Derren Brown

This is definitely a book I would highly recommend. Although I had heard or read of many of the concepts already, the way they were laid out really showed their importance and made them easier to understand. I have always naturally identified with many of the concepts even if I did not know their name or why I did. This book gave me a deeper understanding of my own mind and gave me new insights on how to practically apply these thoughts to my life. Since starting the book, I tend to find myself thinking of a line or concept almost daily and then using it to transform my thoughts. This helped me realize we are all the author's of our own story but more importantly, how to change that story… (more)

This book didn't make me happy. Frankly I skimmed a lot of it. I thought it was going to be a kind of self-help guide to applying Stoic principles to a normal everyday life. But lots and lots of it was the author's personal feelings about fame and his weird psychoanalytic digressions on relationships. Derren Brown apparently has some small amount of fame in the UK as a magician of sorts. So we get to hear about how he feels about that. I didn't care. Nothing he said about relationships ever really resonated with me. And when it was actually about applying stoic principles to modern life, it wasn't the best treatment of the subject I've ever read, either. Still, I had some takeaways. You know how we think about what we would say if we could go back in time and talk to our younger self? Why not imagine that your older self has come back to talk to you? What do you imagine she'd say? Mine would probably say something like, "Relax, idiot, enjoy life."… (more)