4 ms·

Ask HN: what non technical books changed your life ?

2 points by yr 16y ago

what books improved your life ?

all 16y ago
On my personal bookshelf, next to my Bible, are: Sun Tzu's "Art of War" - a fundamental philosophical work for life management Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" - well-known, enough said. Felix Dennis' "How to Get Rich" - the best book that I have ever read about how the world really works Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" - a timeless classic.
fezzl 16y ago
Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"
RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
"How to Win Friends and Influence People." by Dale Carnegie. Back in 1980 when I was 19, I was an introverted, anti-social nerd and pretty much unable to engage with people at all. My long-suffering girlfriend (I'm still amazed I had one - can't say what she saw in me, although I was nice to people) of about 12 months standing nailed my feet to the floor and said - "You really need to learn to get along with people." Taking this as a challenge, a puzzle to solve (my forte), I went to find a textbook on how to get along with people and found HtWFaIP. Yes, the cynical can treat it as a manual for manipulation. Certainly the sociopathic can use it as the basis for their Machiavellian schemes. But for me it was a lifeline, a way to survive in a world where you need to interact with people.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
praptak 16y ago
"The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore. Much closer to the roots of productivity (inner motivation) than other books on this topic. If you liked "Getting Things Done" or "7 Habits" but somehow cannot implement the advice then TNH might help you.
michael_dorfman 16y ago
Questions like this always see a bit odd to me, because, as Shakespeare reminds us, "the readiness is all". The books that really changed my life were able to change my life because I was in a position to be changed by them. Someone else reading the same books might have no result at all. And, I suspect (but can't prove) that some of this is related to age as well; I can't say I know of anyone whose outlook has been radically altered by a book they read past the age of 30. Now, that doesn't mean that I haven't had my life improved in small but significant way by books I've read in the past couple decades-- but the effects are nowhere as significant as those texts from my teenage years, and early 20s.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
yannis 16y ago
My elementary school books.
mindcrime 16y ago
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Foundation Trilogy -Isaac Asimov The Game: Penetrating The Secret Society of Pickup Artists - Neil Strauss The Law - Frédéric Bastiat Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book - Paul Arden Are ones that stand out. I'm sure a lot of other books helped shape my worldview though, especially ones I read as a kid. The "Tom Swift Jr." adventures, the "Three Investigators" stories, the "Nancy Drew" and "The Hardy Boys" ones, and those "Encyclopedia Brown" books all stand out in my memory as probably being influential. And later in life, I'd say Dean Koontz' work has had something of an impact.

2 points by yr 16y ago

what books improved your life ?

all 16y ago

On my personal bookshelf, next to my Bible, are: Sun Tzu's "Art of War" - a fundamental philosophical work for life management Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" - well-known, enough said. Felix Dennis' "How to Get Rich" - the best book that I have ever read about how the world really works Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" - a timeless classic.

fezzl 16y ago

Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

"How to Win Friends and Influence People." by Dale Carnegie. Back in 1980 when I was 19, I was an introverted, anti-social nerd and pretty much unable to engage with people at all. My long-suffering girlfriend (I'm still amazed I had one - can't say what she saw in me, although I was nice to people) of about 12 months standing nailed my feet to the floor and said - "You really need to learn to get along with people." Taking this as a challenge, a puzzle to solve (my forte), I went to find a textbook on how to get along with people and found HtWFaIP. Yes, the cynical can treat it as a manual for manipulation. Certainly the sociopathic can use it as the basis for their Machiavellian schemes. But for me it was a lifeline, a way to survive in a world where you need to interact with people.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

praptak 16y ago

"The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore. Much closer to the roots of productivity (inner motivation) than other books on this topic. If you liked "Getting Things Done" or "7 Habits" but somehow cannot implement the advice then TNH might help you.

michael_dorfman 16y ago

Questions like this always see a bit odd to me, because, as Shakespeare reminds us, "the readiness is all". The books that really changed my life were able to change my life because I was in a position to be changed by them. Someone else reading the same books might have no result at all. And, I suspect (but can't prove) that some of this is related to age as well; I can't say I know of anyone whose outlook has been radically altered by a book they read past the age of 30. Now, that doesn't mean that I haven't had my life improved in small but significant way by books I've read in the past couple decades-- but the effects are nowhere as significant as those texts from my teenage years, and early 20s.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

yannis 16y ago

My elementary school books.

mindcrime 16y ago

Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Foundation Trilogy -Isaac Asimov The Game: Penetrating The Secret Society of Pickup Artists - Neil Strauss The Law - Frédéric Bastiat Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book - Paul Arden Are ones that stand out. I'm sure a lot of other books helped shape my worldview though, especially ones I read as a kid. The "Tom Swift Jr." adventures, the "Three Investigators" stories, the "Nancy Drew" and "The Hardy Boys" ones, and those "Encyclopedia Brown" books all stand out in my memory as probably being influential. And later in life, I'd say Dean Koontz' work has had something of an impact.