To me, Schopenhauer was the creator of modern day black metal. He had the courage and the vision to see things the way those who know how to make genuine black metal songs do now. So he wrote text, which, if taken a bit apart can be used as an inspiration to create amazing black metal songs. There are black metallers who are like this now. Those rare black metallers who respect other people´s beliefs, ideas and opinions. His books are really a beautiful labyrinth of black metal songs which you can use to craft amazing songs if you are into that sort of thing.
Rule 1: Don't read too much Rule 2: Think about what you've read Rule 3: Focus on the classics Rule 4: Read primary texts Rule 5: Good books should be read twice Rule 6: Bad books are poison
If it wasn’t for CZcams we wouldn’t have got to know about Schopenhauer. It’s up to us to apply the rules of books when watching CZcams videos appropriately like bad videos are poison and don’t watch too much etc. Technology changes the preferred medium of information: from written material to printed material to audio to now video. Who knows what will come next.
It would make perfect sense since he is writing from his time, in which writing was the only available media. For example we can say "bad books" are equivalent to "click bait"
@@dmark1922 I would say bad books are also equivalent to bad movies, bad TV, and news media generally, whether physical or online newspapers, TV news, etc. The vast majority of media is bad, as was the vast majority of books in Schopenhauer's time, and should be avoided like the plague.
When I said this in my language class,the teacher almost threw me out.When I told her it was Schopenhauer's words,she became silent and harshly changed the subject.The cognitive dissonance of some individuals is dumbfounding.
Teachers are not thinkers. They are salary paid, reproductive, nicely fit into normal humans. She was teaching us what the govt decided us to read. Their power their books their teacher their exam their job their systm and at last their punishments. All world is full of them. We are victim of systm of billions of slave minds.
@@sameermalik-bg7sk I'm sorry but that I a huge generalisation. I'm a high school science teacher that is trying to learn about philosophy, economics, storytelling and psychology because I love to learn. I question everything. And I think a lot. And when I was a student I found some amazing teachers that were great thinkers, even though it was a rare thing.
There is no use in buying a library full of books if one cannot read them all. It becomes a burden, as Seneca notes. Instead we should read selectively, and read well :) Great video
Only books that I have read end up in my library. But I think one shouldn't see a library like this as pretentious science and self-help mechanism. It's also fun to collect and decorate. Some have tons of books that they haven't read or haven't read yet. For these people, a library is more of an opportunity. A way to browse for fun and have the right book at the right moment. In times of e-books and audiobooks online, it's not really necessary either. But certainly not bad either. Nobody has become explicitly dumber because they liked to read and owned books. So take it easy.
I agree. I also don't understand all this mentality of "I READ 10 BOOKS IN A DAY" that's a lots of those self help people have, I think investing myself on a 1 single book, to truly understand it, takes some important notes of it, even if it take a longer to finished is more important, from my perspective.
Reading is a tool to ingest information. Thinking is a tool to process information. People mistakenly assume that reading will improve thinking, however the fact is that reading can only supplement thinking. Only thinking (writing: which involves thinking) can improve thinking
@@brasti9088 can be about anything, and need not be for anyone. The process of writing itself helps you to organise your thoughts better by forcing you to think more deliberately. A daily journal can be a good start
@@WeltgeistYT I love the fact that the somewhat lesser-known aspects of Schopenhauer's thoughts are featured in this channel, along with the main body of his system. An essay highly related to this one, and awfully relevant to our present time, is Schopenhauer's On Education. I would love to see that being featured one day. The irony is the best channel on YT covering Schopenhauer has a Hegelian name!
@@rmt3589 "Weltgeist" is German for "spirit of the world" (welt = world, geist = spirit) and it's a central idea of Hegel's philosophy. When it comes to Schopenhauer's relation to Hegel... Well, I'm just gonna give you a quote: "Hegel, installed from above, by the powers that be, as the certified Great Philosopher, was a flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan who reached the pinnacle of audacity in scribbling together and dishing up the craziest mystifying nonsense. This nonsense has been noisily proclaimed as immortal wisdom by mercenary followers and readily accepted as such by all fools, who thus joined into as perfect a chorus of admiration as had ever been heard before." (The World as Will and Representation v.2) The bois were not very fond of each other to say the least and thus the irony.
I had a friend who made a point of being a big reader since he could afford to not work to live. He indeed became intellectually more rigid and arrogant towards the rest of us who couldn't read as much. The most painful part was when he decided he would himself be a writer and self published hundreds of pages divided in three volumes. Since his work was an unreadable mush of words and sentences, I politely suggested he could work with a publisher in order to extract what he wanted to express. He took my advice not too graciously. We no longer are friends.
@@african9686 We were flatmates in the early noughties. I actually learned a lot from him, but he started to change after he got kicked out of a cult of which he was a member - and fairly high up too within its hierarchy. The sad thing is he'll probably never understand how lucky that was for him.
@@dalesco4205 ow yeah, this is what I wanted to see. You were never really friends. You just lived together for a long time. Work, school, flats and team relationships are weak. When the common factor is removed, eventually people will go to where they supposed to be.
@@african9686 No, we were good friends indeed. We spent less than a year sharing an apartment and our friendship lasted fot around 16 years. But as I mentioned previously something happened in his life that deeply affected him and he started to change from that point.
On reading a good book twice. The first is for the sake of familiarity. The second is for the sake of dialogue. Reading a great book provides the unique opportunity of talking and discussing with the dead.
"But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body." (NASB; Ecclesiastes 12:12)
@@mabimabi212 The brain has two locations. Logical and Creativity. Simplicity doesn't apply to creativity, only logical. If you want creativity to improve, you would have to moderate logical by being less complex.
@@hextechmagikarp4610 If simplicity doesn't apply to creativity, then why do you need to lessen complexity to improve creativity? Merriam-Webster (Atleast in my copy) defines creativity as "The ability to create" and "The quality of being creative". Being creative also haves 3 definitions: "Marked by the ability or power to create", "Having the quality of something created, rather than imitated." and "Managed so to get around legal or coventional limits". All of those definitions would oppose simplicity. You'd have to think deeply and complexly to create something never seen before. You'd have to think very hard to make something that's not an imitation or atleast an improvement of someones' work. You'd have to think outside of the box to get around conventional and legal limits - limits which are arguably simple since it's the rules imposed by the government and common consensus. Creativity requires you to think outside the box or in a complex way. Simplicity is the opposite of complexity, simplicity is the box.
@@mabimabi212 You are going by technical definition Personally I've been battling ways to improve myself. The simplicity only defines things that are basic enough to understand. Ever since my journey, I noticed that improved better without even thinking too much due these type of videos. Of course you have to expand your box by being creative but only if you can understand the whole before you reach to the next tier of knowledge. I stopped my stress levels and can see clearly than before. Its all part of the mind process otherwise you exhaust yourself.
I’d like to add what a ‘good book’ defines as could be different from person to person, as we deal with various troubles and life and are each seeking different solutions or answers.
That's a brilliant point. In fact, that reminded me of a line by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner: 'Everyone carries with them at least one piece to someone else's puzzle.'
@@LeoTheComm Yeah, there is a canon for a reason and Schopenhauer advises to read primarily the classics because they have survived scrutiny over a long period of time.
If you feel world-weary you could read the classics, though you might have to struggle to digest them, or you could read some self-help garbage. Every civilization has its "classics", and they exist for a reason. Sure, maybe one person could benefit more from Aristotle and another from Plato, but as others have noted, if one takes the viewpoint you have suggested too far one becomes a relativist incapable of making value judgements.
It's all so true. Many people hate reading because they start doing it, not out of pleasure, but because of school/university assignments which have deadlines and you just end up choking on books just to meet the deadline. The result? Students who might have read many books but don't really understand or have real knowledge in their minds. Reading them slowly gives you the time to analyse them, to grasp the meaning of each word and go farther in the long run than if you read many books in a short period of time.
The main problem with schooling is that 99% of what you are told to read is nearly WORTHLESS. This teaches you that reading doesn't matter and that's devastating in the long-term.
@@PaulMielcarz I agree. We aren't taught how to start our own businesses or manage our finances, or who needs to pay taxes and how much we need to pay. Oh but I did learn a lot of equations for algebra which I now forgot how to solve... Not saying I didn't enjoy it. I did and I guess it worked my mathematical thinking a lot, which is good, but like... Learning them by heart makes no sense. What counts is that you're able to think logically, not that you can cite something perfectly fine.
@@stefanmirica6485 yeah, I didn't say anything about the so considered 'classics'. Actually, I believe in local and popular knowledge. Not that the classics are not interesting and actually relevant to a certain culture or language, but there is just so much knowledge that doesn't get the same recognition for not being paradigmatic or just not coming from a determined heritage...
A fantastic confirmation of my experiences as a reader, I can’t believe it. Books are really capable of being like friends, and by the same corollary, the wrong ones like enemies: be careful who you develop a fondness for!
It would be a mistake at least in the eyes of Schopenhauer by limiting classics to mean only Greek and Latin classics. He says, "In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death." He referred to Upanishads as the productions of the highest human wisdom.
I am becoming such a philistine. Apparently, I’m more extreme than Schopenhauer. This may be the last infotainment YT video I watch, if I’m to follow his advice and my own instinct. Thank you for putting this up
I'll read a book, think about it, then forget without knowing I forgot. However, it is amazing what pops out during conversation and/or discussion over various topics. It's all about recall, because everything you experience is in there if you can access it.
"The purpose of reading is to experience what you could not in your own flesh, learn; then form your own purposes for it in your own experience, your narrative." -brian padrick drake
You have my deepest respect for creating this video. Everything Arthur Schopenhauer said here I totally agree with, and with mere coincidence I by myself happened to reach these same rules and conclusion. No wonder I respect this great philosopher that much ! It is a good thing that the CZcams Algorithms brought me here to find solace.
At some point I just realized that my hobby of reading and my hobby of book collecting are 2 separate hobbies that, fortunately, work together sometimes.
As Schopenhauer points out, the key to reading is to give serious thought and reflection to what one is reading and rereading. Reading is not a race to the end, a point I emphasize again and again as a dedicated book reviewer.
same applies in our times today to Tv shows, movies, netflix binging, also bad books, social media, these are all reading. no wonder most of the people have poisoned minds :D
I would include music on that list, nothing like noise for dulling the mind. Can’t understand why some people always have the radio on, they can’t even shop without some background music. Think it’s a low IQ thing.
Last video of the year... Happy New Year everyone! I want to thank all of you for the support, it's been a pleasure making these videos. We have big plans for 2021, including a whole lot of Nietzsche content. What are your New Year's Resolutions? P.S.: Download Schopenhauer's reading advice here: weltgeist.tv/reading
well this is only a confirmation to what i already intuit. For years I heavily consumed too much information (my form of stimulation) which I thought would get me somewhere until its too much my mind had become what I read. For a time I lost my mind and my system collapsed. Strangely though, my mind now has become mostly silent. I get to discover insights within like what should and shouldn't be done in accordance to my own self.
You're videos and commentary are like a breath of fresh air to a mind that has been drowning in the hysteria of "recent events". How truly I wish I could have a group of friends, or even one friend, who appreciates such enlightening philosophy!
I've met people in academia who read themselves stupid. Personally, I read slowly and thoroughly. My mind whirrs away for hours and hours after reading one inspired line of a great author. One page of Einstein will keep me going for months! Here are three very great books that have inspired many many hours of thought for me: Harari: Sapiens Alighieri: The Divine Comedy (I have not read much of it, but I can see that it's a masterpiece) Einstein: Relativity For pleasure, I like to read Ian Fleming Arthur C Clarke Arthur Conan Doyle Dan Brown Stephen King Asimov C S Lewis and many others...
I wish I had the time to read all the books that I want to. I love to read Montaigne, The Essay’s is always a go to for me. Happy New Year and I can’t wait to read Schopenhauer.
there is a legitimate reason to read [a few] bad books. it's the same as watching bad movies. sometimes it helps to know why bad books are bad so you can appreciate some previously unnoticed nuances in good books. not that i recommend reading bad books on the regular. just that if you happen to have read a few bad ones, just to criticize the books intelligently instead of just chucking them to the bin and bleaching your brain as quickly as you can.
I'm happy to know I generally already follow all these rules. I love Schopenhauer and have read some of his works after reading Nietzsche and having him reference Schopenhauer so much.
That's very interesting! Sound advise since I've been reading quite a lot these days. Certainly agree on reading a book twice, focusing on classics, and taking breaks :)
Unfortunately, books that stood the test of time might have survived not only because of their quality, but also because of the biases contained within the era they survived through. The years that an author's works have passed through are filters, but not just quality filters, they're also ideological filters. For example, many great works have been lost not because of war and such, but simply because scribes in ancient and medieval times had limited resources and time for the copy and translation of these great works. The "passing on" was limited to those works that were seen as the most important, and this could be judged through the lens of ideology, like christianity, islam, etc. Works that, at their time, were judged "not important", or that went against their narrative, would be selected against. So I'd say it's good advice, but we still have to be careful, and take into account that the great works that we have today, are a product of numerous historical and ideological filters.
excellent point, but i find it a bit suspicious how you mention two major religions without mentioning the one most associated with scribes, at least from the western historical perspective. could this be evidence of some unconscious fear of repercussion? surely it is a learned pattern of behavior which, sociologically, points towards the likely (definite) existence of many other similar indoctrinations.
@@briancarroll3541 Sorry, I'm not exactly understanding what you mean. Christianity and Islam are just two examples, they're not the only filters. I mentioned them because they are well known and it's easy for everyone to see in which way they could filter philosophical ideas through time. Of course this perfectly applies to other cultures, other eras, or even political/social ideologies and perspective. Christianity is the most obvious example, but you could take hellenistic ideologies as well. Likewise, if you look a daoist works, you have to consider their long history through various translation, all throughout several eras, and pay attention to how their understanding has evolved (and might have transformed them - or simply have them forgotten).
@@Songriquole no need for apology my friend. my somewhat pointed assertion was intended to be open-ended and thereby invite speculation/further inquiry. one thing is sure; we are living the curse of our ancestry: 'may you live in interesting times.'
I am an avid reader.This advice has truly jolted me and put me in right perspective. Starting today I will do exactly what he says.I was already his fan
Happy new year Weltgeist! Thank you very much for making me discover this wonderful channel in 2020. And please do continue what you're doing next year! Again, best wishes and kind regards.
I did a speed-reading course when I was a teen, and it really helped. You can overcome lazy habits and consume information in a quick, rational way. recommended.
@ to you, but it worked for me .there are some simple exercises Like grasping a paragraph at a glance, using key words, recognising journalistic structures, testing expectations, and disciplining yourself not to second-guess yourself. Try it!
Speed reading is sometimes useful when studying for a test. So if certain knowledge should be retrievable at a certain point in time. If you really want to educate yourself, undertsand things, it's nonsense.
I agree with Schopenhauer. I studied Creative Writing for 4 years, and the air was always heavy with phrases like "read more to become a better writer" and I am now teaching people that this is absolutely not true. All the writers I have known to attempt these books per year challenges always complain they have no time to write, and when I point out that's because they spend their writing time reading, they dismiss it. There's also those who want to sound like whichever author was recently popular, and I know waves happen in the industry where one type of story gets popular and the publishers suddenly open their doors to that sort of story again. I have known writers who have tried to write what's popular or what may sell fast, for example dystopian teen romances about cowonaviwus... these blip onto TV screens and fade away. But these writers almost always have projects in the background that they love more, that they write because they have some question in themselves that can only be answered by the writing of these hidden novels. They write the catchy, short shelf life stuff because it sells and they keep the really good stuff private (either out of a fear of it being criticized because they are emotionally attached to it, or because the industry simply doesn't want it). What readers are then left with is the stories that won't last the test of time, the quick and easy ones. What sells quick is what reminds consumers of what last sold quick. Unfortunately this means publishers have little interest for invention. But it is out there, and more can be made and published. For the writing, I think reading stuff you don't like is good in the short term to help you find what you do like, but that you should read to pick stories apart as well as just enjoying them as a consumer. I know what tropes I absolutely hate to read, so I avoid them or use them for satire. I know people who pick and choose elements from romantic comedies to implant into their science fiction novels, and it's in that crossing of distant genres where a lot of invention happens. So I'm always wary of reading too much from the same place. A good book is a book that inspires you. But then, a bad book has often inspired me to try to rewrite the thing better.
This is outstanding! I love your channel and your videos! Please, please keep up the excellent work. Your videos are one of the reasons I deem CZcams to have any value at all. I taught myself German only because I wanted to read Goethe, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in their own tongues. My brother and his wife then moved to Germany; this made me want to become more fluent in German. Would you please consider doing a video on both Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann--two 20th century authors whom I greatly love reading--and how they were both influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche? Thank you, again.
@@parism555 Ja! Genau! Ich stimme auf jeden Fall dir zu! Das ist wirklich wahr! He is translated well into English but his mood and jokes are often looked over or completely missed.
1. Don’t read too much 2. Reflect on what you’ve read 3. Read classics 4. Read primary texts 5. Good books should be read twice 6. Bad books are poisonned
Funny, but these thoughts have always been close to mine. At 63, I pour over Shakespeare and the King James, incessantly. Currently reading for the second go around UNDER THE VOLCANO... one of the last great English novels. Malcolm Lowery draws from the Bible, Shakespeare, Dante, the Upanishads, among others, a bit like a Brit Moby Dick of the Soul....Bloody good show!
This vision deserves a worthy update. Rule 1: Don't read to much. Rule 2: Reflect on what you have read while taking a walk. Rule 3: Read books written in understandable language. Rule 4: Read mostly story like books. Rule 5: Good books should be read several times.
Yes, but they all have in common that only massive amounts of uninterrupted reading without thinking much about it, sometimes even without having fun, dulls you. Which was never so true as it is today. People read status updates, text messages, article headings, and comments on their smartphones and laptops for most of the day. And what is left of it in the end? Nothing. It's mind-killing zombie activity. They don't mean that you read something that interests you for a few hours every day.
When you mentioned cutting the essay down to its essentials, I thought "man, it would be great to read it whole", and then you just offer the link instantly... I doubt I have ever felt that satisfied in my life.
I especially like the way he stresses the importance of burning heretics to death rather than have them spread their errors. That's some sound logic right there !
I've been reading Experience and Nature of John Dewey for the last two years. From half way in I turned to the beginning a couple of times. Then a Turkish friend of mine asked me to verbally translate some small section from it so he could feel it. It's been about 100 pages translation (from the beginning) so far, which forces me to chew on every sentence I read in English and then translate to Turkish (to the microphone).
I've always been an avid reader; but since I'm continuously pausing to reflect on what I'm reading, progress is very slow, so I can hardly manage more than a dozen solid volumes or so in a year (usually fewer). The upshot is that I remember rather well the contents of my reading; I still recall returning to the chapter called "the Tempest" in David Copperfield, again and again, as a schoolboy (I must've read it a 100 times). Rule 5 came to me instinctively. I always revisit, not a second, but many times, over the years, pages already read years ago, seeing them in a new light each time, understanding them better. Rule 6 is the intellectual equivalent of the economic principle, Bad money drives out the good; on the insistence of friends, I have, for example, made several heroic attempts to read Stephen King, I've never managed to get through the first para or page, I couldn't see what people found unputdownable in Mr. King's kind of stuff. Those who find such stuff of interest, I guess, might also have a tough time telling the difference between masturbation and lovemaking. To each his/her own, of course. Whereas the atmospheric beginning of Manzoni's The Betrothed, or Daphne du Maurier's Flight of the Falcon or Rebecca, or Lawrence Norfolk's The Pope's Rhinoceros, or Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose are another thing altogether! In recent years, instead of finding it unputdownable, I've found it impossible to go beyond the first chapter of Nabokov's King, Queen & Knave: it's so rich, so extraordinary (the author pulls out a whole series of cosmic considerations on Time and Relativity, starting with a train's mere departure from a platform), so beautiful that each time I pick up the book, I find myself re-re-rereading that maiden chapter, and coming away as if intoxicated with the sublimest ambrosia (I challenge the likes of Stephen King & Dan Brown to produce even a single sentence to hold a light to such writing): that's what'll be your experience if you truly loved your wife. Great literature is not statistics (so many, in such and such period of time) or even pleasure, it's love, pure and simple. If I had to add a 7th rule, I'd say, read paper books as far as possible, and don't leave them "virgins", underline, comment, highlight as you go along, look up the meaning of every word that you don't know, don't skip it, fill the sides with marginalia. The act of reading must physically transform the book, as the meeting of two souls does to the nuptial bed. On the blank sheets, at the back of the book, also note down the pp. numbers where you found this or that argument treated with depth and elegance, this will help you to return to the most memorable parts of the book, quicker, in fulfillment of Schopenhauer's rule 5.
"One only really understands the beginning when the end is known." This is all so true! And also in different contexts. However, I have absolutely no intention of reading "The great Greek and Roman authors of antiquity"! It's sad how they at the same time tell you what to read. It's a contradiction.
Read books that follow up ideas from the books you already read, this way you will build upon what you already explored, compare it and get a bigger picture, remember that you are not learning but exploring, a good book will not be a hateful or arrogant book, it will not cherry pick in its favour.
Confusing purchases of books and the acquisition of contents is especially prevalent in the digital age. Many people, including myself, kept a copy of e-book and believe they “acquire the knowledge” without even starting to read 0:13 Sir Schopenhauer hammered the nail at its head!❤
Sucessful students will have learned many of these lessons. I never read all the required literature but decide early on what i can afford (hopefully) to ignore so i can focus on the truly important parts and engage with it on a level beyond a forced quick skim-over. Sometimes you guess wrong what can be ignored but generally this will result in better grades than dutifully reading everything.
I've always been fascinated by greek mythology,specifically aescylus,sophocles and euripides,but recently i'm getting curious about latin antiquity.Definitely agree with reading them twice.
Books are an obsolete method of learning and storing information. Also, most books are garbage. They should like insert flexible screens and chips into books to give them animation and other features. That would be very cool, and maybe it would make the books more interesting and fun to read.
Nowadays we have the time, but feel obliged to waste it, afraid of ourselves facing what obliges us. It's in ourselves, the thoughts could be spotted, but do we want to? The time - tested texts can help, but it's a way to go and it needs trust to overcome the loneliness that comes first in the new (old) wide rooms of possible experiences and insights. But I agree with Schopenhauer: maybe the older we get, the more we need this field, where modernity isn't the only possible point of view. That there's nothing new under the sun, especially existentially speaking, can be a relieving knowledge. Thanks for the video.
Such a beautiful way of thinking. But sadly the education system doesn't allow one to think. Instead it wants to complete deadlines before an exam or a quiz. So, students just rush through the topics and only focus on answering questions instead of asking questions themselves.
When I say that I want to be a writer, they always give me an advice: “Read a lot” Like, why? Do I have to be a writer that everyone read? No, that’s impossible and it’s not important at all. I want to write because I want to write. Not for the people.
I really don't read much, but I learn a lot through CZcams and thought provoking TV shows and movies. I love lectures also via CZcams. I've always wondered why so many who read don't seem to be critical thinkers. I actually love to think about what I've watched on media. Instead of watching tons of shows and movies, I usually spent time on a limited amount of shows and movies and listen to other's ideas about them and rewatch them over and over analytically. I love Lost, The Leftovers, Breaking Bad, Inception, Fight Club, ect. However, in the old days, reading was really the only way to become an intellectual.
Reading rules: 1) learn to read paragraphs and then pages (it's called speed reading) 2) read everything (there are no bad books, just bad choices. Don't decide on whether a book is good or bad till you've read them all) 3) think about what you've read, debate with others 4) make up your mind not to make up your mind (knowledge will continue to change) 5) after you've read everything, stop bullshiting yourself... there's always more books!
Thinking about what you read actually happens automatically while reading. Even with trashy pulp or comics. Actually all the time. Sometimes it's a quick thought, sometimes you close the book briefly. People think you read a paragraph and then watch yourself pondering in the mirror. Of course, if you let yourself get lost in 83 comments on Facebook or 9gag, like two people arguing about politics, thinking often falls by the wayside.
Rule 1: Don't read magazines Rule 2: Don't read newspapers Rule 3: Don't read social media All of the above contain information that is designed to expire in a month, a day, or even an hour. Books--good books--have relevance meant to last a lifetime
Read mindfully. I will align my reading with this strategy. The difference between reading a text in small segments; and trying to consume it in one go is remarkable. I made a mistake in speed reading, recently and retained little knowledge. We often think great minds read vastly; but really: they just read a little exceedingly well (the tortiose and the hare analogy springs to mind). The competent reader is: slow, non-striving, selective and reflective.
As a guy who grew up home-locked to the most literal sense (wasnt really allowed out unless it was swimming lessons, or home-school related stuff) I had books to keep me company. They were mostly fiction as on my 4th birthday my step father gifted me The Hobbit and was quizzed on it every dinner time. Eventually I grew to allow my eyes to see the words for 10% of the effort while I allowed my brain to imagine the scenes and set pieces for 90%. I vividly pictured every book I read, and still today, remember a few scenes that still stuck by me the most. They were the best "TV-series" my brain could create and enjoy. I was never reading, I was always there, watching the characters as the words dictated. And sure, a picture can tell a thousand words, but it never really captures the whole story.
Yeah well that guy was old right before tv so sure the same applies to ingesting useless food for thought. I don't read trashy romance novels and such either or watch romantic movies all that seems like drivel.
I thought this was gonna be one of those videos just to contradict the mainstream thinking for the sake of contradicting, but it is actually quite nice, and I agree with most of these ideas, though I wouldn't be so harsh on new writers. Many people just enjoy reading and nothing wrong with that!
Yeah this is the thing I think many people will miss about this, and what Schopenhauer (based on this video, I don't know his feelings otherwise) seems to forget. Not everything in life is about becoming the ideal thinker. Sometimes you need to enjoy yourself physically to appreciate things intellectually.
Couldn’t agree more. When one reads too much One looses the self thinking ability takes up other people thoughts as his own thoughts and becomes slave of other peoples thoughts. Thoughts are of past memory and that too of others thoughts and by that one looses the ability to think himself in the present and live in the NOW moment and thereby looses mental peace and happiness and starts living in the past , digging graves.
Wow. A beautiful video introducing the 6 Rules for Reading by Schopenhauer. Your videos are always great. So far, I've learnt so many things from your worthy channel. The last video of 2020 proves to be the resounding and rattling show-stopper if I may say so. Loved it thoroughly. Looking forward to even greater videos in the 2021. Happy New Year :)
Nietzsche said something similar, he said many scholars didn't know how to do anything except "trundle books". Its one of the few sane things Nietzsche said.
Curious, what would Schopenhauer say about watching CZcams? Watch a lot to finally find some channels like Weltgeist , or don't even start and read some classics.
@@WeltgeistYT It's like panning for gold. Not getting discouraged or sidetracked by the multiple thousands of mental pebbles and boulders which must be sifted through in order to unearth such gems, is paramouont to the nature of the quest. Resiliance, patience and a certain surrendering to the process without losing focus, is all a part of the process. On the other hand, it's not exactly lke SHCOPENHAUER
Martin Buber I and Thou read this out loud to each other, stopping every time something didn't make sense, discuss, resume when ready...this was like a spa treatment: intense, no more than half an hour, but wonderful.
“Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”---- Ernest Hemingway.
It takes me months to read a book. I take in 3- 10 pages a day depending on my time. Currently, reading Ulysses and I just couldn't move beyond 2 pages a day. Besides, I love the Russian classics. I can spend a lifetime reading the works of Russian authors.
I think instead that to read too much is good, if "too much" is like read a book in 3 days isn't bad because in this time other activities are literally a waste of time, so if one read (also books that are less hard and less important like a novel) 4 hours a day that's really good, reading doesn't make you more stupid, that's impossible if you know what Reading means...
Yes. If from 5 hours of online time reading short messages, comments, Facebook and Twitter, you read a book that interests you for 4 hours instead, it is no loss. That is basically what Schopenhauer was talking about. Pointless mass reading of stuff, just to read. Without thinking. Without real interest.
@@rolanddeschain6089 I didn't study this Schopenhauer's thoughts at school, so maybe I'm missing somethin, but from the video I understood that for S. you must read little every day (also primary stuff), so 4 hours a day are bad for S. Did I misunderstand something? P. S. Sorry for the bad English I'm not native
@@andreanfuso 4 hours was little reading for someone like Schopenhauer. But it doesn't really matter if its 6 hours or 3 or 1. The important part is that you should read carefully and reflect on what you have read. That doesn't mean that afterwards you sit down somewhere for hours and compulsively try to force meaning into something. It's much more that you should think about it while reading and afterwards think about a (good) book in everyday life anyway. If it was a good book - and not just tons of meaningless text. Which, as I said, is even more true in the Internet age. When it comes to "only read the greats of all time" I am not so much with Schopenhauer. I mean, you should read them. But not exclusively. Some popular science books changed my life. And what would I have done, for example, without a good thriller or good horror in a hot summer night? That was a great time and wisdom is hidden everywhere :)
Our Veds and Upanishads are probably the most beautiful and important classics. From atoms to the universe they deal with all, not forgetting that they have stood the test of time.
Good Advice For Adults. When You are Young , One Can't be so discriminatory. When Young Read All You Can , Think about Them , Keep Notes and as you go along , try to focus on what captivates you , what lifts you up and what appears to be relevant to your life. Narrow down your selections and read them again and again. Sound advice .Good Video. Thanks
Rule 7: Read books in their original language. Greek writers in Greek, Latin in Latin, German in German, Chinese in Chinese... It will bring you much farther than any erudite.
My Amazon purchase history vs what I have actually read, has proved to me time and again that book reading habit is a completely different hobby compared to book hoarding habit.
Which books does Schopenhauer recommend? Here are four: czcams.com/video/0PWBfDhmhgE/video.html
To me, Schopenhauer was the creator of modern day black metal. He had the courage and the vision to see things the way those who know how to make genuine black metal songs do now. So he wrote text, which, if taken a bit apart can be used as an inspiration to create amazing black metal songs. There are black metallers who are like this now. Those rare black metallers who respect other people´s beliefs, ideas and opinions. His books are really a beautiful labyrinth of black metal songs which you can use to craft amazing songs if you are into that sort of thing.
1. De teaching of das Buddha:
Dharmapada
2. Upanishad
3. A mathematician lament
art of being right obviously
The more I hear about this guy we are alot alike wolf
A man should read much , but not many books ! Benjamin Franklin
Rule 1: Don't read too much
Rule 2: Think about what you've read
Rule 3: Focus on the classics
Rule 4: Read primary texts
Rule 5: Good books should be read twice
Rule 6: Bad books are poison
So true. Reading isn't problematic but rather be carefully with what you read
Thanks, the voice from Weltgeist is horror he's talking so slow and stupid
Thanks
Bad books are not poison if you are aware that they are bad
Makes sense.
Schopenhauer would have hated CZcams.
If it wasn’t for CZcams we wouldn’t have got to know about Schopenhauer. It’s up to us to apply the rules of books when watching CZcams videos appropriately like bad videos are poison and don’t watch too much etc.
Technology changes the preferred medium of information: from written material to printed material to audio to now video. Who knows what will come next.
@@pzan49 ok, I'm now gonna watch pewdiepie play amnesia for the first time... classics are classics.
True man
@@pzan49 How the hell you wouldn't have gotten to know Schopenhauer without CZcams?
@@TetinKlimenteThere is such a thing as a library and you can know more from it
I think it would be more important to apply this to media consumption
very valid
Partly, yes.
It would make perfect sense since he is writing from his time, in which writing was the only available media. For example we can say "bad books" are equivalent to "click bait"
@@dmark1922 I would say bad books are also equivalent to bad movies, bad TV, and news media generally, whether physical or online newspapers, TV news, etc. The vast majority of media is bad, as was the vast majority of books in Schopenhauer's time, and should be avoided like the plague.
Todays translation: dont do tik tok/instagram
When I said this in my language class,the teacher almost threw me out.When I told her it was Schopenhauer's words,she became silent and harshly changed the subject.The cognitive dissonance of some individuals is dumbfounding.
The education system is made for us to become "productive", not thinkers, a fucking waste of life
Teachers are not thinkers. They are salary paid, reproductive, nicely fit into normal humans. She was teaching us what the govt decided us to read. Their power their books their teacher their exam their job their systm and at last their punishments.
All world is full of them. We are victim of systm of billions of slave minds.
People do have a way of defending their way of life and what they assume is right. My friend, don't stop questioning. 👍Don't be afraid to offend.
@@sameermalik-bg7sk I'm sorry but that I a huge generalisation. I'm a high school science teacher that is trying to learn about philosophy, economics, storytelling and psychology because I love to learn. I question everything. And I think a lot. And when I was a student I found some amazing teachers that were great thinkers, even though it was a rare thing.
@@sameermalik-bg7sk some yes, but not ALL
There is no use in buying a library full of books if one cannot read them all. It becomes a burden, as Seneca notes. Instead we should read selectively, and read well :) Great video
It's basic advice like this that survives throughout history.
But it makes a difference to know that you have the books you need and can always look them up.
But I like owning books. They're the only thing I collect.
Only books that I have read end up in my library.
But I think one shouldn't see a library like this as pretentious science and self-help mechanism. It's also fun to collect and decorate.
Some have tons of books that they haven't read or haven't read yet. For these people, a library is more of an opportunity. A way to browse for fun and have the right book at the right moment.
In times of e-books and audiobooks online, it's not really necessary either. But certainly not bad either.
Nobody has become explicitly dumber because they liked to read and owned books. So take it easy.
I agree. I also don't understand all this mentality of "I READ 10 BOOKS IN A DAY" that's a lots of those self help people have, I think investing myself on a 1 single book, to truly understand it, takes some important notes of it, even if it take a longer to finished is more important, from my perspective.
Reading is a tool to ingest information. Thinking is a tool to process information. People mistakenly assume that reading will improve thinking, however the fact is that reading can only supplement thinking. Only thinking (writing: which involves thinking) can improve thinking
Nice to see my my fellow indian here , wassup buddy ?
Thanks I screenshot your comment to let soak in real good.
But what can one write about
@@brasti9088 can be about anything, and need not be for anyone. The process of writing itself helps you to organise your thoughts better by forcing you to think more deliberately. A daily journal can be a good start
This is an interesting thought
"Reading a book twice" is actually one of the demands Schopenhauer made in the preface of the World as Will and Representation!
Yep! Well spotted
@@WeltgeistYT I love the fact that the somewhat lesser-known aspects of Schopenhauer's thoughts are featured in this channel, along with the main body of his system. An essay highly related to this one, and awfully relevant to our present time, is Schopenhauer's On Education. I would love to see that being featured one day.
The irony is the best channel on YT covering Schopenhauer has a Hegelian name!
@@mingmiao364 I just discovered Schopenhauer yesterday, why is the name ironic?
@@rmt3589 "Weltgeist" is German for "spirit of the world" (welt = world, geist = spirit) and it's a central idea of Hegel's philosophy.
When it comes to Schopenhauer's relation to Hegel... Well, I'm just gonna give you a quote:
"Hegel, installed from above, by the powers that be, as the certified Great Philosopher, was a flat-headed, insipid, nauseating, illiterate charlatan who reached the pinnacle of audacity in scribbling together and dishing up the craziest mystifying nonsense. This nonsense has been noisily proclaimed as immortal wisdom by mercenary followers and readily accepted as such by all fools, who thus joined into as perfect a chorus of admiration as had ever been heard before."
(The World as Will and Representation v.2)
The bois were not very fond of each other to say the least and thus the irony.
@@LeBartoshe Ah. Then it's probably more ironic that I discovered Schopenhauer through Weltgeist.
I had a friend who made a point of being a big reader since he could afford to not work to live. He indeed became intellectually more rigid and arrogant towards the rest of us who couldn't read as much. The most painful part was when he decided he would himself be a writer and self published hundreds of pages divided in three volumes. Since his work was an unreadable mush of words and sentences, I politely suggested he could work with a publisher in order to extract what he wanted to express. He took my advice not too graciously. We no longer are friends.
😅
How did you become friends?
@@african9686 We were flatmates in the early noughties. I actually learned a lot from him, but he started to change after he got kicked out of a cult of which he was a member - and fairly high up too within its hierarchy. The sad thing is he'll probably never understand how lucky that was for him.
@@dalesco4205 ow yeah, this is what I wanted to see. You were never really friends. You just lived together for a long time. Work, school, flats and team relationships are weak. When the common factor is removed, eventually people will go to where they supposed to be.
@@african9686 No, we were good friends indeed. We spent less than a year sharing an apartment and our friendship lasted fot around 16 years. But as I mentioned previously something happened in his life that deeply affected him and he started to change from that point.
On reading a good book twice. The first is for the sake of familiarity. The second is for the sake of dialogue. Reading a great book provides the unique opportunity of talking and discussing with the dead.
"But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body." (NASB; Ecclesiastes 12:12)
I am glad someone posted that bible verse here already.
God bless you, check also, 1cor 4v6
good
I, for one, am willing to trade the vitality of my body, which will soon deteriorate with age anyways, for persuit of knowledge I enjoy.
Simplicity is really the way of life
Word.
No it's moderation, simplicity negates creativity.
@@mabimabi212 The brain has two locations.
Logical and Creativity. Simplicity doesn't apply to creativity, only logical.
If you want creativity to improve, you would have to moderate logical by being less complex.
@@hextechmagikarp4610 If simplicity doesn't apply to creativity, then why do you need to lessen complexity to improve creativity?
Merriam-Webster (Atleast in my copy) defines creativity as "The ability to create" and "The quality of being creative". Being creative also haves 3 definitions: "Marked by the ability or power to create", "Having the quality of something created, rather than imitated." and "Managed so to get around legal or coventional limits".
All of those definitions would oppose simplicity. You'd have to think deeply and complexly to create something never seen before. You'd have to think very hard to make something that's not an imitation or atleast an improvement of someones' work. You'd have to think outside of the box to get around conventional and legal limits - limits which are arguably simple since it's the rules imposed by the government and common consensus.
Creativity requires you to think outside the box or in a complex way. Simplicity is the opposite of complexity, simplicity is the box.
@@mabimabi212 You are going by technical definition
Personally I've been battling ways to improve myself. The simplicity only defines things that are basic enough to understand.
Ever since my journey, I noticed that improved better without even thinking too much due these type of videos.
Of course you have to expand your box by being creative but only if you can understand the whole before you reach to the next tier of knowledge.
I stopped my stress levels and can see clearly than before.
Its all part of the mind process otherwise you exhaust yourself.
I’d like to add what a ‘good book’ defines as could be different from person to person, as we deal with various troubles and life and are each seeking different solutions or answers.
That's true, but one should always keep an eye on the classics.
That's a brilliant point. In fact, that reminded me of a line by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner: 'Everyone carries with them at least one piece to someone else's puzzle.'
Keep thinking that way and guess what? You'll condition yourself to believe that nothing is true.
@@LeoTheComm Yeah, there is a canon for a reason and Schopenhauer advises to read primarily the classics because they have survived scrutiny over a long period of time.
If you feel world-weary you could read the classics, though you might have to struggle to digest them, or you could read some self-help garbage. Every civilization has its "classics", and they exist for a reason.
Sure, maybe one person could benefit more from Aristotle and another from Plato, but as others have noted, if one takes the viewpoint you have suggested too far one becomes a relativist incapable of making value judgements.
It's all so true. Many people hate reading because they start doing it, not out of pleasure, but because of school/university assignments which have deadlines and you just end up choking on books just to meet the deadline. The result? Students who might have read many books but don't really understand or have real knowledge in their minds. Reading them slowly gives you the time to analyse them, to grasp the meaning of each word and go farther in the long run than if you read many books in a short period of time.
But would reading books solely categorized at "great" or "classics", not affect the feeling of " chocking on books"?
The main problem with schooling is that 99% of what you are told to read is nearly WORTHLESS. This teaches you that reading doesn't matter and that's devastating in the long-term.
@@PaulMielcarz I agree. We aren't taught how to start our own businesses or manage our finances, or who needs to pay taxes and how much we need to pay. Oh but I did learn a lot of equations for algebra which I now forgot how to solve... Not saying I didn't enjoy it. I did and I guess it worked my mathematical thinking a lot, which is good, but like... Learning them by heart makes no sense. What counts is that you're able to think logically, not that you can cite something perfectly fine.
@@stefanmirica6485 yeah, I didn't say anything about the so considered 'classics'. Actually, I believe in local and popular knowledge. Not that the classics are not interesting and actually relevant to a certain culture or language, but there is just so much knowledge that doesn't get the same recognition for not being paradigmatic or just not coming from a determined heritage...
I already matered the art of not reading books. This is the only thing that ive master so far
It's showing 😂
CZcams replaced books long ago 😂
Lah shu kren bro
Lol
Funny how the trik wark.
"Teach everyone to read, and the spirit will stink." Nietzsche, Zarathustra
Nietzsche was quite stupid and evil. He was a frail sickling who dreamed about becoming Conan.
A fantastic confirmation of my experiences as a reader, I can’t believe it. Books are really capable of being like friends, and by the same corollary, the wrong ones like enemies: be careful who you develop a fondness for!
Thank you, great comment
It would be a mistake at least in the eyes of Schopenhauer by limiting classics to mean only Greek and Latin classics. He says, "In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death." He referred to Upanishads as the productions of the highest human wisdom.
Wow .. is that true . I did not know .. must discover more about him
I am becoming such a philistine. Apparently, I’m more extreme than Schopenhauer. This may be the last infotainment YT video I watch, if I’m to follow his advice and my own instinct. Thank you for putting this up
SCHOPENHAUER: Don't read too much
Me: You don't have to worry pal
😂
I'll read a book, think about it, then forget without knowing I forgot. However, it is amazing what pops out during conversation and/or discussion over various topics.
It's all about recall, because everything you experience is in there if you can access it.
"The purpose of reading is to experience what you could not in your own flesh, learn; then form your own purposes for it in your own experience, your narrative." -brian padrick drake
nice
You have my deepest respect for creating this video. Everything Arthur Schopenhauer said here I totally agree with, and with mere coincidence I by myself happened to reach these same rules and conclusion. No wonder I respect this great philosopher that much ! It is a good thing that the CZcams Algorithms brought me here to find solace.
Dear Schopenhauer: I’ve read too much and that’s why I was able to read what you said about not reading too much.
As someone who reads _very little_ I have to ask, when would you say that you have passed into the "too much" territory?
@@themaxterz0169 Same question to Mr. Schopenhauer. He started it!
@@themaxterz0169 Great reply.
Lmao @ the midwits liking this.
At some point I just realized that my hobby of reading and my hobby of book collecting are 2 separate hobbies that, fortunately, work together sometimes.
As Schopenhauer points out, the key to reading is to give serious thought and reflection to what one is reading and rereading. Reading is not a race to the end, a point I emphasize again and again as a dedicated book reviewer.
same applies in our times today to Tv shows, movies, netflix binging, also bad books, social media, these are all reading.
no wonder most of the people have poisoned minds :D
Very true
Only read the books banned by the government, if you don't want to be brainwashed.
They are seeking for short term pleasure.
I would include music on that list, nothing like noise for dulling the mind. Can’t understand why some people always have the radio on, they can’t even shop without some background music. Think it’s a low IQ thing.
@@david-pb4bi that's probably why I have all this ringing in my ears. No radio on, no TV on, complete silence except the ringing in my ears.
Last video of the year... Happy New Year everyone! I want to thank all of you for the support, it's been a pleasure making these videos. We have big plans for 2021, including a whole lot of Nietzsche content. What are your New Year's Resolutions?
P.S.: Download Schopenhauer's reading advice here: weltgeist.tv/reading
The same to you for 2021 WG, thank you.👍👍
Master my self
Very usefull, priceless, thank you!!
Intensely waiting for Friedrich Nietzschne
Found this channel early this morning. Great Stuff!!...I always find myself returning to Schopenhauer , in all moods and times of life
Read from authors and literature that have stood the test of time. Genius!
well this is only a confirmation to what i already intuit. For years I heavily consumed too much information (my form of stimulation) which I thought would get me somewhere until its too much my mind had become what I read. For a time I lost my mind and my system collapsed. Strangely though, my mind now has become mostly silent. I get to discover insights within like what should and shouldn't be done in accordance to my own self.
You're videos and commentary are like a breath of fresh air to a mind that has been drowning in the hysteria of "recent events". How truly I wish I could have a group of friends, or even one friend, who appreciates such enlightening philosophy!
I've met people in academia who read themselves stupid.
Personally, I read slowly and thoroughly. My mind whirrs away for hours and hours after reading one inspired line of a great author. One page of Einstein will keep me going for months!
Here are three very great books that have inspired many many hours of thought for me:
Harari: Sapiens
Alighieri: The Divine Comedy (I have not read much of it, but I can see that it's a masterpiece)
Einstein: Relativity
For pleasure, I like to read
Ian Fleming
Arthur C Clarke
Arthur Conan Doyle
Dan Brown
Stephen King
Asimov
C S Lewis
and many others...
Schopenhauer is one of my new favourites. I can't believe I have only recently learned of his existence and works.
wait till you read about what he thought on women lol
@@_oshiri-2224 yeah, he's spot on about that too.
I wish I had the time to read all the books that I want to. I love to read Montaigne, The Essay’s is always a go to for me. Happy New Year and I can’t wait to read Schopenhauer.
Montaigne is great!
there is a legitimate reason to read [a few] bad books. it's the same as watching bad movies. sometimes it helps to know why bad books are bad so you can appreciate some previously unnoticed nuances in good books. not that i recommend reading bad books on the regular. just that if you happen to have read a few bad ones, just to criticize the books intelligently instead of just chucking them to the bin and bleaching your brain as quickly as you can.
I'm happy to know I generally already follow all these rules. I love Schopenhauer and have read some of his works after reading Nietzsche and having him reference Schopenhauer so much.
That's very interesting! Sound advise since I've been reading quite a lot these days. Certainly agree on reading a book twice, focusing on classics, and taking breaks :)
Unfortunately, books that stood the test of time might have survived not only because of their quality, but also because of the biases contained within the era they survived through.
The years that an author's works have passed through are filters, but not just quality filters, they're also ideological filters. For example, many great works have been lost not because of war and such, but simply because scribes in ancient and medieval times had limited resources and time for the copy and translation of these great works. The "passing on" was limited to those works that were seen as the most important, and this could be judged through the lens of ideology, like christianity, islam, etc. Works that, at their time, were judged "not important", or that went against their narrative, would be selected against.
So I'd say it's good advice, but we still have to be careful, and take into account that the great works that we have today, are a product of numerous historical and ideological filters.
excellent point, but i find it a bit suspicious how you mention two major religions without mentioning the one most associated with scribes, at least from the western historical perspective. could this be evidence of some unconscious fear of repercussion? surely it is a learned pattern of behavior which, sociologically, points towards the likely (definite) existence of many other similar indoctrinations.
@@briancarroll3541 Sorry, I'm not exactly understanding what you mean. Christianity and Islam are just two examples, they're not the only filters. I mentioned them because they are well known and it's easy for everyone to see in which way they could filter philosophical ideas through time. Of course this perfectly applies to other cultures, other eras, or even political/social ideologies and perspective. Christianity is the most obvious example, but you could take hellenistic ideologies as well. Likewise, if you look a daoist works, you have to consider their long history through various translation, all throughout several eras, and pay attention to how their understanding has evolved (and might have transformed them - or simply have them forgotten).
Good comment. There’s also a good bit of plain luck involved in which books end up being passed on.
@@Songriquole no need for apology my friend. my somewhat pointed assertion was intended to be open-ended and thereby invite speculation/further inquiry. one thing is sure; we are living the curse of our ancestry: 'may you live in interesting times.'
it seemed to me that rule 4 : read primary texts was also aimed at this point
I am an avid reader.This advice has truly jolted me and put me in right perspective.
Starting today I will do exactly what he says.I was already his fan
Happy new year Weltgeist! Thank you very much for making me discover this wonderful channel in 2020. And please do continue what you're doing next year! Again, best wishes and kind regards.
Thank you very much. Same to you
And now think about all those speed reading courses and tutorials.
I did a speed-reading course when I was a teen, and it really helped.
You can overcome lazy habits and
consume information in a quick, rational way. recommended.
@@smkh2890 Bullshit!
@ to you, but it worked for me .there are some simple exercises
Like grasping a paragraph at a glance, using key words, recognising journalistic structures, testing expectations, and disciplining yourself not to second-guess yourself. Try it!
@ Toma, bestão!
Speed reading is sometimes useful when studying for a test. So if certain knowledge should be retrievable at a certain point in time.
If you really want to educate yourself, undertsand things, it's nonsense.
I agree with Schopenhauer. I studied Creative Writing for 4 years, and the air was always heavy with phrases like "read more to become a better writer" and I am now teaching people that this is absolutely not true. All the writers I have known to attempt these books per year challenges always complain they have no time to write, and when I point out that's because they spend their writing time reading, they dismiss it.
There's also those who want to sound like whichever author was recently popular, and I know waves happen in the industry where one type of story gets popular and the publishers suddenly open their doors to that sort of story again. I have known writers who have tried to write what's popular or what may sell fast, for example dystopian teen romances about cowonaviwus... these blip onto TV screens and fade away. But these writers almost always have projects in the background that they love more, that they write because they have some question in themselves that can only be answered by the writing of these hidden novels. They write the catchy, short shelf life stuff because it sells and they keep the really good stuff private (either out of a fear of it being criticized because they are emotionally attached to it, or because the industry simply doesn't want it).
What readers are then left with is the stories that won't last the test of time, the quick and easy ones.
What sells quick is what reminds consumers of what last sold quick. Unfortunately this means publishers have little interest for invention. But it is out there, and more can be made and published. For the writing, I think reading stuff you don't like is good in the short term to help you find what you do like, but that you should read to pick stories apart as well as just enjoying them as a consumer. I know what tropes I absolutely hate to read, so I avoid them or use them for satire. I know people who pick and choose elements from romantic comedies to implant into their science fiction novels, and it's in that crossing of distant genres where a lot of invention happens. So I'm always wary of reading too much from the same place. A good book is a book that inspires you. But then, a bad book has often inspired me to try to rewrite the thing better.
This is outstanding! I love your channel and your videos! Please, please keep up the excellent work. Your videos are one of the reasons I deem CZcams to have any value at all. I taught myself German only because I wanted to read Goethe, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in their own tongues. My brother and his wife then moved to Germany; this made me want to become more fluent in German. Would you please consider doing a video on both Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann--two 20th century authors whom I greatly love reading--and how they were both influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche? Thank you, again.
Thank you very much for this great comment
Ich auch habe gleiche gemacht!
@@parism555 das ist Super! Nietzsche auf Deutsch zu lesen, macht viel Spaß!
James Collins jawohl! Ich finde dass wenn ich Nietzsche lese, gibt es vielen Witze auf Deutsch. Unfortunately they aren’t in the English translations.
@@parism555 Ja! Genau! Ich stimme auf jeden Fall dir zu! Das ist wirklich wahr! He is translated well into English but his mood and jokes are often looked over or completely missed.
Man, this video is one single most important video I've seen in a months. Thank you.
Well done.
Bravo!
1. Don’t read too much
2. Reflect on what you’ve read
3. Read classics
4. Read primary texts
5. Good books should be read twice
6. Bad books are poisonned
Love that you put this all together.
Funny, but these thoughts have always been close to mine. At 63, I pour over Shakespeare and the King James, incessantly. Currently reading for the second go around UNDER THE VOLCANO... one of the last great English novels. Malcolm Lowery draws from the Bible, Shakespeare, Dante, the Upanishads, among others, a bit like a Brit Moby Dick of the Soul....Bloody good show!
Excellent!
This vision deserves a worthy update.
Rule 1: Don't read to much.
Rule 2: Reflect on what you have read while taking a walk.
Rule 3: Read books written in understandable language.
Rule 4: Read mostly story like books.
Rule 5: Good books should be read several times.
He is not alone on not to read much, Marcus Aurelius,Seneca, Miyamoto Musashi,etc!!!!
Yes, but they all have in common that only massive amounts of uninterrupted reading without thinking much about it, sometimes even without having fun, dulls you.
Which was never so true as it is today.
People read status updates, text messages, article headings, and comments on their smartphones and laptops for most of the day. And what is left of it in the end? Nothing. It's mind-killing zombie activity.
They don't mean that you read something that interests you for a few hours every day.
Like many things, he didn't exactly practice what he preached though...he was very well read, particularly by 19th century standards.
When you mentioned cutting the essay down to its essentials, I thought "man, it would be great to read it whole", and then you just offer the link instantly... I doubt I have ever felt that satisfied in my life.
Thomas Aquinas is always good to get one thinking. His economy of words is remarkable. He packs so much into very few words.
I especially like the way he stresses the importance of burning heretics to death rather than have them spread their errors. That's some sound logic right there !
@@redhen2470 Yes, unironically.
@@redhen2470 And with that you throw out everything from a great historical intellect? Foolish, childish and sad.
I've been reading Experience and Nature of John Dewey for the last two years. From half way in I turned to the beginning a couple of times. Then a Turkish friend of mine asked me to verbally translate some small section from it so he could feel it. It's been about 100 pages translation (from the beginning) so far, which forces me to chew on every sentence I read in English and then translate to Turkish (to the microphone).
I have just bought 2 books last Saturday night, and I've already started reading, then this appeared on my CZcams app homescreen... Damn.
What books?
We are on same page, no more energy.
I've always been an avid reader; but since I'm continuously pausing to reflect on what I'm reading, progress is very slow, so I can hardly manage more than a dozen solid volumes or so in a year (usually fewer). The upshot is that I remember rather well the contents of my reading; I still recall returning to the chapter called "the Tempest" in David Copperfield, again and again, as a schoolboy (I must've read it a 100 times). Rule 5 came to me instinctively. I always revisit, not a second, but many times, over the years, pages already read years ago, seeing them in a new light each time, understanding them better. Rule 6 is the intellectual equivalent of the economic principle, Bad money drives out the good; on the insistence of friends, I have, for example, made several heroic attempts to read Stephen King, I've never managed to get through the first para or page, I couldn't see what people found unputdownable in Mr. King's kind of stuff. Those who find such stuff of interest, I guess, might also have a tough time telling the difference between masturbation and lovemaking. To each his/her own, of course.
Whereas the atmospheric beginning of Manzoni's The Betrothed, or Daphne du Maurier's Flight of the Falcon or Rebecca, or Lawrence Norfolk's The Pope's Rhinoceros, or Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose are another thing altogether! In recent years, instead of finding it unputdownable, I've found it impossible to go beyond the first chapter of Nabokov's King, Queen & Knave: it's so rich, so extraordinary (the author pulls out a whole series of cosmic considerations on Time and Relativity, starting with a train's mere departure from a platform), so beautiful that each time I pick up the book, I find myself re-re-rereading that maiden chapter, and coming away as if intoxicated with the sublimest ambrosia (I challenge the likes of Stephen King & Dan Brown to produce even a single sentence to hold a light to such writing): that's what'll be your experience if you truly loved your wife. Great literature is not statistics (so many, in such and such period of time) or even pleasure, it's love, pure and simple.
If I had to add a 7th rule, I'd say, read paper books as far as possible, and don't leave them "virgins", underline, comment, highlight as you go along, look up the meaning of every word that you don't know, don't skip it, fill the sides with marginalia. The act of reading must physically transform the book, as the meeting of two souls does to the nuptial bed. On the blank sheets, at the back of the book, also note down the pp. numbers where you found this or that argument treated with depth and elegance, this will help you to return to the most memorable parts of the book, quicker, in fulfillment of Schopenhauer's rule 5.
"One only really understands the beginning when the end is known." This is all so true! And also in different contexts. However, I have absolutely no intention of reading "The great Greek and Roman authors of antiquity"! It's sad how they at the same time tell you what to read. It's a contradiction.
Read books that follow up ideas from the books you already read, this way you will build upon what you already explored, compare it and get a bigger picture, remember that you are not learning but exploring, a good book will not be a hateful or arrogant book, it will not cherry pick in its favour.
I just came across your vids 20 minutes ago, good stuff man! Subbed, keep it up
I was the same...insta-sub 😁
@@mixerD1- 100%
Thanks for the support guys!
Confusing purchases of books and the acquisition of contents is especially prevalent in the digital age. Many people, including myself, kept a copy of e-book and believe they “acquire the knowledge” without even starting to read 0:13
Sir Schopenhauer hammered the nail at its head!❤
I read Schopenhauer's essays when I was in my early twenties and I didn't realize until now how completely he has taken over my mind.
Sucessful students will have learned many of these lessons. I never read all the required literature but decide early on what i can afford (hopefully) to ignore so i can focus on the truly important parts and engage with it on a level beyond a forced quick skim-over. Sometimes you guess wrong what can be ignored but generally this will result in better grades than dutifully reading everything.
I've always been fascinated by greek mythology,specifically aescylus,sophocles and euripides,but recently i'm getting curious about latin antiquity.Definitely agree with reading them twice.
Thank you for making the download available for us to read ourselves. Very clever & helpful of you. Cheers!
Books are an obsolete method of learning and storing information.
Also, most books are garbage.
They should like insert flexible screens and chips into books to give them animation and other features.
That would be very cool, and maybe it would make the books more interesting and fun to read.
Nowadays we have the time, but feel obliged to waste it, afraid of ourselves facing what obliges us. It's in ourselves, the thoughts could be spotted, but do we want to? The time - tested texts can help, but it's a way to go and it needs trust to overcome the loneliness that comes first in the new (old) wide rooms of possible experiences and insights. But I agree with Schopenhauer: maybe the older we get, the more we need this field, where modernity isn't the only possible point of view. That there's nothing new under the sun, especially existentially speaking, can be a relieving knowledge. Thanks for the video.
extremely high quality channel
Thank you
Such a beautiful way of thinking. But sadly the education system doesn't allow one to think. Instead it wants to complete deadlines before an exam or a quiz. So, students just rush through the topics and only focus on answering questions instead of asking questions themselves.
When I say that I want to be a writer, they always give me an advice: “Read a lot”
Like, why?
Do I have to be a writer that everyone read? No, that’s impossible and it’s not important at all.
I want to write because I want to write. Not for the people.
You can only write simple mumbo jumbo if you dont stand on other writers shoulders by reading their books.
Why are you telling people you want to be a writer if you don't write for the people?
I really don't read much, but I learn a lot through CZcams and thought provoking TV shows and movies. I love lectures also via CZcams.
I've always wondered why so many who read don't seem to be critical thinkers. I actually love to think about what I've watched on media. Instead of watching tons of shows and movies, I usually spent time on a limited amount of shows and movies and listen to other's ideas about them and rewatch them over and over analytically. I love Lost, The Leftovers, Breaking Bad, Inception, Fight Club, ect. However, in the old days, reading was really the only way to become an intellectual.
I’m only capable of reading good books, once. First impression never lies.
how do you know if you never read them twice?!
Reading rules:
1) learn to read paragraphs and then pages (it's called speed reading)
2) read everything (there are no bad books, just bad choices. Don't decide on whether a book is good or bad till you've read them all)
3) think about what you've read, debate with others
4) make up your mind not to make up your mind (knowledge will continue to change)
5) after you've read everything, stop bullshiting yourself... there's always more books!
Thinking about what you read actually happens automatically while reading. Even with trashy pulp or comics.
Actually all the time. Sometimes it's a quick thought, sometimes you close the book briefly.
People think you read a paragraph and then watch yourself pondering in the mirror.
Of course, if you let yourself get lost in 83 comments on Facebook or 9gag, like two people arguing about politics, thinking often falls by the wayside.
"There are an unlimited amount of books being published every year, most of which are bad."
Yeah, I'm stealing that one.
Rule 1: Don't read magazines
Rule 2: Don't read newspapers
Rule 3: Don't read social media
All of the above contain information that is designed to expire in a month, a day, or even an hour. Books--good books--have relevance meant to last a lifetime
Rule 4: Don't read CZcams comments. Ha!
Read mindfully. I will align my reading with this strategy. The difference between reading a text in small segments; and trying to consume it in one go is remarkable. I made a mistake in speed reading, recently and retained little knowledge. We often think great minds read vastly; but really: they just read a little exceedingly well (the tortiose and the hare analogy springs to mind). The competent reader is: slow, non-striving, selective and reflective.
When reading Plato I have been told one should read a dialogue at least three times to start with...of course, one can go back more times after that!
As a guy who grew up home-locked to the most literal sense (wasnt really allowed out unless it was swimming lessons, or home-school related stuff) I had books to keep me company.
They were mostly fiction as on my 4th birthday my step father gifted me The Hobbit and was quizzed on it every dinner time.
Eventually I grew to allow my eyes to see the words for 10% of the effort while I allowed my brain to imagine the scenes and set pieces for 90%. I vividly pictured every book I read, and still today, remember a few scenes that still stuck by me the most.
They were the best "TV-series" my brain could create and enjoy.
I was never reading, I was always there, watching the characters as the words dictated. And sure, a picture can tell a thousand words, but it never really captures the whole story.
I use this also with TV shows and similar, never rush to watch new things as most of them are bad
Yeah well that guy was old right before tv so sure the same applies to ingesting useless food for thought. I don't read trashy romance novels and such either or watch romantic movies all that seems like drivel.
Good books are those which instructions can be immediately put in a practice of good ruling the personal life.
I just love him. He told most things about book that i agree. Wish i knew abouth that guy before. Thanks for video.
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius is my recommendation for worthwhile reading.
I thought this was gonna be one of those videos just to contradict the mainstream thinking for the sake of contradicting, but it is actually quite nice, and I agree with most of these ideas, though I wouldn't be so harsh on new writers. Many people just enjoy reading and nothing wrong with that!
Yeah this is the thing I think many people will miss about this, and what Schopenhauer (based on this video, I don't know his feelings otherwise) seems to forget. Not everything in life is about becoming the ideal thinker. Sometimes you need to enjoy yourself physically to appreciate things intellectually.
Couldn’t agree more. When one reads too much One looses the self thinking ability takes up other people thoughts as his own thoughts and becomes slave of other peoples thoughts. Thoughts are of past memory and that too of others thoughts and by that one looses the ability to think himself in the present and live in the NOW moment and thereby looses mental peace and happiness and starts living in the past , digging graves.
I agree with some of his advice but the cool thing is that I don’t gotta follow it
Wow. A beautiful video introducing the 6 Rules for Reading by Schopenhauer. Your videos are always great. So far, I've learnt so many things from your worthy channel. The last video of 2020 proves to be the resounding and rattling show-stopper if I may say so. Loved it thoroughly. Looking forward to even greater videos in the 2021. Happy New Year :)
Thank you very much. Happy new year
@@WeltgeistYT Happy New Year :)
Such is das case with many scholars:
They read themselves stupid.
For ever reading
Never to be read.
Truth works far and lives long;
And hilarious
Nietzsche said something similar, he said many scholars didn't know how to do anything except "trundle books". Its one of the few sane things Nietzsche said.
Agreed. Now on to the essay.
Curious, what would Schopenhauer say about watching CZcams? Watch a lot to finally find some channels like Weltgeist , or don't even start and read some classics.
He’d probably say most content is not worthwhile but that there are some gems here and there...
@@WeltgeistYT It's like panning for gold. Not getting discouraged or sidetracked by the multiple thousands of mental pebbles and boulders which must be sifted through in order to unearth such gems, is paramouont to the nature of the quest. Resiliance, patience and a certain surrendering to the process without losing focus, is all a part of the process.
On the other hand, it's not exactly lke SHCOPENHAUER
...is being shadow-banned, yet ! ?? :D
Would he watch kittens and alpacas? Maybe? that intrigues me...
Martin Buber I and Thou read this out loud to each other, stopping every time something didn't make sense, discuss, resume when ready...this was like a spa treatment: intense, no more than half an hour, but wonderful.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
Rumi 13th century
Bible. The work of ALL the Greeks of old. Also, "jump into" life, armed with their advice. Such as Marcus Aurelius. Love the video, and thank you.
“Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”---- Ernest Hemingway.
I'm so convinced by this argument that I have just given away all my Schopenhauer books.
It takes me months to read a book. I take in 3- 10 pages a day depending on my time. Currently, reading Ulysses and I just couldn't move beyond 2 pages a day.
Besides, I love the Russian classics. I can spend a lifetime reading the works of Russian authors.
One way to keep your brain clean from bad books is to never open and select on the spine.
I think instead that to read too much is good, if "too much" is like read a book in 3 days isn't bad because in this time other activities are literally a waste of time, so if one read (also books that are less hard and less important like a novel) 4 hours a day that's really good, reading doesn't make you more stupid, that's impossible if you know what Reading means...
Yes. If from 5 hours of online time reading short messages, comments, Facebook and Twitter, you read a book that interests you for 4 hours instead, it is no loss.
That is basically what Schopenhauer was talking about. Pointless mass reading of stuff, just to read. Without thinking. Without real interest.
@@rolanddeschain6089 I didn't study this Schopenhauer's thoughts at school, so maybe I'm missing somethin, but from the video I understood that for S. you must read little every day (also primary stuff), so 4 hours a day are bad for S.
Did I misunderstand something?
P. S. Sorry for the bad English I'm not native
@@andreanfuso 4 hours was little reading for someone like Schopenhauer.
But it doesn't really matter if its 6 hours or 3 or 1. The important part is that you should read carefully and reflect on what you have read.
That doesn't mean that afterwards you sit down somewhere for hours and compulsively try to force meaning into something. It's much more that you should think about it while reading and afterwards think about a (good) book in everyday life anyway. If it was a good book - and not just tons of meaningless text. Which, as I said, is even more true in the Internet age.
When it comes to "only read the greats of all time" I am not so much with Schopenhauer. I mean, you should read them. But not exclusively.
Some popular science books changed my life. And what would I have done, for example, without a good thriller or good horror in a hot summer night? That was a great time and wisdom is hidden everywhere :)
@@rolanddeschain6089 beautiful words Roland, thanks for the explanation!
@@andreanfuso No Problem. Have a beautiful day!
Our Veds and Upanishads are probably the most beautiful and important classics. From atoms to the universe they deal with all, not forgetting that they have stood the test of time.
Schopenhauer was ripping on Hegel with the last rule.
He wasn't wrong though
Good Advice For Adults.
When You are Young , One Can't be so discriminatory. When Young Read All You Can , Think about Them , Keep Notes and as you go along , try to focus on what captivates you , what lifts you up and what appears to be relevant to your life.
Narrow down your selections and read them again and again.
Sound advice .Good Video. Thanks
Rule 7: Read books in their original language. Greek writers in Greek, Latin in Latin, German in German, Chinese in Chinese... It will bring you much farther than any erudite.
No thanks i like it to smell good, not much farter
That's a bad advice.
My Amazon purchase history vs what I have actually read, has proved to me time and again that book reading habit is a completely different hobby compared to book hoarding habit.