The Harder You Try, The Worse It Gets - The Philosophy of Fyodor Dostoevsky 

As always, thank you for watching. Consider checking out my book here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6XPPNJY

"Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing". Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"We often chase things we don't want and we dread things we truly want" hits hard

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”

It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise. -Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness" - Dostoevsky

"But how can you live and have no story to tell?" -Fyodor Dostoevsky

If a man has conscience, he will suffer for his mistakes - Fyodor Dostoevsky.

*"The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends...Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”* -Ratatouille

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment describes guilt better than any book I have ever read. It is also one of the greatest books written.

I once read a comment, that still stays with me. It is not about the harder you try, it is more about the negativity you put into it. Some people do nothing and it gets worse, some do something and they feel great. It is about the energy, if you want something REALLY REALLY BAD, you kind of put negative energy in it and push it away from you, f. e. when you really want someone and then the person can sense your desperation and kind of feels to pressured. Or when you really really want a job and then you feel to insecure and anxious, so the boss won’t choose you because your lack of confidence. I think it’s about the energy, when you really want a good grade, put in the effort and the good energy (staying calm), then you will get it eventually. But if you let negativity run you, I think you push thinks away. So have hope, and trust. Be optimistic.

Sometimes when you’re chasing something you will get lost in the chase. When you finally end up achieving your goal it will feel empty and you won’t even know why you did it. I feel like I’m always looking for that missing piece that will make me whole when no such piece exists. You have to come to terms with yourself and with life, which might never happen.

It's really ironic that even now we have instant communication with the world, it's all literature from ages ago that guides us instead.

Another certified hood classic

As I sit here pondering the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky, I am struck by the profundity of his philosophy. The idea that the harder you try, the worse it gets is one that has resonated with me on many occasions. I have experienced firsthand the feeling of putting in all my effort and still falling short. It can be disheartening, but it is in these moments that we must remind ourselves of the importance of perseverance. Dostoevsky believed that the struggle itself was what gave life meaning. It is through our struggles that we grow and become stronger individuals. When we are faced with obstacles, we have a choice: to give up or to keep going. It is easy to give up when things get tough, but it is in pushing through that we develop resilience and determination. The road to success is rarely a smooth one. There will be setbacks, failures, and moments of doubt. But it is those who are willing to persist through the challenges who ultimately achieve greatness. So, when faced with the daunting task of achieving our goals, let us remember the words of Dostoevsky and embrace the struggle. For it is through the struggle that we discover our true strength and potential.

The ending of the last story really resonated with me. When life is 'good' we quickly become accustomed to this feeling and sooner rather than later our drive to make progress sets in again, giving us that feeling of dissatisfaction. It's only when we are afraid to lose something that we can truly appreciate it's value again. The biggest example for this is life itself. Like the character in the story, when faced with death we all would feel this overwhelming sense of beauty and goodness in this world because our evolutionary sense to survive takes over. Sadly, if the character in the story were to survive he would be happy and relieved at first, probably sticking to his promises for a few days, weeks or maybe even months. But it would be impossible to maintain this appreciation for life permanently. At last the need for progress would overshadow the satisfaction again and he would end up in a similar state of mind to that before the execution. It's fascinating how this way we are 'programmed' is sad and amazing at the same time. Because of it we can never be truly, unconditionally happy for long no matter what we achieve but it's also this same drive that's responsible for us not living in caves anymore but in this modern luxury. I guess we just have to accept that life is never really 'completed' and that it isn't one specific goal in life that matters but rather the general presence of desires that get replaced once we fulfill them.

“You’re damned if ya do, you’re damned if ya don’t.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fun fact: Dostoevsky is one of franz kafka's inspiration and influences in writing his books.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - 'Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing"

Here is what I have learned from Crime and Punishment. We are all bound by these chains in life that make us uncomfortable, and so we break them to be free of suffering. But what if freedom is empty? What if what's beyond this rock that we are tied to is ultimately a hell far worse than the one we suffered in those chains? at least when we are suffering morality, relationships, people, and society we aren't doing it alone. But if you take that step and break all those chains, what are you without them? Maybe what we suffer is what gives our life context.

Once I asked an old man who he was, then he replied: "I'm nobody or nothing". At that time I didn't get what he meant by that but now I realize what he meant.

Its so freeing to know that it will always be like this, that you will always struggle and find things that make you feel bad. The times when you think you are truly happy will not last forever, they might even be as short as a single second. However in the end whatever it is that you experience, it is the unbelievably craziest thing that such can exist. Life is the most there is.

Dostoyevsky and Buddha had come to same realization in different times, that suffering is fundamental in life. I love your work man. Thanks!

“Becoming what you fear” feels especially salient. We often fear whatever embodies power. So when we seek to improve our lot in life, we may leverage that exact strategy of power that we’ve been so fixated on. All the while calling ourselves “the little guy” or the “lesser evil”

This was something I was literally just thinking. It seems like the more you try the more stress and anxiety I have. Not only that, i'm a deep thinker, and I also noticed thinking too much causes a lot of my anxiety. Should I counter this by thinking less even tho critical thinking is essential???? Should I try less, or do things with little to no effort??? But than I won't be as efficient. It just feels like this is the universes way of keeping us contained, or boxed in for whatever reason...

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

The corollary to "stop trying so hard" is "stop caring so much." I worked for a company where it seemed like I was coming into conflict with people much more often than with any job I had ever had. It took me awhile to realize that these conflicts were happening because I genuinely CARED more about the job and the product than anyone else. Once I realized that all the "care about the customer" and "care about the product" and "care about the team" stuff I was hearing was all a bunch of crap, I just "pretend-cared" like everyone else. Just "shined it on," as they say. Before long, everybody loved me. Damn shame it had to be that way. But I "made an adjustment with my own self-interests at heart." Dostoevsky would have been proud of me. I heard an expression once that suited that company perfectly: "Sincerity is the most important commodity to the customer. And once you've learned to fake THAT, you've got it made!"

dude, it's a brilliant brief explanation of the FD's work. The redemption part especially. Watched it ten times or more already.

"Just as the lotus flower needs mud to grow, humans need suffering. It is the mud in which the spirit grows." --Thich Nhat Hanh.(aka Thay).

I read Notes from Underground a couple years ago, it's one of my favorite books ever. The psychological depth and relatability of the character's vents are something I had never read before... It's the only book I've read from Fyodor so far, I wanna get into the big ones in the near future

Interesting fact, the famous phrase "with great power comes great responsibility," although typically is only attributed to Spider Man's uncle was said by Dostoevsky first. "I tell you, that great power necessitates great responsibility."

"beauty is going to save the world" -Dostoevsky

One of the very few channels that consistently puts out incredible quality, never missing a step. It's amazing how much you've grown. I remember when you only had a few dozen thousand subs. It's encouraging to know quality and perserverence eventually means success.

Perfect timing as always. Going through some dumb shit at work that aligns with this properly. The harder I try at work the less I feel like I accomplish

This really got me to think, I’ve been so aimless and lost, I look at how beautiful things are and immediately fear their loss. That few paragraphs you read from the story had more meaning to me rn than maybe anything I’ve ever read .

That redemption section gets me every damn time man. The pacing of the passage. The timing of the music. And the underlying message. Wow. I love coming back to this video. Superb closing to this dissection of Fyodor. Bravo.

Understanding the true cause of suffering is the only way to truly resolve it

This is such a great summary of his philosophy. Rarely have I seen anyone else break down his work and fundamental ideas so concisely, and in such an understandable and entertaining fashion. Thank you for the wonderful video!

Fydor is the first non-fiction author I read, and it’s a gift and a curse knowing his writings. The Dostoevsky Complex is around us all time.

You don’t need to try hard it’s all inside of you

I love you man honestly. And everyone on this thread is amazing for having such open hearts and minds you all make this world a bit more tolerable for me, I just can’t thank you enough, All the best, To you and yours.

I understand so well, I’ve been struggling a lot mentally lately and this actually just made me start crying tears of joy while eating breakfast. Thank you

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” ― C.S. Lewis

Oddly, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth wrote in one of his songs: “Don't remember where I was I realized life was a game The more seriously I took things The harder the rules became I had no idea what it'd cost My life passed before my eyes I found out how little I accomplished All my plans denied” That’s always stuck with me, and I think it mirrors Dostoevsky. The harder you try, the more you struggle and fight with life instead of simply accepting it and making the best of your circumstances, right now, in the moment, the harder it gets to endure and appreciate, the higher the price it demands from you. It’s not unwise to plan and think ahead, but one must never forget that no matter what, the future, YOUR future is going to be whatever it is when it happens, JUST LIKE right now. Right NOW is yesterday’s future. Make the best of it because tomorrow it will be yesterday. RIGHT NOW is your life happening. Make the most of it while you can. Yesterday is gone, at best a lesson learned, a good or bad moment remembered. Tomorrow is whatever it becomes. Be ready to accept that, even if it’s not what you expected. ESPECIALLY if it’s not what you hoped or planned for, because if you let that change of plans drag you down, make you take it things too seriously, the game WILL get harder.

Easily in my top 5 favorite videos from this channel. I was lucky enough to have an incredible English teacher Junior year of high school where we read Crime and Punishment in our class "Crime Fiction". Reading the a book at 16, and having an incredible teacher to break down every bit of detail, changed my whole outlook on life. Sometimes I feel like it was too much insight on the human perspective at such a young age, but I am ultimately indebted to Dr. Walker. For our final essay in the class, I wrote about Porfiry Petrovich and Raskolnikov's intellectual battle and how it was akin to a sensual relationship. I broke down their first interaction with one another for so many pages!

I finished Notes From Underground a few weeks ago and just recently started Crime and Punishment. Awesome to see this video bringing attention to his work!

Dostoyevsky is just wonderful, if you’re looking for more of him I 100% recommend his book “crime and punishment”. I haven’t yet finished reading it, it’s a long book, but it’s worth all the time it takes.

Your storytelling and explanation is sooo good! First time I’m grasping the ideas in Dostoevsky’s books. Thank you sm!!

Dostoyevsky understanding of the human condition and his ability to put that in writing is remarkable

I used to live in such a nihilistic viewpoint: “that nothing mattered, including me, so what does it matter what I do?” And there was a time where I was PURELY an optimist: “EVERYTHING IS FINE IM OK, IM HAPPY!!!”(toxic positivity) Now, as I’ve grown older, I consider myself an “optimistic nihilist:” yeah, some things may not matter, but make sure you enjoy he things that “don’t matter;” or the “people who may not matter.” Bc we only have one life; yeah that’s repeated so many times, but it’s true. We need to have some sort of realism in our lives, but we can’t be so obsessed with technology, science, and reasoning; too much reasoning can make someone mad and depressed. Here has to be some sense of unknowing ness; something that IS illogical, no matter how much the nihilistic side of me waists to debate how I should ONLY think logically. Besides, thinking only in a logical sense is very draining. But also thinking only optimistically is also draining. So, thats why I choose a little of both.

"There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.”

"You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is... never try." -Homer (Simpson)

This man wrote my biography before I was born. To those of you who haven't yet read any of this man's works I highly recommend.

Notes from Underground freaked me out. It is so relatable to me that its scary when I think about it. To this day I could not finish the book.

"Thus, even if a perfect life or society in which happiness could be of a formulaic ease to everyone, humanity would rather go mad or destroy its perfect conditions than live as if it fit into a mechanical system." What a great summary of one of Dostoyevsky's viewpoints

The secret of succeeding in everything is to put your brain in 'passive mode' Despite its' name it's considered to be a "state of flow" and pure creativity. You turn off some functions of your neocortex which is responsible for overthinking that forces you to make mistakes. Creativity comes from another region of brain

Front row reporting!!! I love your life changing channel. You and Dr. Grande are helping me get my act together! ❤❤❤

@5:41 "Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesnt calculate his happiness". I think that is because suffering has its "end", that end is DEATH (physiological/spiritual), and the road to death is always pretty close. The "end" of happiness which is represented by utopia is a "infinite" distance from us. When you encounter your misfortune, it creates alarm systems in your brain that you are approaching the "end" (death), and naturally since you are much closer to death than utopia, I feel it is quite normal that that INTENSE events occur much more frequently and have greater impact emotionally. That is why we count them in my opinion.

My brain is not matured enough to understand all this Still i would like to thank you for introducing me to such a person and his writings I will come back to this video after some time and try to understand this more 20/3/23

"For my part, I have merely carried to extremes in my life that you have not dared to carry even half-way, and in addition, you have mistaken your cowardice for common sense and found comfort in that, deceiving yourselves. so that as a matter of fact, I seem to be more alive than you" -Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Notes From the Underground)

I said about 15 years ago. "If you want to show someone true hell, give them a never ending heaven." Or something like that. It was a while ago I said it. Lol It means that people suffer ever worsening boredom when they have everything they could ever want all the time. We have the ability now to make virtual worlds in any way we see fit in video games. We don't even have to abide by our laws of physics in these worlds. Yet what do we create with this freedom? The most popular games are war and horror based. Same can be said for books and movies. When we are giving the power to be free of our suffering, we instead create suffering just so we can try to end it. When ever we don't have any problems. To solve, we create them.

This guy was incredible…! He still lives today whether we know it or not.

Man what a legendary man. Reality hit us hardest when we are the most vulnerable.

Every video you drop is what the kids these days call a "banger". Keep up the good work champ!

who else is subbed to aperture and pursuit of wonder as a package deal?

A man of word and a man of stupendous wisdom and awe had left an unexplored knowledge for us The words of last five minutes of his life with the man in the novel ( the idiot) Permeated in my heart ❤️💕

Dude fyodor is too much for this world I haven’t even read c&p yet but every quote of his I ever come across shakes me so deeply and adds a new dimension to it

Nothing but respect for a channel that puts the ads at the end of the video. 👏

i can relate with the title. im in a relationship (doing good now) but a while ago, i felt like i was just throwing it all away and i kept trying harder and harder pushing her further away, while not knowing what i was doing wrong. i just needed to learn how to let go, and realize some things and fix my view on love. nobody's gonna see this but just thought id write this

*I've only just discovered your channel, and gone on a binge of your videos, and many of them are things I'm already familiar with. And yet I want to praise you because these are brilliantly concise and accurate summaries of complex topics. If I had seen these videos as my first introduction to these ideas I would have understood them faster. Bravo*

The similarities between Schopenhauer & Dostoevsky philosophies is amazing.

Watching your content for a long time i was wondering when you were gonna make a video on dostoyevsky thank you so much for introducing me and others to such intriguing information be it philosophy, fiction, anything whenever you upload a new video it makes my day❤️❤️

I read Crime and Punishment more than once and I believe it touched me unlike anything before.

Great Video! I read 2 of the novels mentioned and your perspective and additional informations feeds my love for dostoevsky!

Ready text on a page of paper. There is nothing like good literature, holding it in your hands, letting your eyes scroll the page, finding feeling and meaning, something outside of yourself, something to make you realize life is real. At least for now.

It is very difficult to explain the writers like Dostoevsky but you have(Again) done a great job . . .keep it up . . .

I love Dostoyevsky because of his fantastic work and how deep his work is. I am also orthodox, and I LOVE philopshy and liture so it is so cool to see such a successful and influencal character in history who is also orthodox.

I couldnt agree more... Everyime I´ll start to put some real effort into something the next moment shit hits the fan.

just bought the hidden story of every person and now this mind boggling vedio. i am truelly thankful to you for providing such thought provoking content. keep it up man u are my only hope

Thank you so much for your efforts in making such a quality content.

Your voice certainly fit the subtle eeriness of the video, and the introduction to this man's life and story, and his own storytelling, have fiercely interested me... Thank you, and please continue with your great content.

what and absolute journey that was. Thank kindly. You planted a seed this day...

It's an interesting coincidence, that I recently started reading Crime and Punishment. I definitely would recommend this book to everyone. What I liked especially about it, is that main character, Raskolnikov, is really relatable and like us. It really makes you question things... Good video, I appreciate the most these videos summarizing famous philosophers and other great people.

A deep feeling man who could not overcome depression and feeling like a victim. Happiness is real and he knew it and could not figure out how he could morally pursue it. He chose misery out of deep seated anger and emotional pain.

I just want to point out how great the video graphics are. they are so artistic and very well thought of. absolutely love it

This made me cry the other night. It's genius

Your video depresses me but i get new ideas and clarity about myself and life. I am of 14 years you motivated me to pursue and study about brain,intelligence, consciousness, beauty and human philosophy.

Another masterpiece from this lovely channel

Not the impression I got from reading Dostoevsky but I can see it clear as day now. Yet another reason to love his work.

Fyodor is a great author... every his book is full of awesome thoughts

this actually helped me out, thank you

Love all your stuff, you changed my entire life with your video on vibrations changing DNA about 10 years ago. I've had chills and been 10x more electrified on my conscious baseline since. Max Planck quotes and quotes of Aristotle. Your an expert orator also. Now I study material science, computational chemistry and a.i

I fell in love with the piano songs you put in the video, they fit perfectly with the events and now i am love piano much more than i ever loved.

The last example dropped my jaw. Glad i heard this omw to work

Thanks for that amazing break down of Dostoevsky's work and philosophy. I read Crime and Punishment first, then The Brothers Karamazov. Both incredible works of litterature... I have been thinking about them ever since finishing them, and I know I will read them again at some point. Currently reading The Double, because I wanted to read something from before his time in Siberia, in order to see the difference. Next, I will read Notes from Underground, The Idiot, The Adolescent and Demons.

Fiodor is amazing

Wonderful timing

The irony of this guy doing a deep dive and thoroughly digesting the deeper aspects of a given work.... only to then hawk Blinkist. Amazing 👏

What timing! I’m currently rereading Dostoevsky’s works!