01philosophy
the myth of sisyphus
albert camus
how do you live when the world gives you no easy explanation? i like the insistence on facing that question and living anyway.
ayanda joseph
outside
the work.
books, music, chess, anime, and what i live for.
01
my favourite books
a few from the shelf. i recommend them.
02fiction
crime and punishment
fyodor dostoevsky
the way raskolnikov argues with himself. pride, guilt, and the things a person can convince himself he has the right to do.
03fiction
the brothers karamazov
fyodor dostoevsky
faith, doubt, suffering, freedom. dostoevsky gives those questions enough room to become uncomfortable. that is what draws me to him.
04mind & machines
the computer and the brain
john von neumann
von neumann thinking about computation and the brain. the relationship between those two is a question i could spend my life on.
05fiction
the metamorphosis
franz kafka
what happens when a person can no longer be useful to everyone around them. the alienation in this one stayed with me.
06philosophy
beyond good and evil
friedrich nietzsche
taking a belief apart and asking where it came from. i like being made to question things i might otherwise have accepted.
07meaning & psychology
man’s search for meaning
viktor e. frankl
having a reason to live through terrible circumstances. the question of purpose sits very close to my own view of life.
08discipline
can’t hurt me
david goggins
goggins is direct about discipline and the excuses we make for ourselves. that is a big part of why i like this book.
02
away from the keyboard
learningjapanese
learning to understand and speak japanese. still a long way to go.
learningguitar
working on chord changes and rhythm. i like having something to practise away from a screen.
i playchess
i play well. i enjoy a game that gives me something difficult to calculate.
my philosophy
something to live for
“for the secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.”
i go by the religion of passion.
i believe life is given to us not just to live, but to add value to the earth. to chase something greater than ourselves, till the end of our lives. to find something worth being obsessed with, and be willing to go far for it. i want to give my life to something that matters.
i'm searching for truth in its purest form, in whatever way it occurs to me. i want to follow it wherever it leads, even when it asks me to change what i believe.
solitude gives me room to think extensively. to sit with a question for hours, follow it further, and work out what i actually think. i value that space.
“let it offend you that someone else can be handed your days and turn them into something greater”
04
anime i recommend
i recommend these. they changed me positively.
01 / my favourite
ashita no joe
joe is obsession. taking one thing and giving it everything. the relentless work, the solitude, the sorrow. boxing becomes his whole life.
the story shows the cost of that obsession in his body and his relationships. what stayed with me is his absolute sense of purpose. he keeps reaching for the same thing through every loss. it changed what having something to live for means to me.
personally recommended02discipline
hajime no ippo
the repetition, the training, the patience. doing the same thing until you get better at it. ippo made me appreciate that part of the work.
03lelouch / strategy
code geass
lelouch thinks several moves ahead, but it is not just the strategy. the ambition, the resolve, and the cost of his choices are what make this story stay with me.
04senku / curiosity
dr. stone
senku makes me want to learn. asking how something works, trying it, getting it wrong, trying again. i love seeing knowledge turn into something useful.
05psychology under pressure
kaiji
the mind games and the pressure. how differently people behave when they have something to lose, and how much it matters to understand the rules you are playing by.
06a life spent chasing something
major
goro growing up with the same ambition. the setbacks, starting again, carrying that desire through years of his life. i love following a story for that long.