What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond Human: Overcoming Cynicism & Defeating Mediocrity
Some of the very smartest people I know are also the most pessimistic people I know. Those given to self-reflection - among whom I include myself - often gravitate towards cynicism. We often justify it - sometimes even pretending to revel in it. "That's the price you pay for being smart". "I wish I could be stupid enough to be happy." "Intelligence and pessimism are correlated." (You could also find a correlation between the rate of growth of your nails and the rate at which the sea level is rising). I told myself some of these things to feel better - but I didn't really feel much better. Cynicism can also breed mediocrity - a lot of potential goes to waste because many smart people just don't care, and don't want to try harder. In just the same way, mediocrity can breed cynicism. If you can't seem to achieve anything, you might cope and simply give up - a case of sour grapes. This isn't an easy battle to overcome by any means. And victory isn't permanent - it's so easy to slip back into your old ways if you're not careful, and if you stop living consciously. And we all slip sometimes. Success doesn't mean not slipping at all. It's more about quickly you get back on your feet, and how you learn to avoid such slips in the future. That's why consciousness and introspection are your key weapons in this journey. This book is about some of the ideas I've garnered over the years from a whole range of sources as well as others I've thought about myself. A lot of these are drawn from Stoicism, Existentialism, Psychology and Economics, and above all, Friedrich Nietzsche's writings. But you don't need to be familiar with these before you read because there's no dense theory or philosophizing here. What I've done is put all these thoughts in one place, simplify them so that you can relate them to your life, and in some cases, build on them. It's up to you what you do with these ideas and whether you want to make use of them.
110 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 15, 2020
8 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 21, 2022
The concepts in the book are a hodge podge of ideas taken from markedly better books and writers.
Its clear the writer is intelligent, yet the writing is repetitive and quite unstructured. It feels more like listening to someone ruminate than someone giving well formed, cogent and structured opinion.
At times its cantankerous, at times tone deaf and at times actually helpful.
It goes along the lines of "I think life is this, I disagree with this, I don't agree with that." Not only does it feel half formed, the flaws in some of the theories were blatantly obvious.
For eg. "I can't understand why people live unhappy lives? Why live if you are unhappy. A zero is better than a negative." There's a litany of reasons for not ending a life which seem to escape his thought process.
Barring the amor fati concept which I got an introduction to here and only reason for the 2 star; This was largely a meandering and enervating read.
Its clear the writer is intelligent, yet the writing is repetitive and quite unstructured. It feels more like listening to someone ruminate than someone giving well formed, cogent and structured opinion.
At times its cantankerous, at times tone deaf and at times actually helpful.
It goes along the lines of "I think life is this, I disagree with this, I don't agree with that." Not only does it feel half formed, the flaws in some of the theories were blatantly obvious.
For eg. "I can't understand why people live unhappy lives? Why live if you are unhappy. A zero is better than a negative." There's a litany of reasons for not ending a life which seem to escape his thought process.
Barring the amor fati concept which I got an introduction to here and only reason for the 2 star; This was largely a meandering and enervating read.
March 11, 2021
The one thing that scares me more than death is mediocrity. In one of my discussions with the author on the above topic, he suggested his book ‘Beyond Human : Overcoming Cynicism and Defeating Mediocrity’. The author himself has cracked the holy trinity, the 3 famous Is of India: IIT,IIM,IAS which is definitely not mediocre 😄
The book delves into various topics like motivation, ignorance, mediocrity, happiness, validation, confidence, passion etc., and how they play an important role in our decision making and suggests how to avoid pitfalls that most people succumb to. It also discusses about concepts like Nishkama Karma, Amor Fati, Hedonic Adaptation etc. which helps us understand the author’s message clearly. My favourite part of the book is the chapter about validation, something that hit me hard. There are many such ideas in the book that compelled me to think.
The author’s command over philosophical ideas clearly reflects in his writing. All the above mentioned topics are carefully deliberated along with examples. I also got an opportunity to discuss these ideas with the author while I was reading the book ( I’m so fortunate 😎). After reading the book, the readers are left with a bunch of ideas to ruminate over. Although the ideas/suggestions are not new to most of us, it is the way they are illustrated and the brutal honesty with which the author explains them that makes the book worthy reading.
I recommend this book to those who don’t want to remain mediocre and want to have more clarity on the decisions they make. (You will also get to know why the author behaves the way he does in the lectures 😜 )
Happy Reading !!🤓
The book delves into various topics like motivation, ignorance, mediocrity, happiness, validation, confidence, passion etc., and how they play an important role in our decision making and suggests how to avoid pitfalls that most people succumb to. It also discusses about concepts like Nishkama Karma, Amor Fati, Hedonic Adaptation etc. which helps us understand the author’s message clearly. My favourite part of the book is the chapter about validation, something that hit me hard. There are many such ideas in the book that compelled me to think.
The author’s command over philosophical ideas clearly reflects in his writing. All the above mentioned topics are carefully deliberated along with examples. I also got an opportunity to discuss these ideas with the author while I was reading the book ( I’m so fortunate 😎). After reading the book, the readers are left with a bunch of ideas to ruminate over. Although the ideas/suggestions are not new to most of us, it is the way they are illustrated and the brutal honesty with which the author explains them that makes the book worthy reading.
I recommend this book to those who don’t want to remain mediocre and want to have more clarity on the decisions they make. (You will also get to know why the author behaves the way he does in the lectures 😜 )
Happy Reading !!🤓
November 20, 2020
I came across this book while reading the author's blog and picked it up simply because I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone my age had written 3 books while bagging up other serious accomplishments and curious as to what might be in it. I expected to make good use of my 'Kindle Unlimited' membership and just glance over the content real quick.
But it was not to be.
As I started reading it, I knew I just couldn't "glance over" it, I HAD TO read it thoroughly. I can't say if it was because of my pre-existing interest in stoicism(I had just started reading 'Meditations') or not, but the ideas he describes in the book resonated with me, be it 'Amor fati' or 'Paradoxical intention' among many other ideas compiled from various sources. You could see how neatly he tries to break down complex and chunky terms like motivation, ignorance, etc. into simpler edible bites to make sense out of them so that we can later figure out how to get the best out of them. Yet, this is not JUST a self-help book or a book about stoicism. Read it because it adds value to your life not just because you think it has the IAS mantra in it and then, and only then, you might enjoy it. I know I did.
But it was not to be.
As I started reading it, I knew I just couldn't "glance over" it, I HAD TO read it thoroughly. I can't say if it was because of my pre-existing interest in stoicism(I had just started reading 'Meditations') or not, but the ideas he describes in the book resonated with me, be it 'Amor fati' or 'Paradoxical intention' among many other ideas compiled from various sources. You could see how neatly he tries to break down complex and chunky terms like motivation, ignorance, etc. into simpler edible bites to make sense out of them so that we can later figure out how to get the best out of them. Yet, this is not JUST a self-help book or a book about stoicism. Read it because it adds value to your life not just because you think it has the IAS mantra in it and then, and only then, you might enjoy it. I know I did.
July 20, 2021
Exceptional!!!
All the books I had read which come into the category of self-help books made me realize the influence and motivation I get out of these books were short lived in my case. This is one of the reasons I had stopped reading books from this category.
But this one is quite different from the other so called self-help books. One of the things that I appreciated in the book is its unconventionality.
Here, the author isn't trying to sugarcoat and is quite straightforward which helps us see the reality in true sense. Even some of the ideas put forth in the book come to me like a blow.
The unpretentious way of writing and the examples which are most of the times very practical ones help us connect to the author and this makes the whole experience of reading the book effortless.
Most importantly the subjects dealt in the book are thought provoking. You stop after each paragraph to think and introspect.
The language is lucid which is cherry on the cake.
Though, the author says this book isn't for everyone I believe everyone should give it a try. This book provides you with lots of ideas you would like to ponder upon. Maybe it will give you a new perspective to see life.
All the books I had read which come into the category of self-help books made me realize the influence and motivation I get out of these books were short lived in my case. This is one of the reasons I had stopped reading books from this category.
But this one is quite different from the other so called self-help books. One of the things that I appreciated in the book is its unconventionality.
Here, the author isn't trying to sugarcoat and is quite straightforward which helps us see the reality in true sense. Even some of the ideas put forth in the book come to me like a blow.
The unpretentious way of writing and the examples which are most of the times very practical ones help us connect to the author and this makes the whole experience of reading the book effortless.
Most importantly the subjects dealt in the book are thought provoking. You stop after each paragraph to think and introspect.
The language is lucid which is cherry on the cake.
Though, the author says this book isn't for everyone I believe everyone should give it a try. This book provides you with lots of ideas you would like to ponder upon. Maybe it will give you a new perspective to see life.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews