Monday, February 22, 2021
Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
12 Rules for Life Reviewed by Zhaoxin Sun
My interest was piqued at this point, but I started to take him more seriously after he wrote,“There will always be people better than you--that’s a cliche of nihilism, like the phrase, In a million years, who’s going to know the difference? The proper response to that statement is not, Well, then, everything is meaningless. It’s Any idiot can choose a frame of time within which nothing matters. Talking yourself into irrelevance in not a profound critique of Being. It’s a cheap trick of the rational mind” (Peterson 87). I have always been doubtful of the moral validity of sentiments expressed on Instagram, the almost melodramatic expressions of people crying about their woes, complaining about the difficulty of existence and their thoughts of giving up, of the futility of their existence. Their feelings of defeat may well be true for them, but it certainly is not an example of how to live, nor a mindset to commend and pass on to future generations. I felt immense respect for the author when he perfectly summarized the cowardice of such a mindset; I could relate to his writing very deeply because he managed to describe perfectly what I was struggling to flesh out myself. At this point, I got the impression that he was a highly intelligent person that I should really pay attention to.
He has rules including “don’t let your children do anything that makes you dislike them” and “stand up straight with your shoulders back.” I think these are excellent rules because he backed them up with extremely compelling examples. For example, his justification for the rule about children was that if children are not taught the basic social rules that make them pleasant to be around, they will be continually rejected by peers and adults who could help them. Again, this struck home with me because I always feel that my mother completely spoils my younger brother to the point where I find him almost unbearable to be around. If he is impossibly frustrating and an absolute nuisance to even me, his older sister, how would he be received by everyone around him that isn’t his family? It was quite an eye-opening point.
I personally agreed with and related to a lot of what he said, but I think that this book could be worth exploring even if that is not the case. When he talks about his first rule of standing up straight, he explains its importance as a physical adjustment of posture to reflect mental preparation to be combative and present in life. Even if that is not your life philosophy, what I found most interesting about this chapter was his example of lobsters. He uses the dominance hierarchies of lobsters to prove that they exist naturally (and are therefore not just a man-made oppressive structure), weaving a fascinating narrative with them. I am sure some people will disagree with what he says, but I think his logic and examples read much like a story. Even if you disagree with his conclusions and don’t relate to his examples, it’s still interesting to follow his reasoning.
All in all, I would absolutely recommend this book. It was pretty boring in the beginning and I fell asleep several times, but his precision of language, apparent intelligence, compelling examples, and general mental narrative made it a worthwhile read for me. His ideas and the reasoning behind them are obviously not for everyone, but I still think it’s an overall good book.
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