Having found this sub a couple months ago, I've made some strong positive strides in my life, and I wanted to do something to give back to the community and try and make my first post something that I hope helps other people on the sub on their own paths of improvement. I gave it some thought and decided the biggest thing I had to offer this sub was knowing what makes for a well-rounded and useful education. I'm going to present a sampling of topics from a variety of fields which are things that aren't necessarily common knowledge, but that every man will find useful. My hope is that if you're able to understand this material, you'll find yourself never looking like an uneducated rube, and have an understanding of a few things that will give you common ground with any educated person you come across, which will be of use in being more confident in communicating with people in business and in your personal life, and give you a leg up on other, less educated men. So without further ado, here begins the list.

 

Mathematics For those of us who aren't mathematicians, mathematics is really only useful in its ability to help us understand other concepts in a concrete way. Nevertheless, having an appreciation of math is important in understanding important subjects all men should know, like logic and economics. Some topics in math you ought to know are

 

Science There are few things that irk me more than people who "fucking love science", and can regurgitate the mechanics of a black hole, but can't tell you what causes the seasons. Don't be that guy, have an understanding of the world around you. Even if you're a scientist or engineer by trade, having a basic understanding of other fields is helpful. Here is a sampling of a few topics that get to the heart of several important fields, beyond what you should have learned in high school.

  • Damped Harmonic Oscillators Many of the things we experience every day, mechanically and electrically, rely on the damped harmonic oscillator. The mechanics of your car's shocks, your speaker driver, and your radio tuner are all defined by the damped harmonic oscillator. Here's a link to a unit on the subject from MIT. Keep in mind that x-dot and x-double-dot are first and second derivatives (see why I put math first?) of x.

  • Photon Emission and Absorption Do you want to understand why things are a particular color? How we can tell the chemical composition of stars across the galaxy? Photon Emission and Absorption explains these basic phenomena. Its also the fundamental piece of quantum mechanics that helps to explain the big paradigm shift where suddenly there's a finite number of possibilities for an object to have. I was hoping for a better source, but this is the best I could find

  • Evolution Before Richard Dawkins became a anti-religious bully, he was a working scientist. This stopped when he wrote his first, and best, book, The Selfish Gene. This work clearly explains the ignorant optimization of genetics and the numerical mechanisms that explain evolution better than anyone else ever has. A fun bonus is this is the book that invented the term "meme".

  • Digital Circuits Since I suggested learning Boolean Algebra, I'd be remiss not to include its big non-philosophical use, binary computers. Here's a whole course in the subject, learn as much as you like

 

Literature We've got a Red Pill Books section, but I wanted to just put a few books here that I think represent a good cross-section of Western literary canon; books that you should be familiar with as a participant in Western civilization.

  • The Illiad The oldest, and one of the best. Its a very masculine and virile book about the nature of war and conflict. Its been required reading for anyone who wanted to consider themselves "educated" until the past 25 years or so. There's good reason for it.

  • Macbeth You need to read one Shakespeare play and have an appreciation for it. I chose Macbeth here because it is my personal favorite, but Hamlet, Richard III or Julius Caesar all work as well. Macbeth is probably a good choice as a first entry into Shakespeare, its a very "Game of Thrones" esque story about murder, prophecy, and the rule of a kingdom.

  • Frankenstein It can be seen as "A Zombie Learns French" but its very much a book about finding meaning in life and the human condition in general. The quintessential Romantic era book.

  • Brave New World My favorite piece of dystopic fiction, and a book that I believe best encompasses many of the important ideas from the 20th century. Its one of those works that unfortunately feels like it becomes more relevant with time, and has a timelessness 1984, Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451 lack.

 

Philosophy Reading some well-done philosophy does the soul good. This is another place where Red Pill Books is useful, but I'd like to include two works that wouldn't show up there, as well as two that are staples here.

  • The Declaration of Independence The American founding document, in a few short words Jefferson lays out the purpose of government, and describes how the British failed in this purpose in the colonies

  • The Communist Manifesto Its a short book, and its worth reading the first two sections to see the philosophy and the basics of the Marxist argument. The rest is a specific to the time it was written. Learning about the Marxist view of history is very informative in understanding the cultural Marxism that is so prevalent today. Substitute proletariat and bourgeoisie for whatever groups you like today.

  • The Prince This is mostly a fun book in my opinion, but discusses very real issues of people and the nature of government

  • Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Its a great book of stoic philosophy full of Red Pill truth, its recommended over and over again here. I would say a good description of my personal philosophy would be the principles of the Declaration for government, and the meditations for my own life.

 

Economics You should learn the equivalent of a first semester of college economics course. Understanding the mechanics of an economy, no matter the form, is good knowledge to have. It also helps to frame your understanding of business, since you'll hopefully have to make business decisions someday. I have a particular love for Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics as a primer on the subject, as it avoids equations and provides a myriad of excellent examples.

 

I hope this has given you a few places to start to fill in any gaps that remain in your education. This obviously isn't all you need to know, but I'd say these are the things you ought to know, the minimum. To make a metaphor to improving your body, this is not being fat. Its a foundation to build upon. Specific to sexual strategy, I think this most directly ensures you can talk more intelligently than most people. This is an advantage you can leverage when needed. In the larger sense, being able to discuss subjects that matter to other people on an informed level allows you to form the connections necessary to advance. Its not the whole solution, but I hope this helps people grow a bit, gain some confidence, and find a bit more success than they would have otherwise.