Trying Not To Try

Author : Edward Slingerland
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0770437621
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Trying Not to Try written by Edward Slingerland and published by Crown. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply original exploration of the power of spontaneity—an ancient Chinese ideal that cognitive scientists are only now beginning to understand—and why it is so essential to our well-being Why is it always hard to fall asleep the night before an important meeting? Or be charming and relaxed on a first date? What is it about a politician who seems wooden or a comedian whose jokes fall flat or an athlete who chokes? In all of these cases, striving seems to backfire. In Trying Not To Try, Edward Slingerland explains why we find spontaneity so elusive, and shows how early Chinese thought points the way to happier, more authentic lives. We’ve long been told that the way to achieve our goals is through careful reasoning and conscious effort. But recent research suggests that many aspects of a satisfying life, like happiness and spontaneity, are best pursued indirectly. The early Chinese philosophers knew this, and they wrote extensively about an effortless way of being in the world, which they called wu-wei (ooo-way). They believed it was the source of all success in life, and they developed various strategies for getting it and hanging on to it. With clarity and wit, Slingerland introduces us to these thinkers and the marvelous characters in their texts, from the butcher whose blade glides effortlessly through an ox to the wood carver who sees his sculpture simply emerge from a solid block. Slingerland uncovers a direct line from wu-wei to the Force in Star Wars, explains why wu-wei is more powerful than flow, and tells us what it all means for getting a date. He also shows how new research reveals what’s happening in the brain when we’re in a state of wu-wei—why it makes us happy and effective and trustworthy, and how it might have even made civilization possible. Through stories of mythical creatures and drunken cart riders, jazz musicians and Japanese motorcycle gangs, Slingerland effortlessly blends Eastern thought and cutting-edge science to show us how we can live more fulfilling lives. Trying Not To Try is mind-expanding and deeply pleasurable, the perfect antidote to our striving modern culture.

Author : Edward Slingerland
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199874573
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Effortless Action written by Edward Slingerland and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-24 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a systematic account of the role of the personal spiritual ideal of wu-wei--literally "no doing," but better rendered as "effortless action"--in early Chinese thought. Edward Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness. This concept of effortlessness, he contends, serves as a common ideal for both Daoist and Confucian thinkers. He also argues that this concept contains within itself a conceptual tension that motivates the development of early Chinese thought: the so-called "paradox of wu-wei," or the question of how one can consciously "try not to try." Methodologically, this book represents a preliminary attempt to apply the contemporary theory of conceptual metaphor to the study of early Chinese thought. Although the focus is upon early China, both the subject matter and methodology have wider implications. The subject of wu-wei is relevant to anyone interested in later East Asian religious thought or in the so-called "virtue-ethics" tradition in the West. Moreover, the technique of conceptual metaphor analysis--along with the principle of "embodied realism" upon which it is based--provides an exciting new theoretical framework and methodological tool for the study of comparative thought, comparative religion, intellectual history, and even the humanities in general. Part of the purpose of this work is thus to help introduce scholars in the humanities and social sciences to this methodology, and provide an example of how it may be applied to a particular sub-field.

Author : Ollivier Pourriol
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 014313549X
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard written by Ollivier Pourriol and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sick of striving? Giving up on grit? Had enough of hustle culture? Daunted by the 10,000-hour rule? Relax: As the French know, it's the best way to be better at everything. In the realm of love, what could be less seductive than someone who's trying to seduce you? Seduction is the art of succeeding without trying, and that's a lesson the French have mastered. We can see it in their laissez-faire parenting, chic style, haute cuisine, and enviable home cooking: They barely seem to be trying, yet the results are world-famous--thanks to a certain je ne sais quoi that is the key to a more creative, fulfilling, and productive life. For fans of both Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life, philosopher Ollivier Pourriol's The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard draws on the examples of such French legends as Descartes, Stendhal, Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Françoise Sagan to show how to be efficient à la française, and how to effortlessly reap the rewards. A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE

Author : Edward Slingerland
Publisher : Little, Brown Spark
ISBN 13 : 0316453374
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Drunk written by Edward Slingerland and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An "entertaining and enlightening" deep dive into the alcohol-soaked origins of civilization—and the evolutionary roots of humanity's appetite for intoxication (Daniel E. Lieberman, author of Exercised). While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically-grounded explanation for our love of alcohol. Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Drunk shows that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges: enhancing creativity, alleviating stress, building trust, and pulling off the miracle of getting fiercely tribal primates to cooperate with strangers. Our desire to get drunk, along with the individual and social benefits provided by drunkenness, played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies. We would not have civilization without intoxication. From marauding Vikings and bacchanalian orgies to sex-starved fruit flies, blind cave fish, and problem-solving crows, Drunk is packed with fascinating case studies and engaging science, as well as practical takeaways for individuals and communities. The result is a captivating and long overdue investigation into humanity's oldest indulgence—one that explains not only why we want to get drunk, but also how it might actually be good for us to tie one on now and then.

Author : Bruce Charlton
Publisher : Legend Press Ltd
ISBN 13 : 1789551439
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Not Even Trying written by Bruce Charlton and published by Legend Press Ltd. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Real science is dead.

Author : Edward Slingerland
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190842326
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mind and Body in Early China written by Edward Slingerland and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-23 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mind and Body in Early China critiques Orientalist accounts of early China as the radical, "holistic" other. The idea that the early Chinese held the "strong" holist view, seeing no qualitative difference between mind and body, has long been contradicted by traditional archeological and qualitative textual evidence. New digital humanities methods, along with basic knowledge about human cognition, now make this position untenable. A large body of empirical evidence suggests that "weak" mind-body dualism is a psychological universal, and that human sociality would be fundamentally impossible without it. Edward Slingerland argues that the humanities need to move beyond social constructivist views of culture, and embrace instead a view of human cognition and culture that integrates the sciences and the humanities. Our interpretation of texts and artifacts from the past and from other cultures should be constrained by what we know about the species-specific, embodied commonalities shared by all humans. This book also attempts to broaden the scope of humanistic methodologies by employing team-based qualitative coding and computer-aided "distant reading" of texts, while also drawing upon our current best understanding of human cognition to transform our basic starting point. It has implications for anyone interested in comparative religion, early China, cultural studies, digital humanities, or science-humanities integration.

Author : Oliver Burkeman
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374715246
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Four Thousand Weeks written by Oliver Burkeman and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks. Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.

Author : Edward Slingerland
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521701518
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book What Science Offers the Humanities written by Edward Slingerland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-02-11 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Science Offers the Humanities examines some of the deep problems facing current approaches to the study of culture. It focuses especially on the excesses of postmodernism, but also acknowledges serious problems with postmodernism's harshest critics. In short, Edward Slingerland argues that in order for the humanities to progress, its scholars need to take seriously contributions from the natural sciences-and particular research on human cognition-which demonstrate that any separation of the mind and the body is entirely untenable. The author provides suggestions for how humanists might begin to utilize these scientific discoveries without conceding that science has the last word on morality, religion, art, and literature. Calling into question such deeply entrenched dogmas as the "blank slate" theory of nature, strong social constructivism, and the ideal of disembodied reason, What Science Offers the Humanities replaces the human-sciences divide with a more integrated approach to the study of culture.

Author : Avrum Geurin Weiss
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1442211512
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Change Happens written by Avrum Geurin Weiss and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2011-11-16 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Change Happens is at once an emotionally resonant and stimulating book that will touch a deep chord with readers who are seeking to understand the big and small struggles in their lives and an insightful companion for those struggling with a specific change or trying to bring about a change in their lives. Here, Avrum Weiss offers insights and lessons that are relevant to change across all life situations, including change in our personal lives, relationships, places of work, communities, and the larger world. He helps readers understand when trying harder is the best approach to change, and when not trying so hard is more appropriate. Each chapter introduces a key element in the process of change as well as fresh concepts for understanding how best to navigate the changes we all face at one time or another in our lives.

Author : Cindy Horrell Ramsey
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781736051702
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Trying Not to Drown written by Cindy Horrell Ramsey and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lucy Miller Brown has seen too many tragedies in her thirty-three years. Still struggling to survive her veteran husband's death, she works tirelessly to create a good life for her three children and aging grandmother on the farm that has supported their family for multiple generations. With her family thriving and a bumper crop of fruits and vegetables ripening in the fields, Lucy finally feels a satisfying sense of control. But she can't control the weather. Hurricane Florence barrels into the North Carolina coast as a Cat 1, leaving behind normal destruction-nothing Lucy can't handle. But then the storm stalls and dumps over thirty inches of rain in less than three days, causing the rivers to rise to unprecedented levels. Following a harried middle-of-the-night escape to the loft of their tractor shed, Lucy guards her family as she watches the tannin stained water of the Black River swallow up their home and farm and threaten to overtake their refuge. Feeling lost and helpless, Lucy prays for help. The answer to those prayers arrives in the form of a man and his teenage son in a jonboat-strangers Lucy is fearful to trust. But with the water still rising, what other option does she have? Relinquishing much of the independence and control Lucy has fought so hard to achieve, she must make difficult decisions for the survival and future of her family.