How To Cope With A Brutal World? Book Intro!
“What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction.
The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer (My Buddy Schop)
The societal rat race is the single biggest cause of anxiety and sadness in our lives. Societal training, right from your childhood, gives you tremendous ambition but no reliable way to fulfill that ambition. It gives you tremendous desire but no way to truly satiate that desire. It gives you tremendous thirst, but it gives you barely any water to fulfill that thirst.
And for the rare few that do actually happen to achieve it, ask them if they are genuinely happy or at peace in the long term? The one who loses is also unhappy and the one who wins is also “unhappy.”
On top of that, much of what you are taught about it is PLAIN wrong and this sets people out on the wrong path from the very beginning.
In fact, I am convinced the biggest danger to society is not some weapon. It is actually an influential teacher/guide/authority figure with an extremely huge audience, who is actually a fool and doesn’t even know it!
He or she can lead people down a wrong path that they can’t recover from for years, and sometimes a lifetime.
Unfortunately, I believe this world has countless such so called teachers and authority figures and I have personally been misled by many such figures. You will be introduced to some of them later on in this book 😉
Unlearning their nonsense was the point of the first book I wrote -Unlearn: A Practical Guide to Business & Life
This book though is the next rung of the ladder and talks about how I learned to cope with this brutal world, and how you can do the same, and most importantly from MULTIPLE ANGLES.
Because life is not one dimensional, life is multidimensional.
You can’t just choose to breathe and think it is enough to survive life. You need to eat, drink and get appropriate shelter and heat and so on. Because, if you mess up even in one area, you are dead!
That’s the objective of the book, to help you with multidimensional UNDERSTANDING of how things work that I believe is absolutely crucial to survive this brutal world.
Why Even Geniuses Should Be Reading This Book
There is an anecdote involving Isaac Newton and his dogs. Its authenticity isn’t verified but it makes a point nonetheless.
So, the story goes like this – Newton had two dogs. One was a big dog and the other was a smaller dog.
But the dogs always kept creating issues because they wanted to go outside and play and so Newton had to get up and let them out when they wanted to go out, or let them in when they wanted to come in.
So, he thought of a solution and called the carpenter. He told the Carpenter – “I want you to make TWO holes in the door. Make a smaller one for the smaller dog and make a larger one for the larger dog.”
The Carpenter thought for a moment and then responded by saying – “But won’t the smaller dog also be able to go through the larger hole?!!”
At that time Newton realized his error and was surprised that even a scientist like him couldn’t think of a simple solution.
SO why should even the super smart should be reading this book?
Because sometimes, you may know the secrets of the universe, but you may lack the common sense to be able to survive in the world.
A Disclaimer: First Things First
The brutal truth is that you need at least some luck and hope that luck stays with you throughout your life.
The “positive thinkers” will say luck doesn’t matter. But it’s because they are either deluded or in denial.
You don’t choose what family you are born in, which era you are born in, which macroeconomic environment you grow up in, your mental aptitude, your special talents, which random situations that come to you that alter the trajectory of your life, etc.
Furthermore, a huge problem is that your thought process is ALSO a part of your luck. It is literally impossible to change your mindset if you just can’t see that your mindset is the problem!
I know people who are almost senior citizens but still lack basic common sense.
I know people who have had to literally bury their own children, and still haven’t learnt a thing about changing their ways.
Unfortunately, every living being is ultimately a prisoner of their own mind. They can only rarely, if ever, truly break free from the limits their mental aptitude, innate nature and level of self-awareness imposes upon them.
From my book – How to Cope With a Brutal World (2024)
Download the full book for free at https://archive.org/details/how-to-cope-with-a-brutal-world-by-anubhav-srivastava
Anubhav Srivastava – Keynote Speaker, Business Consultant, Philosopher and Advisor on Raising Sovereign AI Systems.
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