The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky's last novel: faith, doubt, and what people owe each other
Three brothers, a murdered father, and the argument between faith and reason running underneath a long nineteenth-century novel. Here it is the answer to "what should I read that is not a productivity book". Slow going for a hundred pages, then not.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Lex FridmanRecommends
AI researcher · Lex Fridman Podcast
Read it in both English and Russian, and calls books like it lifelong companions that deserve returning to.
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast: 1984 book episode transcript
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under stress.
- Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl on surviving the camps and choosing your response
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it, 2 have discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Daily Stoic
366 short Stoic passages with modern commentary, one per day
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 3 recommend it, 1 has discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Collected thinking on wealth, specific knowledge and happiness
On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 recommend it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Digital Minimalism
A philosophy for using much less technology, on purpose
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it, 1 has discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ego Is the Enemy
Ryan Holiday on the ways self-importance wrecks aspiring, succeeding and failing
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 recommend it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Slow Productivity
Do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it, 1 has discussed it
Book entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.