The author has a great Joe Rogan interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4CrWE_P0g

Jocko Willink's "Extreme Ownership"

I think I might finally have the motivation to read his earlier book How to Change Your Mind

https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

"How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence"

Highly recommend it.

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

Honestly, meditation is another path to similar kinds of insights — it just requires more patience. But it’s also free, and legal.

1) How to change your mind
2) Bad Blood
3) Kitchen Confidential
4) I am a strange loop
5) The good mothers (about the ndrangheta)
6) Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Keep your mind open, but live in the moment. Embrace those around you who embrace you-and go after Pamela.

I read Robin Buss Unabridged version from penguin for "The Count of Monte Cristo".

Also, some of other interesting books I forgot to mention in my original list

- How to Change Your Mind (don't be put off by title)

- Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (good peek into the mind of one of the greatest emperors of all time)

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/24/726085011/reluctant-psychonau...

It's amazing how the same books get tossed around Silicon Valley, is their a book club i'm not aware of.

(just finished the above book, it's heavy on drug history which I dont care about but still well-written)

How to Change Your Mind - Michal Pollan [Thumbs up]

Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker [Two Thumbs Up]

Creative Selection - Ken Kociend [Neutral. Blog post in book form. ]

Achtung Baby - Sara Zaske [Thumbs Up]

The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida [Been in my queue for years. Two thumbs up]

Small Fry - Lisa Brennan-Jobs [Neutral]

Gut - Giulia Enders [Two thumbs up]

Born a Crime - Trevor Noah [Two thumbs up. Learned more about the nuances of apartheid than I thought]

I'm Proud of You - Tim Madigan [Thumbs down]

Night - Elie Wiesel [Thumbs up]

One of my favorite quotes from How To Change Your Mind goes like this:
"There is so much authority that comes out of the primary mystical experience that it can be threatening to existing hierarchical structures."

- Going into nature (walking, running, hiking, etc.).

- Corollary to (1), have a form of activity, maybe throw some Yoga in the mix.

- Interpersonal relationships (it's more difficult in these times but I believe necessary).

- Mindfulness exercises (a form of meditation).

- Sometimes doing absolutely nothing is nice / contemplation.

- Maintaining a healthy diet.

- Consistent sleep schedule (and healthy habits/routine in general).

- Relaxation, which includes sauna but also breathing exercises for example (see Wim Hof breathing method / connected breathing), massages.

- Work on your passion if you have one.

- Is maybe going to be a bit controversial, note that I am not advocating for illegal drug use (should they be illegal in your area): using psychedelics (both in microdose/macrodose format) shows very promising results with regards to regulating mood (especially for those suffering with med-resistant depression) and re-connecting with one-self/others (especially with higher doses). I recommend reading "How to Change Your Mind" from Michael Pollan as an introduction, but there are also pretty good videos on Youtube.

For anyone who hasn't read it, Pollan's "How to Change Your Mind" is a fascinating journalistic/autobiographical look at these amazing psychotropics. One of the most important lessons I took from it was just how much research was conducted in the 50s and 60s, only to be swept under the rug once psychedelics became politically radioactive. The studies are, of course, of their time - with all the limitations that implies. It's great to see the growth of modern, active research in this area.

I’m generally a pretty anxious person (diagnosed with OCD, managed with ERP therapy), and I feel pretty confident that it would force me to face that part of me. I have no doubt that it’d be a beneficial experience.

Buuuuut... part of me is super nervous about what I might also find. It’s like part of my mind wants to explore it, and the other part doesn’t, which creates a lot of inner conflict. I honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to do with two parts of my brain fighting with itself.

Side note: How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan is a fantastic book and worth a read.

Go put your name on the list at your local library!

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

I am not sure your comment is accurate, the effects and benefits are definitely not anecdotal.

Re Depression treatment: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24&q=dep...

Leary was clearly on some kind of power trip and was much more selfish/egotistical with his research into acid and its potential.

Hubbard disliked Leary because Hubbard viewed acid as a way to dissolve the ego, a selfless endeavor of healing that he wanted to spread to his friends and influential individuals in the US.

Leary jeopardized this amazing potential medicine with his attention-seeking, selfish, and flamboyant behavior, which was definitely a major factor in it getting outlawed

This is what I gleaned from "How to Change Your Mind" by Pollan, at least.

It only makes me wonder what other possibilities have been out there but banned and therefore unavailable for study and experimentation. Luckily the days of censoring and hoarding information seem to be coming to an end.

Of course as a society we love the pendulum effect. We'll swing it too far and then it will come back the opposite way too far (so much for my optimism :-P)

The body's amazing at recovering from all kinds of stuff.

As someone who has found some actual relief from previously crippling anxiety using cannabidiol, I'm really hoping to see progress on this front. It's all upwards from here for me.

I'm definitely interested in seeing what can be done to without the aid of drugs. As someone who had some bad trips that gave me 6 months of anxiety, a non drug induced altered state sounds preferable.

That being said, even something as seemingly benign as meditation can lead to intensely challenging experiences in certain situations. But overall, not relying on drugs seems generally safer.

There's a special network in the brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN), which is responsible for our sense of "self" or ego. The DMN can be shut down and you can feel what it's like to not be "your self".

If you are curious about this, lookup Gary Weber on YouTube. Michael Pollan's latest book (How to change your mind) is also very good.

The one thing I'll say is that it seems like these drugs affect the brain in a way that's more akin to a super-placebo, rather than being therapeutic on their own. In other words, you would need to use the drugs in combination with therapy to obtain good results.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Change_Your_Mind

If you want to see a less "these are magical" and more "here's some science" perspective, you might like "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan. Always very down to earth, gets into some mechanics of effects, well written and engaging.

It's important to note that LSD or any psychedelic therapy isn't a cure-all. It's more like an accelerated, intense meditative/therapeutic state that allows you to reflect upon your life in a way that doesn't involve the ego-center of your brain. I highly recommend everyone to try it as it offers a way to introspect on yourself that is pretty difficult to achieve in normal life.

I read Michael Pollan's How to Change your Mind, and concluded that it's a richer if not safer experience if you're older/figured out yourself, e.g. have more set grooves in your brain where psychedelics can help you realize new connections; and that it's probably actually pretty risky if you're young, confused, anxious, or don't have your basic coordinates yes.

I don't think it's as big a risk as you seem to think. The people who I have met who have had bad trips did not see lasting side effects, though they did take a while to wear off.

I'm sure someone else will post it, but if this is something you genuinely want to know more about, read "How to Change Your Mind".

After reading the book, I wouldn't be surprised to see legal clinics open to the public in the US in the next 10-15 years.

The discovery of the default mode network (DMN) and the role it plays in our perception of reality are also mentioned in "How to Change Your Mind", a recent book by Michael Pollan [1], which examines in great depth all the issues you mention and more. I highly recommend it to those interested in the nature of consciousness.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

As an aside, this is an interesting point:

> One of the major negative side effect of psychedelic experimentation is delusional ideation, and one of the
most common pathologies associated with frequent high-dose psychedelic experimentation is persistent
recurring delusions of grandeur.

Psychonauts will tell you that psychedelics are effective at destroying or weakening the ego. And yet, there's a phenomenon where some users come out of it with an incredibly inflated ego and narcissism. If you've spent any time with psychonauts or read much from any of the online communities you'll know what I'm talking about.

They'll often say that the world would be better if everyone just took LSD, but stuff like that does make me wonder. Not everyone comes out of a transformative psychedelic experience as a better person.

In "How to Change Your Mind", Michael Pollan talked about the theory of psychedelics acting as a sort of super placebo. They seem to have the ability to shake you out your regular hardened neutral pathways, encouraging new ways of thinking and looking at the world. That may be part of why they have such promise as a therapeutic tool, but also why careful and considered use is still important.

Side note: One of my favorite authors Michael Pollan recently published a short audiobook on the effects of caffeine, some of the history behind it, and his experience going cold turkey for a few months. Really quick and interesting 2 hour listen. It's called Caffeine.

Thought I'd share since I found out about his last book "How to Change your Mind" on HN and found it fascinating.

If you can afford it, these 5-MeO retreats are probably a slam dunk, although 5-MeO is not for the faint of heart. Check out the psychedelic toad - hamilton's pharmacopeia for more on that.

All you really need, though, is a high-dose mushroom session with eyeshades and music, supervised by someone's that's done it before whom you trust. Their sense of attention and compassion are more important than extensive experience using them. They're just there to hold the space. Again, see James Fadiman's book for the how-to.

The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi: An introduction into Alderian psychology. The title refers to the "freedom" one feels when you accept that some people will dislike you and to concentrate on those who like you and not try to win over those who do not.

12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson: Life advise told through stories that mix science and common sense.

It goes into quite a bit of depth on how this story came to be, the motivations, impact to culture as well as the impact to the indigenous tribe(primarily a single woman) that allowed LIFE magazine to cover this ritual.

Beyond psilocybin he covers the history of LSD, DMT and some more obscure psychedelics I hadn’t heard of.

If you have no knowledge or experience with psychedelics but want to understand why they became popularized and then demonized I recommend the book highly.

"How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan. A fascinating look into the world and science of psychedelic drugs.

"Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. One of, if not Clarke's best. It's short for a sci-fi book and almost impossible not to like.

"The Hydrogen Sonata" By Iain M. Banks. It certainly wasn't my favorite culture entry, but it's worth a read none the less. If you haven't read the others in the series I wouldn't suggest starting with it.

"Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It took me a bit to get into this book, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. If you're into long timelines and human existential crisis this is your book.

As far as July goes, I'm digging into "Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes and "The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes.

The book goes into some detail about a few FDA-approved clinical trials for MDMA and LSD-assisted psychotherapy underway, some approaching Stage 3 -- these are mainly the result of over 15 years of work by MAPS[1] -- if Stage 2 results are anywhere near as successful as the small Stage 1 trials, we're pretty likely to see legal and widespread adoption for the treatment of PTSD, end-of-life anxiety, and/or depression.

[1] http://www.maps.org/

To put that in perspective, I've probably taken psychedelics around a dozen times and only truly achieved something I would call "ego death" once (a truly fascinating and moving experience, but that's for another time!). And a lot of the people I know would take fairly low doses and do things like go to parties or walk around Central Park. By comparison, the clinical amounts Pollan is describing make it virtually impossible to move around or talk in a coherent way, let alone go out into the world.

Turing's Vision: The Birth of Computer Science, Chris Bernhardt.

The Peripheral, William Gibson.

Lila, Robert Pirsig. (re-read)

There are places in the world where this is legal, and you can do it with doctors if so you wish. I didn't go through the official medical route since like many other people, I wasn't entirely convinced that taking pills covering the problem (if anything, I don't buy the "chemical imbalance" theory - I do believe there's one, but that's just the end of the chain and not the cause) combined with several years of therapies was going to be a good idea in my specific case.

Luckily HN is a quite open community and this has been discussed several times so please use the search to read more about it. The book "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan is a must read if you want to convince yourself and give it a try. I can also recommend r/microdosing and r/psychonauts.

Please do a lot of research before you decide to take this route as the process can be tough but then if you happen to be very deep into depression it's worth looking into.

Michael Pollen’s How to Change Your Mind is a 2018 survey of this voice.

As many studies indicate, it temporarily disables/decreases DMN (among other effects) which is exactly what a depressed person would need: break the vicious self-destructive circle. Only then I could start making hard but necessary decisions and change my life completely. Depression is nowhere to be seen but that's because I actually changed things and didn't become complacent.

I'd not recommend to do it without spending a good time doing research. The aforementioned book is a great resource.

Interestingly, in talk therapy it seems to be the patient's own talking that helps, rather than how the therapy is done or who's the therapist. Mark Manson sums the research up nicely in this piece:

https://markmanson.net/how-to-get-better

Turns out that any way to examine and express one's thoughts and emotions that otherwise run unattended is helpful. Therapy, journaling, meditation.

Still, to me this is by it's very nature limited - to what you can consciously dig out and express. If the issues that cause trouble are not conscious, tough luck. Like trying to fix email infrastructure issues by rigorously applying inbox zero.

Perhaps lasting improvements in such cases require forms of therapy that involve consciousness altering techniques? Psychedelics are recently making a comeback in therapy. "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan is on my reading list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Change_Your_Mind

It’s strange that Pollan would turn around and try to shift blame rather than simply staying quiet. What does he think he stands to gain by throwing his former publisher, who went to great lengths to support him, under the bus? Why not simply let it stay in the past? Or admit the truth and give credit where credit is due?

I have to say, the more of Pollan’s work I read the less I enjoy his writings. He seems intent on riding the current waves of pro-drug and anti-enforcement sentiment to propel his own notoriety as an author. This also manifests as very one-sided portrayals of drug use that glorify and exaggerate the benefits while downplaying the negatives. In his book “How to Change Your Mind” I felt that every pro-psychedelic argument was presented with little questioning, while he only offered easy strawman counter arguments as skepticism, easily dismissed by the reader after reading a few more chapters of his pro-psychedelic writings.

“How to Change Your Mind” was very popular several years ago and continues to circulate in certain circles. I’ve read many anecdotes of people who sought psychedelics after reading his book with the expectation of life-changing experiences or psychedelic treatments for their conditions, only to be disappointed when they didn’t experience the miraculous experiences and transformations he describes.

I wish we had a more engaging alternative writer to reference about the realities of psychedelics and other drugs. Someone who was more interested in delivering realistic, albeit necessarily less boring, descriptions of the realities of this space. Some of the depictions of psychedelics as miracle cure-all medicines have gotten out of control and have become completely detached from the actual research, which puts a heavy emphasis on many (10-20 or more) therapy sessions surrounding the guided and monitored psychedelic administration. These books tend to downplay the realities and instead glorify the romantic notion of mushrooms as a forbidden, mystical cure for all ailments. The realities are much less clear-cut and definitely not always as positive as they sound in these modern psychedelic mysticism books.

In the book, Pollan details the recent renaissance in clinical psychedelic research to treat depression and help terminally-ill patients. The hope is that the 'noetic quality' of psychedelic trips--a term coined by William James in the context of religious experiences--can help pierce through the defences of one's ego. This 'noetic quality' refers to the perception that a psychedelic trip feels like 'total reality'; a series of 'revealed truths' rather than drug-induced illusions. This bears resemblance to revelatory experiences in religious contexts and the two are intimately tied in many Shamanic practices.

By inducing a long-lasting feeling of transcendence, researchers hope that psilocybin et al. can act as a more direct way to short-circuit destructive patterns of thought and help one come to terms with death (as opposed to, or in conjunction with, traditional therapy).

Pollan writes that in controlled settings with a trained guide, 'bad trips' are quite rare, though they can occur.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36613747-how-to-change-y....

Previous discussion of the book here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17087961

If you're looking for an objective (in my opinion) perspective on LSD and other psychedelics, consider getting a copy of How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. Definitely a good read.

Not just about an utterly fascinating topic (psychadelic drugs), in terms of history (LSD turning from a scientific wonder drug to illegal), his personal experiences, and the neuroscience behind it, but also just extremely well-written -- a real page-turner. A crazy potent combination of science, spirituality (from a skeptic), and narrative. I expect his book will be a significant part of why psychadelic drugs will be legalized in the near future specifically for therapeutic purposes.

Also +1 for 2017's Why We Sleep [2]. After reading it, I couldn't believe how shockingly ignorant I'd been of how I spend a full third of my life, and how much it affects the other two-thirds -- and the degree to which a lack of sleep prevents us from perceiving the effects of lack of sleep, in a kind of vicious cycle.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...

Is this some attempt at gaming bestsellers lists or something?

[1] The center's operational expenses for the first five years will be covered by private funding from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and four philanthropists: Tim Ferriss, author and technology investor; Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress; Blake Mycoskie, founder of the shoe and accessory brand TOMS; and investor Craig Nerenberg.

"How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence" by Michael Pollan

The author goes through the story of different psychedelics (including LSD) and shows how impressive some of the experiences and studies are. It did change my view completely. This article [1] also summarizes how close we are to use them for medical purposes.

[1] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/psychedeli...

> It chronicles the long and storied history of psychedelic drugs, from their turbulent 1960s heyday to the resulting countermovement and backlash. Through his coverage of the recent resurgence in this field of research, as well as his own personal use of psychedelics via a "mental travelogue", Pollan seeks to illuminate not only the mechanics of the drugs themselves, but also the inner workings of the human mind and consciousness.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Change_Your_Mind

Based my reading of that, what these researchers are doing is not prescribing psychedelics to patients with mental disorders and giving the whole "take one time a day with food". What these researchers are finding is that the drugs can be very effective in a therapeutic setting with a guide (trained therapist or otherwise) to coach and conform the experience to reach a goal. In other words to those familiar with these drugs, set and setting. That is, mindset and surroundings are at least as important as the drug itself to achieving anything. Without that, it's just a drug experience. This is very unique compared to the drugs we're used to.

No medication will ever be a miracle drug, and most drugs show a significant decline in effectiveness once they're out of small trials and methods have standardized. However, any drug or therapy that sees orders of magnitude of improvement over existing drugs and therapies is promising and not worth dismissing simply because of a moral panic from the 60s or the Puritan ideals of our Western culture. Given time and the leeway to experiment, hopefully we will find uses for this class of drugs that have gone shunned for decades for no reason other than someone's moral qualms.

So, while I celebrate the progress being made for a couple of promising compounds with a relatively large base of recognition and support, I'm hoping that I see a more sane approach to drug policy within my lifetime (Portugal seems to be the fashionable example these days).

I'll also second /u/jrowley 's recommendation of Michael Pollan's recent book "How to Change Your Mind" as a good primer, and would recommend the TV show "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia" as another fascinating dive into the subject.

In NYC, for example, it is now perfectly legal to get a heavy dosage of ketamine administered by Columbia University doctors (see https://www.columbiadoctors.org/specialties/psychiatry-psych...)

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Issacson - fascinating look into the real life of Leonardo, demystifying the genius

Excession by Iain M Banks - a bit of a let down

Bluets by Maggie Nelson - lyrical and philosophical and explicit ruminations on the color blue

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan - a lot of already known and rehashed info on psychedelics

Lost City of the Incas by Hirham Bingham - Yale professor who discovered Machu Pichu. Good history of the Incas and region

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbuy - Classic!

2041 by Kim Stanley Robinson - NYC underwater in the future. A bit of a let down compared to his Mars series

Shiver by Junji Ito - short stories from the king of Japanese horror manga

Lenin: The man, the dictator, the master of terror by Victor Sebestyen - great bio on Vladimir Lenin. Knew very little about him before reading this. Fantastic!

Deep Learning by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville - definitive text book on Deep Learning

The Curse of Bigness by Tim Wu - interesting read into the history of Antitrust and the Sherman Act and how they relate to modern tech giants like Amazon, Google, Facebook

Connecting the Dots by John Chambers - a bit dry. Lessons Chambers learned while CEO of Cisco

They have experienced guides/facilitators who can help in case someone is having a challenging experience while on psilocybin, and they have medical staff on premise if anyone needs it. The one caveat to note is that even though I'd say the retreat center is 90% secular/scientific, there's still a 10% remnant of non-scientific woo such as "shamanism" and "energy flows" and "cosmic surgery" that might be a turn off for the atheistic scientist crowd. Worth taking a peek though.

(And to second the warnings: please read Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind first, and be extremely careful if there's any history of schizophrenia in your family before trying any psychedelic)

Joe Rogan had Michael Pollan on recently[0], who wrote The Omnivores Dilemma and a new book How To Change Your Mind[1] which talks about the benefits of hallucinogens. They also briefly talk about the psychotic breaks some people will experience as a result of widespread use and shrug it off like it’ll be fine. Aldous Huxley wrote a book about his use of mescaline called Doors of Perception[2] which felt almost unintelligible and very strange to me as a person who has not (and will not, as my mental health is great but I’m certain I’m at risk of a psychotic break from hallucinogens due to family history) done psychedelics.

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4CrWE_P0g

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Doors-Perception-Heaven-Hell/dp/00617...

He explores the new and old science behind Psychedelics and their ability to cure depression, addiction and other aliments of the mind.

Another active study in this field; Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) https://maps.org/

Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind has lots of stories of people having positive psychedelic therapy, which does require essentially a spiritual guide.

Remember when you went to a new place or met someone interesting or got to play with a new gadget? You probably remember it as a vague memory but can't recall how it actually felt. It's possible to get it back, to a certain extent anyway.

I don't recommend it unless you are followed by a therapist and if you do decide to take some make sure you have integration time a day or two after and that someone is near you while you're on it.

Also read Michael Pollan's How To Change Your Mind prior.

  - Jacques Ellul "The Technological Society"
  - N.N.Taleb "The Black Swan"
  - Danny Kahneman "Thinking Fast & Slow" (also his papers with Amos Tversky)
  - Thomas Ligotti "The Conspiracy against the Human Race"
  - Peter Wessel Zapffe "On the Tragic" & "The Last Messiah"
  - Sokal, Alan D "Intellectual Impostures"
  - Simon Herbert "A The Sciences of the Artificial"
  - Herbert Marcuse "One-Dimensional Man"
  - Schopenhauer "Parerga and Paralipomena"
  - Lewis Mumford "The Story of Utopias"
  - Michel Foucault "Discipline and Punish"
  - Edward S. Herman "Manufacturing Consent - The Political Economy of the Mass Media"
  - Franklin Foer "World Without Mind The Existential Threat of Big Tech"
  - Ben Goldacre "Bad science"
  - Emil Cioran "The Book of Delusions"
  - Gracian "The Art of Worldly Wisdom"
  - Heidegger Martin "The Question Concerning Technology"
  - Jacques Ellul "Propaganda The Formation of Mens Attitudes"
  - Mumford Lewis "The Culture of Cities"
  - Orwell "1984", "Down and Out in Paris and London", "Animal Farm"
  - Huxley "Brave New World", "The Doors Of Perception"
  - Michael Pollan "How to change your mind"
  - Jeff Hawkins "On Intelligence"
  - Fyodor Dostoevsky "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man", "Notes from the Underground", "The Brothers Kasamarov", "The Gambler", "The Idiot", "Crime & Punishment"
  - Peter Smith "Teach Yourself Logic"
  - Thomas More "Utopia"
  - Emil Cioran "The Trouble With Being Born"
  - Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago"
  - Nietzsche "Complete works"
  - Bulgakov "Master and Margarita"
  - Gerald M. Weinberg "The Secrets of Consulting"

  - Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon by Valley John Carreyrou
  - Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep by Matthew Walker
  - The Magicians by Lev Grossman
  - Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight
  - How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
  - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World by Hans Rosling
  - Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
  - Deep Work by Cal Newport
  - Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
  - The Phoenix Project by D.M. Cain
  - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
  - Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Tia T. Farmer
  - Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
  - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
  - Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
  - Linear Algebra by Jim Hefferon
  - 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson
  - Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
  - Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  - Atomic Habits by James Clear

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy - Hamilton Helmer

American Wolf - Nate Blakeslee

Atomic Habits - James Clear

Conspiracy - Ryan Holiday

Courage To Be Disliked - Ichiro Kishimi

How To Change Your Mind - Michael Pollan

Open - Andre Agassi

Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker

World After Capital - Albert Wenger

Fiction:

Chocky - John Wyndham

Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata

The Eight Mountains - Paolo Cognetti

The Invisibility Cloak - Ge Fei

The Midnight Fox - Betsy Byars

Such Small Hands - Andres Barba

The Thief - Fuminori Nakamura

Ties - Domenico Starnone

Trick - Domenico Starnone

1) I’m a child of the DARE era, which scared me about the big, scary risks associated with mind-altering substances!!!

2) I get severely anxious when I smoke even a little bit too much marijuana.

2.5) I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder (specifically OCD) which I now manage with ERP. But I severely fear losing control of my thoughts.

However, I recently read How To Change Your Mind, and it did reshape my thinking about a lot of the above.

I’m still hesitant to try shrooms or LSD, but the idea of a guided trip with a trained therapist, who will walk me through the more fear-inducing moments, does have an appeal. To think that maybe this would HELP my daily anxieties seems like a dream.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lysergic_acid_dieth...

I'd recommend Michael Pollan's recent book, "How to Change your Mind" if you'd like to read more.

Currently reading The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South and Safe Area Goražde, a comic book about the Bosnian War.

Also reading Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy in between books, but that's a book I'll never really finish.

How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529343/how-to-chang...)

Fellowship of the River by Joe Tafur, MD (https://www.drjoetafur.com/the-fellowship-of-the-river)