Ross

[Ross @notable_tomes]

I read this book twice in one week in college. The first time, like many of the commenters, I found it off putting. I thought to myself that “I must be missing something” because it is so highly regarded. On the second reading, it became one of my favorite novels. Truly a masterpiece, and whose author spoke English as a third or fourth language.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

It seems like training is like everything else in life.

[Alan Couzens @Alan_Couzens]

"But what if I don't have a lot of time to devote to training?"

If you don't devote a lot of time to training, you're not going to be very fit.

That's the only honest answer.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Nothing in the world intimidates me so much as a pretty woman in dishabille;“

A classic line in a book of classic lines from Augustine.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@AndreasMutadi @SoulCultivated How do we strive for equal distribution of wealth and education? Genuinely asking.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

This is a great book.

[Søren Kierkegaard Club @Kierkegaarddd]

“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.”

— The Sickness Unto Death (1849)

[Ross @notable_tomes]

“Burnt Norton” in Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot

Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present.

———

All the threads of life converge one way or another in the present. And the present reaches back to the past and into the future.

What does it mean that humans “cannot bear very much reality?”

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@rand_longevity Which jobs are safe?

[Ross @notable_tomes]

The Odyssey by Homer

“Unmoved he said, ‘Well, foreigner, you are a fool, or from some very distant country. You order me to fear the gods! My people think nothing of that Zeus with his big scepter, nor any god; our strength is more than theirs.”

Polyphemus the cyclops is irreverent and godless and proud. Kn his domain, he is a ruler unto himself. He doesn’t need the gods, because he is bigger than the gods.

Individuals thinking they don’t need God is not a new phenomenon.

How can something so obvious to Odysseus (the existence of the gods and their roles in the world) be so absent in the consciousness of someone else (Polyphemus)? And vice versa.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

Light in August by William Faulkner

“It seemed to him that fate, circumstance, had set a warning in the sky all day long in that pillar of yellow smoke, and he too stupid to read it.”

Do our lives provide warnings that are obvious in retrospect? Does fate portend itself?

[Ross @notable_tomes]

Awareness by Anthony De Mello and J. Francis Stroud

"Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth. Pleasant experiences make life delightful, but they don’t lead to growth in themselves. What leads to growth is painful experiences. Suffering points up an area in you where you have not yet grown, where you need to grow and be transformed and change."

Is the goal to be able to experience unpleasant and pleasant experiences with passivity?

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@Alan_Couzens One more question I have if you have the time:

With a narrowed trachea, do heart rate training zones change?

[Ross @notable_tomes]

Thank you, this is very helpful.

I have traumatic tracheal stenosis resulting in a 10mm to 12mm opening, but I perform okay athletically despite getting out of breath easier. What you said about the heart being the limiting factor, rather than ventilation, is good to hear and makes it seem like the stenosis is maybe not as bad a condition as I would expect.

According to Oura my V02 max is 51 and it is 45 on Whoop, but I’m not sure if those are accurate.

Hopefully I can continue to improve and thank you again.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@paul_jkrause Any literature that you have in mind?

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@Kristof_Poland I have never understood why people say this book is too simple, simplifies the concepts it deals with. The premises are simply dealt with, yes, but I always liked the book.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@BookvillExiles

[Ross @notable_tomes]

I got these two books from a small bookshop I wandered into over the weekend in Chicago. The owner said Stoner was probably her favorite book ever and The Bear was in the top 3 or so ever.

I’ve read a lot on X about Stoner, and looking forward to easing them both.

Exile in Bookville is truly a hidden gem that you have to be trying to find in order to discover it.

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@PAHoyeck Agreed 100%. In nonfiction for sure, and maybe more in fiction (think House of Leaves).

[Ross @notable_tomes]

@JoshPhillipsPhD Will he win another championship?