Additional Reading and Viewing

The following list-in-progress (in no particular order) identifies works the indicated people may find worth exploring. Some directly shaped my ideas, while others independently expressed concepts I had already been developing. If Objective Truth is written into the Universe, it only makes sense that anyone who looks from the correct perspective will eventually discover it.While reading the books seems like the best way understand and internalize the concepts, the reading averse can consider asking ChatGPT.com (free) for a highly detailed summary of each of the books that interest you. (Careful asking for them all at once; it will give far fewer details due the length restrictions.) If you read the summary and you don't understand, then dive deeper. Also don't rely on this method, as 100% accurate, question anything that sounds wrong, (Grok is also free and highly recommended for fact based research and cross-referencing, though still sometimes wrong). Ultimately, if something doesn't make sense or seems to conflict with other things we say, then please ask us about it. One resource is noted as flawed (from my perspective) but still useful.1. The Fifth Agreement by Miguel Ruiz. - Part of how to be happy.
2. The Anatomy of Peace by The Arbinger Institute --About establishing peace in interpersonal relationships and beyond. Especially about the value of people as individuals and the importance of not objectifying them.
3. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson --Demonstrates how oppression is a cycle that repeats through history and, to a point, transcending culture.
4. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne - Overly mystical in trying to explain why positive thinking and the Law of Attraction work. However, an effective methodology is described (I just have a more scientific explanation as to why it works).
5. "The Six Phase Meditation" by Vishen Lakhiani, Mindvalley. -- Another part of being happy.
6. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. --Mainly about preparing to face an existential crisis.
7. "Crazy, not Insane" by HBO Documentary Films and Directed by Alex Gibney. Important in understanding why making mental and physical child abuse socially intolerable is essential for increasing the motivation for people to behave peacefully.
8. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie -- A key Book for leaders. about learning how align your needs with the needs of the people who help you to influence rather than manipulate people. If you read the original, written in 1937, you have to read past the language and cultural differences.
9. Reaching the Pinnacle by Sam Holcman -- This is a key book for leaders and organizations. It is about designing and documenting customized systems that align with overall objectives. It seems highly efficient to consistently apply this throughout an organization. I don't know that any large organization has ever before tried to apply this consistently and I believe this is likely to be as massive drain on resources as the extent of the deficit.
10. Re: Happiness, Fulfillment, and Awareness
When I reference books or perspectives such as The Happiness Trap, the intent is never to present them as complete answers. Each points to a piece of the larger picture. Practical Idealism Reimagined (PIR) is an effort to integrate those pieces into a coherent framework, with the specific purpose of solving for peace and the more general purpose of effective problem solving.
The value of The Happiness Trap lies in how clearly it challenges common misunderstandings about happiness. Fulfillment is not the absence of sadness or discomfort. Attempts to eliminate difficult thoughts and emotions reliably increase suffering rather than reduce it. Awareness matters. Thoughts are experiences, not truths. Feelings are signals, not commands.
This mindset emphasizes the ability to be fully present and to persist or change behavior in the service of consciously chosen values, even in the presence of discomfort, uncertainty, or pain. That principle closely parallels a core idea in PIR. Just as ethical systems fail when incentives are misaligned with objectives, lives lose coherence when behavior is misaligned with values.
The book’s distinction between clean pain and dirty pain is particularly useful. Clean pain is unavoidable and should not be eliminated. Dirty pain is the additional suffering created by avoidance, denial, and resistance. Learning to reduce dirty pain through awareness is a powerful skill.
Within PIR, this kind of mindfulness is understood as one necessary tool, not the whole solution. Awareness alone does not guarantee peace, ethical behavior, or effective systems. But without it, neither individuals nor societies can reliably align truth, values, incentives, and action.

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