Archive for the ‘Books’ category

What can change the nature of a man : Sources of information

January 24, 2016

I thought this topic of where people got their views from, was interesting.

Ymar, besides Ayn Rand, Socrates and Plato, could you give some specific books, articles, etc., for the other things you mention? Something others here could read to understand your views better?

A lot of it was personal research and thoughts which I produced through my own “individual” take, so to speak. So they’re hard to communicate in any usable format. Well, I’m sure Socrates had the same issue, that’s why he kept writing stuff with questions in it.

Reading books were something I found useful when I was younger. These days, I prefer more interactive models, I find they stimulate more “questions” and is less Authoritarian in nature, less biased, less prone to Group Think. That’s because I can set the initial conditions. It’s not some NBC culture, not some Gaia cultist, that sets the initial conditions for me and then I have to run through the maze like some rat in an experiment.

For example, martial arts is interactive, because I interact with other people’s methods, bodies, as well as my own. And the interaction produces results I can analyze. Then I can read translated Chinese history texts about Neijia, and it kind of fits. But if a person just read the Chinese text, even in the native language without the physical experiences… it’s just abstract stuff to them. Might as well be reading the stock market at that point, without having any stocks. I never did like rote learning, regurgitating stuff just for the sake of regurgitating it because some author or education/indoctrination system said it was right.

Of course, I suppose it is ironic for me to say that, since I used to read a textbook on European history and still score above 90 on a test the week after. That’s because I found it interesting, not because of memory itself. These days, I probably wouldn’t even need the textbook, just wikis and the internet.


Socrates’ speech, which I thought was more interesting and more educational than reading Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics, the first half that is before I lost my bookmark. Nicomachean Ethics was probably a little bit too forward thinking for me at the time, but I didn’t realize it at the time. It was also a progenitor of my belief, unknown at the time, that learning a foreign language and thinking in it, would be better than reading translations. There’s a significant mind shift that occurs. Looking at how people lived their lives, was more important to me than what they wrote in a book, with a language I don’t understand, for people that don’t even exist now a days.

If I hadn’t been in Socrates’ situation, if I hadn’t known any real human in his situation, I probably would have chalked it up to some fable or myth. No effect whatsoever on real life. His fate and his specific end had always troubled me, but it wasn’t until I read the actual speech that I saw the details. And probably only understood them because I also had questions like he had at the time, due to the Iraq war, terrorism, and the usual political corruptions.


For reading body language, it seems there’s a wiki about it now. http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Body-Language

Amazing progress on the net. Back in the day, there were only audio/books and maybe some articles that were too abstract to be useful at the time. I wanted the skill, because reading psychology is also called being affected in a way. Using a skill to interrogate and assess results from actual humans, is a different scenario. No middle men corrupting the feed. Just you and them and the space between you and them.

Hrm, what else is there…
Translated from the original Chinese by the author.

What does this have to do with politics btw? Nothing, and also everything. The lowest unit of a political system is the person, the individual. Changing the individual, also changes everything above the individual. How they see above and around. How others see them from above or around.

If you want something specific Tom, you’re going to have to come up with a question. I’m good at isolating down answers and questions. Open ended topics tend to make me go off on tangents eventually.

Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings, Sun Tzu’s the Art of War. They became a lot easier to use once I could look around in life and connect them with concrete issues and experiences.

Will reading any of this stuff help people understand my views better? I would have to say no, it wouldn’t. It’s not pointless, but it is like reading the biography of a person. You haven’t lived their life, you don’t have their personality and skill set. You didn’t grow up during their time period or with their life experiences conditioning their habits. People can read books and then say “that is my idea too” or “I agree with that” or “I disagree with that, here’s how to do it better”. A person’s ability to focus, distill, and reflect the knowledge of the world around them is only ever unique to that person. If it can be copied… it loses its value.

That’s why I think reading the Art of War does not confer Sun Tzu’s abilities unto me. It’s just reading a book about chainsawing a tree down. Doesn’t mean I got the skills or experience of it. Now if I wanted to get closer to that, I might do what grim is talking about and use tech to get rid of a tree, then I can say “oh, I know how it works now, just need to 50% transfer it to a chainsaw now”.

Independent Publishing

September 16, 2015


Independent economic power is a very critical resource for those who Refuse to Obey the Left’s Tyranny.

There has to be some kind of income or source of food, even the Left’s terrorists and insurgents had to be fed and back then the West fed them. The Left is not going to feed you if you disobey them, however, they aren’t that stupid even for necro controlled zombies and sub humans.

From SFWA to the Hugo Awards battle of SJW

May 31, 2015


Lesser known front on the war.

Huge number of un edited spelling mistakes, but I got through most of them. They really need a reader that can get 99.5% of written errors in one pass though.

Politics and books didn’t use to be a shared category, until recently perhaps.

The minor front of Science Fiction writers have been noticed on the front pages

April 25, 2015


Of instapundit, no less. Something the more perceptive amongst us knew at least a year ago.

I call it a front because strategically it is taking up the Leftist alliance’s resources in a war which has real consequences for victory and defeat.

New military science fiction novel out

December 19, 2014


Don’t forget to buy from Neo’s portal if you know her.

I was reminded by that search result I happened to glance upon, that I know of at least 3 of those authors while hearing mentions of another. That’s quite a combo. Their reputations are all very interesting.

The various topics also seem very familiar in this current century.

Fantasy in Science and Science in Fantasy

August 17, 2014


Here’s the email I sent to Roberts:

This is a response to Even Fantasy Needs a Little Science by Tedd Roberts – Baen Books after reading it.

It reminded me of the recent work Brandon Sanderson has done in his fantasy, which utilizes strictly logical rules slowly exposed over the book, combining some mystery elements as one can figure out plot twists by collating and analyzing the rules themselves.

Also Japan has long combined science fiction with fantasy, such that there are very old and recognized stereotypes to Japanese RPG settings and backgrounds. Not only is there an Atlantis type advanced civilization that died out, but the residents are advancing out of the dark age with technological (re)progress. This ties into the work being done on Pillars of Eternity and Torment (1&2), given that regular fantasy settings has been done to death and it needs to be reformed if not recycled. PoE postulates a land of fantasy that is advancing into the colonial and industrial revolution, via the use of soul crafting to power technological applications. What people did with electricity in our time line, they do with the power of souls or magic as you will. This goes into the high tech = magic line of reasoning.



On another note, this is Robert’s concept applied to zombie apocs.


I believe people are bored of extremely stable social systems. They want change or to be more specific, they want to improve their social status. While others wish to improve their skills, their family, or their power levels.

Strangely enough the US South border isn’t the only war zone in contention

July 24, 2014


There’s the science fiction community as well.

At least the MSewerM had the good sense to create a private list, JournoList, to communicate. These… people obviously think Twitter is good enough.


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