Wherever You Go, There You Are
updated with a new afterword, celebrating 10 years of influencing the way we live.When Wherever You Go, There You Are was first published in 1994, no one could have predicted that the book would launch itself onto bestseller lists nationwide and sell over 750,000 copies to date. Ten years later, the book continues to change lives. In honor of the book's 10th anniversary, Hyperion is proud to be releasing the book with a new afterword by the author, and to share this wonderful book with an even larger audience.
Stats for nerds
17recommend
25mentions
19people
2009–2024years
80% recommend20% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Read a lot this year — a lot more than most years. A few highlights:
The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes was probably the best of the bunch. I read it because I see some parallels between the discovery of atomic power and the search for AGI, and wanted an insight on the ethics and decision making of the time. It didn't disappoint.
The dawn of everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow was a solid read and retelling of how civilization began and evolved.
The message by Ta-Nehisi Coates, I read in two sittings — it was that impactful. A reminder of how the oppressed becomes the oppressor again and again. "As it happens, you can See the world but never see the people in it"
Other highlights: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt; re-read Thinking in Systems by Daniella Meadows; re-read Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat Zinn; The light eaters by Zoe Schlanger; I don't want to talk about it, by Terrence Real.
- „How to read a book“ by Adler / van Doren. Taught me how to read several books on a topic (he calls this syntopical reading) to unserstand the structure of a topic.
„Getting Things Done“ by David Allen. Learned about how to capture everything that’s on my mind and organize it. Best way to keep sane. - Also how important it is to contantly review my systems and lists to keep them current and to make decisions.
„Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs“ by Abelson / Sussman. Learned a lot about how to structure and organize code, how to abstract and build smaller functions that solve problems and glue them together and thus build ever more complex soltions.
„Siddartha“ by Hermann Hesse. Reminded me of my inner struggle in my young years regarding life, religion and meaning of life.
„Wherever you go, there you are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Introduced me to the idea of mindfulness, of being present, of letting go.
- I find mindfulness to be an incredibly useful tool for dealing with thoughts of anxiety. When a thought pops in your head about how you're going to screw up or you're unqualified for the job or whatever, just label that thought. "This is a thought of anxiety." Don't engage with it and go down that wormhole; just label the thought. This is easier said than done, and takes practice, but as soon as you realize you're in the anxious thought spiral, label it and focus on being present again.
Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn, who is the head of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the UMass Medical School, wrote a wonderful and simple book about this called "Wherever You Go, there you are."
- A lot of good books in this thread and I have read many of them, but in retrospect these 3 titles have had the greatest effect on me: The End of Faith by Sam Harris: Crystallized a lot of things I have been thinking about over the years. Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett: Really delved deep into what evolution is and the way it affects how everything in the world works. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life by Jon Kabat Zinn: What is mindfulness? Why is it important and how can you apply it to your every day life (like the subtitle says). Bearded guru in a cave at top of mountain is optional.
- You can absolutely find people more qualified for book recommendations on the subject than me, but here are a few:
"Confession of a Buddhist Atheist" by Stephon Batchelor. Useful to me for understanding the cultural context of Buddhism.
Insight Meditation by Joseph Goldstein. I just find Goldstein's style the easiest to comprehend in a field that often comes across as frustratingly esoteric
Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I thought this book is interesting because it draws parallels to Western authors, particularly Thoreau.
Sam Harris's "Waking Up" app may also be worth a listen. Besides the actual mindfulness practice, there are a lot of discussions on theory and he has conversations with a variety of people that come to the topic from different perspectives.
- One of my first guides was a book called Wherever You Go, There You Are.
I learned how to do breath focus meditation and started practicing it several times per day for about a minute at a time, whenever I caught myself annoyed or waiting.
This is like the 5-pound weights of meditation that helped me learn to control my attention.
From there, I looked for more books, guides, and teachers, and tried to learn something from each one. I've heard it said that a good teacher can teach any student, and a good student can learn from any teacher, and I've tried to be the latter.
Just like physical exercise, meditation is a practice, not a knowledge.
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