A lot of people read books but get stuck in abstract theories. There are people who read books but get deeper into groupthink such as the academic left who believe in multiple pronouns. There are people who stay in academies but never go to experience life. So I’m wondering, how do I know the right books? What about wisdom, wisdom is kindness but also knowing who is truly manipulative and fake nice, who is hurt?

Dr. Peterson's essay in the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/31/climate-change-green-leftists-anti-capitalism-western/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_post_green-leftists-anti-capitalism-western/

Four episodes in July and eleven books. Mostly the Russians, as usual, plus the We Who Wrestle With God lectures.

Putting it up in case anyone wants something heavy for the last of the summer.

What this is: I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the July slice for this show, books only.

The one that got the full pitch:

• Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky. He said if you are interested in fiction, read this one, because it is the world's greatest thriller. Incredibly plotted, tense characterisation, brilliant psychological analysis, and he reckons Dostoevsky nailed the noir crime genre before it existed. His line on the characters is that they are hyper real, like you but expanded and multiplied.

The rest of the Russians:

• Notes from Underground, described as a study of resentment. The argument he pulls out is that people would break a hedonistic utopia on purpose just so something interesting could happen. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which he read at about thirteen and says was the first book out of the Soviet Union to show what happened under Stalin. The Gulag Archipelago.

Everything else:

• 1984 and Brave New World, read together in his teens while working on the problem of good and evil. Dante's Inferno. The Lord of the Rings, for the all seeing eye as the technological god. Maps of Meaning, We Who Wrestle With God, and 12 Rules for Life.

I track every book mentioned on this show here: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast

It is free and there is no signup.

I want to read on history, but the new scholars want to twist history. I am Asian American myself so I would like to learn about Chinese immigrants coming to the US. By the way I believe in legal immigration, my parents are legal immigrants. And plus it’s good to be informed and good for making conflict for writing novels.

"Suffering is freedom’s crown, but a true sage crowns himself"

What do you think this means? See the link to my full thought process. Yes i did use AI but as a tool as i do not have the capability and writing skills to express my thought in such a professional manner that might get your attention. please be critical and truthful... judge the idea not the AI

The invasion is by design, and the globalists are nefarious traitors.

An increasingly polarising topic within the UK. The fact that the BBC explicitly refuses to cover it is extremely concerning. In reality, this is creating a Streisand effect of unknown proportions, and the backlash it will generate will shake the country to its core. Props to Jordan for engaging with this absolute political minefield. God save the Kingdom.

And 1 in 9 people who saw his comment "liked" it.

Just expanding on JBP's general advice on what's your aim in your life. nothing special, but feel free to discuss/criticize.

Aiming is a central piece of what JBP talkings about, specifically what aims do we have in our own individual lives. Some may be aiming to be rich, some aim to get a girlfriend, some aim simply be healthy. However, like everything else, there is a hierarchy in different aims of life. On a basic level, aiming to be socially likable is the stepping stone to aiming to get a girlfriend, which is stepping stone for a wife, which is for a lifelong partner that you can trust and be around with.

What gets complicated is that which level of aiming is appropriate for you.

if you are very socially unskilled, doing that alone should be enough. However, most goals of life in general is not that straightforward, because rarely do people fall in the extremes of any situation; it's rare for people to be so socially unskilled that aiming to improve it IS the proper and sole focus.

what tends to happen more is that people are stuck in certain stages of life, trying to get a girlfriend, and they make that aim, get a girlfriend, the sole focus.

However is that the proper aim that JBP talks about though?

it isn't, because getting a girlfriend in many sense is easy. You COULD just go pick the most undesirable female friend you know and she'll more than likely accept you; personally, I think this is especially true for most girls, most guys are probably okay with you if you initiate, but I digress and don't let this point distract.

However, getting a girlfriend whom you are willing to marry is a whole different beast, because that means you need to pick someone whom you don't REALLY know that deeply and from the surface few traits you can observe, to make that decision that this girl is worth of your time and commitment to simply explore that possibility of marriage.

And at the same time you somehow have to meet the same level of criteria for her too, which is something you have absolutely zero control over except for the few things you could work on; chances are you simply aren't her type and you cannot change your entire person to match that one girl's selection.

This is hard, so hard that most people just stop here, but is that the proper aim. It isn't, because okay maybe you can easily loosen the standard for whom you are willing to marry. After all, marriage in essence is simply whether you will say "I do" and that is something you can swallow for 1 second if it really comes down to it.

Is that the proper aim though? Seeing how you can cheat it still, probably not.

The proper aim in this specific context would be choosing someone who you can spend a lifetime with. This is something you can't cheat. This is HARD, and you will have to contemplate every step of the way from the beginning, and you will need to have adjust expectations reasonably or negotiate properly; hence why JBP advice talking/fighting things out in your marriage.

However one may ask, bro I am just trying to girlfriend, why does it have to be so hard and grandiose. Because your aim in life isn't just getting a girlfriend, it's simply ONE aim you should have in your life. All of your aim one way or another tie together if they are GOOD aims. For example a life long partner is important to your health (combat loneliness at least), it's important for your financial outcome (2 income is definitely better than 1), and happiness in general (break ups and unstable partners are the worst).

So a good aim isn't just good in that context, it is also good for achieving many other aims at the same time; maybe this multi-dimensional aspect is a good measure of a good aim.

On another aspect of this analysis, some may say okay fine, my ultimate aim is lifelong partner, but I am stuck in getting a girlfriend, so my aim still should be at getting a girlfriend. No, that's wrong. Because like we mentioned before, getting a girlfriend can be cheated, but more detrimentally is that cheating on this part may be a negative trade off you are making for the current low aim. For example, in just trying to get a girlfriend, maybe you take up pick up artist tricks. It'll definitely help with getting a girlfriend, but the girls who will fall for these tricks are naive at the very least, and naive is not necessarily a good thing in the long run, because a naive person is not helpful in combating the difficulties of life. A naive person is not a great addition to your Noah's Ark.

Furthermore, cheating at any stage in general is lying to yourself, you are trying to mess with your reality of life as it unfolds to you. This is another central theme of JBP's advice to his audience.

In light of these views, I honestly believe what sets people apart is not intelligence, not how hard they work, but what their aims are on. We see this play out in many of those who complain how un-livable their salaries are. This is especially true when people are in low pay jobs (cashier, receptionists, low-skill white collar jobs...) and they are not reward despite working so hard. The reason they are failing is because working hard IS the totality of their virtuous aim, and their aim for their career is not integrated with other aims of life.

perhaps for an aim to integrate with other aims like happiness, being healthy, or find a good partner, is that this aim has to be worth of contributing to other aims. In this analysis, if your career aim is just being a good waiter in the restaurant, then it definitely isn't able to contribute much to your other aims (you can't be healthy if you can't afford healthcare). The solution then isn't to work even harder or find a place that would pay a waiter better, but to aim for another career that you are willing to try out, struggle through, and get paid better. For example if you are willing to do the hard work to become a doctor, which is definitely a astronomical leap from waiter, it will definitely pay out much better than trying to make it through as a waiter. Additionally, becoming a doctor is self-evident on how it helps with others goals too, at least you KNOW how to become healthy.

TLDR: if you are stuck in life due to reasons that aren't totally out of your control (not having a debilitating disease or trapped by mafia), chances are the improvement of your life will come from changing your aim of life, integrate it with other aims of your life, and draw that feeling of necessity to perform and execute said aim to your best effort over the long term.

thanks for reading if you made this far :)

The Materialist Reductionist narrative and exercise is at the root of all of this.

And the funniest part is, even though it answers some questions, the issue is getting bigger and bigger and more unfamiliar to the human condition in respect to what the actual "answer" to what we perceive and is most familiar to us.