Name: 12 Rules for Life
ISBN: 9780345816023

12 Rules for Life

What are the most valuable things that everyone should know? Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan B Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world's most popular public thinkers, with his lectures on topics from the Bible to romantic relationships to mythology drawing tens of millions of viewers. In an era of unprecedented change and polarizing politics, his frank and refreshing message about the value of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom has resonated around the world. In this book, he provides twelve profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life, from setting your house in order before criticising others to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else today. Happiness is a pointless goal, he shows us. Instead we must search for meaning, not for its own sake, but as a defence against the suffering that is intrinsic to our existence. Drawing on vivid examples from the author's clinical practice and personal life, cutting-edge psychology and philosophy, and lessons from humanity's oldest myths and stories, 12 Rules for Life offers a deeply rewarding antidote to the chaos in our lives: eternal truths applied to our modern problems.

What Hacker News says

debokJan 2024

I don't know why HN is so anti-Peterson. He has been tremendously helpful to me, and 12 Rules for Life helped me a lot when I was going through self-inflicted tough times.

The article derides him for for stating platitudes, truisms, and cliches (I am actually surprised that the article didn't include that word) in new and interesting ways. However, that is exactly what he is popular for in the first place. A more charitable way to put that, might be to say that he restates old-timey wisdom in new and interesting ways. Of course this is going to appeal to conservatives, and bring struggling young people to the conservative side.

Between Jordan Peterson and C.S. Lewis, I rediscovered a lot of wisdom that my parents tried to teach me. I learned to respect old and ancient ideas. Ideas aren't "wrong" because they're old, and also they aren't right or good because they're new. People throughout history was smarter and wiser than we give them credit for.

Maybe if more "serious" intellectuals (whatever that means), moved past the "new=good and old=bad" groove, they might start enjoying some popularity too.

My point is that Jordan Peterson is re-introducing some very true, but old ideas. These old ideas are very helpful to a lot of people, especially disenfranchised young men. These young men then use the old ideas to get their lives together, and that is why Jordan Peterson is popular.

> "He shows a culture bereft of ideas, a politics without inspiration or principle."

No, he shows us the gold that our intellectuals threw on the rubbish heap, because they thought it was junk. And just because they still think it is junk, doesn't actually make it junk.

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CosuperOct 2023

I have 3 books that have made me a before and after in my life: - the 4 hour work week - 48 laws of power - 12 rules for life

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alwynOct 2023

12 Rules for Life was mostly good, it definitely helped me with some things. I liked his earlier podcasts on JRE and other shows.

However, I couldn't get through Beyond Order at all; I had to drop it fairly early. I think I still like the Peterson from 5-ish years ago. How he currently is, and how he has _mostly_ been for the past 2 years or so does not align with me anymore.

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EchoReflectionAug 2023

I am not really in IT either, although for a few years I worked for a software company (as customer support, not programming or engineering). I've only ever posted 2 things here, and they were things I was sharing, not my own writing:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230212152245/https://www.gigab...

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfkem5e5Iqg

(https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=EchoReflection)

In 2013 I was in a very serious motorcycle accident (coma for 1 month, 2 broken legs, broken hip, broken left arm, several broken ribs, collapsed lung, multiple skull fractures, inner ear bones damaged on both sides. My brain damage was such that my short-term memory was basically zero for a long time, as well as damaged nerves that control vision. The road to recovery was/is long, I still have what are referred to in the medical world as "sequelae", which just means "ongoing effects or symptoms", but, long-story-short, I really, really, really believe that we can all improve our lives and our brains if we A: want to, and B: try. I highly, highly recommend the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/atomic-habits-an-easy--proven-...

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Atomic-Habits-Audiobook/152477926...

And Jordan Peterson's books "Maps of Meaning" and "12 Rules for Life" were pretty life-changing.

Jordan Peterson has a LOT of really helpful content on YouTube (a lot of people don't like him bc I guess he's kind of "conservative", but I think it's more the case that he thinks postmodernism and "wokism" are detrimental to a healthy society.

https://www.youtube.com/@JordanBPeterson

Andrew Huberman has a lot of great, helpful videos as well. https://www.youtube.com/@hubermanlab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequela

Good luck on your journey.

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onlypositiveJul 2023

Being precise (not vague) with your language is a learned skill. I started practicing is after reading 12 rules for life (it's one of them).

It really makes a difference in everyday life. It prevents so many arguments with my wife: we agree on most things, when we don't it's usually because we disagree on the meaning of the words we're using. At work I have far less misunderstandings with coworkers, I understand expectations better and I don't get caught out by people using vague language to hide or gloss over major problems. Last month I was evaluating a contract and it took me a week to get a clear answer about terms. I suspect the people involved subconsciously knew that if they gave a clear answer the contract would be deemed unecessary and cancelled. It was.

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wanderingmindNov 2022

Hierarchies are ingrained in our genetic code. Its how most organisations have evolved for hundreds of millions of years starting from crustasians like lobsters. You might not agree politically with Jordan Peterson, but his book 12 rules for Life, is an excellent book and the first chapter talks about how hierarchies are fundamental to any social structure across most organims. There can be some outliers, but if there is no hierarchy to start with, a new hierarchy will most certainly evolve over long periods of time.

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