A Guide to the Good Life
by William B. Irvine · first published 2009
85% recommend13% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Accessible, practical introduction to Stoicism that mixes a little history with concrete techniques for handling things outside your control; suits newcomers who dislike typical self-help and want ideas they can apply.
Common criticism: Some find it a watered-down, wordy treatment compared with reading the Stoics directly
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…and holistic approach to "not worrying about things you cannot change," I would check out Stoicism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism The best intro book, in my opinion, is William B Irvine's "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy". The main problem I find with simply "Stop Complaining," is how do you do it? What should you and should you not stop complaining about? Do you shut out your feelings about…
on “Stop Complaining in February” ↗…has read the ancient sources, specifically the papers by A.A. Long. If you absolutely must have a modern book about the school, I'll contradict my earlier statement and say that William B. Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life is one exception. I love Stoicism and am happy to talk about it at length. Anyone who is interested can feel free to contact me about it, my email is in my profile. Ad fontes!
on ““Study Death Always”: Seneca’s advice for living centered on dying” ↗Same here. Meditations is fantastic, though for a more complete look into Stoicism, I can't recommend A Guide to the Good Life (The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy) by William B Irvine enough!
on “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy (2010)” ↗For a very accessible and practical guide to Seneca (and other stoic philosophers), check out "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William Irvine The title is a little cheesy, but the content is gold. It's one of the books I re-read (or re-listen to via Audible) multiple times a year. I find the…
on “Seneca: On the Shortness of Life” ↗I highly recommend William Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life, then reading Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, et al. As an aside: I listened to Irvine on audiobook immediately after listening to Sherry Turkle's Alone Together. It was like reading about a disease and then…
on “The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius” ↗…a while, helped me throw away a lot of stuff I didn't need - Models by Mark Manson - very helpful and ethical advice on attracting women for people like me who never really quite figured it out - A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine- discussion of a philosophy of life that seems like it would work well for modern living
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗I can't recommend enough "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by Irvine, William B. I am 2/3 into it, maybe one of the best philosophy book I've ever read.
on “How to Be a Stoic” ↗…taker society very much influenced my young mind. - 1491 and 1493 by Charles C. Mann The way we look at the new world and how vastly different standard teachings and what actually happened are. - A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine Put to words what I already mostly practise, it identified my issues I had with buddhism. - A Dictators Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita An interesting flip on politics, it made…
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗How to be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci (author of the article) A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine I also read The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, which read too much like a self-help/business book to me. It might be to some people's tastes, but I found it lacked the substance…
on “What the Stoics did for us” ↗“A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy” by William Irvine has taught me appreciate what I have and take it easy on myself when things don’t go as planned. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040JHNQG/
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗…which the Western world built its world order, how to know when a war would be just, the collected works of Plato, starting with The Republic, and the stoics would be a good start. I would advise Irvine's Guide to the Good Life as an introduction to the stoics. I would also add Errol Morris's The Fog of War, including McNamara's separate 10 lessons (1), and, as counterpoint, Ken Burns' Vietnam series. The two together are an…
on “Deep learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio is worried about AI’s future” ↗If you are interested in Stoicism as a life philosophy, I recommend 'A guide to the Good Life' by William B. Irvine (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5617966-a-guide-to-the-g...).
on “The Joys of Being a Stoic” ↗…(parents/teachers/etc) and most people just didn't (or don't) have the same opportunities. It's important to develop constructive (or at least non-destructive) habits to handle these feelings. I'd suggest "A Guide to the Good Life" by William Braxton Irvine as a resource. The right therapist can also help you "unpack" these feelings (although the different styles can be hit-or-miss for you, so shop around when you're on a "good"…
on “Debian GNU/Linux running bare metal on the Apple M1 with a mainline kernel” ↗Always on the lookout for a good read. Thanks for posting the question. Through HN I discovered: "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" Which I enjoyed very much.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011” ↗A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - by William Irvine Notes by Derek Sivers available at http://sivers.org/book/StoicJoy Tim Ferriss also frequently shows his admiration for Stoicism. A quick read that…
on “The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius” ↗