It's 2005

A 67-page book by Princeton philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt is a surprise bestseller

It taps into public dismay at the spin or "bullshitting" around the launch of the second Iraq War

Frankfurt's theory: "bullshitting" is very different from lying

How? 🧵 Frankfurt’s definition of bullshit:

Not simply outright lying, but rather a LACK OF ANY CONCERN whether something is true

Blaise Pascal:

- Built the first calculator
- Developed probability w. Fermat
- Invented the hydraulic press & syringe

...then a mystical experience changed him

His famous "wager" for the existence of God 👇

And why he's a brilliant antidote to nihilism & mental laziness 👇 Pascal’s "Pensées" (1660) includes the well-known distinction between the mathematical and intuitive minds:

the “esprit de géométrie” and the “esprit de finesse”

Spirituality and wealth

Is there a link?

"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" - 1904

One of the great essays of all time

On universal beliefs and habits of mind that make you RICH (in the long run)

1. Historical background
2. Max Weber's wealth lessons: Late 19th century Germany:

The business leaders and owners of capital and the bulk of higher skilled workers and managers are Protestant.

Protestants have higher levels of educational achievement than Catholics

Why?

Sigmund Freud hated it when followers developed their own ideas

But Alfred Adler had a better understanding of humans than Freud. He:

- devised a brilliant theory of power and success
- coined the term “inferiority complex”

Key ideas from Understanding Human Nature (1927): Freud was highly educated, lived in a fashionable bit of Vienna, and collected antiquities

Adler was a plain-looking son of a grain merchant, from the city's outskirts, and identified with the people: he fought for workers' and women's rights

I read & researched the greatest books in psychology

But I always come back to Carl Jung. Long term, I think he's more important than Freud

His magnum opus:

"The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" (1959)

It's long (560 pages) and scholarly, but wow

The main ideas: For Jung the goal of life is...

The “individuation” of the self:

A uniting of your conscious and unconscious minds so that your original unique promise can be fulfilled.

The 50 Greatest Books in Psychology

Problem: many are old, long, or just hard to read

I wrote the bestselling "50 Psychology Classics" to do the work for you

100k+ sold in 16 languages

Here's 9 personal favorites from the 50: Understanding Human Nature (1927) by Alfred Adler:

What we think we lack determines what we will become in life.

"It is the feeling of inferiority, inadequacy & insecurity that determines the goal of an individual's existence."

Strange Tycoons: John D. Rockefeller 🧵

- Richest American in history $270 billion+
- 3rd richest person in history
- Personal wealth in 1913: 3% of US GDP

Vilified for his greed, canonized for his giving.

A pious scoundrel-genius who made a brilliant case for MONOPOLY 👇 Born 1839 - same era as Andrew Carnegie (1835), Jay Gould (1836) and J Pierpont Morgan (1837).

Time of limitless possibility.

Post-Civil War industrial boom about to get under way.

The stage is set for an incredible life...

The old world is dead. Are we facing revolution and war, or a new age abundance?

Thread: Jeff Booth's brilliant 'The Price of Tomorrow" in 20 points @JeffBooth 1/ Technology and deflation

We’ve all grown up in a world in which growth reigned. Your house goes up in value, you get pay rises, you get wealthy from rising stock markets.