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Wow - impressive list of personal development books. Your bookshelf looks a bit like my own, the numbers in yours certainly eclipses mine. I'd be keen to hear

Wow - impressive list of personal development books. Your bookshelf looks a bit like my own, the numbers in yours certainly eclipses mine. I'd be keen to hear, after digesting all that information, what’s changed? - are you "personally developed", more confused or exactly the same? I usually find that these books feel very "samey" after a while and feel that there is certainly a limit to the number of things these books can tell you.

oscardelben 17y ago
That's a very good question. For me the biggest thing has been motivation. I now work mostly from home (doing programming consulting) and I'm starting to create my firsts products (iphone and ipad apps). Some of those books have helped me in different areas like sport, but also for my inner self. For example until some months ago I had a psychological problem where I would be very sick when I was facing uncomfortable situations. Now I solved it. I have to say tough that books can only inspire, but if you do nothing, nothing changes.
- AnHonestCoward 17y ago
  Glad to hear these have worked for you, certainly seems like you have put some of the lessons into practise and have come out the other side better for it. Another question - which books are you not giving away? - which ones are staying firmly on your bookshelf?
  - oscardelben 17y ago
    First, my programming books, because they are generally very heavy and I like to read them very often. Then I have books like GEB which I still have to read and understand completely. Lastly I have a couple of books which are on other topics such as code breaking, math and similar. Nowadays I read most books on the kindle tough, because it's very expensive to ship from amazon to italy.
- edkennedy 17y ago
  Congratulations on your improvements. I'm curious, what book has helped you get over your physical discomfort?
  - oscardelben 17y ago
    I think it's not just one book but what I learned from many of them. I think at some point I simply realized what was wrong.
    - keefe 17y ago
      I went to a talk about meditation and neuroscience from the prof up at stanford last year. There was talk about how we have an instinctive and emotional part of our brain and how we also have an executive control center. One of the points of the talk was how meditation changes the functioning of the braining and reinforces the ability of the executive control center to subjugate the emotional part. Perhaps the years of making efforts regarding this issue strengthened the wiring in your brain until you were able to overcome it?
- wallflower 17y ago
  > For example until some months ago I had a psychological problem where I would be very sick when I was facing uncomfortable situations. Now I solved it. If you don't mind sharing, which technique in your toolbox did you find addressed that issue? I find I tend to get very laconic or even weary in certain stressful situations.
  - oscardelben 17y ago
    I think at one point I realized that everything was made up from my mind, in that case my instinct. From that moment I decided (using my rationale brain) that what I was doing was stupid and we're not living in the savana anymore and there are not tigers around. That worked for me so far.

oscardelben 17y ago

That's a very good question. For me the biggest thing has been motivation. I now work mostly from home (doing programming consulting) and I'm starting to create my firsts products (iphone and ipad apps). Some of those books have helped me in different areas like sport, but also for my inner self. For example until some months ago I had a psychological problem where I would be very sick when I was facing uncomfortable situations. Now I solved it. I have to say tough that books can only inspire, but if you do nothing, nothing changes.

AnHonestCoward 17y ago
Glad to hear these have worked for you, certainly seems like you have put some of the lessons into practise and have come out the other side better for it. Another question - which books are you not giving away? - which ones are staying firmly on your bookshelf?
- oscardelben 17y ago
  First, my programming books, because they are generally very heavy and I like to read them very often. Then I have books like GEB which I still have to read and understand completely. Lastly I have a couple of books which are on other topics such as code breaking, math and similar. Nowadays I read most books on the kindle tough, because it's very expensive to ship from amazon to italy.
edkennedy 17y ago
Congratulations on your improvements. I'm curious, what book has helped you get over your physical discomfort?
- oscardelben 17y ago
  I think it's not just one book but what I learned from many of them. I think at some point I simply realized what was wrong.
  - keefe 17y ago
    I went to a talk about meditation and neuroscience from the prof up at stanford last year. There was talk about how we have an instinctive and emotional part of our brain and how we also have an executive control center. One of the points of the talk was how meditation changes the functioning of the braining and reinforces the ability of the executive control center to subjugate the emotional part. Perhaps the years of making efforts regarding this issue strengthened the wiring in your brain until you were able to overcome it?
wallflower 17y ago
> For example until some months ago I had a psychological problem where I would be very sick when I was facing uncomfortable situations. Now I solved it. If you don't mind sharing, which technique in your toolbox did you find addressed that issue? I find I tend to get very laconic or even weary in certain stressful situations.
- oscardelben 17y ago
  I think at one point I realized that everything was made up from my mind, in that case my instinct. From that moment I decided (using my rationale brain) that what I was doing was stupid and we're not living in the savana anymore and there are not tigers around. That worked for me so far.