TP's work used to be a delight, but there's a very strange disconnect between the cynicism of the characters and setting, and the optimism of the stories themselves, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So TP is a bit like eating a lot of cake: sooner or later your tongue starts feeling weird.
I don't think you're getting this. You are a meat sack of chemicals. "Being depressed by the realization" means that your meatsack chemistry shifted.
Well, assuming that said shift was long lasting, I want to shift it back into something more conductive to a productive and enjoyable life. Being miserable feels miserable, and, worst of all, it's boring.
the problem is that your ability to consume and digest that happiness is impaired.
On the contrary, I consume and digest the happiness way too fast. It helps me for a short while, and I feel gladness and joy and merriment and flow... and then I'm hungry again. I'm like an insatiable happiness sinkhole.
Right, but there's a difference between being depressed by the realization, or finding it depressing because there's something wrong with your meatsack chemistry.
I wish to believe that which is true, but getting tested and diagnosed for depression is expensive, and so are the chemicals often prescribed to treat them, in money and in secondary effects.
Forgive me if I seem a little impatient, but I'd rather focus on the stated purpose of this thread: media that will help me feel better about myself and the world and foster in me a sense of curiosity, hope, and discipline.
I like to think it's not some chemical imbalance, but a philosophical, existentialist despair. Think Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Rick & Morty, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett's work... "THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS JUST US."
Hi! I'm an electrical engineering student close to finishing my MsC. These days I feel really, really tired and disenchanted with my work, in spite of it leading to one of my childhood dreams of working on green energies and/or electric transportation.
The same happened when I went to see a couple of museums involving Norway's naval history, Amudsen's arctic expeditions, and the epic journies of the Kon Tiki and the Ra. Despite all the pain and hardship those stories portrayed, I left full of energy and determination.
Over the most recent years, most of my media consumption, both fiction and non-fiction, involved delving deep into the complexities and flaws of human nature, both on an individual and societal level. While that has helped me become somewhat more socially functional, it has also sapped my optimism and energy to the point that I'm not sure why I get away in the morning, or why bother making any kind of effort beyond ensuring survival when everything is absurd and pointless, and everyone, myself included, is irredeemably stupid and evil in ways that cannot be fixed, only mitigated.
I want to feel hopeful, optimistic, interested, engaged, and growing. I want to learn shit that makes me want to strive and thrive.
Cosmos-like works: for inspiration and fuzzies
The other day, I was watching NDT's Cosmos, and even though it taught me absolutely nothing new, it was so gorgeous and beautiful and inspiring that I couldn't help but feel reinvigorated, and tackle my hard, painful, frustrating work with renewed zest and zeal! I'd like to know of more works like that, *especially in Audiobook format, to listen to while bothering with the mundane daily tasks that don't let me hold a book or a computer in my hands while doing them.
This is the most terrifying comic SMBC has made yet How much of a point does Zach have, here? Can this be the shape of the future?
A self-improvement inquiry. I've got an irrational tendency to be too relaxed around other people; too sincere, transparent, and trusting. In general I'm very uninhibited and uncontrolled, and this goes to spectacular levels when I'm the slightest bit intoxicated. This has come back to bite me in more than one occasion.
I've had trouble finding documentation on how to improve on this. "Being too honest/sincere/open" doesn't seem like a common problem for people to have.
"Beyond good and evil, there is awesome and lame. Don't be lame."?
Why do you get up in the morning?