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⬐ davesque

Victor Frankl's book, "Man's search for meaning" is also essential reading in my opinion. A few of my takeaways from that book:

1. People are capable of both great evil and great good (often in close proximity).

2. Having a great intellect may, in fact, make someone more compassionate.

3. Finding meaning in a cause, project, person, etc. can allow a person to endure much more than most would expect.

For those who aren't familiar with Frankl's personal background, you'll find many of the relevant details in that book (and perhaps also in the linked video although I haven't finished it yet). Trust me when I say that the man has a legitimate claim to discuss the topics on which he tends to focus.

⬐ mettamage

Victor Frankl is awesome. Everyone should read his book. It's the #1 book I recommend for everyone to read whom I don't know anything anout.

What I found surprising when I read it (years ago) was how having a family would constitute so much meaning. I remember reading the book thinking "alright, I'm simply a teenager, but I can now make the heuristic that family = meaning to basically everyone."

I suppose that I wasn't so big on family in my teenage years.

⬐ rayalez

> Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.

⬐ netsharc

Geez, this one sentence is more enlightening than the book. (I read it and I didn't really get it.)

⬐ in0v8r

Currently, on my 2nd read of the book and I interpret this as a struggle to find purpose. Recognizing who asked is like asking yourself "Who am I?" which leads to purpose and with purpose comes endurance. This may be superficial as I gain more insight the more I read it.

⬐ krzysztof

My takeaway was that he was asking "why you don't kill yourself' his patients. So finding 'meaning of the life' could be seen as reply to the question 'why don't you kill yourself?' or rather 'why do you need to live?'. Could be wife, kids, family plans etc. That what kept them alive in concentration camp was their meaning.

⬐ aitchnyu

> The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.

> If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelego. Frankl found evil in prisoners who were promoted to guards and good in guards who were supposed to use and unceremoniously dispose prisoners.

⬐ matwood

Prior to visiting Auschwitz, I read Man's Search for Meaning and Ordinary Men. Both are emotionally challenging books, and forced me to look deeply at who I am as a person. One of the quotes about life in the concentration camps from Frankl that has always stuck with me is that "the best of us did not return". It is something that survivors of the holocaust had to live with for the rest of their lives.

⬐ l5870uoo9y

The english title doesn't do the book justice. In original language, German, it is called "... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen", which translates to "... after all a Yes to life". Viktor Frankl – one of the great Weiner psychologists – wrote this after surviving concentration camp where he lost his family and to be wife. Obviously, his yes to life, caries much greater depth and weight that you meet in most books. An interesting and easy to read book which contains anecdotes and reflections of daily life in concentration camp.

⬐ ssivark

“When we treat man as he is we make him worse than he is. When we treat him as if he already was what he potentially could be. We make him what he should be.” — Goethe, as quoted by Frankl

This crucial insight seems to enable the best leaders—be they parents, teachers, organizers, etc—to bring the best out of their people.

It’s also something highly under-appreciated in contemporary economics and management theory (and policy making, correspondingly).

⬐ mythrwy

If not done with absolute precision that sounds like a recipe for over inflated egos and unrealistic beliefs and expectations. In other words, the problems lots of kids of helicopter parents and modern western culture have.

⬐ ramblerman

That depends on how you treat people with great potential currently. I would tend to give them a lot of leeway and personal responsibility and trust they can get things done. I think that is what Frankl means.

Saying "You are amazing, here is an A for trying" is a different culture entirely, and came from somewhere else.

⬐ ssivark

There's centuries/millenia of culture that serves as a guide for how to do it right. Nurturing humans to achieve their potential and live their life to the fullest it not a new problem. It's not like Victor Frankl invented this stuff sixty years ago.

And I don't think it requires absolute precision in action -- just a willingness to observe, think and iterate. After all, the influencer is as much of a human as the influenced. We're talking about influence over the scale of years, if not decades.

This is one of those domains where the "Lindy effect" might be a good rule of thumb -- the longer a guide has survived, the longer it is likely to survive, because the likelier it is to add value. Conversely, many "modern breakthroughs" are likely to be fads.

⬐ jmfayard

I love everything about this:

The accent, the humor, the content, the man, his life and his books.

I never quite understood why so much Americans are out there just "to make a lot of money".

Lot of money, but realistically probably not enough to cover their uncovered healthcare costs once their health get worse.

But even in the best case, you earned a lot of money, you die rich, and that was it?

Recognizing capitalism as a fact is one thing (that I do myself), worshipping it like Ayn Rand belongs to the dullest ideologies ever invented. Capitalism does not care that you are worshipping it damnit!

Then I have read Max Weber and understood it all:

"The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit Of Capitalism"

Oh yes, that makes a lot of sense. It's not just capitalism, there is deeper meaning behind it and it comes from religion.

By contrast, I was raised as a Catholic - I'm not an Catholic today, but that's was my education was - so I learned from an early age that talking about money all the time is not what good people do.

⬐ pbourke

> I never quite understood why so much Americans are out there just "to make a lot of money".

As a counterpoint, the US is perhaps the most charitable advanced nation (in terms of charitable giving per capita). Take from that what you will, but perhaps the conclusion should not be “Americans are more greedy or materialistic than others”.

> I learned from an early age that talking about money all the time is not what good people do

For better or worse money is a major component of agency both in your own life and in society at large. On a personal level, reducing your working hours to spend more time with your family requires a focus on money to make that happen. On a societal level, there is no universal health care, affordable education or shift to clean energy without deep and involved conversations about money.

⬐ jmfayard

My conclusions were not what you quote. I agree with your final point.

My conclusions were that both my reluctance to talk about money and US fascination for material success had a religious background.

⬐ pmoriarty

It's important to understand that for Frankl, the meaning of life was not something to be sought out in the world, but rather it was a question that life asked of you and that you answered in the way you lived your life.

In this view he disagreed with and distinguished himself from those existentialists who held that life was meaningless.

Further, he felt that even in the worst and most restrictive of circumstances (such as in concentration camps) one could still choose what attitude to adopt towards what one was forced to go through, and could choose to answer the questions life asked of you with dignity.

⬐ dan00

> In this view he disagreed with and distinguished himself from those existentialists who held that life was meaningless.

I don’t think of a disagreement in this regard, because even if there’s objectively no meaning in life, it doesn’t mean that there’s also no subjective meaning.

I think that was the whole point of Frankl, how you can find and develop this subjective meaning.

⬐ uoaei

Nihilism, after all the "nothing is real" hemming and hawing, is a free pass to define life how you want to.

It aligns closely with Eastern traditions along these lines.

⬐ ramblerman

nihilism does not just say "nothing is real"!

It says nothing is real so everything is pointless. They might share the base premise, but it's a pretty important distinction.