Alain de Botton

The School of Life

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The essential guide to how to live wisely and well in the twenty-first century - from Alain de Botton, the bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel and The Course of Love This is a book about everything you were never taught at school. It's about how to understand your emotions, find and sustain love, succeed in your career, fail well and overcome shame and guilt. It's also about letting go of the myth of a perfect life in order to achieve genuine emotional maturity. Written in a hugely accessible, warm and humane style, The School of Life is the ultimate guide to the emotionally fulfilled lives we all long for - and deserve. This book brings together ten years of essential and transformative research on emotional intelligence, with practical topics including: - how to understand yourself - how to master the dilemmas of relationships - how to become more effective at work - how to endure failure - how to grow more serene and resilient Praise for Alain de Botton: 'What he has managed to do is remarkable: to help us think better so that we may live better lives' Irish Times 'A serious and optimistic set of practical ideas that could improve and alter the way we live' Jeanette Winterson, The Times 'Alain de Botton likes to take big, complex subjects and write about them with thoughtful and deceptive innocence' Observer

An Emotional Education

Alain De Botton

Emotional intelligence affects every aspect of the way we live, from romantic to professional relationships, from our inner resilience to our social success. It is the ultimate soft skill of the twenty-first century. Drawing on his work in the hugely successful School of Life organisation, Alain de Botton presents a compendium of emotional intelligence. Using his trademark mixture of analysis, anecdote, insight and practical wisdom, he considers how we interact with each and with ourselves, and how we can do so better. From the reigning master of popular philosophy, this is an essential look at the skill set that defines our modern lives.

The School of Life: an Emotional Education

Razen Ouled Khlaf

A good 'school' shouldn't tell us only things we've never heard of before; it should be deeply inter- ested in rehearsing all that is theoretically known yet practically forgotten. 

Akrasia, weakness of will, a habit of not listening to what we accept should be heard and a failure to act upon what we know is right.

We are as clever with our machines and technologies as we are simple-minded in the management of our emotions.

Much anxiety surrounds the question of how good the next generation will be at maths; very little around their abilities at marriage or kindness.

Retno Ika Safitri

when we speak of emotional intelligence, we are alluding-in a humanistic rather than scientific way- to whether someone under- stands key components of emotional functioning. We are referring to their ability to introspect and communicate, to read the moods of others, to relate with patience, charity and imagination to the less edifying moments of those around them. The emotionally intel- ligent person knows that love is a skill, not a feeling, and will require trust, vulnerability, generosity, humour, sexual understanding and selective resignation. The emotionally intelligent person awards themselves the time to determine what gives their working life meaning and has the confidence and tenacity to try to find an accom- modation between their inner priorities and the demands of the world. The emotionally intelligent person knows how to hope and be grateful, while remaining steadfast before the essentially tragic structure of existence. The emotionally intelligent person knows that they will only ever be mentally healthy in a few areas and at certain moments, but is committed to fathoming their inadequacies and warning others of them in good time, with apology and charm. Sustained shortfalls in emotional intelligence are, sadly, no minor matter. There are few catastrophes, in our own lives or in those of s, that do not ultimately have their origins in emotional ignorance.

This is a book about everything you were never taught at school. It's about how to understand your emotions, find and sustain love, succeed in your career, fail well and overcome shame and guilt. It's also about letting go of the myth of a perfect life in order to achieve genuine emotional maturity. Written in a hugely accessible, warm and humane style, The School of Life is the ultimate guide to the emotionally fulfilled lives we all long for - and deserve. This book brings together ten years of essential and transformative research on emotional intelligence, with practical topics including: - how to understand yourself - how to master the dilemmas of relationships - how to become more effective at work - how to endure failure - how to grow more serene and resilient.

An Emotional Education - 'It's an Amazing Book' Chris Evans

Bilge Ince

Anxiety is not a sign of sickness, a weakness of the mind, or an error for which we should always seek a medical solution. It is mostly a hugely reasonable and sensitive response to the genuine strangeness, terror, uncertainty, and riskiness of existence. 
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First I started the School of Life as an audiobook, but then I realize I want to underline a lot of sentences so switched to the Kindle edition and started reading from the beginning. After a couple of pages, I realized I want to take notes while underlying the sentences along with going and coming back between pages so the e-book wasn’t good enough either and bought the physical book. I restarted all over again and play the audiobook while I was reading. Finally, I was not only reading and feeding my eyes but also listening so feeding my ears as if satisfying as many senses as possible. That’s how much I loved it.

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 It’s deeply poignant that we should expend so much effort on trying to look strong before the world when, all the while, it’s really only ever the revelation of the somewhat embarrassing, sad, melancholy, and anxious bits of us that renders us endearing to others and transforms strangers into friends.

poprika

I have so much trouble to read something like this, where there is no studies examples or just enough examples. Launguage is overcomplicated for no apperent reason and is not fluid wich makes it hard to read. 
It has some gripping ideas, but I had trouble to trust the autor for some reasons. 
Defenitively not a bad read, just not for me.

Irene Alegre

I think most humans on this planet would benefit from reading this book. It's beautiful, concise, wise, universal and deeply understanding.

A series of intelligent, rigorous, well-written self-help books, put together by some of the leading minds in the field. This bindup includes the following titles:Alain de Botton's How to Think More About Sex Tom Chatfield's How to Thrive in the Digital Age John Armstrong's How to Worry Less About Money Founded in 2008, The School of Life runs a diverse range of programmes and services which address questions of personal fulfilment and how to lead a better life. Drawing insights from philosophy, psychology, literature, the visual arts and sciences, The School of Life offers evening classes, weekends, conversation meals and other events that explore issues relating to big themes such as Love, Work, Play, Self, Family and Community.

Nadine 

This book leaves the usual "warm and fuzzies" of self-help / pop psychology firmly behind and addresses the realities of life, relationships, growing older, etc. etc. 
I found myself nodding my head, often with mouth gaping in astonishment.
Definitely something for those longer in tooth - I just don't thing the youth will get it until they've got it and then it's almost too late.

Roos Havinga

** spoiler alert **
           Doubting between giving this 3 or 4 stars. This book is, by all means, necessary and eye-opening. Living in a society where such large emphasis has been put on perfection, this book details precisely the opposite - that life is full of grief, sadness, anger, doubts, confusion and all other emotions we are not meant to feel, or let alone speak of. And that this isn’t particularly good or bad, it just is. By merely accepting this, we might be able to weather whatever life throws at us a little better. 

However what troubled me was that it was, at times, seemingly random. I missed a certain flow in the writing and it wasn’t always clear why certain things were brought forward. The chapter about work was another part of the book which was troublesome to me. As stated, our current economic system is very effective and efficient in meeting our primary needs, such as food, water, heat etc. But it’s not even close to fulfil our more sophisticated yet essential needs, like friendship and fulfilment. What the book states is that in order to sustain both growth and fulfilment of these higher needs, we should deepen our current capitalist system in a way that it would satisfy these needs. Maybe I’m thinking too practical about a philosophical book, but how would one imagine the market providing us friendship? Or love? (Or maybe is it the fact that the School of Life is actually trying to provide the satisfaction of these higher needs through a capitalist system, i.e. offering courses to emotionally educate us for $$$) 

These - in my opinion - flaws should however not put you off from picking up this book because it’s message - that we’ve had to withstand life without being able to build upon the emotional wisdom of others and emotionally educating ourselves and others could be a great way to alleviate a tiny bit of out sorrows - is essential.

جيهانار ✨🪄🌻

siddharth chowdhury

geri

Cristhian Tilleria

Reiza H

Jose Szucs

Farah Aisha Shabrina

Hooman Rostami

haifa

Ruslan 

The perfect gift for the big-thinker you struggle to buy for: discover everything you were never taught at school about how to lead a better life... 'Amazing. He talk about sophisticated things in simple but not simplistic ways. A beautiful book that you should have in your home' Chris Evans Introduced and edited by the bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel and The Course of Love 'Alain de Botton likes to take big, complex subjects and write about them with thoughtful and deceptive innocence' Observer We spend years in school learning facts and figures but the one thing we're never taught is how to live a fulfilled life. That's why we need The School of Life - a real organisation founded ten years ago by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton. The School of Life has one simple aim: to equip people with the tools to survive and thrive in the modern world. And the most important of these tools is emotional intelligence. This book brings together ten years of essential and transformative research on emotional intelligence, with practical topics including: - how to understand yourself - how to master the dilemmas of relationships - how to become more effective at work - how to endure failure - how to grow more serene and resilient The School of Life is nothing short of a crash course in emotional maturity. With all the trademark wit and elegance of Alain de Botton's other writings, and rooted in practical, achievable advice, it show us a path to the better lives we all want and deserve.

The School of Life An Emotional Education

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