Man's search for meaning, by Viktor Frankl.
FROM THE HN SHELF
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
Psychology · A BOOKTypographic jacket · original cover not fetched
FROM THE SHARED SHELF · 2006–2026 SAMPLE
Man’s Search for Meaning
35 readers recommend it across 29 discussions
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Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.
Man’s Search For Meaning (Frankl), The Color Purple (Walker), Orbital (Harvey) Not specifically for the HN community but these are the only books I read this year that I would recommend without qualification.
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I recommend you 3 books that changed my perception and really helped me during tough times. The Power of Habit" by charles duhigg, "The Forty Rules of Love" by elif shafak and "Man's Search for Meaning" by viktor E. frankl.
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Here we go: — Flow: The most fitting for the HN crowd. A fantastic read about the state of flow in work and leisure. Great framework for unlocking what drives the mind towards fulfillment and happiness. I liked the ideas around how "order of thought" relates to personal satisfaction. I wished it talked about the "how" not just the "what". — Man's Search For Meaning: An absolute classic. A moving but most of all inspiring book about the experience of a man in the Nazi camps. Stoic optimism. It opened my eyes to the relationship between suffering and self-actualization. — I Remember: A book by Joe Brainard to be found in the poetry section but written in a unique unconventional style. Accessible, playful and moving. It created a lot of noise with it came out because of its format. — Never Say You Can't Survive: How To Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories: The book I needed to read to reconnect me to writing to cultivate the spirit. — Carbon & Silicon: This last one is a comic book. The story is an intimate (yet grand) robot saga that expands over centuries. A battle between immortality and decay. A joy to read. It hit me hard.
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This year I've put myself to the challenge to read at least one book per week which I primarily could complete by reading in the middle of the night while holding our sleeping baby in my arms. It has been an interesting challenge which gave me a lot of fulfilment and has certainly changed my mind on how I view the world. This comment became quite a long read, apologies for that. Books I highly recommend: Churchill by Andrew Roberts (p:1105) A biography about one of the most interesting figures in politics and WWII. Roberts gives a very detailed description of the life of Churchill and manages to keep you interested the entire length of the book. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (p:374) In The God Delusion Dawkins gives arguments why there is no God, why we do not need a God and why religion is damaging to our society. If you are religious it might not be the book for you unless you are open to hear his arguments and line of reasoning. Dawkins will challenge your worldview. The Bomb by Fred Kaplan (p:384)…
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- Foundation
- The Martian
- Project Hail Mary
- Animal Farm
- Fahrenheit 451
- The God Delusion
- A Memory Called Empire
- Night
- Fermat's Enigma
- All Systems Red
- The Spy and the Traitor
- Kindred
- Poor Economics
- Churchill
- The Bomb
- The Man from the Future
- The Nuclear Jihadist
- The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- The Secret Race
- Twilight of Democracy
Dune. Specifically the parts about how a human can choose their reaction to an external event. And the ability to overcome fear. Man's Search For Meaning. Again, overcoming the worst situations and finding joy anywhere. How to Practice. Understanding what you are feeling and why you are feeling it. Emotional Intelligence. How the amygdala sends signals to the brain, why it does that, and how to recognize your negative reactions. And all the Discworld books, to find joy and humour in everything. GNU Terry Pratchett.
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I second this. Buy several copies and give them to your friends and strangers on the bus that see you reading it ;)
Man’s search for meaning - Viktor Frankl It will change your life, dare I say.
Night by Eli Wiesel and Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. Stories of how and why some people survived Auschwitz and found meaning despite their context, from two very different perspectives (a child and a psychologist).
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Writing a Go Interpreter Writing a Go Compiler No One Cares about Crazy People I Heard You Paint Houses UNIX: A History and a Memoir Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine How Asia Works The Dream Machine Black Earth The Fabric of Reality Behave (tried twice, maybe third times a charm?) A Short History of Nearly Everything Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Genius: The Life and Science Richard Feynman Super Thinking Man's Search for Meaning The Cooking Gene The Vital Question: Why is Life The Way it Is (re-read) The Case Against Sugar The 15 Decisive Battles of the World The History of the Peloponnesian War The Beginning of Infinity The Book of Why
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- A Short History of Nearly Everything
- The Beginning of Infinity
- The Dream Machine
- Writing An Interpreter In Go
- UNIX: A History and a Memoir
- The Fabric of Reality
- Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
- The Book of Why
- Behave
- Black Earth
- How Asia Works
- I Heard You Paint Houses
- No One Cares about Crazy People
- Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
- Super Thinking
- The 15 Decisive Battles of the World
- The Case Against Sugar
- The Cooking Gene
- The History of the Peloponnesian War
- Writing a Go Compiler
I plan to reread a couple core works for myself. Of that list the ones that I’d recommend for others are: Aurelius (trans. Martin Hammond) Fear and Trembling Man’s Search for Meaning Tolstoy’s Confessions Kundera’s The Art of the Novel After doing a thorough reading of “How to Read a Book” I decided to try rereading a few books to pull more out of them. I can’t recommend “How to Read a Book” enough - despite its anachronisms and glaring faults, it’s the only book I’ve found that has genuinely made me feel that I’ve not really read a single book in my life.
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"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl may be?
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street: I got much more interested in personal finance this year, and definitely recommend this book as a stepping stone for learning about investing. - Frankenstein: Highly recommend! It is nothing like it is portrayed to be in pop culture and I thoroughly enjoyed it. - Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in America: It is literally unbelievable. It follows Katy Tur, a reporter tasked with following Trump leading up to the election. If you aren't already fed up with Trump, then give this a whirl. - Dune: 5/5 sci-fi - The Society of the Spectacle: I had trouble with this one. I think some things get lost in translation, and the philosophical arguments are so abstract it was a bit hard to follow along. I had a few key take-aways but to be honest it was kind of a chore to read. - How Not to Die: Argues for prioritizing a plant-based diet, and definitely changed my relationship with food. - East of Eden: My wife's favorite book and is now one of my favorites. - Sapiens: Very enjoyable, but some of it can feel pseudo-sciency and gets a bit nihilistic in the end.…
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>no matter how bad you think you have it, it can be worse, and you can find meaning. I agree. I have a personality where when something bad happens I just assess my potential courses of action and act accordingly. Sometimes I get depressed, but I usually snap out of it and get back to work. However, I am married to someone with a chronic, debilitating illness. I'm struggling to help her keep hope. I think one of the tricky things to get around is that people with legitimately terrible situations don't want to hear "It could always be worse." They kind of have a point. Just because there's a person that has it worse doesn't mean they aren't suffering also. I think Frankl's book might be helpful, but I wouldn't really know where to start trying to convince her that it might help.
1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - practical advice on how to arm yourself every day. 2. Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl - no matter how bad you think you have it, it can be worse, and you can find meaning. 3. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - it's the journey (not the destination) and <i>pay attention!</i>
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tbh i'd read man's search for meaning again, haven't found anything similar. skip herman hesse's books.
I am a proponent for depth over breadth. To read is one thing but to understand is another. Rather than read 5 books and superficially grasp their concepts, read one closely and carefully. The one book I wish my colleagues would read and learn from is "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl [1]. "Between stimulus and response lies a space. In that space lie our freedom and power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness." [1] https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/... (https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X)
Two of the most interesting books I've read this year are: 1. Man's search for meaning, by Viktor Frankl. He was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded Logotherapy as a form of analysing one's life with the idea of finding meaning or living a purposeful life. According to Frankl, such a life would mean doing important/meaningful work, enjoying nature in all it's beauty, loving and taking care of another person and being courageous when going through hard times. These are things that I personally consider part of the common sense package I had built-in when I was born, so this book kind of talks to my soul. I would recommend it to anyone who is highly self-reflective. 2. Stumbling on happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. This was an interesting read and the different studies described in the book made me think how would I react in a similar situation and I realised funny things about how memory works and how does our brain imagine future events.
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Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl This is supposed to be the author's memoir but it is more than that. Read it and it will change the way how you look at your own life.
Getting More - Stuart Diamond. I still think this is the best book on the art of negotiation. Getting Things Done - David Allen. If you have adult ADHD like me, and you haven't read this, it's the first system that's really worked for productivity for me. Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl. Living Buddha, Living Christ - Thich Nhat Hanh. Cosmos - Carl Sagan. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin. The One who Walks Away from Omelas - U.K. LeGuin. Wild Seed - Octavia Butler. The Heike Monogatari - (tr. Helen Craig McCullough) “The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. The proud do not endure, like a passing dream on a night in spring; the mighty fall at last, to be no more than dust before the wind.” If you need a comparison. this is the Japanese historical equivalent of Game of Thrones combined with a bit of MacBeth. The rise and fall of two shogunate families, and an analysis of the tragic flaws of character that brought their fall about. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. Small Gods - Terry Pratchett. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad.…
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- Snow Crash
- Getting Things Done
- The Left Hand of Darkness
- The Great Gatsby
- Gravity's Rainbow
- Les Misérables
- Cosmos
- Heart of Darkness
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- Small Gods
- Dhalgren
- Silence
- All of Us: The Collected Poems
- Evidence
- Getting More
- Living Buddha, Living Christ
- The Guide
- The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
- The Tale of the Heike
- The Well-Built City trilogy
- Wild Seed
One of my favourite books. Read it many years ago and re-read it a few years later. One of the key take aways for me was that we always have a choice of how we deal with adversity and it helped me get through some tough situations.
There aren't words to describe how good this book is. Must read!
I just finished this book last week. Highly recommended!
Indeed - I pick up this book every few months for quick refresher. Always good food for thought.
This was the book that shook me to core. After this I realised no matter how much problems you face, there is always hope. Excellent book.
Man's Search for Meaning-- There is no finer book for perspective setting than Viktor Frankl's classic work> http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Mea... (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning)
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Read it twice now, absolutely fantastic.
The Black Swan (anything by Taleb really), Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, Epictetus' Discourses, Fish that ate the whale by Rich Cohen, Man's Search for Meaning, Titan, Principles by Ray Dalio (not really a book, but really worth reading, plus it's free), 4HW by Tim Ferris, The Strategy Paradox. Also Teddy Roosevelt's biography has been very influential.
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May be a little bit outside of the typical start-up fair, but you didn't specify. "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl Short read, but great perspective from a really inspiring figure.
Man's Search For Meaning by Victor Frankel. It was recommended by several friends, and I finally got around to reading it. Helped, along with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to work through my personal thought process. Highly recommended.
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I found "Man's Search for Meaning" at exactly the right time in my life. It changed my life, but this might have more to do with the timing.
Demian - Hesse Narcissus and Goldmund - Hesse Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
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Probably "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl... Although I'm not sure that the book will have the same impact without the accompanying life events. So short of that, i'd give my 16 year old self the missing pages from the Dabs C book which I spent far too long trying to figure out!
My latest reading list: * Meditations - Marcus Aurelius * Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl. This one was very good. Psychology can actually be logical and accessible.
See here: http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-... (http://jseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-is/) for a list of influential books on me. I actually have a half-written post on books I wish I'd read when I was younger; here it is: 1. <em>Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience</em> by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 2. <em>The Guide to Getting It On</em> by Paul Johannides [sp?] 3. <em>The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature</em> by Geoffrey Miller 4. <em>Hackers & Painters</em> by Paul Graham 5. <em>Man's Search for Meaning</em> by Viktor Frankl 6. <em>Stumbling on Happiness</em> by Daniel Gilbert In all cases, I think these books profoundly shaped how not only I think, but I think others can learn to think too. All suddenly revealed new connections and ideas about the world I'd never experienced or expected to experience before.…
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Man's search for meaning, by Viktor Frankel The Republic, by Plato. It introduced me to a whole new way of thinking. The Gita. I later came to know about the chariot allegory in the Kathopanishad (http://www.atmajyoti.org/up_katha_upanishad_17.asp), and thought that the writer's depiction of the charioteer as Krishna and the rider as Arjuna was just brilliant.
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