What I noticed about Ikigai was it's numerous referrals to periods of history where Sebastian would draw practical lessons. I am a big fan of all of Noam Chomsky's works, Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States, and Robert Greene's Power, War, Seduction, and Mastery books. I was wondering if Sebastian or readers can share with us their most mind-blowing historical volumes that they felt most relevant to real life?
After finishing Ikigai on Friday, I came across this article from The Atlantic today.
"In September 1942, Viktor Frankl, a prominent Jewish psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna, was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp with his wife and parents. Three years later, when his camp was liberated, most of his family, including his pregnant wife, had perished -- but he, prisoner number 119104, had lived. In his bestselling 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, which he wrote in nine days about his experiences in the camps, Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning, an insight he came to early in life. When he was a high school student, one of his science teachers declared to the class, "Life is nothing more than a combustion process, a process of oxidation." Frankl jumped out of his chair and responded, "Sir, if this is so, then what can be the meaning of life?""
More here: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/01/theres-more-to-life-than-being-happy/266805/
