Trouble with Being Born

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• DyslexicAtheist · Dec 23, 2018 · Recommends

  …book on my list) ;) - The Conspiracy Against the Human Race (Thomas Ligotti) ... fun fact: S01 of 'True Detectives' has ripped part of the dialogue straight from this book without giving credit - The Trouble with being born (Emil Cioran) - The Industrial Society and its Future (Ted Kaczynski) - The Technological Society (Jaques Ellul) - Propaganda (Jaques Ellul) - McMafia - A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld…

  on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗
• DyslexicAtheist · Jan 10, 2019 · Recommends

  nihilism and existentialism helped me overcome quite a lot. things like Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race", and Emil Cioran's "The trouble with being born" have opened my eyes to a new way of thinking that doesn't revolve around societies fetishism of positivity & optimism.

  on “Anxiety and burnout: why kids are consumed with worry” ↗
• DyslexicAtheist · Feb 5, 2019 · Recommends

  …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"

  on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗
• netfortius · Dec 9, 2025 · Recommends

  To me the "revelation" came via Emil Cioran's book "The inconvenience of being born" (the actual book's title in English is "The Trouble with Being Born", but I like better the term that's closer to the French original). Excellent justification.

  on “We Need to Die” ↗
• igravious · Jul 10, 2010 · Recommends

  …theory that takes in Aristotle, Spinoza, Nietzsche and Woody Allen among others and is divided up by virtue which is extremely novel. It is fantastically written. Anything by Cioran as well such as The Trouble with Being Born. I'm trying not to typecast myself here! :) And finally finally Sophie's World and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance while nice cute books are not true philosophy books. This is also why I wouldn't recommend…

  on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗
• 50 · Nov 25, 2021 · Mentions

  …here is this excerpt (hopefully not too nihilistic or pessimistic) from E.M. Cioran - who seems to have become so apparent to me this past year - and his aphorism-filled, philosophical book titled The Trouble With Being Born: "A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idleness. Hours and hours without doing anything. Was boredom unknown to them? This…

  on “In Praise of Idleness (1932)” ↗
• holbue · Jul 29, 2019 · Mentions

  …immediately regretted it and called one of my friends for help. (Sadly, the ambulance couldn't save him.) The very pessimistic philosopher Emil Cioran (author of e.g. De l'inconvénient d'être né, "The Trouble With Being Born") who beside his suicidal thoughts died at age 84 once said in an interview, that suicidal thoughts are paradoxically the reason, why he stayed alive: The knowledge of the choice to end existence if the…

  on “Suicide Attempters’ Long-Term Survival” ↗