Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor Emil Frankl · first published 1946
76% recommend21% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Frankl's concentration camp experience shows that people can find purpose in suffering and choose their response. Recommended for anyone facing depression, burnout, an existential crisis, or doubts about work.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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For me it was this very old book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.
on “Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?” ↗…a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it taught me how despite big changes in technology and society and way of living, very little changes when it comes to our personal struggles and concerns; Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, because it helped me realize that in any situation, my attitude is what I always have control over; and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey because it greatly contributed…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…meaning in their predicament – or mentally detach themselves from their day-to-day reality, which is a monumental task when alone. This is the same conclusion drawn by Dr. Victor Frankl in his excellent Man's Search for Meaning. His experience in Nazi concentration camps led him to conclude that the only way to fend off complete apathy was to try to find a personal meaning in your experience. Even apparently meaningless suffering,…
on “How extreme isolation warps the mind” ↗…all time to add to my list, both fiction and non-fiction. My current list is as follows (no particular order): 1: Happy City (Charles Montgomery) 2: Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) 3: Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl) 4: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Peter Thiel) 5: The Tender Bar (J. R. Moehringer) 6: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business…
on “Ask HN: I have no commitments for the next 6 months – what books should I read?” ↗Victor Frankl's book, "Man's search for meaning" is also essential reading in my opinion. A few of my takeaways from that book: 1. People are capable of both great evil and great good (often in close proximity). 2. Having a great intellect may, in…
on “Viktor Frankl: Why believe in others [video] (1972)” ↗Reading Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning has been the best thing I ever read on this topic. Changed my whole perspective. The tldr version goes something like: “Meaning is irrelevant, but humans need meaning to live. Pick any meaning you want.…
on “Perseverance Toward Life Goals Can Fend Off Depression, Anxiety, Panic Disorders” ↗Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl The book was written by a psychologist who survived the Holocaust camps. The paragraph that always sticks with me goes something like "for sure, the best amongst us never left the camps…
on “Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?” ↗Anyone interested in the psychology of survivors will likely find "Man's search for meaning" by Viktor Frankl - a psychiatrist and survivor himself an enlihgtening read. What makes man go on, and when will he/she just give up?
on “Holocaust Paradox: Long Lives for Those Who Survived” ↗…a step. You didn’t do what you hoped you would do. You wasted your time. So forth and so on. Don’t worry. It gets better. This is all part of the process of life. My recommendation is that you read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” I’m 52 here. I was a prolific programmer in my 20s. A go-go marketer in my 30s. For the last 10 years, I’ve run a business that…
on “Ask HN: How do you deal with getting old and feeling lost?” ↗…those systems went so far astray." > "[...] The lessons there for me were psychological and that taught me an awful lot about the role of the individual: people like Viktor Frankl, for example, who wrote Man's Search for Meaning, a perennial classic and a great book--insisted that a large part of the reason that Germany went off the rails so badly was because individual Germans were so willing to falsify their own experience.…
on “Study Pinpoints Source of Banned Gas That Saps Ozone Layer: Eastern China” ↗…our world. These are things that can have intrinsic meaning, not things that only have meaning in the way they increase our status or grant us some secondary benefit. I would really suggest reading "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl
on “The rituals we perform and the games we play” ↗1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - practical advice on how to arm yourself every day. 2. Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl - no matter how bad you think you have it, it can be worse, and you can find meaning. 3. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - it's the journey (not the destination) and <i>pay attention!</i>
on “Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?” ↗…Superhuman by Habit (OK, not much new) The Circle of Profit (straight to the point) Thinking in Systems (couldn't finish it) Radical Candor (awesome) Harry Potter #1 (too low of a reading level) Man's Search for Meaning (classic) Flow (Amazing!) Scary Close (great)
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…many very happy people I met in the worst of slums. The most important choices we make in little have absolutely zero to do with how much money we have. For a more extended essay on the topic, read "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl who survived a Nazi concentration camp. To pull one quote off its Wikipedia page: "Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of…
on “Jeff Bezos to Princeton's class of 2010 :"We are What We Choose"” ↗Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl Amazing book on the meaning of life from the founder of logotherapy (therapy based on helping clients to find meaning in their life) who is also a holocaust survivor. The first 2/3…
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗