IMPORTANT: I never, ever, EVER recommend the books I’ve assigned a 10 to. Chances are high you’re one of the 99% of people who can’t/won’t really enjoy those books. In the best of cases, you’ll hate me for suggesting it, in the worst case, you’ll wreck your life by taking the book as an absolute truth. So why are they on the list? Because on my blog I really don’t give a shit.
Scroll down past the list to understand the criteria.
| Red Pill-ness | Title | Author |
| 10 | Games People Play | Eric Berne |
| 10 | Radical Honesty | Brad Blanton |
| 10 | Sperm Wars | Robin Baker |
| 10 | The Selfish Gene | Richard Dawkins |
| 9 | Comedy Writing Secrets | Marc Shatz |
| 8 | Moral Minds | Marc Hauser |
| 7 | Mystery Method | Erik von Markovik |
| 7 | The Fabric of Reality | David Deutsche |
| 6 | All Marketers are Liars | Seth Godin |
| 6 | Influence | Robert Cialdini |
| 6 | The Road Less Traveled | M. Scott Peck |
Every once in a great while I come across a book that shows me a better way of understanding the world. “Better” here has a special meaning. It means the book presents a way of viewing reality that matches what I observe much better than what I had in my mind until then. When this happens a lot of my thinking changes – its like changing tracks in a train – You’re now heading in a different direction and everything you see changes after that.
This list is the “top” of some 600 other books I’ve read while searching for the Red Pill. I actively seek out books that help me understand everything “better”.
I’ve titled the list Red Pill Books because they are just that – If you read them and understand them, there is no going back.
I’ve also ranked them on a 1-10 scale for “Red-Pill-ness” – My Red-Pillness is a combination of factors – A judgment call on my part. Books closer to a 10 are jarring wake-ups – Much like Neo’s wake up from The Matrix. By contrast, books closer to Zero help you sleep better at night.
PS: No, I’m not retarded and believe we live in a simulator – The references to the matrix are simply helpful to get the meaning across.
This is how my graduate degree in communications is. Once you understand concepts like social construction and gain a better understanding of why we do the things we do, the world is completely new. You often find it difficult to pick sides and watch others get upset as you hold a knack for life that they can’t quite grasp.
Indeed. I’ve also found some books that are a “10″ on the OTHER scale…. The “blue-pill” scale – “The Four Agreements” by Miguel Ruiz is a complete 10 in the blue-pill scale. It won’t lift the veil, on the contrary, it will give you quite the fantasy coating (yeah, Miguel is a Toltec spirit and I’m the tooth fairy) but are written so well they can help people immensely. I actually took a class on his books with the guy (and his son) – pretty cool guy. There were a few “kumbaya” everyone-hugging moments where I realized how lonely most of the people around me were… Still his concepts are golden – They are real-world psychotherapy, wrapped around a cohesive story.
My key has also been to stay humble – my truth is personal, and not absolute.
I guess it all depends where you want to go… And paraphrasing the Cheshire cat: “If you don’t know where you want to go, then all roads will take you there.”