a part of you. It is truly worth the time though, and I think you see that too from what I could understand in your reply.

Best of luck to you! If you have any questions feel free to PM me as well, I'd be happy to help.

Well, the good news is that reducing your grocery bill is completely doable, even for a family with a new baby. It's an area where a lot of folks, including people whose spending habits are otherwise good, often find that they're spending far more than they need to.

> How in the heck do you guys knock down your eating money? Amazing willpower?

It's a combination of several things:

1. The first step is recognizing what's causing your grocery bill to be so large. You've already figured out that eating out is a big problem for you, and what's even better is that you've figured out why. Instead of just saying "we're not eating out anymore", brainstorm a couple of ways that you can get out of the house with your husband for less money - perhaps even with someone watching the baby so you can have a real date (when you're ready if your baby is still a newborn). You can take walks together, have cheaper outings (say, getting an ice cream sundae and sharing it rather than having a full dinner out, or making a date out of a glass of wine and shared appetizer somewhere), or depending on where you live, some areas have plenty of free activities to offer, such as free concerts in a park, free screenings of movies in a park, or free museums.
   
   
2. Once you've decided how you're going to reduce your spending, you need to figure out what it's going to take to make that happen. A very common reason that people spend more on prepared foods or going out is being too tired or too busy to prepare meals. A lot of people do some cooking in advance on various levels. Some people get ingredients that require dicing or mincing all prepped to reduce the total cooking time for each meal, some people prepare entire meals and freeze them in portions, and some folks (especially those with kids, it seems) actually have monthly meal swaps where you make a big batch of a favorite meal and can trade portions of it with other people for what they've made as a way to get more variety in your meals without having to increase your effort too much. I personally think the last one is an awesome idea and I've been trying to find something like that in my area. Slow cooking is also a great idea that might fit your lifestyle!
   
   
3. To lower the cost of the groceries themselves, stock up items when they're on sale if you have a chest freezer or reduce your spending on meats and prepared foods. Look for both manufacturer's and store coupons for items you use regularly or that you use occasionally but are shelf-stable. You can also do the math and see if you'd save money by shopping at a place like Costco, BJ's, or Sam's Club. I personally love Costco because of the amazing quality and their great business practices, and even just with two of us plus our dog, we definitely save more than the membership cost each year. Again, this is helped by the ability to freeze some items.
   
   
4. Lower the cost of each meal. While I personally like having some meat and fish in my diet, meats are generally the most expensive ingredient and not every meal has to feature flesh as the main dish. Whether you choose to try her recipes or not, I think you'd really benefit from perusing Budget Bytes to see the variety of delicious, healthy meals you can prepare for $1-2 per serving. There's also a great book called "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" that explains what foods you can save money on by making yourself versus which ones just aren't worth the trouble or may even be more expensive to DIY. I bet your local library has a copy!
   
   
5. Reduce food waste. Beyond re-purposing veggie scraps and chicken bones to make stock, make sure you go through your leftovers quickly enough or freeze what you know you won't eat immediately. This is one I still struggle with even though I have a freezer, in part because I often think my husband is bringing leftovers for lunch when in reality he's totally forgotten about them. I'm going to try putting a chart on our fridge that says what leftovers we have in there and when they were made, and hopefully that might help!
   
   If you want to stick to a particular food budget rather than just trying to have better food spending habits, try Dave Ramsey's envelope system where you withdraw your grocery budget in cash, and what goes in the envelope for the week or the month is what you get to spend - so spend wisely. I would budget a small amount each month for going out as your entertainment budget.
   
   My other non-related food comment is that you're absolutely right - with three of you, $1000 definitely isn't enough of an emergency fund. That wouldn't even cover a major car repair, frankly, and that Subaru is probably going to need a new head gasket at some point down the road (I'd guess around 130-150k miles). Talk to your husband about directing your savings from the reduced grocery budget towards the emergency account.
   
   One last question - your budget does include your husband paying into a 401k and/or other retirement accounts, right? Planning for retirement as early as possible is really important because time is your best ally.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are a few books that I really enjoyed.


Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian

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


Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

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

Smarter Than You Think

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


Screw Business as Usual

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

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




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

The Art of Charm

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


Triangulation on Twit


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

Entrepreneur on Fire

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If i were to recommend a couple books

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

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

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

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

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

The best advice I can give you about not knowing what to do with your life is changing the way you look at your future, at least for now.

In his book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00COOFBA4?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1

Scott talks about how he found success, not by being a goal-oriented person, but by being a systems oriented person. Even though having goal is a good thing, setting up specific goals for yourself can be very limiting. If you live your life by using systems, you give yourself more avenues and opportunities to become more successful.

A great example of this is instead of setting a goal for yourself to "lose x amount of pounds in x amount of time" you instead focus on setting up a system of continuous exercise, good diet, and good lifestyle habits. Eventually success will come to you because you instead focused on the system, not the goal. Good coaches don't focus on winning the title at the end of the season. Good coaches focus on winning each game at a time.

Focus on good mental and physical habits. Form good habits with your money. At your age it is hard trying to figure out exactly where you want to be in 10 years. It is much easier to figure out how to be the best you can be at this moment in time. Eventually you will have built up yourself to a point where you will be prepared for the opportunities that might come your way in the future. Focus on the process not the outcome.

Also, you said you want to be an ecologist?

I highly, highly, highly recommend you look at Mark Lewis' site at the University of Alberta. All of his research is in math biology, but he does research areas like invasive species modeling, animal movement modeling, bio-invasion and and ecosystem modeling (e.g rivers, mountains).

He publishes in journals like Theoretical Ecology, Journal of Experimental Biology and American Naturalist. All the links are to papers he's published in those journals.

A word of warning though: just because you have a passion for physics does not necessarily mean you have what it takes to be a researcher in a physics/math related field. You have to love the area you are researching (e.g ecology), but more importantly, you have to love the research PROCESS. As you may have seen from the .pdf links, the papers rely heavily on mathematics. In order to succeed in this area, you have to love solving math problems, writing code, reading journal papers, and solving math problems (yes, I mentioned it twice). If you don't have a passion to do these things, then it will be really hard to succeed.

If I were you, and are really passionate about learning physics, I would find an online resource or textbook that is just above the knowledge you have now, and start studying. I can recommend some resources if you like. If you are truly passionate about physics, start doing problems. Within a year, you will be doing the kind of crazy math you want to do (and be able to apply it to physics problems in no time). If you don't want to work on math problems, then maybe you aren't as passionate as you thought.

Perhaps you can satisfy your desire for physics by reading popular science books (e.g Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking), or becoming a high school science teacher. I can tell you though that what you read in these books, and the actual process of doing science research could not be any more different.

You talk about devotion in an earlier comment. Here's an anecdote about Freeman Dyson from the book Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

>"He read popular science books about Einstein and relativity and, realizing that he needed to learn a more advanced mathematics than his school taught, sent away to scientific publishers for their catalogs. His mother finally felt that his interest in mathematics was turning into an obsession. He was fifteen and had just spent a Christmas vacation working methodically, from six each morning until ten each evening, through the seven hundred problems of H. T. H. Piaggio's Differential Equations."

Now Dyson was a child prodigy who came from a privileged family, but that's an example of the type of people who "do" math and physics. It makes me wish I hadn't played video games from six each morning until ten each evening playing video games :(

You remind me a bit of myself back when I was trying to figure out what I want to do. Hell, I STILL don't know what I want to do, but I have a bit more experience then I did then when I was an undergrad (all of 2 years ago). So this is like a warning letter to my past self.

Sincerely,

A former mathematical biologist/physicist who discovered is passion for science from reading popular science books, but realized he didn't have what it takes to do research.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 
Good luck!

Some advice here for anyone looking for psychedelic therapy.

Mushrooms are still not legal in Oakland, they've just instructed cops not to do anything about possession. So don't expect to see shops selling mushrooms, or therapists giving them to clients. Your best bet is to look for a "psychedelic integration therapist". They won't give you drugs or trip-sit for you, but they specialize in helping clients make sense of psychedelic experiences. Also check out meetups such as those run by the SF Psychedelic Society. Their Psychedelic Therapeutic Use Peer Support Group (there's one that meets in Oakland and one in Petaluma) is great.

There are therapists who practice psychedelic therapy underground. They don't advertise, obviously, so you'll need to make connections to find them. I can't help you there.

You don't need a professional guide to benefit from psychedelics. In fact few therapists have training or experience in this unique modality. More than formal training, it's important to have a trusted trip sitter (ideally someone who's taken psychedelics before), a safe and comfortable setting, and a positive mental state going in. If you want to read trip reports, there are thousands available on Erowid. I recommend the book Psychedelic Psychotherapy by R. Coleman (although I don't endorse everything in it). How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan is a popular book that covers a lot of topics related to the psychedelic renaissance. Also check out /r/PsychedelicTherapy.

Both psilocybin and MDMA are in the FDA approval pipeline and might be legally prescribed for therapy within the next 10 years. You could potentially do this now if you qualify for a clinical trial.

Hopefully we will soon see full legalization and a safe way for people to access these experiences that doesn't require them to label themselves as "sick". There is a ballot measure in Oregon next year which would be a big step in that direction.

Hey! This comment ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, oops.

My all-time favs of these kinds of books definitely has to be Prime Obsession and Unknown Quantity by John Derbyshire - Prime Obsession covers the history behind one of the most famous unsolved problems in all of math - the Riemann hypothesis, and does it while actually diving into some of the actual theory behind it. Unknown Quantity is quite similar to Prime Obsession, except it's a more general overview of the history of algebra. They're also filled with lots of interesting footnotes. (Ignore his other, more questionable political books.)

In a similar vein, Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh also does this really well with Fermat's last theorem, an infamously hard problem that remained unsolved until 1995. The rest of his books are also excellent.

All of Ian Stewart's books are great too - my favs from him are Cabinet, Hoard, and Casebook which are each filled with lots of fun mathematical vignettes, stories, and problems, which you can pick or choose at your leisure.

When it comes to fiction, Edwin Abbott's Flatland is a classic parody of Victorian England and a visualization of what a 4th dimension would look like. (This one's in the public domain, too.) Strictly speaking, this doesn't have any equations in it, but you should definitely still read it for a good mental workout!

Lastly, the Math Girls series is a Japanese YA series all about interesting topics like Taylor series, recursive relations, Fermat's last theorem, and Godel's incompleteness theorems. (Yes, really!) Although the 3rd book actually has a pretty decent plot, they're not really that story or character driven. As an interesting and unique mathematical resource though, they're unmatched!

I'm sure there are lots of other great books I've missed, but as a high school student myself, I can say that these were the books that really introduced me to how crazy and interesting upper-level math could be, without getting too over my head. They're all highly recommended.

Good luck in your mathematical adventures, and have fun!

Lots of great recommendations in this thread; I've added a few to my reading list. Here are my suggestions (copied from a previous thread):

• How to Win Friends and Influence People - Everyone with a mother should practice this.
  
• Tao Te Ching (S. Mitchell translation)
  
• Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy - I never cared about economics until after I was done with school, and didn't remember anything from university class. This helped explain a lot of common fallacies many people make.
  
• Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets - As Taleb says in the beginning of the book, anyone from any profession could have written this book, but a financial background makes this much more interesting. Anyone interested in science and what we can learn from the world of past experience should read this. This led to the next book:
  
• How to Live: A Life of Montaigne - A biography of Montaigne, a great skeptic, always curious, interested in what it means to be human. I found I could relate a great deal with the man, as many others have in different ways. The dust-jacket description made it sound like a boring historical overview, but I think the book flowed pretty well and was always interesting.
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Anyone that ever creates a slideshow, or attempts to represent data visually should read this book. More than once. I'd say it changed my life.
  
  And, the following two are a look into the lives of two great men that lived in the 20th century; both offer many points worth emulating.
  
  
• Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
  
• The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer (once available in full on PBS website, seems not to be the case now ...)

The answer, as usual is: it depends.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck!

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've been here periodically but I haven't formally intro'ed myself so I'll do that here:

• I work in IT as an engineering/architecture level (tend to fall more in architecture roles, but do a lot of engineering too).
  
  
• Dream job... well, I might be starting it in a bit over a week. It's 100% remote (globally), working with a tech firm pushing technology in ways that break many of the traditional models, great benefits, amazing people, etc etc. I might post more later, but still seems too good to be true right now. If I had to say something else, probably consulting where I work remote architecting datacenters/cloud deployments and building the migration plans for them. Really jobs that challenge me technically while enabling me to work how I want to work, when I want to work.
  
  
• Likely driven, goal oriented, logical to a fault, and would do well going with my gut more. #EngineeringLife
  
  
• Dream vacation is kind of a misnomer for me, and my dream would be more of a vanlife thing at this point for a bit. Otherwise Australia/NZ
  
  
• I am watching a friends dog right now (about 5 months so far lol) while they look for a house. Need to get my own.
  
  
• I'm really proud of myself for completing a marathon. Crossing that finish line was one of the most rewarding feelings I've ever had on my own. Took 2 years from the goal being set to achieving it. I was in rough shape but would've cried if I had any fluids left to cry with lol
  
  
• Been reading a book about the newest research on psychadelics. It's pretty interesting. I'm a big advocate for ending the war on drugs, and more legalization of psychadelics for medical use (especially in therapeutic settings) if not full recreational. I've never used them, but strongly believe in their use for therapeutic use with minimal risks (I equate it to marijuana in this regard). The book is How to Change Your Mind.
  
  
• Neither. I prefer ginger ale, or stuff like La Croix. Although usually water, tea, and coffee are my go-to's.

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

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

Feeling Good is THE book on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

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

Guns, Germs and Steel is very good.

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

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

Scott Adams calls this the 'Moist Robot Hypothesis'. Like a dog being trained, he views people as machines (or moist robots) responding to stimuli. Instead of fruitlessly trying to motivate yourself he advocates changing your environment to reinforce the behaviors you desire. I think this is the basic idea that Perry is advocating. And they both recognise that you act as the 'owner' setting the incentives and the 'dog' being trained.

A related idea that both Perry and Adams touch on is that it's more effective to be systems driven not goals driven. Don't focus on "I'm going to run a marathon", focus on incentivising yourself to go running four times a week. Focus on "I'll write blog posts every Tuesday and Thursday" over "I'm going to make Scott Alexander look like an amateur." Perry describes this as the difference between “getting things done” from “doing things.”

The practical implications will be different for everyone however it means acting as the owner to understand the reactions to stimuli (diet, incentives, sleep routine, emotional states, etc) and then setting up processes / systems that reinforce the positive behaviours and disincentivise the negative. The general idea Adams words:

> Take a volunteer and ask him all of his favorite sensations. This could range from the taste of his favorite food, to foot massages, to sexual stimulation, to warm baths, to his favorite song. Then spend a few weeks showing the volunteer a particular and not-too-common object whenever the positive sensations are applied. For example, you might pick a sock monkey as your object because you don’t see them often, and they don’t carry with them any sort of special association beyond generic fun. After two weeks of intensely associating sock monkeys with favorite sensations, the volunteer’s brain would make a permanent connection. Thereafter, any time he wanted to turn a bad mood into a good mood, he would look at his sock monkey and his brain would execute its happiness subroutine. It’s safer and quicker than pharmaceuticals. The only risk is that the volunteer might fall in love with his sock monkey. But I’m not judging.

This has high cross over with the ideas of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which is considered pseudo-scientific by many. NLP practitioners call this 'anchoring'.

If you're interested Adams goes into some detail on what this practically means in his book 'How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big'.

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

> I was being "brainwashed" into choosing this life

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

Millionaire Next Door

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

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

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

For sure!

​

I've had several roles in the technology space, from the strategy around a complete digital transformation (ripping out a clients current ERP, CRM, MES, PLM, and HR to implement an API-riddled "modern ecosystem" so those systems could share data), to implementing a continuous improvement framework and sustainment model around a technology implementation. What really got me interested in PM was my first role where I took a custom mobile application from design to deployment while running an Agile team for ~2.5 years. I've been searching for PM jobs on and off for the better part of a year until this opportunity came through the pipeline.

​

As to why I made the switch, I really enjoy working through all the cross-functional portions that comes with launching a new piece of technology. During the lifecycle of a product/feature you have to do strategy (what is the product-market fit), design/development (work with engineers to build a feasible product), and launch work (empower Product Marketing and work with them to find the correct segment/marketing materials). In my experience consulting teams usually focus on one portion of that work, but seeing the lifecycle through falls under the PM because they're there for the long haul.

​

Career aspirations include moving along the PM track and eventually leading a team of PMs. Consulting gave me a strong skillset mostly because I had mentors driving my career development, and providing standards to work towards. One of the most rewarding things I found was returning the favor to the new crop of consultants. Definitely looking to do that in my new position once I get more settled down and we build out the PM team a bit more.

​

Speaking on career aspirations, if money is one of your main motivators for becoming a PM I might suggest a different line of work. I got a small pay raise to $122,000 living in an expensive area, but the compensation trajectory is much higher if you stay in consulting (i.e. assuming everything had gone well this year I was looking at a raise to $145,000 base). In the short term compensation may be similar if you get a PM job with a FAANG company (especially at the MBA level where everyone is competing for top talent), but if you hit partner you leave your PM counterparts in the dust.

​

Getting this role was really luck-based (in addition to practicing for PM interviews for a year). I was initially contacted by a recruiter for this role and ended up hearing nothing after two weeks. So I found someone in the company on LinkedIn and reached out to them (we had gone to the same school). Turns out that person would be my boss and was interested in talking with me! The rest is history (after some harrowing interviews). I guess the moral of the story is if something seems interesting don't stop at the first roadblock.

​

I haven't started the PM role yet so what I like/don't like is TBD, but what I really enjoyed working on the custom mobile application was being "the guy" that everyone comes to with questions/ideas/complaints. One minute I'd be talking with customers about how to use the app, the next I'd be talking with our engineering lead about how I could ever design something so stupidly, and finally I'd get called into the office of the program head to run the numbers with her and see if we were really saving $5 million annually in operations cost. It's stressful, but being the ingress point keeps you constantly on your feet.

​

Did you know that psychedelics were legal in the 50s/60s and used to treat alcoholism/depression? I sure didn't! I've been reading How to Change your Mind and it has been mind-blowing (pun intended) charting the rise and fall of psychedelics in both research and counter-culture terms.

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.

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

most inheritance is wasted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lies my teacher told me

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

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

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

The Grapes of Wrath.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A biography of Marie Curie

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earlier posts by me:

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

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

Summary:

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

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

As a longtime Christian, I came to a point in my life where I was desperate for a solution to my depression season (7 years in total). After suffering, prayers, therapy, and antidepressants as a last ditch effort I started to explore the possibility of psychedelics. I spent 6 months reading medical studies from Johns Hopkins and NYU as they studied for treatment to those with PTSD and cancer induced depression. Nothing but flying colors and no potential for addiction. I was interested.

I’ve had spiritual and mystical experiences in the past and had no idea what to expect. I had some hesitation because of its legality and the notion of “bad trips.” After time and consideration and the consultation of deeply trusted friends and a therapist I decided to give it a try.

To prepare, I spent time praying and writing my intentions for the time as a sacred space. I made of list of the things I wanted to explore with God including past relationships and trauma. I dimmed the lights and played minimalist music. I was ready. It was 4 hours of pure connectedness and healing to my heart sans an ego to combat the felt experience.

Doctors and scientists say that the experience is pneumatic (or a deeply fear spiritual experience). It certainly was. They also say it’s a very hard experience to describe (but I’ll give it a whirl). I felt known by God. I saw memories, heartbreaks, and traumas flash in my mind. I saw that God was there with me. I felt that he cared more than I ever thought possible. I felt a deep love of God. I felt one with God and it was nothing but beautiful. It felt kin to other spiritual experiences I’ve had at church or out in nature. Now on the other side of it, my depression is gone and my heart is open. I feel more connected to God after feeling disconnected for quite some time.

I believe that I had that experience because of my prayers and intentions. I hear that many people “manifest” their unconscious and emotions that they carry into the time. This is why some people have “bad trips.”

If you decide to proceed, I recommend doing a lot of therapy (preferably somatic based, EMDR) to uncover your trauma and unconscious triggers. Then, do your research. I’ll list a couple links below. Next, find a therapist (ideally the same one) to be with you while you are using. They can guide you back to the right space and keep you focused. That will help ensure a good experience.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

“How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

“The Mind Explained: Psychedelics”
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt10948426/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/tim.blog/2019/09/10/largest-psychedelic-research-center/amp/

https://podcastnotes.org/2019/07/15/psychedelics/

https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/publications

yes in the physics community Feynmans like a god

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations on your new job!

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

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

Good luck!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/u/tuckermalc and /u/pizzzahero both have great comments. I'll add a bit. Go to /r/stoicism, read [William Irvine's book] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195374614?keywords=william%20irvine&qid=1456992251&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1), then read [Epictetus's Enchiridion] (http://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Dover-Thrift-Editions-Epictetus/dp/0486433595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456992275&sr=8-1&keywords=enchiridion). follow their guidelines. Also check out /r/theXeffect. The most important thing is controlling your habits. If you're in the habit of eating healthy, getting enough sleep, going to the gym, etc. then you're set.

Now for stuff that's harder to do. Go see a therapist. Or a psychiatrist. Try to find a [therapist who can do EMDR] (http://www.emdr.com/find-a-clinician/) with you, it's a very effective technique (I saw a clinician who uses EMDR for two years, and it changed my life-- and, importantly, it's supported by strong scientific evidence, it's not quackery stuff like homeopathy or acupuncture). If you decide to go to a psychiatrist, tell them you don't want SSRIs. Look at other drugs: Wellbutrin, tricyclics, SNRIs, etc (check out selegiline in patch form, called EMSAM, as well). Seriously, go see a professional and talk to them. I have no doubt that you're wrestling with mental illness. I have been there. For me, it just felt normal. I didn't understand that other people didn't feel like I did...so it took me a long time to go get help. But it's so important to just start working through these things and getting support. That's really the most important thing you can do. It will make your life so much better. If you aren't able to get to a therapist, do Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on yourself! [This is a brilliant program] (https://moodgym.anu.edu.au) that's widely respected. Do it over and over. Also read [Feeling Good by David Burns] (http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/0380810336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456992639&sr=8-1&keywords=feeling+good+david+burns). It's a book on CBT, and can help you get started. There are lots of other resources out there, but you have to begin by realizing that something is wrong.

Finally, I'll talk about college. Don't try to go to fricking Harvard or MIT. You won't get in, and those aren't even the right schools for you. There are many excellent schools out there that aren't the super super famous Ivies. Look at reputable state schools, like UMich, UMinnesota, the UC system, etc. get ["Colleges that Change Lives"] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143122304?keywords=colleges%20that%20change%20lives&qid=1456992746&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1), the [Fiske Guide to Colleges] (http://www.amazon.com/Fiske-Guide-Colleges-2016-Edward/dp/1402260660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456992768&sr=8-1&keywords=fiske+guide), and [Debt-Free U] (http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Free-Outstanding-Education-Scholarships-Mooching/dp/1591842980/ref=pd_sim_14_15?ie=UTF8&dpID=515MwKBIpzL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&refRID=1VC3C23RJP6ZMXGG5QBA). One thing I realized after college was that I would've been happy at any of the school I looked at. People are fed such a line of BS about school, like you have to go to the top Ivies or something. No way. Find a good place at which you can function, learn as much as possible, and have a good social life. Like another person said, also look at going to a community college for a year and then transferring-- my relative did this and ended up at Harvard for grad school in the end.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My personal suggestions would be:

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

The Science of Self-Control - Howard Rachlin

Breakdown of Will - George Ainslie

Some related books but not directly on those topics:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Initially I'd avoid books on areas of science that might challenge her (religious) beliefs. You friend is open to considering a new view point. Which is awesome but can be very difficult. So don't push it. Start slowly with less controversial topics. To be clear, I'm saying avoid books that touch on evolution! Other controversial topics might include vaccinations, dinosaurs, the big bang, climate change, etc. Picking a neutral topic will help her acclimate to science. Pick a book related to something that she is interested in.

I'd also start with a book that the tells a story centred around a science, instead of simply trying to explain that science. In telling the story their authors usually explain the science. (Biographies about interesting scientist are a good choice too). The idea is that if she enjoys reading the book, then chances are she will be more likely to accept the science behind it.

Here are some recommendations:
The Wave by Susan Casey: http://www.amazon.com/The-Wave-Pursuit-Rogues-Freaks/dp/0767928857

Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh: http://www.amazon.com/Fermats-Enigma-Greatest-Mathematical-Problem/dp/0385493622

The Man who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Loved-Only-Numbers/dp/0786884061/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405720480&sr=1-1&keywords=paul+erdos

I also recommend going to a book store with her, and peruse the science section. Pick out a book together. Get a copy for yourself and make it a small book club. Give her someone to discusses the book with.

After a few books, if she's still interested then you can try pushing her boundaries with something more controversial or something more technical.

Yes, they do! On average at least. Intuitively, as you get bigger and bigger there are more and more primes with which to make numbers, so the need for them gets less and less. This is answered by the Prime Number Theorem which says that (on average) the number of primes less than the number x is approximately x/log(x). Proving this was a triumph of 19th century mathematics.

Now, this graph of x/log(x) is very smooth and nice, so it only approximates where primes will be. It's not a guarantee. Imagine the primes as a crowd of people in an airport terminal. The crowd is, in general, flowing nicely from the ticket agents to the gate and this appears to be very nice when we look at it from high above. But when we get closer, we see some people walking from the ticket agents to the coffee shop, against the flow. Some kids are running in circles, which is not in the "nice flow" prediction. These fluctuations were not predicted by our model.

So even if primes obey the law x/log(x) overall, there are still fluctuations against this law. While the overall trend is for primes to get infinitely far apart we predict there are infinitely many primes that are right next to each other, totally against the flow. This is the Twin Prime Conjecture. We have recently proved that there are infinitely many pairs of primes, both of which are separated by only ~600 numbers. This was a huge deal and was done only within the last year or so, but we want to get that number down to 2.

We can also ask: "Do these fluctuations affect the overall flow in a significant way, or are they mostly isolated events that don't mess up the Prime Number Theorem approximation too much?" This is the content of the Riemann Hypothesis. If the Prime Number Theorem says that primes are somewhat ordered nicely, then the Riemann Hypothesis says that the primes are ordered as nicely as they can possibly get. That would mean that even though there are variations to the x/log(x) approximation, these fluctuations do not mess things up that bad.

Now, when looking for large primes, we generally look at expressions like 2^(n)-1 because we have fast algorithms to check if these guys are prime. But, in general, most primes do not look like that, they're just very nice numbers that we can check the primatlity of. We do not even know if there are infinitely many primes of the form 2^(n)-1, called Mersenne Primes so we could have already found them all. But we are pretty convinced there are infinitely many, so we're not too worried.

I don't know what your background is, but I've heard that the Prime Obsession is a good layperson book on this (though I haven't read it). If you have math background in complex analysis and abstract algebra, then you could look Apostol's Introduction to Analytic Number Theory.

You said it yourself man, cannabis elevates mood. Which is how it's used to treat PTSD, it stabilizes your mood and makes you happier and more compassionate.

I think plant medicines as a whole can be used interchangeably in some cases, which is a great benefit compared to specific and targeted pharmaceuticals you're probably used to that only treat one thing and one thing only. Not everyone wants to go through an intense psilocybin experience, some people might not be mentally ready, or they may have tried it and might be in the small population of people that psilocybin doesn't work for. Cannabis isn't just a one trick pony, and neither are many other plant medicines & drugs that are soon to be legalized. MDMA has also shown great promise I believe. MAPS is actually about to go through a 3rd wave of trials soon for psilocybin and if it performs well, it will then go straight to the FDA and probably be legalized. MDMA is expected to be legal sooner than that for treatments. Michael Pollan talks about this on a recent podcast with Joe Rogan which is here, as well as in his recently released book that can be found here, also check out his Twitter as he Tweets out research and news on drug studies often. Trump could also soon be signing a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to try cannabis, LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin to alleviate their symptoms, article here. Interesting things on the horizon for sure.

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

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

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

Think of a baby and how they have object permanency. When you walk out of the room you are no longer in the baby's frame of existence. Well you as a human being never really lose this frame phenomenon psychologically. As you grow older it just grows larger. Every piece of knowledge, every place you've traveled, very technique, person, thing, entity you've ever meet or learn expands your frame of existence.

However your frame of existence is totally dynamic every second. Like right now you're reading TRP, your frame is concentrated to the screen. You're not thinking about that fly sitting on your wall, or what color is the shoes you are or what your dad is doing right now. But the mere fact that I said these things means they are now inside your frame because you're thinking about them. Your frame is dynamically changing every second and it has since the day you were born. Random thoughts are coming in and out of your head, events are happening all around you, in your house, on your street, in your city, your state government, people are moving and things are happen every second but somehow your mind knows what to focus on at any given moment, totally autonomously.

As far as artificial intelligence goes, computers always try to calculate every possible parameter they are giving to solve a problem. The classic example of Frame Problem is place a sentient AI bomb defusing robot in a room and tell it to defuse the bomb before it goes off. Well, that robot will sit there till infinite trying to calculate every possible outcome and it's probability of happening. It will figure the likelihood of touching it one way, will it explode? What if the walls change colors, probability of explosion? What's the probability of the wall changing color? What if it backs up an inch, what's the probability? It will try to calculate everything it can unless programmed otherwise.

From the moment a human is born it can dynamically adjust their frame and egocentricity. This is one of the reasons we have consciousness and we do it totally subconsciously. There are deeply rooted networks in the brain that tell you what you need to be focusing on at any given moment. Cortisol levels connect to fear and danger. Oxytocin will make you focus on those you care about. Dopamine will make you more or less erratic(ADD). And there a million other things that all control and change your frame at any given moment. And that's not even getting into were thoughts generate in the mind or how memory recall and memory reassociation works. Have you ever thought about were your thoughts come from? Go through the day and start paying attention to why the hell you just though what you did? Do your thoughts just come out of thin air or was their a trigger or cascade effect to bring you to where you are right now?

This is a... confusing and hard problem to recreate with AI. The Frame problem was discovered in 1969 and it still hasn't been solved.

If you're interested in this stuff I highly recommend watching Jordan B Peterson in the link above. He's a Pychologist who has pretty much spend his entire life trying to figure this out. He ever wrote a very extensive book on it called "Maps of Meaning: The Architeture of Belief". That book he also teaches as a class in the university of Toronto and you can access all his lectures on youtube. He posts every one of them for the semester. I even believe you can get the syllabus and worksheet stuff on his website.

What's interesting is you'll start to see The Frame Problem explained in many different ways, by different people and at different time periods. I'm a big fan of studying every genius that's ever lived. Inventors, physicists, chemists, etc. Einstein, Van braun, Richard Feynman, Tyson, Hawkings, etc. and pretty much every hyper intelligent individual will tell you that you are and always will be an idiot. What they are referring to is you can never know everything. No matter how large of a frame you grow, no matter how much information, experiences or things you can possibly attain physically or mentally, there will always be more you don't know or haven't experienced. This is an extremely useful thing to realize, one it humbles you and people like humility and two, your options are now limitless. If you become curious about something, you can imagine how deep that rabbit hole could possibly go, but you won't truly know till you start exploring.

Another example in history and probably one of the first times the frame idea was written down was Epictetus and Stoicism. The first line of Enchiridion which is the stoic handbook and condensed version of Epictetus: Discourses writings, says,
>
> "There are things which are within our power, and there are things which are beyond our power. Within our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever affairs are our own. beyond our power are body, property, reputation, office, and, in one word, whatever are not properly our own affairs."

Epictetus was a student of Crate and Crate was a Student of Socrates. This was probably the first time the Frame Problem was idealized in writing. Or at least the first one to be preserved till today. In fact stoicism pretty much entirely revolves around learning your frame and controlling what you can. Any time you spend on things outside your control is considered time wasted, which you can never get back. So it's half learning frame and half improving time efficiency.

Self improvement is in a way is an active expansion of your frame, even if the subconscious mechanisms that drive it you didn't think about till I just explained it to you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is this at all helpful?

Linchpin - Are you indispensable?, which argues that each one of use should be passionate and deliver art (emotional bond to what you do), and also critizes the way of seeing workers as when Ford's manufacturing era began.

I think also reading biographies of guys like Feynman (not only the anecdote ones) and Nikola Tesla inspires one to be more passionate, creative and modest.

The most important book could be Your Brain at Work
which discusses how one can be more effective and gives introduction to why that is so (references to modern brain research).

Of course, there are plenty other important books, classics, etc. Like the popular 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Robert Pirsig's 'Zen...' and not so well known 'Lila', maybe also Social and Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stop second-guessing your choice of major. Keep your eyes on what you actually want, and remember that the steps along the way will all build there eventually. Check in on your plans when you're picking classes each semester, to make sure you're still on course and still want that ultimate goal. The REU and some lab time will all help.

Try reading some science-related books, not actual science but stuff about scientists themselves or stories about specific scientific discoveries. Like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Double Helix, Eighth Day of Creation, The Disappearing Spoon, and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. Your school should have copies of most of them, and they aren't textbook-heavy (though not quite as light as fiction novels).

Don't forget to stay at least a little rounded. Someone on just about every recruitment weekend for grad school will ask about your hobbies. I'm pretty sure they're required to do so :) Or you'll discover you and your interviewer both do ceramics and can chat about that, leaving a stronger impression than if you were yet another person talking about science. It's good to be done with the requirements, but make sure you keep up something outside your major, even if it's just ultimate frisbee.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What part of science? Scientists, like a biography? Scientific theories (natural philosophy), starting with the Greeks? Scientific philosophy?

Sir Roger Penrose in his book "The Emperor's New Mind" goes over the (relevant) discoveries/theories of science in a chronological order and uses them to argue that consciousness isn't something you can code into a machine. He touches on a lot of subjects and it may seem really dry if you're not passionate about science, but IMO it's very interesting read, despite him not having a very convincing argument, mostly because we don't know enough about the human mind yet.

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers is a biography of Paul Erdos. I like the book because it describes Erdos as a person who has an exceptionally passionate work ethic and I admire mathematicians.

I think you'll have a hard time finding what you're looking for because of the lack of specifics in your question. You might want to narrow it down to, whether you're interested in biology, chem, psychology or physics or something else like archaeology or biographies. Otherwise you won't find a great depth, because each field has become massive in terms of literature, and each are filled with bewildering questions that can kickstart a philosophical discussion.

Good luck with your search though!

I feel the best way to go about this is to gain a general sense of the outline of history, which isn't nearly so difficult as it may seem as first once you realize that the "history" that mainly gets talked about is only about 3000 years. Learn some sign posts for that span, and then from there you can fit anything new you learn into the general outline you've gained. A couple good books for gaining those signposts are:

A History of the World in 6 Glasses. A phenomenal starting book. Gives very, very broad strokes on the entirety of human development, from pre-history when we first made beer inside hollowed tree trunks (it predates pottery), all the way to the dawn of the global economy with the perpetual success of Coca-Cola.

Roots of the Western Tradition An incredibly short (265 pages!) overview of Ancient Mesopotamia up to the decline of the Roman Empire written in very accessible language. Phenomenal text.

The Story of Philosophy. A bit more dense than the other's, but a tour de force breakdown of the history of Western thought.

Obviously the above is very Western centric, I wish I could recommend similar books that cover Asian history, but sadly I can't think of any (though hopefully others will point some out in the comments). Still though, once you gain the signposts I talked about, learning Asian history will still be easier as you can slot things into the apporpriate time period. Like "Oh, the first Chinese Empire (Qin Dynasty) rose up in the same era as Rome was rising as a power and fighting it's wars against Carthage". Or, "Oh, the Mongols took power in Asia just about right after the Crusades."

As a little bonus, they may not be accurate but historical movies can still help pin down those first signposts of your history outline. Here's a little list.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I really think you should read How to Change Your Mind. It dives into the details of how psychedelics help with depression and you'll probably be able to relate to some of it. Turns out most who use it for depression find that it doesn't last long term for them either, but does provide a break usually at least for a few months. To me that seems like a good enough jumping point to be able to reconnect with emotions. Michael does a much better job of analyzing and theorizing the functions and possibilities.

I truly wish you had the ability to use this medicine with an experienced therapist who maybe could've made the experience more enjoyable and rewarding.

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

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

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

</soapbox>

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

Thanks. I'm about 75% of the way through the article and I have faaaaaar too many tabs open so I'm commenting now. I bookmarked Peter Kropotkin's Wikipedia page to read later.

I disagree with some of the axioms of the author but I'm certain I'll be thinking about the text. I read a biography of Richard Feynman once: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick.

He often went back to first principles. He'd do things that no average genius would - like review freshman physics. I don't know if that helped keep him a wizard amongst geniuses but I think he did it for a kind of "play".

My takeaway of that section was that reviewing what you know might help you to more intuitively grok things you aren't familiar with. Right now I find it hard to accept that insects or lobster can play. But if I consider a random creature like a bird - I think it's clear that ravens and crows play. They are very intelligent.

Maybe humble birds like sparrows do too. We just haven't been clever enough to notice.

This is a very good video introduction to Stoicism.

The main ancient Stoic books that have survived are Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Epictetus's Discourses and Enchiridion, which is basically a summary of the Discourses, and Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and Essays. All these editions are relatively new translations and, in Seneca's case, abridged, but they will give you an idea of what Stoicism is about. I suggest you first read the Enchiridion (it is no longer than 40 pages) and then the Meditations (around 150-200 pages), and then dig deeper if you get interested.

There are other ancient sources, and quite a lot of modern work is being done currently, but those are the ones I suggest you begin with.

Then there are very active modern Stoic communities, like /r/Stoicism, the Facebook group, and NewStoa, with its College of Stoic Philosophers, that lets you take a very good four month long course by email.

The great thing about Stoicism as a way of life is that it has neither the blind dogmatism of organized religion nor the ardent skepticism of atheism. It puts the soul back in the universe, in a way, and, on the personal level, empowers you to take responsibility for your actions and to take it easy with what you cannot control.

I'm in the middle of Homo Deus currently. Its great so far, Yuval is a great writer and his books are a lot more accessible than traditional history books. I'm sure there are a lot of liberties taken with some of the history but I think Sapiens is a must-read. Homo Deus is more assumption based on current reality but its very interesting so far.

Gulag Archipelago is one I read based on the recommendation of Jordan Peterson. Awesome book if you are into WW1-WW2 era eastern europe. being an eastern european myself, i devour everything related to it so this book tickled my fancy quite a bit. good look into the pitfalls of what peterson warns against.

Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning is another history book discussing that time period and how it all transpired and the lesser known reasons why WW2 went down the way it did. some surprising stuff in that book related to hitler modeling europe around how the united states was designed at the time.

apologies for inundating with the same topic for all my books so far but Ordinary Men is an amazing book chronicling the people that carried out most of the killings during WW2 in Poland, Germany and surrounding areas. The crux of the argument which I have read in many other books is that Auschwitz is a neat little box everyone can picture in their head and assign blame to when in reality most people killed during that time were taken to the outskirts of their town and shot in plain sight by fellow townspeople, mostly retired police officers and soldiers no longer able for active duty.

for some lighter reading i really enjoy jon ronson's books and i've read all of them. standouts are So You've Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test. Highly recommend Them as well which has an early Alex Jones cameo in it.

I'm reading Elon Musk's biography right now and think it might be helpful if you're talking about career success. The dude seems like a jerk but has an incredible work ethic and drive to succeed.

You can say pretty much the same exact thing about Augustus' biography.

Outliers really helped me a lot, because it made me realize talent wasn't nearly important as skill/effort. You put in the time and effort and you will develop your skills.

If you're an introvert like me these books helped me "fake it till I make it" or just want to be more socially capable: Charisma Myth, anything by Leil Lowndes, Make People Like You in 90 Seconds. Not a book but the Ted Talk about body language by Amy Cuddy

A book on leadership I always hear good things about but haven't read yet is Start With Why.

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

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

The beginning of infinity by David Deutsch has something similar.

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

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

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

The average Millionaire is not what you think.

Thomas J. Stanley wrote "The Millionaire Next Door"

He highlights critical pieces of advice for any entrepreneur.

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

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

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

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

In the end, save money.

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

No More Mr Nice Guy was the book I was referring to - hopefully other commenters can offer more examples.

I've been reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy & Enchiridion by Epicurus for some easy-to-digest MGTOW philosophy which has crossed nicely into the mainstream. For fiction I'd hugely recommend Whatever by Michel Houellebecq & Lights Out in Wonderland by DBC Pierre (one of my all-time favourites.)

To be fair, Bukowski can be read to help with the "Don't Give A Fuck" attitude that can help build your confidence. He tends to see women without the rose-tinted glasses, to put it delicately. He's written lots of poetry but his novels are the best. Bluebird is one of my favourite poems by him. Post Office is one of his great novels.

That's all I can think of for now.

And he became a notorious woman chaser/misogynist afterwards. Not that anyone particularly minded or cared.

Losing the love of his life embittered him but I think physics became his true love. Watching his lectures even in this day and age is marvelous, and I highly recommend it.

Sauce: Gleick's biography (he's an amazing biographer) and A set of lectures from the University of Auckland (NZ.) Also look up Project Tuva for older MIT lectures.

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

Will Durant's "The Story of Philosophy". I'm reading it now and I wish it was the first book I read. At 400 pages it definitely skips some major parts of history but it's written in a way that's very entertaining. It reads like a novel and makes the material accessible instead of getting bogged down with technicals like Anthony Kenny's history.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0671739166/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A really great way to get "the flavour" of philosophy as they like to say.

Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley

How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

How to Get Rich - Felix Dennis

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss


The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason

The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

*****

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

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

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

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

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

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

hey OP, when i was around your age, i felt/acted quite similarly. it took me years, but now people often express complete surprise when i reveal that i am actually an introvert. so, alongside all the good advice already in this thread...

social skills can be learned. many times us INFJs don't want to make any moves until we feel that we understand the landscape. so, go learn the landscape. pick up some self-help books on conversational skills (and just about living a better life), and then put that learning to use. one of my favorites is How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. that one is not about conversation, per se, but it's written by an ENTP and i found it wonderful.

the other side of the coin is that, when you talk more freely, you will end up saying things that come out wrong, or stupid, or whatever. that's just life. you will never be perfect. you will never put out the perfect words all the time. mistakes happen, so teach yourself through mindfulness to accept them. sure, you'll cringe for hours when trying to fall asleep one night about something you said and what if the person you said it to thinks you're a total moron now? in those moments, do some breathing exercises, distract yourself, don't wallow in it, and i promise you, you will get over it. and not only that, you'd be repeatedly proving to yourself that life goes on and not to stress the minutia so much, and you will eventually lead a freer life that revolves around who you are as a human and not the opinions of others.

there's nothing inherently wrong with you. growing into yourself is a process, so try to be cognizant of that. do your best and don't be so hard on yourself, and try to teach yourself the skills you will need to get to where you want to be. the thing that turned my social anxiety upside down was working customer service jobs. it's awful, but it's basically akin to exposure therapy. just my two.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

While I like the care you give to the subject, I would just like to fill in some cracks with a few resources. I have a background in AbPsych and one of my mentors did a lot of interesting work with real life psychopaths.

The baseline for psychopathy was first and best (so far) laid out by Robert Hare. This site has a nice explanation.

Two great books on the subject (non-fiction) are: The Anatomy of Evil and The Science of Evil. Something more in the popsci vein would also be Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test, though I have some personal qualms with Ronson’s view.

For fiction, there’s of course any of the works mentioned in the original post, as well as American Psycho and We Need to Talk about Kevin.

There are some notable/deserving winners of the Nobel Prize, like Richard Feynman (shared Physics Nobel award in 1965).

Feynman was brilliant in many ways! He was also a great practical joker.

His book, Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character is worth a read!

Feynman had a varied career from working on the Manhattan Project during WW2 to determining the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986)

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

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.

What do you define as successful?

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


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

Read the book about Elon Musk.

SpaceX is pretty lit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before you commit to it, read Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. If it fires your imagination then computer programming may be is for you.

Another one to read is Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder which is much older, but easily readable by non coders. Again if it fires your imagination then coding might be for you.

CS can lead to many many careers - many more than when I did my degree (80s), but you need to understand where the world of computers is moving to and where you want to be in that space.

If you're just looking for more money, then perhaps you shouldn't be looking at coding as a panacea. Don't get me wrong, coding is fantastic thing to do - if it floats your boat. However it's main problem is that you constantly have to keep yourself up to date with new technologies and techniques. This requires you to have the passion and self motivation to do that training.

I'm been coding since I was 11 (1978) and have seen many many aspects of the industry and the trade. I will concur with some of the comments here that indicate that the degree itself isn't the answer, but could be part of it.

Either whatever you decide - good luck!

> If done right, science is science.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John Gribbin is a favorite science author of mine. In Search of Schrödinger's Cat is a cornerstone for understanding quantum physics as a layman and the follow-up Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality is also very good.

Michio Kaku is another good one. Rudy Rucker's nonfiction is definitely worth a look.

Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age is a pretty awesome account of the lab that pretty much single-handedly invented the modern computer age.

And lastly (offhand) there's nothing better than The Structure of Scientific Revolutions for a view on how our notions of what the Big Ideas are in science change.

Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "The Botany of Desire", recently released a book on psychedelics and their potential to treat addiction and other mental issues.

It's called "How To Change Your Mind"

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

I cannot recommend this book highly (nyuknyuk) enough. Having tried LSD, psilocybin, and ecstasy, I can say that I really enjoyed most of those experiences. Of course, setting is key. You need to be in a good place, both physically and mentally.

This book is a revelation. Pollan does excellent research, and also documents his own experiences with the drugs that he profiles.

I wept with joy several times as he interviewed people who recounted how their lives were changed for the better after having a guided trip.

It was glorious.

This is just from me having read 20% of a biography about him. Note that this was not a biography by him and he originally did not even want to contribute to it. He did end up contributing, but the book is based upon interviews with hundreds of people and the writer makes very clear that it is not 'Musks truth'.

He made his own rockets during his childhood, including rocket fuel.

He coded a lot of stuff, releasing a video game at age 12

The only reason he ever studied anything is because he thought it was advantageous for him. He always visited the least amount of classes necessary, and only got good grades when he needed to. At first, he sucked at school. Then someone told him you need certain grades to advance. Next time he got the best grades possible. Other examples of this is him inquiring about the highest paying job possible and ending up shoveling out boilers in a hazmat suit for 18 dollars/hour. He was one of 3/18 to keep doing it after a week.

If he has a goal, he works until he reaches it, no matter what anyone tells him. There are plenty of examples were engineers told him something is impossible, and he then went ahead and fixed the code behind their backs. With his first startup he worked 16, 18 hours a day, sleeping in front of the computer, instructing employees to kick him awake when they arrived at the office.

He apparently takes active part in the design of SpaceX and Tesla components. As in, he actually stays up to date on everything and gives his input. He is definitely not just a CEO doing buisiness stuff in the background. Read his twitter and it will be apparent that he takes active part in the engineering side of things.

In fact, he can be considered a pretty bad manager. If someone is wrong about something, using wrong equations or whatever, he is very brusque about correcting them. He expects everyone else to work as hard as he does, and is not really a charming, social, outgoing guy. It seems like the only reason people work for him is that they share his vision (to colonize mars).

Most recommendations I’ve heard are for 0.2g, up to 0.4g of mushrooms. It could be more but generally, what I’ve seen recommended is that if you can feel it, it’s too much. Dose one day, skip two days. It should make you generally feel like your day is better. Your brain can gain the ability to make new neural connections, among other amazing things. Check out the Paul Stamets interview on Joe Rogan around 46:00 and the fantastic
The Psychadelic Explorers Guide on The Tim Ferris show with Jim Fadiman, they discuss it right away. There’s also books, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ZKL5BbQ7K6JYQ (though Michael Pollan offers little on microdosing)
about this new frontier of psychedelics plus a new micodosing specific documentary.
Then there’s the wide variety of psychadelic research currently happening, leading back to OP.
Edit: formatting

you should read this- a lot of millionaires live a pretty modest life. part of "being rich" is all about being better than someone else. i don't mind everyone having a certain standard of living that most people would consider "millionaire" lifestyle of free healthcare, good housing, free higher education. that's too easy. https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474

Check out some pop math books.

John Derbyshire's Prime Obsession talks about today's most famous unsolved problem, both the history of and an un-rigorous not-in-depth discussion of the mathematical ideas.

There's also Keith Devlin's Mathematics: The New Golden Age, which, to quote redditor schnitzi, "provides an overview of most of the major discoveries in mathematics since 1960, across all subdisciplines, and isn't afraid to try to teach you the basics of them (unlike many similar books)."

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott is an interesting novel about dimension and immersion. An absolute classic, first published in 1884.

You should also check out the books on math history.

Journey Through Genius covers some of the major mathematical breakthroughs from the time of the Greeks to modern day. I enjoyed this one.

Derbyshire wrote one too called Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra which I've heard is good.

And finally, you should check out at least one book containing actual mathematics. For this I emphatically recommend Paul Halmos' Naive Set Theory. It is a small book, just 100 pages, absolutely bursting with mathematical insight and complexity. It is essentially a haiku on a subject that forms the theoretical foundation of all of today's mathematics (though it is slowly being usurped by category theory). After sufficient background material is introduced, the book covers the ever-important Axiom of Choice (remember the Banach-Tarski paradox?), along with its sisters, Zorn's Lemma and the Well Ordering Principle. After that it discusses cardinal numbers and the levels of infinity. The path he takes is absolutely beautiful and his experience and understanding virtually drips from the pages.

Oh yeah, there's an awesome reading list of books put out by the University of Cambridge that might be of interest too: PDF warning.

History of science books are 80% of what I read, and Bryson's book was great, but many of the books that I'm seeing here are oddly not close to Bryson's in terms of style or content.

Just off the top of my head, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers would probably be an excellent read. It has been awhile, but I remember Lost Discoveries was along a similar vein with a similarly light writing style. How I Killed Pluto is pretty fun as well, although it veers off into personal stuff as well.

Check out Jon Ronson! I've only read two of his books, The Psychopath Test and Lost at Sea, but they were both really good.

Here are a couple daily show interviews about the books if you want to get a feel for them. They're super entertaining. He's also had a couple segments on This American Life about similar subject matter.

On a different note, Salt is also way more interesting than it has any right to be.

There are others but oh god I really need to be studying for my exams.

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.

I think my post triggered you.

You want to make the video better, change the title

"RICK SANCHEZ IS A PSYCHOPATH"

should be the title.

You flat out SAY he is a psychopath at the 1:31. He "displays all the typical signs"

Your video is based on this sentence : "people think it means you need to axe murder people but the mental health definition differs from this common public perception"

But that IS NOT the public perception. Your audience is not a bunch of morons.

If anything rick and morty fans are probably smarter than average. ... and there is this shit:

https://www.amazon.com/Psychopath-Test-Journey-Through-Industry/dp/1594485755

which is absolutely in common parlance....

" It spent the whole of 2012 on United Kingdom bestseller lists and ten weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.[1]"

People know what "psychopath" means, and it's SUPER obvious Rick is one.

Well the thing with older cars is that there's never just "one last repair". When things start breaking, there's no end to it. I'm currently wondering about replacing my wife's 2011 Peugeot 508, the only standing cost for it is insurance at about €110/year, but it has cost me about €1800 in repairs in 9 months and I can only see it going downhill from there.

​

On the subject of luxury vehicles - a surefire way to never get rich is to try and look like one from the getgo. Sure it's pointless being 100% frugal in everything and as a young man one must also has a ride the ladies would be interested to ride in. But speaking from experience if I had only known anything about money that 7-series BMW on steamroller wheels I bought at 25yo would have been better off as a decent stock portfolio by now.

​

I suggest reading this book before going into stocks, definitely an eye-opener for me: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0743200403/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=AR4DC9FBOWIX7&psc=1

​

What are you saving up for? The more money you just bury away, the less profit you see from your investments, as inflation eats it away.

Well, if you can sink as much time into Wikipedia as I can, that's a good start. And don't skip the references and links at the bottom; that's 90% of the fun!

There are a lot of good, popular-audience books on these topics. I don't know any about BCI in particular, but check out The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat (and other stuff by Oliver Sacks) and Phantoms in the Brain. Those are the ones we read in COGS 1 and they're great. Right now I'm reading Jonah Lehrer's Proust Was a Neuroscientist; How We Decide was also good. Also, don't shy away from academic literature. It's not really so hard to read if you're interested.

Are you or could you be in college? Check my advice here. If you at least live near a college, sit in on some classes. Write to a professor and see if there's lab work to do, maybe as a volunteer. That could get your foot in the door.

For a lot of my basic knowledge I browsed investopedia and clicked on anything blue I didn't understand and held legitimate conversations with peers both on and off of reddit.

For example, take this submission about CDOs

Just start reading. If you don't understand something that's highlighted, like "derivatives" or "defaults", click on it and read that page. This can help you understand a lot of the technical terms and see how they're all related to one another.

I don't read many investing books as much as I try to absorb things about economics itself. Understanding how an economy functions is essential to trading. A good youtube channel that talks about economics can be found here. The videos are dense in information, but the input the creator gives is very solid. Not all of what he says should be taken as fact, but really it's just an analysis by a fundamentally sound economist.

Netflix has a few documentaries that are captivating. One is called Betting on Zero

The series "Dirty Money" has some interesting content within as well.

The Big Short is a movie that has valuable content if you watch it while considering what we know in hindsight of the 2008 financial crisis.

The most important part of investing is understanding what stimulates an economy or drives one into a recession.

My father is a successful investment banker and the two books he's always recommended are:

The Intelligent Investor

The Millionaire Next Door

Try the ice cube trick if the anxiety ever hits and you have a drink handy. I just hold an ice cube in my left hand until it melts. Can still shake hands and everything but the ice cube seems to force my heart to slow down a bit. My best guess is that it triggers the Mammalian Diving Reflex and turns off whatever is derailing.

That trick came from a Viet Nam Vet, has been a huge help as time has gone on.

As for things sticking around, now that I'm well into my 40's the flashbacks and nightmares seem to have slowed to almost nothing - though they can still get triggered by trauma anniversary and other surprises. I have one trauma around a car accident so anytime the brakes squeal behind me I get to have a fun day.

Totally agree that basic Meditation is necessary to get through, can't see it ever being accepted in the public school system here in the US though - hell some places refuse to teach Evolution.

I also think that Philosophy has helped me cope some - Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius have been incredibly helpful reading to sort of adjust the way I see the world these days. I highly recommend the two following books:

http://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Dover-Thrift-Editions-Epictetus/dp/0486433595
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X

Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy is an excellent overview of philosophy. While it is limited to a small selection of the most notable philosophers, each chapter is dedicated to providing a very readable summary of the ideas of one philosopher. I sincerely believe the best way to get into philosophy is to get a very general "historical map" of the big ideas. Once you have that, it becomes much more rewarding to pick a philosopher of interest and study them in greater detail.

According to The Millionaire Next Door, 80 percent of millionaires are first generation wealthy.

Other interesting notes:

"PNC Wealth Management conducted a survey of people with more than $500,000 free to invest as they like, a fair definition of “wealthy,” and possibly “millionaire” once you begin including home equity and other assets. Only 6% of those surveyed earned their money from inheritance alone. 69% earned their wealth mostly by trading time and effort for money, or by “working.”"

Source

"about 90% of people who "become millionaires" do so through gradual accrual of assets — they "earn it” — whereas only about 10% are given a million bucks by mom or dad, or inherit a business worth that much, or something."

Source

"Overall, the research revealed current millionaires are, on average, 61 years old with $3.05 million in assets."

Source

"Most Americans with $1 million or more in assets made their money on their own, according to a study by BMO Private Bank released today. Sixty-seven percent of high-net-worth Americans are self-made millionaires, according to the survey. Only 8 percent inherited their wealth."

Source

Just taking Psilocybin won't really help fix much. You're better off using it in a therapeutic setting intended to help you deal with past issues. It's all about your intentions using it and the set and setting.

​

I can't recommend Michael Pollans book enough to help you understand how Psilocybin works and the therapy that goes along with it. https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

​

If you want a quick intro to everything, his interview with Tim Ferriss is really great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBXplrwbyQ

https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-to-change-your-mind/

​

Good luck, be safe, and take it slow. You're gonna be just fine.

Do you have any strong interests? For example, I love math, and the book The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, which is a biography of Paul Erdos.

If you are interested in graphic novels, and they are allowed for the assignment, Logicomix is the quest of Bertrand Russell for an ultimate basis of mathematics, and how the journey of understanding can often lead towards obsession and madness.

If you're interested in physics, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman is a great book that is arguably a biography.

So, what are you most interested in?

If you don't know much about physics I would recommend The Dancing Wu-Li Masters by Gary Zukov. That's one of the main books that got me interested in the field. Clearly written enough for a 9th grader to understand. Also, It explores some philosophical parallels to physics which I enjoyed quite a bit (don't worry, it's nothing like What the Bleep)

Also, if you'd like some insight on how a genius thinks, I would recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman? It's one of my favorite books of all time. There's actually no science in this book - it's basically a collection of anecdotes from Richard Feynmann's life. He talks about his experiences in college, grad school, and working on the A-bomb in Los Alamos among other things. Incredibly entertaining stuff.

Have you seen balance sheets/know true net worth for these people who you think are wealthy? Or do you assume they are wealthy based on conspicous signs of "wealth" (aka cars, houses, boats, etc.)? Most people who flash their cash really have a low net worth, and finance most of those purchases. Meanwhile the truly wealth, are usually self made millionaires who do not show their wealth. They live in working class neighborhoods drive a used car and send their kids to public school.

Most millionaire who inherit their wealth blow it soon after and have to be supported buy their parents, because they over consume for their income level.

Read The Millionaire Next Door for more insight into how most people become rich and stay that way. It is typically the small business owner not the trust fund baby.

>The jets and all that other crap seem like a better value renting.

Huh? $3 million in total wealth isn't much, especially for that. Please, don't do that. I strongly recommend that you read The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy. I know several that make that amount in less than 2 months, and you wouldn't know it, because they live frugally and humbly, including driving beat-up old minivans. Some of them do have nice shit (e.g. palace-sized mansions) but out in the street, they don't flex, and others live in small, modest homes in middle class neighborhoods. At best, they might have a Model 3, S, or X that they also use.

​

For the sake of argument and with some fuzzy math, if you put all $3 million into an index fund that's earning you 6%, that's $180,000/year. That is a lot of money for a 20 year old, and an obligatory Uncle Ben quote goes here. You're virtually set for life and can do anything that you want, and I'd probably use that time and money to go become a full time student in any number of mediums: Udacity, College, Trade School, Real Estate, etc. which would further your skill level for other interests, including but not limited to said rental houses. If you got licensed in trades, you'd be able to legally (well, from a liability angle - nothing is really stopping you from your own maintenance anyways) do your own repair work on your properties, which would save you even more money. I'm not saying that's the most logical option, but it's something to bear in mind.

​

To answer the relationship/cash aspect (and because I got f'd on this) you'd want a pre-nup, and as others have advised, a great attorney. Some of the relationship warning signs that I wish that I had known, and was covered in this forum yesterday. When it comes to getting serious about a relationship (and until then, if you're going to be active, use protection - child support and/or divorce rape should be a part of your threat vector) then you might want to ask an attorney about shifting assets around to where you're then an employee of yourself (e.g. form an LLC, hire yourself, and pay a meager wage, with the option for bonuses.)

I have a copy of the book [The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth] (http://amzn.com/0786884061) (Amazon) by Paul Hoffman. It is a great read if you like that sort of thing.

Erdos seems to be unique in his ability to ingest copious quanties of stimulants and improve his life.

I hope that you are not too affected by the disruptions and violence in the Middle East. I really hope for peace.

I would love to visit Israel one day...

Well there are a lot of useful links in this /r/math post (check the comments, too).

In addition to Khan Academy, there's MIT OCW, Paul's Math Notes, and PatrickJMT. There's also the Art of Problem Solving books.

But really, you don't need to watch calculus videos if you're going to take classes this summer. Your time might be better spent doing the exercises on Khan Academy to make sure there aren't gaps in your knowledge.

I highly recommend books by James Gleick, specifically Chaos, Genius, Isaac Newton, and The Information. Also, Polya's How to Solve It, GEB (join us in /r/geb!), and GH Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology. Here are some lists of popular math books.

You might find this collection of links on efficient study habits helpful.

I would recommend "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. It does have some formulas but it is otherwise a pretty easy ready and shows you how to value companies. Hope this helps! http://www.amazon.com/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417723295&sr=8-1&keywords=one+up+on+wall+street

If you enjoyed Cosmos, I would also recommend Demon-Haunted World. Excellent for cutting through some of the bullshit that surrounds our day to day lives.

I would recommend reading some Richard Feynman too. Surely You're Joking is one of the favorites. He doesn't talk about lofty subjects or anything. He was just a down to earth guy from a working class family in Queens who happened to be a Nobel-prize winning physicist and a great storyteller. He was a genius without the facetious smartypants attitude.

This is a famous lecture of his if you want to get a feel for what his writing is like.

Good self-help books are underappreciated. They can provide the push needed to us in critical moments of our lives, e.g. to overcome short-term pain / excessive risk-aversion when making an important decision, and let us change the fundamental frames / instill useful mantras into our lives, changing our trajectories significantly. These two self-help books definitely changed my life, providing both motivation and timeless advice:

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odd by David Goggins

I recommend these to all my friends and everybody who read them so far loved them (note that for max effect probably best to space them out and to first read Adams and then Goggins a few months later).

> is because my ability to focus for non-trivial stuff has been completely shot by years of doing nothing but surf the web (literally), I'm having a hard time getting anything systematically done, even basic reading.

Here's a method that doesn't work very well:

• Visuallize long-term goal for your life
  
  
• Think of how much smarter you need to be to fulfill the goal
  
  
• Collect large stack of books (or websites) with information you think should be in your head
  
  
• Try to read and memorize all the books
  
  
• Lament your lack of willpower
  
  Here's a better method:
  
  
• Visuallize long-term goal for your life
  
  
• Figure out specific short-term goals (not abstract self-improvement goals like "read a book", but specific accomplishments like "write a program to do x")
  
  
• Aggressively search books (and websites) for the specific information you need for each step of the short-term goal, ignoring everything else
  
  
• If you get curious about something else from your stack of books, go ahead and read it only until your curiosity is satisfied, then go back to your goals
  
  > rationalism is appealing both by virtue of the people I've been meeting and the practical effects it has been having for me on the occasions that I've managed to use it. But I'm more than a little intimidated by the SSC backlog: there's so much there! And that's just SSC. I have no idea where to begin.
  
  It is likely a mistake to think that rationality will be a philosophy that will change your entire life by virtue of reading things. There is a lot of very interesting material to read in the "rationalsphere", but most of it is not self-help material and you may be disappointed if you expect it will all be highly applicable to your daily life.
  
  What you will find is a lot of material that can help clarify your thinking and give you more knowledge about many intriguing domains. The "Sequences" (long series of blog posts collected into an E-book) by Yudkowsky are the standard resource that much of this community has read (or pretends to have read). If you have not studied science, probability, psychology, and philosophy, then it is pretty eye-opening stuff! Like taking a seminar course from a brilliant but highly eccentric professor. That said, some of it is boring or hard to read, so just skip around and follow the hyperlinks to the parts that interest you.
  
  If the main thing you have done for the past two years is to browse websites, then you must already know that reading good material is compulsive and so I am not sure what is stopping you from spending all your spare time reading the entire archives of LessWrong and Slate Star Codex. Either you are enjoying it and you keep reading, or you are not enjoying it and you stop.
  
  HOWEVER, if you are trying to force yourself to read through the annals of Rationality because you think it will fix your flaws as a person, or make you a genius, you will probably be disappointed.
  
  If you are really looking more for a self-help book of how to change your life with logic and rational behaviour, a decent one is How To Fail At Almost Everything by Scott Adams.

To answer your second question, KhanAcademy is always good for algebra/trig/basic calc stuff. Another good resource is Paul's online Math Notes, especially if you prefer reading to watching videos.

To answer your second question, here are some classic texts you could try (keep in mind that parts of them may not make all that much sense without knowing any calculus or abstract algebra):

Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell

The History of Calculus by Carl Boyer

Some other well-received math history books:

An Intro to the History of Math by Howard Eves, Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, Morris Kline's monumental 3-part series (1, 2, 3) (best left until later), and another brilliant book by Dunham.

And the MacTutor History of Math site is a great resource.

Finally, some really great historical thrillers that deal with some really exciting stuff in number theory:

Fermat's Enigma by Simon Sigh

The Music of the Primes by Marcus DuSautoy

Also (I know this is a lot), this is a widely-renowned and cheap book for learning about modern/university-level math: Concepts of Modern Math by Ian Stewart.

I am currently reading a fantastic book which might be interesting for you. It is called Journey through Genius. The book starts from the beginning of math and presents hand picked theorems in a very engaging way. Background information on the great mathematicians and what drove them to come up with these proofs in the first place makes the information stick long after reading. I also second PuTongHua who recommended Better Explained.

Like you I work at a tech startup. When we were just starting, our business/strategy people asked the question you just asked. They opened a dialog with development team, and found good answers. I attribute our success in large part to that dialog being eager and open-minded, just as you are being right now. So, it's good tidings that you are asking.

For us, the answer came from conversation, but it also came from reading the following books together:

• The Soul of a new Machine. Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1981. It will teach you the texture of our work and of our love for it, as well as good role models for how to interact with devs.
  
  
• Coders at Work, reflection on the craft of programming Will give you perspective on the depth of our discipline, so you may know to respect our perspective when we tell you what the technology can or cannot do -- even when it is counter-intuitive, as ModernRonin described.
  
  
• Lean Startup It will teach you the means to deal with the difficult task of providing hyper-detailed requirements when the nature of building new software is always that it's new and we don't really know yet what we're building.
  
  
• Agile Samurai Will teach you agile, which ModernRonin also mentioned.
  
  
• Watch this talk by one of the inventor/popularizer of agile, Ken Schwaber Pay particular attention to the issue of code quality over time. You will soon be surrounded by devs who will be responsible for making highly intricate judgement calls balancing the value of releasing a new feature a tad earlier, versus the potentially crippling long-term impact of bad code. Heed Ken Schwaber's warning: your role as a manager is to be an ally in protecting the long-term viability of the code's quality. If you fail -- usually by imposing arbitrary deadlines that can only be met by sacrificing quality -- your company will die.
  
  
  
  

The bit your missing is those on the FIRE path generally come in one of two version: the first group approach FIRE by driving down their living expenses extremely low. Examples approaches are living off-the-grid tiny houses and eating rice and beans. Another low-cost tactic is living in low cost of living places (COLA) and in the extreme means moving to poorer countries ("retirement hacking"), e.g. Mexico with it's good weather and your USD goes further. MMM (build all my own stuff) and Market Timer (living in a cheap country) are two examples. I have a feeling this group is actually the minority of the two, but I don't have any surveys. I've only met two this type IRL (well, living this way by choice).



The other type are high income earners who save a high percentages of their income. Bogleheads's survery's income (column U) has some eye-popping numbers and clearly skews towards highly educated/high income. WCI and Financial Samurai are both good examples of people who both have/had high incomes and decided to convert those incomes into wealth/FI through savings and investing. In the data that's out there(Millionaire Next Door and the little bit of self-reported data in the BH survey), this appears to be the more common path to FI. It certainly is easier to save lots when you earn a lot rather than try to squeeze every expense out of your life day in and day out for decades.

Somebody in another comment mentioned Kevin Mitnick.

In addition to Mitnick's book, I'll also recommend:

Steven Levy's Hackers. It's a classic exploration of the birth of the computer age and hacker culture, with a lot of insights into the mindset of computer people, both white-hat and black-hat.

The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, which is an account of him tracking down some serious hackers waaay back in the day. It's kind of vintage now, but I remember it being very well written and engaging. It's more like reading a novel than some dry academic piece.

In similar vein is Takedown, by Tsutomu Shimomura, which is Shimomura's account of pursuing and catching Kevin Mitnick. Also quite good, as it was co-written by John Markoff. There's a whiff of Shimomura tooting his own horn in it, but you definitely get a feel for the chase as it was happening, and learn a lot about the details of what Mitnick (and others in the underground hacking world) were actually doing.

Weird fact: I had no idea at the time, of course, but during some of Mitnick's last days before they nabbed him, he lived in an apartment building in my neighborhood in Seattle, right across from the grocery store where I always shopped. And about a year later, I ended up dating a girl who lived in that same building at that time, though of course she had no idea Mitnick was there either or even who he was. Still, I always wonder if I ever happened to stand next to him in line at the grocery store or something like that.

• Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
  
  
• Early Retirement Extreme: A philosophical and practical guide to financial independence
  
  
• Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!
  
  
• The Richest Man in Babylon: The Success Secrets of the Ancients--the Most Inspiring Book on Wealth Ever Written
  
  
• The Wealthy Barber, Updated 3rd Edition: Everyone's Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent
  
  
• The Automatic Millionaire, Expanded and Updated: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich
  
  
• Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy
  
  
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich
  
  
• The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
  
  Ich habe jedes dieser Bücher gelesen und kann es empfehlen. Ich würde jedes davon wieder kaufen und wieder lesen.
  
  
• The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing <-- Steht noch auf meiner Lese-Liste

For books that will help you appreciate math, I recommend Journey Through Genius by William Dunham for a general historical approach, and Love and Math by Edward Frenkel and Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire for specific focuses in "modern" mathematics (in these cases, the Langlands program and the Riemann Hypothesis).

There's a lot of mathematical lore that you'll find really interesting the first time you read it, but then it becomes more and more grating each subsequent time you come across it. (The example that springs most readily to mind is how the Pythagorean theorem rocked the Greeks' socks about their belief in numbers and what the brotherhood supposedly did to the guy who proved that irrational numbers exist). For that reason, I recommend reading only one or two books that summarize the historical developments in math up to the present, and then finding books that focus on one mathematician or one theorem that is relatively modern. In addition to the books I mentioned above, there are also some good ones on the Poincare Conjecture and Fermat's Last Theorem, and given that you're a computer science guy, I'm sure you can find a good one about P = NP.

> Kopierte du virkelig samme svar du ga til en annen?! Gå ut å få deg luft.

Ja det gjorde jeg og det like etter å ha tilbringt 6 timer i skog og mark med over 30 venner. Go figure!

> Du er så opplagt en komplett slave til iden om hasj at jeg skal støtte forbud kun for gleden av å gjøre det vanskelig for sånne samfunns slasker som deg.

Det var da voldsomt. Så det du sier er at du støtter organisert kriminalitet?

Er forøvrig ganske mange år siden jeg brukte cannabis og da i samråd med en psykolog pga PTSD. Produsert av meg selv i et skap på soverommet, for å ikke støtte organsisert kriminalitet og ikke minst for å være trygg på hva jeg fikk i meg. Dette var på ingen måte vanskelig eller kostbart.

Det er heldigvis på ingen måte nødvendig lenger etter at jeg tok en tur til Costa Rica. Det anbefales om du har mulighet, men gjør grundig research i forkant. Vet forøvrig om norske psykologer som drar til Sverige for dette. Har også bekjente av en bekjent, som for mange er en veldig kjent person, som opererer i Danmark. (Det ble jaggu et sammensurium av en setning. Henger du fortsatt med?)

Om det blir for skummelt kan du kanskje lese denne boka Om du ikke er en leser, så finnes den også på lydbok lest at forfatteren selv. Den er skrevet av en utenforstående, for utenforstående som deg. Han er kjent for å være en svært god formidler og bruker her denne evnen i et forsøk på å sette ord på erfaringer, som er svært vanskelig å sette ord på. Den blir regnet som et sjumilssteg i den psykedeliske rennesansen, som nå er på vei også til Norge

"Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world."

“Pollan’s deeply researched chronicle will enlighten those who think of psychedelics chiefly as a kind of punchline to a joke about the Woodstock generation and hearten the growing number who view them as a potential antidote to our often stubbornly narrow minds....engaging and informative.”—Boston Globe



Her er et kort intervju fra CBS



Ser meg ut som en slave og en slask du ;)

Kan du nevne en eneste positiv følge av "narkotika"forbudet?

On What to Read


Here are some suggestions on books and websites:


The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474


If You Can by William Bernstein - http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm


Free version is here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tj8480ji58j00f/If%20You%20Can.pdf?dl=0


The Investor's Manifesto. Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon-Everything/dp/1118073762


The Bogleheads Guide to Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283


The Coffeehouse Investor - https://www.amazon.com/Coffeehouse-Investor-Wealth-Ignore-Street/dp/0976585707


The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Retirement-Planning/dp/0470455578


The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071747052/


Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277


Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859


Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/


The Millionaire Real Estate Investor per red-sfplus’s post (can confirm this is excellent) - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370/


For all the M.Ds on here and HNW individuals, you might want to check out https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ and his blog – found it to be very useful.


https://www.irs.gov/ or your government’s tax page. If you’ve been reading, you know that millionaires know more than your average bear about the tax code.


https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/7vohb3/money/


https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/3hzcvn/financial_advice_from_a_financier/


https://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/09/22/4-money-tips-4-personal-finance-legends/


Personal Finance Flowchart from their wiki - https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png


Additional Lists of Books:


https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_reviews


https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/books-4/


Subreddits


https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/


https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/ - I would highly encourage you to spend a half hour browsing their wiki - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index and investing advice - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing


https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/


https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityAnalysis/


https://www.reddit.com/r/finance/


https://www.reddit.com/r/portfolios/


https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/


MRP References


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/40whjy/finally_talked_to_my_wife_about_our_finances_it/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/67nxdu/finances_with_a_sahm/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/488pa0/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (original)


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/6a6712/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (year 2)


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3xw015/how_to_prepare_for_a_talk_about_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/30z704/taking_back_the_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/2uzukg/married_redpill_finances_and_money/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3637q5/some_thoughts_on_mrp_and_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/8dwaqt/best_practices_for_finances_within_marriage/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/588e5o/gain_control_of_the_treasury/


Final Thoughts


There are already a lot of high net worth individuals on these subs (if you don’t believe me, look at the OYS for the past few months). This should be a review for most folks. The key points stay the same – have a plan, get out of the hole you are in, have a budget, do the right moves for wealth accumulation. Lead your family in your finances. Own it.


What are YOU doing to own your finances? Give some examples below.

Judging from the broadness of your question, I'd suggest buying (or checking out from the library) a couple of books about investing. Start with the basics like: Charles Schwab, Peter Lynch, and Burton G. Malkiel. Right now, education is probably the best investment you can make (besides enjoying your life).

Ninja edit: It's good to be thinking and asking about investing, but, if you are serious about investing a serious chunk of money, learn the basics for yourself. You'll be better prepared to make the best decision for your money and your lifestyle.

You should probably read the biography written a year or two ago about Musk. You tag him as rich, but the reality is that he put everything on the line multiple times to save his companies. No one man can accomplish what SpaceX and Tesla do, but it is clear that Musk is a leader in the tech industry. Those were all pipe dreams, but he had the thought to make dreams reality by bringing the right people together under the right conditions.

Link

For light, math-related reading I've always enjoyed semi-biographical books about mathematicians, because these books usually include a summary of their mathematical contributions without getting too technical or dry. And they always get me pumped to do more math. Here's books I'd recommend in that vein:

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers An Autobiography of Paul Erdos. This one's a really great read with lots of Number Theory and Graph Theory in it. Not to mention a heartwarming bio of Erdos. If you haven't read this yet, give it a go.

The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved - A book about the history of Group Theory and how Galois was able to prove the Abel-Ruffini Theorem. At times it's a little simple, but it's fun to read, and it gives some insight into elementary group theory.

Of Men and Mathematics - not too much actual math in this one, but it's a very solid cheap, quick read. Well worth the money/time.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits) - Jack Bogle - Vanguard Founder. No gimmicks. Simple, low-cost, and passive indexing for buy and hold investors.

One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market Peter Lynch was a fund manager of one of the most successful actively managed funds. Active investing. Buy companies that are really successful at getting you to buy their product. Observe the world around you type of investing.

I've yet to implement all my new found knowledge b/c i'm still a student but I'll tell you what convinced me and helpful tools/books i've found.

"millionaire next door" got me to take budgets seriously. It tells you how half (or1/3; forgot) of america's current millionaires are first generation. It then shows that high income isn't the main factor. Hearing that couples on 80k combined incomes were able to reach the millionaire status by living below their means, budgeting, and investing left me in awe. also gives you advice on making sure your kids retain a "saving" lifestyle.

"I will teach you to be rich" is decent. I like how it has scripts for haggling 101. it recommends automating your deposits between your bank and investing accounts so that you never see the extra money and thus aren't tempted to spend it. also goes over investing, choosing banks, buying cars.

lastly, should you need excel sheets for marking your yearly budgets, i downloaded this redditor's spreadsheet (scroll down a bit). I modified it to include 12 months (i.e "1" = january; "1p" = january planner). negatives are displayed in () so -50 becomes (50). my modified version

There's also pear spreadsheet. if you don't like the other.

edit: the faq in the sidebar also has book recommendations.

Yes that one sorry I did not clarify further. https://www.amazon.ca/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still-ebook/dp/B00COOFBA4

I've found similarities between successful and those still trying about them using a system rather than goals. My friend decided to be good at sales and uses that system to teach others in his brokerage and has made millions. Look at the franchise model vs opening 1 really good restaurant. Usually the prior will succeed (obviously with proper processes aka systems in place)

It depends on your blender and it's not ideal, but /u/greybeards is right. What happens with a lot of blenders is as soon as the cream gets whipped, it gets too viscous and stops flowing, so you're stuck.

If you have a good blender you can make it work. Unlike making whipped cream, you'll want your cream to be a little warmer, and you'll probably need a spat to push the whipped cream down toward the blades.

Once it's grainy, you'll want to chill it, strain it, and rinse it, and knead it a little to get as much water out as you can.

Much better to use a mixer, food processor, stick blender, or just do it by hand.

Better still: Make the bread, buy the butter.

Your old boss was right and if you're interested in reading about this topic more I would highly recommend reading The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. There's a lot of fascinating info in this book about psychopaths and how they operate and there is a section that talks about the fact that there is a higher rate of psychopaths among CEO's compared to the general public. Unfortunately, in business it does tend to be beneficial to only care about yourself and what you can gain and to not have any qualms about screwing people over to benefit yourself and the company.

Any book that take a scientific look on how we perceive and integrate stimulu. (Here is my choice).

Any Oliver Sacks book. Understanding the broken brain is a very good tool to get the healthy one.(start with this one)

There is that Crash Course Psychology.

For me it's a good to understand what are attention and perception, what is it to learn and the importance of working memory. You can get all that without understanding memory, but it would be interesting to.

It can be cool to have a general idea of when our brain use shortcut because it's important not to waste energy.

And then for the social side of it welcome to the field of influence.

For a bit of history, the declassified documents are on the source section.

My husband and I have recently realized that LSD is now our favorite drug. We're amazed that something so tiny have such a crazy profound effect on your mind.

We've started reading "How to change your mind" by Michael Pollan and it's fascinating. He talks about the history of LSD in clinical studies in the 50-70s and that the drug influenced a lot of organizations, including the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous.

If you're interested in learning more about the drug, it's definitely an interesting read, it would be even better on audio book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_zn-KBbYB9Z16H

If you want to learn more about sociopaths in a simplified but still good form, read this book.

As for what I said, if you're confident in your ability to detect a sociopath by his or her appearance, someone who's able to disguise those traits will be able to play off your misplaced confidence in them if they passed your test.

I would recomend you to read Future Crimes by Marc Goodman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Crimes-Digital-Underground-Connected/dp/0552170801?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffab-uk-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0552170801 mostly deals with the non existence of electronic security though and how it is and can be exploited

Information and Corporate security is a very big subject, so it kind of depends where you intend to take your story. But you can start by reading the Wikipedia article about InfoSec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_security and then see how each area fits into your story and work out from there.

Some realisim in how difficult it can be to track down a hacker, read The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500888747&sr=1-1&keywords=clifford+stoll very different from what you see in the media

IMHO the most interesting area in Information security is Social Engineering, it requires cunning and skill, and sometimes you can't stop admiring the talents and genius of some of these people. Read Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking https://www.amazon.co.uk/Social-Engineering-Art-Human-Hacking/dp/0470639539/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500889212&sr=1-1&keywords=social+engineering+the+art+of+human+hacking

Each year Verizon release their data breach report http://www.verizonenterprise.com/verizon-insights-lab/dbir/2017/ it is free to download (don't have to register, just click the download only button) I think that is possibly the best insight you can get into corporate security challenges in 2017

I like The "New" Turing Omnibus for small pieces from a lot of CS areas. Since it covers a bunch of topics, you can read it in any order. It's a good way to see what specific areas you might want to dive into more deeply.

For more general, "fun" books to get excited about CS and its origins, I recommend Dealers of Lightning which is an amazing look at the work done at Xerox PARC in the 70s and Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution which is about many of the people who paved the way for personal computers.

[About Time](About Time: Celebrating Men's Watches https://www.amazon.com/dp/0764349058/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_mUazzb1CZSCQ7) is a great coffee table book and a great read.

[Longitude](Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time https://www.amazon.com/dp/080271529X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OVazzbZN0WWP2) is about John Harrison and the invention of modern time keeping. This should be on everyone's list.

I highly recommend Jouney Through Genius by William Dunham. It covers the great theorems in history from Euclid to Cantor, and the writing style is very engaging and accessible. It has a perfect five star record on amazon with over a hundred reviews which is pretty rare.

You would appreciate anything by Oliver Sacks. He was a celebrated neurologist who wrote a bunch of great books about consciousness and fascinating stories about conditions he saw in his practice from a very philosophical rather than strictly clinical point of view. You could start with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Hallucinations, or Awakenings. He gave a nice TED talk if you want to get a taste for it.

Fiction Books

Cryptonomicon - Very few books make up a cypher system based on playing cards, have a story that spans WW2 through the present day and in large part revolve around creating an alternate digital currency, a data haven and startup life.

Neuromancer - this is the book that created cyberpunk and that inspired all those bad movie ideas about hacking in 3D systems. That being said, it marked a real turning point in SciFi. Without this book "cyber" security specialists would probably be called something else.

Snow Crash - This is much more breezy than the other two but still has very recognizable hacking/security elements to it and is just fun.

Non Fiction

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - This isn't a book about technology so much as deduction and figuring things out (while being hilariously entertaining).

I included all these here in large part because they are what inspired me to get into development and sysadmin work and I bet that I'm about 20 years older than you if you're just getting into the field - so there's a decent chance that your coworkers are into them too.

My advice is to dabble in the tradition for a little bit before you consider majoring in it. You have probably taken Physics, History, Math, Economics, etc, in High School and understand what sort of thing you'd be studying if you take any of these subjects as a major. This is not the case for philosophy. To decide whether you want to major in Philosophy, I think you need to do two things. First, you might want to dabble in the philosophical tradition as broadly as possible. You can do this by going through a book that deals with the history of the movement. I wish Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy was my introduction to the history of philosophy. Durant gives his own arguments for why philosophy is a worthwhile thing to study, but also gives a really nice, readable, and informative history of some of the greatest philosophers of all time. The second way to dabble in the field is by taking one philosopher central to the cannon and really get into him. (Hopefully, it wont always be a "him" :). Its not easy to decide which philosopher to read first. In any case, it will be massively difficult to get through whatever book you decide to read, since philosophy books are unlike any other book you were taught in high school. Personally, if i were you, I'd read Durant's work first, and choose whatever philosopher you enjoyed reading about most in that book, and then find the most important book that author has written. If you have trouble deciding that, of course feel free to ask us!

This biography of Paul Dirac is excellent.

This autobiography (in the form of a sequence of anecdotes) of Richard Feynman is a classic.

This biography of Robert Oppenheimer is extremely good as well.

This book contains short biographies all the most significant figures involved with every Hilbert Problem.

This is a work of science fiction where the main character belongs to a monastic order devoted to mathematics and theoretical science. It's among my favorite books.

edit: Who downvotes this? Really? Even if you think you've got better options... just leave a comment with them for OP.

Oh, sure; I'm a huge believer that we are not a classless society, though the demarcations I would make have more to do with how individuals handle money (and the reserves available to them) which then determines socioeconomic status, autonomy, and (as I noted above) ability to speak freely without being hampered by work considerations.

Part of the problem is that these lines may not land where we traditionally think of them. Meaning in the 16th century, the lines were clear: the aristocracy owned the means of production, the peasants worked for the aristocracy, and a small (but growing) "middle class", the supposed "petite bourgeoisie", who sat in the middle. If you were in the upper aristocratic class, you were rich; the middle class remained roughly in the middle wealth wise, the peasants were poor.

And these designations (rich, middle class, poor) also were related to relative autonomy: the rich have the autonomy to pursue "work" as the saw fit, and often saw themselves as caretakers of a legacy to pass down to their children. The middle class did not answer to the aristocracy and thus had greater political autonomy (and, as the middle class grew, so did many philosophies tied to it, such as Locke's notions of the pursuit of happiness, or Hume's observations on moral sentiments). The peasants were poor and had little (if any) voice, at least until recently.

But today? Fuck, it's all a blur.

You have ostensibly "rich" people who are paid extremely well but who are ultimately beholden to an employer for employment. You have people who make a solidly average income who save for a retirement of complete independence--who may never really be able to afford a luxury car but who can afford to take a year driving around the country. You have people with all the trappings of wealth (fancy cars, expensive houses, luxury everything) who are so leveraged to the hilt the first economic headwind knocks them to poverty faster than I can complete this sentence. You have the "millionaire next store", the family who lives average lives but who lived below their means for so long they no longer work for a living but live off their investments--yet hide their wealth so as not to stand out.

And hell, you have radio personalities who are trying to help create more "millionaires next store" by helping people get out of debt and start investing through living beneath their means. You even have groups here on Reddit devoted to /r/financialindependence.

----

So the whole notion of "class" becomes difficult to nail down in this country, not just because we're ostensibly a "classless society", but there is a severe disconnect between culture, wealth, financial independence and the freedom that brings.

----

More frustratingly I predict this will be downvoted to oblivion, because we also have a fucking huge blind spot in this country to what wealth is, what it means, and what it can do. Someone will undoubtedly sing the "but you can't save to retire unless you make a gazillion dollars a year, so take your white patriarchal bullshit out of here" song, while another will sing the "but it's so expensive I can't survive living here on my measly salary (that is twice or three times the national average)" song.

Hell, most people in our country couldn't name the three types of wealth, or characterize in real terms what the "means of production" is for professions like plumber or carpenter. A lot of folks certainly have no sense when it comes to financial matters.

Instead, to them, money is something only the lucky have, freedom is the freedom to buy two Ferraris and a Porsche, and the rest of us are going to die miserable lives of wretched poverty.

And when talking about economics, it's easier just to look at anonymized tax return data, group them into quintiles, and study that instead.

read this book then. It is probably going to be interesting for you
http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/dp/0887309895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322594175&sr=8-1

...Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and '80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.
...

This is great. I remember reading the book this came from 7 or 8 years ago but I don't remember this at all. I do remember really enjoying the book though. I seriously recommend it to everyone. It's his autobiography and he's a really great story teller. The Book on Amazon.com

You're perfectly free to repair your own laptop.

You have a right to repair your own laptop.

But you haven't got a right to get Apple to help you.

--------------------

Richard Feynman told the story of the old electrician who was upset at these new microchip things. Because the guy couldn't understand how he was supposed to get in there with this soldering iron to fix a transistor.

You don't. You don't fix it. You can try, but the fact that you can't is your problem.

They're perfectly free to use technology that you cannot repair; that's the way it goes.

Although I recommend Indexed Investing, I really enjoyed "One Up On Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. It is a different perspective than indexed investing. I plan on following the 90% Indexed funds and 10% "Peter Lynch Style" for my portfolio

Note: It is about stock picking (buy and hold - so long term, not day trading) and doesn't touch indexed funds...in the book, Peter says you should get some value by paying a higher MER otherwise it is not worth it. He has since corrected himself, and both Peter and Warren Buffet say indexed investing is best for Most investors.


https://www.amazon.ca/One-Up-Wall-Street-Already/dp/0743200403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487691453&sr=8-1&keywords=peter+lynch

Millionaire teacher alone should be enough to start your indexed portfolio. If you enjoyed Millionaire teacher, and have a basic grasp on personal finance, you can check out Andrew Hallams recommended book page...he has some more advanced books listed

https://andrewhallam.com/books/

Congratulations on your winnings. If you end up spending any time at /r/personalfinanace, you'll note that one of the handfull of books they recommend in their sidebar is "The Millionaire Next Door". It's a fantastic read (great audiobook too) that really opened my eyes to money and wealth.

I like Journey Through Genius. It is completely elementary, requiring nothing beyond perhaps a semester of basic algebra. It presents some amazing theorems and emphasizes both the creativity and the logical rigor required to achieve them. I can't remember every theorem, but I know it includes Pythagorus' Theorem, the irrationality of the square root of two, Euclids geometry, the infinitude of the primes, some number theory of Fermat, Isaac Newton on the Binomial Theorem, the quadratic equation and the solution of the third and fourth degree polynomials by radicals and why this requires complex numbers, an exploration of complex numbers, and some non-Euclidean geometry. All that whilst requiring, as I said, no mathematical maturity whatsoever, and being quite easy and enjoyable to read. I highly recommend it.

Definetly check out the book
https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/0062301233


I went for the audio book on audible. Was a good commute listen. If Ashley Vance is actually a fan boy, he did a great job hiding it and I'd like to thank him for that.

Some Musk facts from the book:


-photographic memory


-intense, innate drive


-mastery of physics visualization


-loner through childhood


-rough paternal childhood


-future keystones, determined in college: internet, renewable energy, space


-thought both Tesla and SpaceX would fail


There's way more stuff, really consider the book. If there was a perfect person to become 'Elon Musk', it was Elon Musk. I'm glad we have him.

We seem to be programmed in our culture - perhaps by western religious and philosophical traditions - to accept dualism, which is the notion that mind and body are separate. However, several centuries of scientific progress have demonstrated more or less incontrovertibly the material basis of consciousness, thought, emotion, memory, and personality.

You ARE your brain. That is all there is to it.

What is particularly fascinating is how individual parts of the brain can be altered (i.e. damaged) with the result that parts of you are altered.

Oliver Sacks has several fascinating books that discuss case studies of neurological deficit, written for a popular audience, and they are each wonderful. Here are two of them:

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949

http://www.amazon.com/Anthropologist-Mars-Seven-Paradoxical-Tales/dp/0679756973/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319305698&sr=1-1

So many! Dissociative Identity disorder (more commonly know as Multiple Personality Disorder); Psychopathy (especially because we know so little about it.) ; Phantom limbs ; Capgras syndrom ( delusion that a close friend or family member has been replaced by aliens) ; Hyprocondriasis; Narcolepsy; sleep paralysis; Dissociative Fugue ; The case of H.M. (a very well known case study on memory loss. He was a man who suffered retrograde amnesia, but whose working memory was still intact. taught us a lot about different types of memory and their corresponding brain redgions...

There are plenty of others that I cannot think of off the top of my head. But if you are looking for some interesting cases, here are two great books about really strange and interesting psychological phenomenons are "The Man Who Mistook His for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales" by Oliver Sacks , and " Phantoms in the Brain" by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee

The first one includes several cases of patients with inexplicably strange neurological disorders. For example, a man who is no longer able to recognize people and common objects. There is an other story about a man who sometimes wakes suddenly at night, thoroughly convinced that his leg is actually a corpse's leg that somebody has placed in bed with him.

The second book was the text book for my cognitive psych class in second year. Like the first book contains many stories of fantastically strange cases that the author has encountered as a neuroscientist. This book contains more of the psychological and neurological basis for the disorders, and shows how they helped us understand different aspects of behaviour and structures of the brain.

This explains it:

The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1589795474/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fMnJBb0GAZ99M

Essentially: the super super wealthy are less than 1% of the population. Meanwhile much of the actual top 10-1% tend to be in jobs that go along with conspicuous consumption. Think lawyer, banker, accountant, doctor. They tend to feel that they have to maintain a certain type of lifestyle to be “respectable” in their profession.

There’s also a lot of people who work in tech, many of whom are young and may not save much because they want to “enjoy life” and aren’t necessarily thinking ahead. (Although they do tend to have stocks.)

Yeah, the questions been asked before. But here's a summary.

Wish you the best.

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I strongly agree that the history of mathematics and computing should be taught as an integral part of any CS / Math degree.

Two books you might want to read by way of a 'history assignment'.

1. Fumbling the Future -- How Xerox Invented, then Ignored, the First Personal Computer. I was there for part of it (late 70's) and this book pretty much gets it right.
   
   
2. The Man Who Loved Only Numbers. It's about the mathematician Paul Erdos and is one of the more amazing true stories I've ever read.
   
   
3. For extra credit, try the book The Man Who Knew Infinity. There's a recent movie based on the book (I haven't seen it yet); it's gotten a mix of very-good-to-meh reviews.

Live radically below your income level no matter what it is and invest as high a percentage as possible.

Change every habit in your life to save and invest, and not spend.

Change every habit in your life to recognize 99% of what you do is based on habit and consumption, that people have existed for 10's of thousands of years and lived on very little. Water, a bit of food and shelter. Reduce your existence to that and invest the rest.

Read "Millionaire Next Door".

Read "Habit"

It will cost you about $20. Follow them like the bible, like your compass. And in 30 days when you haven't done any of this, re-read this answer.

That's all there is to it. Follow that and you will become wealthy. There is nothing more to this, 99.9999% of humans cannot do it. And the wealthy benefit from that every day.

You're welcome.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Autobiography of Richard Feynman, what fucking brilliant hilarious man.

You will love this book no matter if you're into science or not, I promise.

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

As an engineer in a research position: I'd give you my upvotes for the next 100 days if I could.

Here's how you (the reader of this thread) can start: Read Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman, a nice book with anecdotes about the life of a particularly gifted scientist with lots of wit and perspective on how actual science is different from sudo science. It's a very entertaining book and IMO a great way to get some basics about the world view of a true scientist. It has lots of examples of fields other than physics that he did some investigation in, and maybe you'll find something that particularly interests you.

You're not going to want to read things that make you wish you had a computer with you, trust me. You have no idea how many times I have tried to force myself to read stuff like that when traveling or on vacation. Never works. So here's some stuff geared more towards the philosophy of development and programming that will be fun to read and will probably make you want to slow down, relax, and think about the concepts.

• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred Brooks
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt
  
  And for fun:
  
  
• The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll

But the price of my milk isn't going to move up and down after I've bought it, how did I pay for the milk? With all of my own money or a loan etc. You can say proportionately they're the same but it doesn't really hold up, wealthy people don't look at a stadium like a bottle of milk, Warren Buffett is a billionaire and he buys his car 'hail-damaged' because it's cheaper than buying it new

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474

^ Really good book on how frugal some mega wealthy people are. Not that Abramovich needs to be but let's be honest, 500m will be a considerable amount in his mind, it's not something he wants to waste or fritter away

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

• These two biographies of famous physicists of the last century are well-written (in a way like fiction).
  
  
• These are extremely good books and are a joy to read.
  
  
• They will teach you about Science (read: physics) and may inspire you to become a Scientist.
  
  
• Some of the explanations involve very interesting physics (general relativity, quantum mechanics, development of the atom bomb, particle physics, etc.) and are written for laymen, so you don't need any background in Physics to be able to understand most of the explanations.
  
  
  
• Read some of the reviews in the amazon links so you can see what other people enjoyed about the books.
  

Study philosophy! Seriously, just get a big ol' book on the history of philosophy like this one and wade your way through it. A good amount of political thought is based on philosophy, so understanding it is essential to truly understanding politics. You'll find yourself pondering the great questions like "What is the value of equality? Is it compatible with freedom? Is government necessary? Is there a such thing as a Just War? Are morals relative?", and your answers to these questions will determine where you lie politically. (I haven't actually read the book I linked to, but I've heard it's good and I don't want to recommend you that $100 textbook I read.)

Now, when you wade into the terrifying mess that is contemporary politics, you should learn and keep in mind all of the logical fallacies, because you'll hear lots of them. There isn't really any place to "get started" with this, just look around for sources of unbiased information. Never trust the mainstream media, don't trust fringe activists either. Of course they're both right from time to time, but you're better off doing in depth research on any position. If your like me, that means you'll be ambivalent about most issues simply because you don't have the time to learn about them. That's okay, sometimes it's best to just say "I don't know".

Richard Feynman. In his auto-biographical books like Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! he comes across as a lovable braggart and trickster. I read most of that book to my kids.

Not only are his stories interesting, but he had a gift for teaching. His science books are full of great explanations.

Tip of the hat to the pioneers... Lawrence Roberts, Vin Cerf, Bob Taylor, Ivan Sutherland, Douglas Engelbart and J.C.R. Licklider, among many others. Well worth studying up on these dudes. Some excellent reads (available at your public library, natch): "Dealers of Lightning" an excellent book about Xerox PARC; "Where Wizards Stay Up Late" fascinating book about MIT and DARPA; J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal a turgid yet compelling book about J.C.R. Licklider and his contemporaries.

> I feel similarly about computer security, in broad terms. The scary thing isn't that "hackers" can do the cyber equivalent of teleporting into your neighbourhood and trying the lock on your front door; it's that we live in a culture where people habitually don't even metaphorically install locks (despite the fact that they're often absurdly effective and trivial in cost), and also the part where people habitually have no understanding of the value of their metaphorical household goods (often many times the value of the property itself).

The book The Cuckoo's Egg is, by the way, an excellent nonfictional account of an early computer security case that has strong echoes with many of the security issues we are facing today. (And is also a damn good read, highly recommended.)

Until you manage to get that book, I'd recommend getting "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!":
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

It's a great book about curiosity, knowledge and research from a great mind.