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Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

• guerrilla 5y ago
  The Stranger by Camus. Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. The Prince by Machiavelli. Categories by Aristotle.
• earlyriser 5y ago
  Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. By Max Tegmark It changed my perspective of everything. It could be existential crisis fuel too, but ultimately it's trying to answer what's our reality. At the same time is an autobiographical book from a scientist and the history of Cosmology.
• genjipress 5y ago
  Gödel, Escher, Bach
  • rutgerv 5y ago
    Gödel, Escher, Bach completely blew me away and quite radically changed the way I looked at the world. Highly recommended.
    • rookie123 5y ago
      Can you elaborate on how it changed your way? Would help in understanding context.
      • 2bitlobster 5y ago
        For me, systems thinking, incompleteness theorem, writing style, consciousness... Definitely helped set my path in building thinking tools as a career.
    • messe 5y ago
      Same here. If you're looking for fiction that felt (at least to me) to cover similar themes, I would suggest Greg Egan's Permutation City.
  • ohCh6zos 5y ago
    This book changed my life. Throughout high-school I hated math because I thought it was just memory work. I ended up going into computer science and then higher maths because of reading this.
• Mizza 5y ago
  I found a copy of 'Commodify Your Dissent' by Thomas Frank in a pile of free books when I was 17 and it had a significant and lasting impact on the way I viewed the world.
• beefman 5y ago
  Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724 My comment there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724
  • fsflover 5y ago
    Another discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19087418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19087418.
• ycharlie 5y ago
  How buildings learn. Very quotable and read as a generic engineer. Teaches you about how different times share the same space. Skip the architecture stuff. Ted Chiangs tower of Babylon. Short story.
• phgn 5y ago
  It depends on what you're after? For me I would say The Lean Startup, On Writing Well, and Atlas Shrugged for very different reasons.
  • rookie123 5y ago
    I kept the post contextless actually. For different purposes, different books can be life changing. Career or Non-career can be one context.
  • gompertz 5y ago
    Lean Startup was a surprisingly great book; as many in this topic space are nonsense.
• vmurthy 5y ago
  1. Start with no - this is an awesome primer on negotiating 2. Never split the difference - ditto . IMO, "start with no" is a sub set of this but it is worth separately anyway 3. Fooled by randomness 4. The black swan 5. Books on intermittent fasting by Dr Jason Fung 6. All books by Noah Harari but start with Sapiens 7. Security Analysis by Ben Graham
  • rookie123 5y ago
    Amazing, Thanks!.
  • throw0101a 5y ago
    > 7. Security Analysis by Ben Graham Just don't try to implement the things outlined there. Graham, in the last published interview he gave (Financial Analysts Journal, 1976), said: >> In selecting the common stock portfolio, do you advise careful study of and selectivity among different issues? > In general, no. I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 years ago, when our textbook "Graham and Dodd" was first published; but the situation has changed a great deal since then. In the old days any well-trained security analyst could do a good professional job of selecting undervalued issues through detailed studies; but in the light of the enormous amount of research now being carried on, I doubt whether in most cases such extensive efforts will generate sufficiently superior selections to justify their cost. To that very limited extent I'm on the side of the "efficient market" school of thought now generally accepted by the professors. * http://www.grahamanddoddsville.net/wordpress/Files/Gurus/Benjamin%20Graham/A%20Conversation%20with%20Ben%20Graham%20-%20Financial%20Analysts%20Journal%20-%201976.pdf http://www.grahamanddoddsville.net/wordpress/Files/Gurus/Ben...
• herodotus 5y ago
  The Histories by Herodotus was life changing for me (see my handle!). But, be aware that it has to be a good translation: the online free ones are not the ones you should read. Why? Because until I read it my only other experience with writing of that era was the bible readings from when I attended synagogue (before I realized that there was no god). I always found the bible stuff strange, but I forgave it, because I thought that people were just like that at that time in human history. Well, Herodotus changed my mind. He is brilliant, skeptical, humorous, and inquisitive. Attributes that, until I read the book, I somehow thought belonged to we moderns. Now I know how wrong I was, and I think about things differently.
  • d0mine 5y ago
    It is obvious in hindsight but it was a revelation for me that the ancients were not idiots/have something to teach us, and how little progress there is in a non-technological sphere since then (e.g., political social issues from many 100s years ago are still relatable or the stoics wisdom is still applicable at the personal level)
    • bsrhng 5y ago
      One follow up question you might want to be asking is why you thought that in the first place and what it has to do with current societal views.
      • yissp 5y ago
        Well, we genuinely do have a far better understanding of the natural world than the ancients. Many practical problems they faced have been effectively solved by technology, like food scarcity, communication, transportation etc. To me it seems more surprising that there hasn't been similar progress in our understanding of society and the human condition. We're still struggling with most of the same issues they were.
        • bsrhng 5y ago
          That is mostly my point. What conclusion can you actually make about any other society, current or historical, on the basis of "our practical problems being mostly solved by technology"? I think the danger in this focus on technology now is that it is so easy to dismiss anything at all that ancient Greeks or whomever said as not even simply wrong but even trivial and unworthy of being studied. Of course I used to dismiss most earlier writings as well. What could they possibly teach me, after all everything is so advanced now? This kind of attitude being widespread and I think entailed in most modern science talk (as an unspoken and easy conclusion that mostly never becomes explicit) is part of the reason we struggle with the same issues as you say.
• alexashka 5y ago
  The power of now by Eckhart Tolle changed my life when I was young. It shifted me from being extremely outwards oriented, to re-discovering the joy of the little things. I had discovered that there is always space between feelings, thoughts and 'you', always available, which was a huge relief since I was living in a torrent of uncertainty and disappointment for years up until then. The undeniable fact that there is only ever 'now' was also a bombshell of a realization. What a wonderful book that one, for those who have the disposition to grok it.
• lmolina 5y ago
  Books that have changed my life: - How to win friends and influence people. Helped me understand the dynamics of relationships in a unon manipulative and empathetic way. - Sapiens. Changed my view on human organizations and religion - the monk who sold his Ferrari - meditations by Marcus Aurelius - the screwtape letters. Letter 15 specifically changed me
  • jackconsidine 5y ago
    Hey hey! Had the same experience with Screwtape Letters + Meditations
  • anderber 5y ago
    Meditations by Marcus Aurelius continues to inspire me, no matter how many times I read it. Incredible stuff.
  • franczesko 5y ago
    "How to win friends and influence people" It's a great book, however it creates one problem, when all of the advice is implemented. It makes you a perfect listener, but doesn't mention the imbalance it can cause.
    • lilcorey10 5y ago
      I’m what ways is there an imbalance? Assuming the other party isn’t inept of asking questions there shouldn’t be much of one
    • duke_core 5y ago
      Do you know of any better books than that one
    • andrei_says_ 5y ago
      As a non-American it felt incredibly manipulative and I can see how it has been weaponized by salespeople.
  • mukundesh 5y ago
• Buttons840 5y ago
  How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism I've listened to dozens of self help type books, and this one had an immediate and permanent effect on me. It changed my life. I don't think it will do the same for everyone, but it did for me. I think most time spent listening to these self help type books goes to waste, but there is the occasional book or insight that resonates with a person and makes it all worth it. This was one of those book for me.
• imwillofficial 5y ago
  How to Win Friends and Influence People. Near magical in how it can teach you to connect better with others in a real, lasting way.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• Electrified 5y ago
  Outwitting the Devil - by Napoleon Hill Outwitting the Devil is a work of fiction that was written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill, which was considered too controversial to be published in its era. The book is written as an interview between Hill (Mr. Earthbound) and the devil (our inner dark self), wherein Hill attempts to uncover the secrets to freedom and success by evaluating the greatest obstacles that humans face in order to attain their personal goals in life. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  • cko 5y ago
    I recently learned that Napoleon Hill was quite the conman. At least he made outrageous claims of being an advisor to famous leaders he's likely never met.
• palencharizard 5y ago
  A few have stood out: - "The Defining Decade: Why Your 20's Matter and How to Make The Most of Them Now": it motivated me to find a fulfilling a career in tech (among other things). - "On the Shortness of Life" (Seneca) - Really made me take a hard look at my life, for the better. - "Eat and Run" - Interesting read about an Ultramarathoner. Inspired me to find the motivation for doing "tough things" in general.
  • tayo42 5y ago
    > "The Defining Decade: Why Your 20's Matter and How to Make The Most of Them Now": Being 31, still feeling lost, this title stresses me out
    • beeboop 5y ago
      Defining your life and happiness by measuring professional success is a very likely way to be unhappy. I'd recommend ignoring the book and live your life in whatever way brings meaning to you.
    • privacyonsec 5y ago
      Maybe you will find out that you didn't miss your 20's ?
    • hattori31 5y ago
      Have read the book, took most of the advice, have gone trilingual, have gone fit and healthy, reached 6 digit salary, gone on most of the places I wanted to visit. Im almost done with 20s. Still feel lost as hell
  • biophysboy 5y ago
    Would the first book be valuable for someone in their late 20's? I'm fairly happy with what I've done this decade, but maybe I could apply the relevant stuff to my 30s...
    • xivzgrev 5y ago
      Yes. The gist of the book is that the choices we make in our 20s set us into patterns that are unlikely to change. So if you felt fairly happy chances are good you’ve made good choices. It may be worth a read for anything you’d like to tweak
• orcul 5y ago
  'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance' by Robert Pirsig.
  • gHeadphone 5y ago
    Ive read it 4 times in the past 30 years. Every time i get something totally new from it. It’s a story about a father and son, about the meaning of quality, its a travel book, and book about mental health. It introduced me to philosophy. An astonishing book.
  • number6 5y ago
    Read it last month. Always thought it would be overhyped boring and trivial. Wow I was wrong! It's recommended everywhere because it is that good.
  • xydinesh 5y ago
    I started reading this, while I enjoyed the aspects of the ride, I found the philosophical discussion is rather boring. I may be lack the philosophy background to really appreciate the discussion.
• MrYellowP 5y ago
  I can recommend all books written by Robert Anton Wilson, especially the Cosmic Trigger series, Quantum Psychology and The New Prometheus. Another book that's definitely worth a read, or two, is "The Goal", which teaches you how to think goal-oriented while not being a bore to read.
  • colordrops 5y ago
    Yes, his idea around model agnosticism completely changed the way I engage with reality.
    • MrYellowP 5y ago
      Do you also have problems with other people, who don't "get it" ?
      • colordrops 5y ago
        Yes, all the time.
        • MrYellowP 5y ago
          If I ever got to be dictator, I'd make this mandatory reading just so everyone realizes how stupid it is to have a dictator. Then they'll politely ask me to "leave my seat", to which I will happily agree. And on fridays, the new public leadership council will declare, hot dogs will be free for everyone.
  • deleted 5y ago
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• paxcoder 5y ago
  The Holy Bible by God and His associate Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli
• max_ 5y ago
  1. Incerto by Nassim Taleb This is the first book that gave me a thorough insight into philosophy. Completely changed my worldview. I reread chapters from it everyday. It has become my bible. The Incerto strictly focuses on the practical applications of stoic philosophy. 2. All books by Dan Brown The Dan Brown books got me in to reading for fun. While some people may regard his books as thrillers, I consider them hard science fiction. I owe him my reading culture. 3. The age of intelligent machines. 4. The singularity is near. 5. The age of spiritual machines. ... all the above by Raymond Kurzweil These books introduced me to computer science.
• arisAlexis 5y ago
  Superintelligence by Nick Bosstrom How to make friends and influence people Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
• undoware 5y ago
  1. _The Question Concerning Technology_ by Martin Heidegger. Taught me how clean-room language reinvention can be a tool for clear thinking, and how you cannot add something without taking something away. Truth is "revealing and concealing" because it is, outside math and hard science, perspectival. Essential reading for UX engineers. 2. _Eichmann in Jerusalem_, Hannah Arendt. Made me wiser about how evil works. "Evil" is a fun word to throw around and lends itself to silly political slogans, but the real thing is no joke, is out there, and does not look like what you think. 3. _Eugene Onegin_, by Pushkin, as translated by Douglas Hofstadter (yes, that one). The man taught himself Russian by translating the Onegin to distract himself after his wife died. The foreword-essay changed how I regard language and translation. 3. _Getting Unstuck_, by Pema Chodron. I still use this shit every time I get obsessive about some coding thing. Wise AF. 4. _Getting Things Done_ by David Allen. Everything is an interface and everything is algorithmic, your only choice is whether or not to consciously intend them. You can engineer better habits. 5. A biography of Malcolm X -- I forget which one, embarrassingly, and I am in a hurry so I will not google. Whichever one came out closest to the year 2007 :) These days tho I would grab _The Dead are Arising_ -- the most recent. It's aleady on my Kobo. Malcolm X showed me how to survive in hell and start a movement.
  • devnull255 5y ago
    The _Autobiography of Malcom X_ was co-written by Alex Haley, the author of _Roots_. _Autobiography_ was required reading in a "Black Political Thought" course I took years ago. But it was inspirational for me too.
• rchaves 5y ago
  Those were life-changing for me: - The Black Swan - Antifragile - Crucial Conversations - Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
  • itsthecourier 5y ago
    "why" has more works, i think somebody published a compendium
• adventured 5y ago
  Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, by Roger Lowenstein. It ultimately led me down a path that changed a lot about how I approached investing, and how I perform value appraisal / how I view value in general across all aspects of life. The principles of value investing and value judging apply to most things, rather than being narrowly limited to eg stock investing. It introduced me to some of the basic foundations of value investing. It's not a super renowned book (ala Ben Graham's various treatises on value investing), however it's my favorite Buffett book regardless and the one I most often recommend to new investors. Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Such a simple concept, so extraordinarily important as a distinction.
• messe 5y ago
  Greg Egan's Permutation City had a major influence on my own thoughts on consciousness and AI, as did Hofstadter's G.E.B. The Dust Theory in Permutation City is fairly mindblowing, and in a sense takes the ideas behind a Boltzmann brain to even further extremes. Epictetus' Enchiridion helped me massively with depression and anxiety over the past few years. I still read a few excerpts from it weekly. Much of it is self evident, but it's reassuring and reinforcing. The works of Terry Pratchett shaped my sense of humor, and my outlook on life. I would definitely be a different person today if I hadn't encountered Discworld at such an early age. They've made me a optimistic cynic. I'd highly recommend anybody interested in starting the Discworld books to start with Mort, and then the rest of the Death series in order (Hogfather in particular).
  • teekert 5y ago
    +1 for Permutation City. I still ponder that sim that is run out of order and sees the world come by, out of order.
• readonthegoapp 5y ago
  Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky https://bookshop.org/books/deterring-democracy/9780374523497 https://bookshop.org/books/deterring-democracy/9780374523497 gave me a diff pov on the US/government, in particular. helped start shifting my perspective, break out of the 'indoctrination' of a standard US education, which already included college, gd. i think it could matter because, if we're going to survive, americans will probably have to start looking at the world a bit differently -- since the US is still, for now, really the sole superpower in the world and effectively sets global policy, including and especially on climate collapse. i imagine we'll maintain our 'sole superpower' status indefinitely, which doens't bode well for continued organized life on earth, unfortunately, but maybe we can still change our ways. maybe we'll be able to force the 1% to let us live, even in this much-diminished environment.
• Jerrrry 5y ago
  Full House - The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, by Stephen Jay Gould Evolution of horses, disappearance of the .400 in baseball, where are all the modern Geniuses, and the most integral part- the dominance of bacteria- and how evolution and the progression of entropy/ the 2nd law, does not, against most intuition, generally _lead_ to the increase of complexity, but merely _allows_ for its existence. I do disagree with him on the premise of "hot-hands," and the bit about joe dimaggio's performance being the most (statistically) outstanding in human history is also unintuitive. The book does have such a general sense of applicability though, cannot recommend it enough.
• vladgiverts 5y ago
  Soul Without Shame by Byron Brown. It fairly accessible and yet opened me up to a much more complex world of inner experience than I was able to perceive before reading the book.
• usrme 5y ago
  Can't speak highly enough of the following: - "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William B. Irvine - "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton G. Malkiel - "The Real Happy Pill" by Anders Hansen - "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss & Tahl Raz - "Drug Use for Grown-ups" by Dr. Carl L. Hart - "Soft City" by David Sim
• DenisM 5y ago
  The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. As a child I was inspired by its radiant optimism about engineering advances extracting men from peril and lifting them to the position of control of their lives and making the most of their circumstance. The Martian had the same vibes for me.
• alecst 5y ago
  Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I delayed for too long reading this thrilling book. It was like getting a brain massage. So many wonderful lessons in rational thinking packed into a truly enjoyable and memorable story. In response to some questions: It's not a kids book. It's a fan-fiction inspired by the original books, but written with adults in mind. You can read it for free at http://www.hpmor.com/ http://www.hpmor.com/.
  • rookie123 5y ago
    Is it fiction or non-fiction?
    • pawelmurias 5y ago
      It's a Harry Potter fanfic written by a believer in Rationality, so it's a version of Harry Potter mixed in with a strange religion.
    • progend 5y ago
      Fiction. http://www.hpmor.com/ http://www.hpmor.com/
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  • mdoms 5y ago
    Isn't this a series of novels targeted at 12 year olds?
    • teekert 5y ago
      I still enjoy them at 39. It’s one of those series that suck you into a different world as soon as your eyes hit the words. I read the last one 10 years ago? Can’t wait to start reading them to my kids.
    • Tomte 5y ago
      No. The first book is targeted at that age maybe, but I wouldn't read book three to a twelve year old, and five or six get really nasty. Stephen King put it this way in his review: Harry Potter books are meant to grow up with the child, while many other childrens' books series target a specific age range. Today you can buy and read all Harry Potter books at once, but it's actually best to follow the release times and keep a year or so between books, if the child is younger.
• deleted 5y ago
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• jimnotgym 5y ago
  The Plague and The Outsider by Albert Camus. Be prepared to change your opinion of what is important!
• kundi 5y ago
  For your fellow American and other westerners to possibly shine some light onto “the human kernel”, as developers would say. Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson by George Guerdjieff
• jmfldn 5y ago
  Here's my list of mainly non-fiction. The Blank Slate - Stephen Pinker Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher Straw Dogs - John Gray Godel Esher Bach - Douglas Hoffstader The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac Path with a Heart - Jack Kornfield
• ravenstine 5y ago
  Here are mine: - "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene - "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker - "Left of Bang" by Patrick van Horne and Jason Riley - "Influence" and its follow-up "Pre-suasion" by Robert Cialdini - "Courage is Calling" by Ryan Holiday (yes it was published this year but I found it helpful) - "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie - "No One Ever Told Us That" by John D. Spooner - "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki (Not something I'd read today but there was some good things in their for my naive 20 year old self)
  • stevebmark 5y ago
    48 laws of power, influence, win friends, and to some degree rich dad, when put together in a list, could tell a story about someone. I’m curious in a non-attacking sort of way, do you consider yourself a sociopath, or to have more manipulative tendencies than those around you?
    • HPsquared 5y ago
      They're all books which explain social relations in a logical, mechanistic way. A lot of people lack intuition in this area, and this is the most effective way to understand "other people".
    • j7ake 5y ago
      I bet one can predict better than random the gender of people based on their honest list of books that changed their life.
    • xekul 5y ago
      The first two books are extremely useful for preventing people from taking advantage of you, if you are naive as to how manipulative people can be: that's what I got out of them when I read them early in life.
    • ravenstine 5y ago
      No. There are many reasons that even ordinary people should, in my opinion, read such material and take it in, but the most important one is that understanding how other people work is necessary to knowing if you are being manipulated and how to out-manipulate the manipulator if that's called for. Of course, I think if I didn't include the 48 Laws of Power, attributions of sociopathy towards me (yours certainly not being the first) would be largely diminished. Cialdini's books, if you were to read them, certainly aren't written as guides on how to be a sociopath, but rather the contrary. The 48 Laws of Power is written the way it was to be the most entertaining and thematic, which I think is pretty clear.
• yboris 5y ago
  I keep remembering Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most fondly. I suspect that is where I had come across the most-dense (in good advice) collection of approaches for talking about difficult things with people. I read it in my early 20s and feel like I've been using the recommendations ever since (I'm 36 now). It's written by people involved with the Harvard Negotiation Project after many years of practice with facilitating difficult conversations. https://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Conversations-Discuss-What-Matters/dp/0143118447 https://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Conversations-Discuss-What-...
• 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
  Walden - Thoreau Meditations - Aurelius Taught me that simply existing peacefully can be exhilarating. The Prince - Machiavelli Shrewd and cunning. I don't find myself applying his ideas but I definitely encounter them. Edit: Healing Back Pain - Sarno Self explanatory. No longer experience back pain, wrist pain, or other minor aches and pains.
• hypertexthero 5y ago
  The First and Last Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti (forward by Aldous Huxley)
• simonebrunozzi 5y ago
  Lord of the Rings. Read it in 3 days (afternoons after school and evenings to late nights), felt... alive/awaken, during and after reading it. I was maybe 12 years old. 1984. First real sense of society at large, totalitarianism, and other "grown-up" stuff. I was maybe 12 or 13. Brave New World. Same as 1984, except I was maybe 14 or 15. 1491 and 1493. Amazing way to deeply understand history, and completely new perspectives on America pre and post Columbus. The Pillars of the Earth. First time a novel captured me so deeply, in terms of sense of history, and sense of other people's lives. Then, various novels, mostly from Italian authors (I grew up in Italy).
  • Cody_C 5y ago
    I've read 1984 and Brave New World. In a lot of ways I think the warnings in A Brave New World are much more subtle in some ways. The "fixes" they come up with in the book for an ailing society are very similar to what people have waded into now. A Brave New World is probably a bigger warning to society than 1984 in many ways.
• amutex 5y ago
  "A Mans Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl - Understanding suffering, finding purpose in life. "The Dream Machine" by M Mitchel Waldrop - Biography of JCR Licklider and history of computing.
• mawise 5y ago
  I know people like to hate on it, but "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferris. It made starting a company feel accessible and prompted me to quit my first "real" job to try building something. I've since gone back to "real" jobs but the plausibility of starting a company has stuck with me.
• marvel_boy 5y ago
  `The global negotiator` by Trenn Griffin[1]. Now free to read https://twitter.com/trengriffin/status/1472251905480880133?s=20 https://twitter.com/trengriffin/status/1472251905480880133?s... [1]https://25iq.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/the_global_negotiator.pdf https://25iq.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/the_global_negot...
• deleted 5y ago
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• yboris 5y ago
  Studying Positive Psychology feels like a good benefit-for-time-spent. A great book on it is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. It's a great overview of how error-prone our predictions about what will make us happy are; along with, if I remember right, good advice for how to maximize happiness (alternatively, read The How of Happiness for more-direct advice). https://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427 https://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp... https://www.amazon.com/How-Happiness-Approach-Getting-Life/dp/0143114956 https://www.amazon.com/How-Happiness-Approach-Getting-Life/d...
• whoisninja 5y ago
  - How to be free, Epictetus - Sovereign Individual, Davidson - Origins of Money, Carl Menger - Operating Systems, Tanenbaum
• tombh 5y ago
  Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor. It's considered one of the founding books of the secular Buddhist movement. Not only did it open me up to the depths of the meditative path as a therapeutic practice (rather than religious practice), but it inspired me to complete a university degree in Religious Studies.
  • jmfldn 5y ago
    Great book. I almost put this down on my list (many Buddhist books have influenced me).
• jseliger 5y ago
  https://jakeseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-that-is https://jakeseliger.com/2010/03/22/influential-books-on-me-t...
• mukundesh 5y ago
  Atomic Habits - How to manage both good and bad habits.
• ultrasounder 5y ago
  Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi(rip) and Psycho Cybernetics. I am battling a personal identity crisis(mid life existence) and these two books have guided me on what is important in life and how to lead a truly fulfilling life.
• IHLayman 5y ago
  (Edited for formatting) No book is totally life-changing IMHO, but many are life-altering… life-shifting? But for a good shift in perspective, I would maybe try the following: For fiction, best no reasons given, go into these blind: - Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler - The City and the City, China Mieville - Exhalation, Ted Chiang - Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro For non-fiction: - Any book that tells some of the history of the field you have a career in. You need it for perspective. For me it was the books Hackers by Stephen Levy (problematic as it may be) and Journey Through Genius by William Dunham. They led me into deeper dives and other books which rooted my knowledge in some chronological perspective. - Surreal Numbers by Donald Knuth, a “fiction” book about Conway’s surreal numbers. Holy cow, this shifts your perspective on what a number can be. - Godel Escher Bach by Hofstadter, recommended by others, as a mind bending book - What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund. Really changed my perspective on the act of reading in general. Very easy and quick read. - Debt, by David Graeber (sure to hear about this in the comments lol) Biographical: - Read at least one book from someone who has had a different life experience than you have had. For me, it was Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain which wasn’t totally a biography but told a lot of experiences in his life completely different than mine that offered some perspective. - One anti-recommendation: any book that a CEO writes or has ghost-written about their life. None of that is applicable to your own life, even if you are a CEO. Self-help: no recommendations. Self help books only help the person selling the books IMHO. I’ve read my share, and it tells more about the person writing the book than it does give life tips about how to live one’s life.
  • reducesuffering 5y ago
    > - One anti-recommendation: any book that a CEO writes or has ghost-written about their life. None of that is applicable to your own life, even if you are a CEO. I disagree because Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" is fairly autobiographical but is very helpful in guiding startup founders and CEO's and is widely lauded by them.
• hnthrowaway0315 5y ago
  Brother Karamazov, first read it when in 20s, read a few times later (but never fully). The chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" is the cream of the cream.
• snaveen 5y ago
  A Master's Secret Whispers: For those who abhor the noise and seek The Truth about life and living https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Secret-Whispers-those-living/dp/1975841689/ref=pd_bxgy_1/132-5146776-8483149?pd_rd_w=Go9Aw&pf_rd_p=c64372fa-c41c-422e-990d-9e034f73989b&pf_rd_r=KHPHPQ4WXF5E40QADMSY&pd_rd_r=821a6aea-4ba9-42ec-93b6-d9d4855dbd4a&pd_rd_wg=pB9Lz&pd_rd_i=1975841689&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Secret-Whispers-those-living/... Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735211299/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735211299/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b... Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness https://www.amazon.com/Almanack-Naval-Ravikant-Wealth-Happiness/dp/1544514212/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=naval+ravikant&qid=1639848593&s=books&sprefix=naval%2Cstripbooks%2C137&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Almanack-Naval-Ravikant-Wealth-Happin...
  • thejackgoode 5y ago
    Are there other people who think Naval Ravikant has zero original ideas and his real competence is speech?
    • aristofun 5y ago
      Neither do 99% of modern authors you find on Amazon. It doesn’t make all of them bad authors, sometimes the talant is in the way you communicate known ideas.
    • reureu 5y ago
      I'm wary of most entrepreneurs, investors, and "thought leaders" offering advice as they tend to either be self-serving, productivity porn, or deep-seeming ideas that are easily said but impossible to implement. And, all too often, they only have a platform or "success" because of a huge head start from family wealth or from being an outright sociopath (or both).
      • DantesKite 5y ago
        Naval was born poor.
• gordon_freeman 5y ago
  Meditations and Freakonomics for sure. Also when I was down in life, Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living helped a lot too.
• leke 5y ago
  The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. It's an autobiography that uses permaculture to inspire a simple life.
• franczesko 5y ago
  "Clash of Civilizations" by Samuel P. Huntington It's remarkable how universal this book is, despite being written long ago. It changed my perspective on the West-centric world.
• mdoms 5y ago
  If you're interested in fiction I'm going to say, Anathem by Neal Stephenson It's not even my favourite Stephenson book (that would be Seveneves) but it's the one that made me reflect the most on philosophy and meaning.
• mox111 5y ago
  This is going to be an unusual answer for this forum, but... the Harry Potter series Firstly, I read it as a kid, in my formative years, when it was most likely to have an impression on me. But I remember reading the books and feeling completely enraptured by this magical world. I also remember feeling a a bit annoyed at what I perceived as Harry's laziness and ingratitude! I would think "if I was him, I would spend all my days in the library, learning all the coolest spells, potions etc., and make the most of all this magical power" As an adult, this has unintentionally become the frame through which I view my job as a programmer. You can call me a romantic, but I've been doing this for years and I still think it's wonderful. At any time I can open a book or a man page and learn some amazing new spells. With our computers, we _all_ have access to magic, it's just about learning to use it.
  • Alacart 5y ago
    This is how I've explained programming to friends and family. It's like I got my letter to Hogwarts and I've been learning magic ever since. I get to make something real out of nothing, just by spending time learning how things work and working on the craft of using that knowledge. That's magic to both 11 year old me and and 32 year old me.
• chernevik 5y ago
  A few: "The Once and Future King", T.H. White -- best novelization of the problem of power "Don Quixote", Miguel de Cervantes -- why stories matter "Essence of Decision", Graham Allison -- how views of a historic episode vary with the theory you apply "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings", Basler/Sandburg -- The application of reason to the problems of law, morality and politics
  • stevenfoster 5y ago
    +1 for Cervantes
• ibgeek 5y ago
  The Motivation Myth https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06ZYFR2CL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1639848852&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06ZYFR2CL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch... First Things First https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00V1XGKJK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1639848919&sr=8-1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00V1XGKJK/ref=tmm_kin_swat... The Now Habit https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001QNVP7M/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1639848966&sr=8-1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001QNVP7M/ref=tmm_kin_swat... Chaos https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143113453/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1639849008&sr=8-1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143113453/ref=tmm_pap_swat... Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B1FG8RW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1639849098&sr=8-3 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B1FG8RW/ref=tmm_kin_swat... My side of the mountain https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0525463461/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1639849233&sr=8-1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0525463461/ref=tmm_hrd_swat... The Histories https://smile.amazon.com/Histories-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe-ebook/dp/B00G3L1900/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=1U9EUBHKPOPP2&keywords=herodotus+the+histories&qid=1639849326&sprefix=herod%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-4 https://smile.amazon.com/Histories-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe-e... The History of the Peloponnesian War https://smile.amazon.com/History-Peloponnesian-War-Thucydides/dp/0140440399/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2VB9JCB49W8P7&keywords=thucydides+history+of+the+peloponnesian+war&qid=1639849390&sprefix=thucy%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-3 https://smile.amazon.com/History-Peloponnesian-War-Thucydide... The Social Contract https://smile.amazon.com/Social-Contract-Other-Political-Writings/dp/0141191759/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=1GX6XV61QH2IU&keywords=the+social+contract+jean-jacques+rousseau&qid=1639849498&sprefix=the+social+%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-5 https://smile.amazon.com/Social-Contract-Other-Political-Wri...
• nihilius 5y ago
  Currently reading „The Meaning in the making“ by Sean Tucker. Really great book.
• stevenfoster 5y ago
  - Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl - Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman - Debt by David Graeber - Extreme Ownership by Jocko Wilink - Genesis and the Big Bang by Gerald Schroeder - The Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila
  • gompertz 5y ago
    I just finished "Bullshit Jobs" by Daniel Graeber. Excellent read. Maybe I'll try the Debt book next.
• tbjohnston 5y ago
  Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Hobbit/LotR by Tolkien
• rasse 5y ago
  Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• whilestanding 5y ago
  The Denial Of Death by Ernest Becker. The Holy Bible by God.
  • xpe 5y ago
    Which version?
    • TheMonarchist 5y ago
      https://www.soulwinning.info/bible/kjb/pce.htm https://www.soulwinning.info/bible/kjb/pce.htm looks promising
• zarkov99 5y ago
  Cosmos by Carl Sagan, which I read I think in college. It changed the way I look at reality, giving me a much more materialistic perspective on life, meaning that I started to require material evidence as pre-requisite for any kind of certainty. Overnight it became impossible for me to believe in any religion.
• T0pH4t 5y ago
  Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art By: James Nestor
• jerome-jh 5y ago
  "Art of war", Sun Tzu -- only partially applies to modern wars, still a great reading. Many to the point maxims to understand life, history and the world. "The Gallic Wars", Julius Caesar -- for the enjoyment of reading a 2k years old book by a major historical character. Probably more interesting if you are french, belgian or german. Truly epic ending with the battle of Alesia. The staging of this battle is almost unbelievable although to date, every archeological finding has only confirmed the description made by JC. Both are short, direct, self contained books.
• jwx48 5y ago
  Dune, by Frank Herbert. Bear with me on this. It was a bridge into politics, ecology, religion, and economics, as well as an amazing world-building narrative. It got me interested in philosophy and literature, and the roles they play in creating, describing, or influencing cultures. It is my keystone book.
  • WillAdams 5y ago
    You should also read the book which inspired Frank Herbert, Lesley Blanch's _The Sabres of Paradise_: https://arnoldkhan.medium.com/how-the-sabre-of-paradise-inspired-dune-f2b892c4869e https://arnoldkhan.medium.com/how-the-sabre-of-paradise-insp...
  • sizzle 5y ago
    What did you think of the movie?
  • s0rr0wskill 5y ago
    I've been holding out on reading it, is it really that influential?
    • jabl 5y ago
      I wouldn't say it's THAT influential. It's a very good SF book though. Too much SF and fantasy writing is dorks geeking out on space travel or witchcraft or whatever, with very little literary quality in the writing itself. Dune bucks that sad trend.
• piinbinary 5y ago
  Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright It's short and easy to read, yet gives you a really valuable addition to your mental toolkit for understanding the world
• lifeplusplus 5y ago
  I see more than a couple of books I've read in the comments, but I found them negative ROI on time invested in them, they should have been 20 pages not 300, and I didn't learn anything profound, often they could be summarized as a list of statements. In the end, I feel 99% stuff out there is just time wasting simple ideas rehashed into 300 page stories.
  • tagoregrtst 5y ago
    Could you make a list of these books? I certainly have seen books mentioned I wouldn't even leaf trough, but this comment is particularly strong - and fascinating
    • lifeplusplus 5y ago
      Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - A garbage book about universe's energy Never Split the Difference - too long never finished completely, didn't feel practical or anything beyond common sense The Obstacle Is the Way - trash, not worth time, if you watch motivation videos then go ahead buy it. Exactly What to Say - read the the table of contents and you get 90% of the value the book has to give Indistractable - did you know if you could focus and work without motivation you could do great things..oh wow news of the century. Book has flawed premise and flawed solution. Saying control your internal triggers is a very round about way to say control your motivation. This book more of an academic book, on topic, that is under research. How to Make Sh*t Happen: Make more money... - honestly liked the book, resonated with author's struggle .. but I don't recall getting much value. It was like watching a show that starts really strong and you have high hopes but just never delivers. I'd read the summary of it and not waste time reading the entire thing. i was kinda putt off by cringe over the top cursing to look unorthodox. The Hard Thing About Hard Things - omg the self patting.. unless you're a ceo, of series A startup then maybe this book will have some value. HARD PASS. Grit - here I'll save you time: people who keep at it on average win against talented people. There I saved you from 30 life stories of author and her daddy issues. The case studies and even better textbooks that have case studies compiled into lessons are much better.
• mrweasel 5y ago
  Perhaps I just never read that kind of book, but I don't believe that a single book can significantly change your life. There's a few recommendations made here that I have read, for instance Nassim Talebs Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, both of which I honestly didn't find to be all that good. They're interesting, but not that useful and I don't feel that he's all that good at explaining his ideas. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius have some rather good parts, while others are just rambling and repetitive. It's not enough to be life changing. It can guide you in some specific situation, but that's about it. Atomic Habits: Again interesting, very pratical, but long winded and by no means a guaranteed way to changing your life/habits. Don't get me wrong, the books recommended, at least those I've read, are interesting, and worth a read, but they won't change your life.
  • rg111 5y ago
    > I don't believe that a single book can significantly change your life Yes it can. I don't merely think so or believe so, I know so.
    • mrweasel 5y ago
      Do you mind sharing which book, and how? I view it as you pick up parts of the books you read. Hopefully they makes you smart, more knowledgable, makes you think, view the world a little differently, but the person who puts the book down is still you. By significant I mean would the people around you see a different person after you read the book.
      • senjindarashiva 5y ago
        Don't you bring up an example of how a book can change your life in your question. If a book makes you view the world differently (even by a little) doesn't that change your outlook on life? As a personal example a book/novel (how to live on 24 hours a day) made me change how I view my day, shifting from a work day focus (the day is finished when work is finished) to looking at the waking time outside of work as the focus for my day. This is something noticeable both to me and my surrounding since it gave me a lot more time to do things for personal enjoyment or to help others every day. And no it didn't change the world but it made a profound impact on my life by implementing a tiny change in how I view the world
• jowday 5y ago
  Gravity’s Rainbow Book of the New Sun
• pizza 5y ago
  Freedom from the Known
• launchiterate 5y ago
  1. The Bhagavad Gita 2. The One Thing 3. Insanely Simple
• miguelrochefort 5y ago
  "Getting Things Done" by David Allen
• shrx 5y ago
  Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
• teekert 5y ago
  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I was overly social, choosing others over myself. I thought it was the way, possibly due to my Christian upbringing. But I learned that to say “I love you”, one must first be able to say “I”. Rational self interest is a good ethical basis for a non-sociopathic human. If you’re a sociopath, it’s horrible, which brings me to my next recommendation: Humandkind by Rutger Bregman (in Dutch: “Most people are good”).
  • teekert 5y ago
    Haha, Mention Ayn Rand on HN, get some downvotes, sadly never any good questions or remarks. I wonder if the downvoters really read it. I feel like just like the Selfish Gene, you can misread Atlas Shrugged. I think a core point is that it makes you ponder if doing something for someone you love is selfishness. Or if true self-sacrifice is doing something you hate for something you don’t believe in. What’s good, what’s evil? It changed me, I believe for the better.
    • unmole 5y ago
      I don't dislike Atlas Shrugged because of its politics, although I would say The Road to Serfdom presents a far better case and does it more concisely. I dislike Atlas Shrugged because it's a terrible novel with paper thin characters and cringeworthy dialogue. I'd argue that A Song of Ice and Fire, with its magic and dragons and undead armies still makes for a more realistic exploration of the human condition than the claptrap of Atlas Shrugged. Life is too short to read Ayn Rand.
      • teekert 5y ago
        OP asked for novels that changed people. I give examples and support them. I knew I’d get downvotes because Ayn Rand on HN = downvotes. I’d say if a novel elicits so much consistent response it’s already worth reading. I didn’t find it cringy I couldn’t put it down. Especially during John Galts speech. Just brilliant if you ask me. There are cetainly things I don’t agree with but OP asked for novels that changed me. Were taking opinions here btw, keep that mind.
• andrei_says_ 5y ago
  I am that - Nisargadatta Maharaj Come as you Are - Emily Nagosky The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk The ministry of the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson
• abrichr 5y ago
  Free Will by Sam Harris. Before reading it I felt like I had free will, but I didn’t know how to articulate why. A few hours later (it’s not a long read), it was clear to me that free will is an illusion. To summarize, we can control what we do, but we can’t control what we want to do, which is a product of our genetics and our environment —- neither of which we have much control over. This realization has eliminated all regret from my life, since it means that wishing I had made a different decision in the past is akin to wishing the laws of the universe were different.
• chilling 5y ago
  "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. It really helps me to see my own issues and shortcomings. Then I read "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley which really push me towards psyche exploitation. And last big one was: "Freedom From the Known" by Jiddu Krishnamurti and it was a buddhist mind-bomb.
• mocana 5y ago
  A lot of good books in this thread and I have read many of them, but in retrospect these 3 titles have had the greatest effect on me: The End of Faith by Sam Harris: Crystallized a lot of things I have been thinking about over the years. Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett: Really delved deep into what evolution is and the way it affects how everything in the world works. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life by Jon Kabat Zinn: What is mindfulness? Why is it important and how can you apply it to your every day life (like the subtitle says). Bearded guru in a cave at top of mountain is optional.
• rg111 5y ago
  English: Do you consider having a new layer in your thinking process "life changing"? Then, I would say- 1. Deep Work and So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport. He goes against famous ideas such as "follow your passion" and provides you with alternative actionable advice. 2. Black Swan by N. Nicholas Taleb. It makes you aware of unhinged "platonistic thinking" where stuff are "explained" looking back. And people expect to use these explanations in future. I also learned about silent evidence which is, of course, a type of survivorship bias and sampling bias. Whenever, I see a straigh-forward "explanation", alarm goes off inside mind- 'this is too simplistic, and thus oversimplified, and not entirely correct'. 3. Made to Stick by Cheap Heath and Dan Heath: this book explains why some ideas stick and why some don't. From this book, you also learn how to make ideas stick. You start to see the world in a different way. 4. Godel, Escher, Bach: others have already mentioned it. It is life changing. I am still reading it. 5. Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen: Indian past is generally seen as a golden age heavily tied to religion and faith. Sen, in an articulated, smooth, and scholarly way provides evidence in contrary. The past of India is also an age of reason, athiesm, debate, faithlessness, unorthodoxy, and opposing of religions. Sanskrit is the first language to have athiestic text, maybe. Bengali: I used to feel very bad about my ethnic identity, and felt ashamed about it. (I was 14/15.) Then I read the book "Those Times" by Sunil Ganguly. It is a novel based on history and historical figures, the Bengali renaissance, the feminist movements of Bengal. This was the first time I ever felt confident about my ethnic identity, and fount a history I could take pride in. Totally changed me. It was like finally having soil under my feet for the first time in my life. Bouddha Dharma by Haraprasad Shastri: This is a history of Buddhism in Bengal region. -------- These are just some of many. I am in my early 20s and I have read 250 books till now, and all read in recent years were carefully chosen. Many had meaningful impact in my life.
  • tagoregrtst 5y ago
    “ I used to feel very bad about my ethnic identity, and felt ashamed about it” I wish I spoke Bengali just to read Tagore in the original. First poet, at the age of 33, that I have ever appreciated. Brilliant. Of course, an atheist would have trouble appreciating him
    • 5y ago
• WillAdams 5y ago
  The books which really affected my life, and which all-too few people have read: - Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ --- a collection of short stories, these are still thought-provoking now, esp. "Raindrop" and "The Mechanic", w/ the former seeming esp. prescient. These are available in: _Music of Many Spheres_: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Spheres https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Sph... - Hal Gordon's _Divers Down! Adventure Under Hawaiian Seas_ which is available as a podcast: https://www.sffaudio.com/uvula-audio-divers-down-adventure-under-hawaiian-seas-by-hal-gordon/ https://www.sffaudio.com/uvula-audio-divers-down-adventure-u... --- where I got my work ethic - Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy --- early urban fantasy billed as a young adult series --- good insights on morality - Steven Brust's _The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars_ --- art and life and love by a writer who always has something interesting to say --- other books in this series are quite good - Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ and Warren Chappell's _The Living Alphabet_ and _A Short History of the Printed Word_ --- these books, which I read when I was quite young were why I studied graphic design and did book composition --- if you read and understand them, you'll know more about typography than most professional designers - H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ --- a delightful book, which is beautifully read by tabithat on Librivox: https://librivox.org/little-fuzzy-by-h-beam-piper/ https://librivox.org/little-fuzzy-by-h-beam-piper/ - C. J. Cherryh's _Rimrunners_ and the balance of her Alliance-Union books --- her stuff is always worth reading. One book which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, and which I need to read for myself is _Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics_ by Alfred Korzybski
• thevinter 5y ago
  Rationality: From AI to Zombies - Elizer Yudkowky Truly a life-changing book that completely changed the way I think about the world and about people
• philosopher1234 5y ago
  Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
• cassianoleal 5y ago
  Anything in the warrior literature. The Peaceful Warrior's Way, by Dan Millmann, is a very good first step. It's lightweight, easy to read, fun, but full of gems. It can also guide you towards the heavier stuff.
• bsenftner 5y ago
  A very provoking current book is "The Dawn of Everything - a new history of humanity" by Graeber & Wengrow. It is the first book I'm aware that takes the general intellectual public's conversation through history and compares that against now known facts from archeological data. It demonstrates, quite soundly, that the current narrative of human civilization is a comforting fiction and the truth is... the content of the book. Extremely engrossing and constantly relevant to the political conflicts dividing human civilization across the globe.
• kroltan 5y ago
  Not a book. But a game. Scratch that, it is meditation, a life lesson and an existential crisis packed into a computer program. But I'll call it a game since it's convenient. Outer Wilds. Mechanically, you play as a space archaeologist stuck in a time loop. The whole game is a giant knowledge puzzle, and you explore an entire solar system in search of clues about a long-gone civilization. If this sounds even remotely interesting, stop reading and go play the game, because every bit of information is a spoiler, and below I'll talk about my experiences about it. Seriously, do not watch any gameplay, just make sure your computer meets the (rather tame) requirements, buy [0] and play it, then you can come back. --- It is not a motivational game. It doesn't have a point to make. Instead, it confronts you with an entire way of existence and makes you ask of yourself what you make of it, and any takeaways will be incredibly personal. Heck, even if you don't discover any intuitions, it's still an intrinsically fun experience that perfectly exercises the "nerd curiosity" (or "The Knack" as it is put in Dilbert [1]). The game starts out as this vaguely giddy space adventure, but as you come to understand the Nomai, it instills in you so much true awe: The perseverance of these people, to settle in the galactic backwoods in search of the answer to the Universe. The melancholy of a people who achieved the pinnacle of technology, sure of their destiny, only to be destroyed oh so early. The incredible anxiety of living at the end of the Universe, where the only way out is to deny yourself of existence. After wandering space for who knows how long, piecing together this intangible society and their long-overdue plans, while the rest of your kind seems to be on the spacefaring equivalent of a holiday break, you come to appreciate every little interaction with the present. This feeling is more welcome as you unfold the story, but you know it is empty time, so like the Nomai before, you must persevere, and solve the Universe. The consequences will be dear, but inevitable. The Universe is waiting on you. For me, having played this game this game gave me a perspective to truly appreciate what I have, and the moment I live in, even despite all that is going on and how things seem to be going sour. It also rekindled my interest for discovery for discovery's sake, and, in a way, gave me peace towards the idea of death. It also gave me many perspectives about myself which I don't need to share online, but were really appreciated. And then... They made an expansion [2], which resolves the only remaining plot point of the story beautifully, and while it is more traditionally "puzzle"-y than the base game, is a great excuse for a replay, and gives you a new friend to mourn. Just like in the base game, we had the naively curious Hearthians, and the incredibly rational Nomai, here we see a third take on the events of the game: An entire race of heartbroken people, who unlike the Nomai, seek to deny everyone from the answers seeked in game. --- [0]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/ also available for consoles. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0 [2]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622100/Outer_Wilds__Echoes_of_the_Eye/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622100/Outer_Wilds__Echo...
• barrenko 5y ago
  - Jed Mckenna "Spiritual Warfare" - N.N. Taleb "Black Swan", as great intro to his thought system which may well be called the "mediterranean soul". Later books by him can be safely ignored, more worth in his Medium articles, especially the one on work and employment. - Spitznagel "Dao of Capital", pound for pound one of the smartest books I've ever read.
• nazgulnarsil 5y ago
  Core Transformation by Connierae Andreas ($3 on kindle) on transforming core motivational schemas that we were conditioned with since a young age and no longer serve us Opening the Heart of Compassion by Lar Short and Martin Lowenthal (available free on dli.org) on understanding deep patterns of behavior in yourself
• devnull255 5y ago
  Moral Politics, by George Lakoff: this book offered a new perspective on not just the discussion and language of politics, but sent me down the rabbit hole of cognitive linguistics and "embedded mind" in books he authored or co-authored, such as "Metaphors We Live By", "Philosophy in the Flesh", and "Where Mathematics Comes From". Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond: Gave me a deeper insight into the geographic underpinnings of civilization and history, and how available resources and climate allowed some early settlements to grow into mighty empires, while others struggled to subsist. It also improved my Civilization 3 game playing. ;) The Language of Mathematics by Keith Devlin: Sparked a renewed interest in mathematics through historical narratives of the development of our number systems, mathematicians and numerous mathematical topics. The Code Book by Simon Singh: Kicked off my historical and professional interest in cryptography and keeping secrets. Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi: Showed me how to make the best use of every minute, especially waiting at bus/train stops, and helped me recognize what I really like doing.
  • UncleMeat 5y ago
    Notably, GGS is not held in especially high esteem by academic historians. If you are interested in a widely loved piece of geographic history, Braudel's The Mediterranean is considered a classic.
    • jabl 5y ago
      Tainter's Collapse of Complex Societies is a modern classic in the genre.
  • verse 5y ago
    I started reading "Metaphors We Live By" after reading your comment because I thought it had a cool-sounding title. It's so interesting! I'll have to take a look at the others in your list too
• verse 5y ago
  Atomic Habits!
  • xpe 5y ago
    What other books in the same area have you read? How is A.H. different?
    • verse 5y ago
      I haven't really read any other books about habits. I've read a few different self-improvement ones though I read it a while ago but I remember James Clear being a really great author in that he really explains in detail why something works and gives a lot of anecdotes. It's also a really systematic approach to solving the problem of habits. His focus on systems really changed the way I think about managing my attention and my time. IMO it's probably the best self-help book I've read so far but tbf I haven't read a whole lot of them.
• dd12376 5y ago
  1. The old testament 2. Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
• fellowniusmonk 5y ago
  This list of books may sum up my entire personhood, some I read at a young age. Thinking Fast and Slow. After you read it take a course on statistics & probability. The Art of Strategy The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance Armor by John Steakley Great book of fiction, helped me understand PTSD. Read a lot of Asimov, robot series, foundation and short stories starting with The Last Question. Jules Verne Mark Twain, various stories but particularly the Diary of Adam & Eve The Jungle Book by Kipling Lost Horizon Robinson Crusoe Dune Series Enders Game and sequels. The Odyssey The Count of Monte Cristo Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card because it helped me understand that a cultures internally consumed fiction tells you about its values. The book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Job. Leviticus 25. Galatians 5:22-23. Romans 2:15. Luke 18:1-8. The minor prophets. Bible generally if you want to deep dive, I did once upon a time. 25th chapter of the First Epistle of Clement of Rome Aristotle, Socrates. Thus Spake Zarathustra Through Gates of Splendor Peace Child Let Freedom Ring. I was working illegally (as I recall) as a 15 year old teenager for Sean Hannity (as a w2 employee through a proxy) when this book came out and along with my personal interactions with him at the time it helped clarify that he is not a person whose opinion holds any weight or even much thought. I remember at the time thinking it was unbearably poor reading. Farmer Giles of Ham. If you've already read the hobbit, LOTR, etc. it helped me understand the framing of Tolkien way better. Then read Pride and Prejudice through the lens of Farmer Giles of Ham. Calling it a romance novel is a disservice. A James Bond Novel. I can't remember the name but there is one in particular that describes why he always acts so overtly and not spy-ish at all. The explanation helped me understand why you should throw yourself fully into work projects and helped me get over fear of mistakes. It made me a far better consultant as well while I was doing that. So good they can't ignore you & deep work. How to win friends and influence people. Run Silent, Run Deep. The Communist Manifesto The Christian Manifesto From Dawn to Decadence. Romance of the 7 kingdoms. Life together. There's a big yellow book about the 6 day war, it's very detailed and blow by blow, I can no longer remember its name but it impressed upon me the chance and vagaries of war. The Free Will Defense. Alvin Plantinga (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations) In Defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. William Lane Craig (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations) No little people. Francis Schaeffer The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich. The Rails Way. 1st edition. Javascript. The good parts. Visual quick start guide to SQL. ^These three are probably the most important books I ever read, they probably changed the trajectory of my life more than any others on the list. Midnight's Children. Rushdie Roberts Rules of Order. The four loves Love languages A once popular anti catholic tract called "The Trail of Blood". Basically there is truth, falsehood, history, emotion and understanding in all these works, synthesizing these particular books made me who I am today. There are many others but these are the ones that come quickly to mind and whose titles I can still mostly recall.
• p0d 5y ago
  The Bible. I pretty much read it every day. I think it was C.S. Lewis who talked about chronological snobbery i.e. we think we are cleverer than those who went before us. It amazes me that many of the issues we have are the same as issues people had thousands of year ago. Two days ago one of my children was caught out telling a lie. The next morning my daily bible reading for that day was from Proverbs about the importance of not telling lies. As I say, some things don't change :-)
• jorl17 5y ago
  1984.
• CodeGlitch 5y ago
  Limitless: The Autobiography by Tim Peake. It's one of those books I wish existed when I was a teenager. He is someone who is so willing to push himself to excel at whatever takes his interest, and demonstrates that you don't need to be academic to be the best.
  • rasse 5y ago
    Liked it too! I recommend An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield if you haven't read it already.
• ANarrativeApe 5y ago
  Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond Journey to the ants - Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Lewis A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay (In addition to its inspiring message on overcoming adversity, it also taught me a powerful message on the difference between diversity and inclusion - the latter only happened afterwards when it was pointed out to me - another lesson...) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (keep a highlighter ready for each episode of altruism)
• timka 5y ago
  Idries Shah. Knowing to Know. It's sort of like a mirror, a way to look at yourself. Also, reading it is a pleasure, very refreshing. This is in contrast with Daniel Kahneman's book which is quite depressing while being essentially on the same topic.
• quinely 5y ago
  Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett. Does just what the title says. It's like finally seeing the image in the Great Stereogram of life. I read it when it came out and have since always regarded my life as neatly divisible by before and after seeing it come into focus.
• xriddle 5y ago
  After being forced into evangelical Christianity at a young age, no 2 books were more eye-opening and life-changing for me than: Letter To A Christian Nation - Sam Harris The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins The moment you realize you've been lied to your whole life is horrific and liberating ... it's hard to describe. Took many years to "let go" but i don't think it would have been possible without these 2 books for me.
• zeitchef 5y ago
  A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• cheezymoogle 5y ago
  I like to read what people tell me, obliquely or not, to not read. Here are some of the deeply uncomfortable, yet edifying reads: Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber" -- A Harvard-educated mathematician terrorist presents a lucid neo-Luddite manifesto. It doesn't take a cool-headed logician to appreciate this work. Draws heavily from the works of Jacques Ellul, but presents Ellul's ideas in a quintessentially American manner, without the obfuscation required of French philosophy. Yes, he's a convicted murderer, yes, he was a subject of MKULTRA, but even so, the perspective of a Harvard-educated psychedelic terrorist should alone be worthy of a lookover (he doesn't receive any proceeds from sales). If you prefer French philosophy or a pacifistic author, replace this with The Technological Society and Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes, both by Jacques Ellul, tackling the same subjects (mostly). Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Islamic Nation Will Pass by Abu Bakr Naji -- This is the playbook that was used for establishing the Islamic State. Its philosophy isn't unique to Wahhabist Islam, however. It's like the anti-Embrace-Extend-Extinguish philosophy. It's disruptive innovation for religion. In short, it has three stages: first, destroy the social contract and return to a Hobbesian state of nature. Second, reestablish the social contract with your team in control. Third, use this island of order to expand outwards until your goal is reached (in this case an Islamic Caliphate). Suicide Note by Mitchell Heismann -- Mitchell Heisman shot himself on September 18, 2010 in Harvard Yard as ”Experimental Elimination of Self-Preservation,” according to this work that he published posthumously. Possibly, along with Kaczysnki, the best illustrator of G.K. Chesterton's assertion that "Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. [...] The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." This is his, nominally rational, defense of suicide against what Heismann terms viviocentrism. It is an experience, if nothing else. Two picks that dovetail together exceptionally well and equally magisterial in their respective wheel-houses: First, the Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist -- Why is the brain divided? What if modern consciousness as we know it only emerged during the Axial Age? The differing world views of the right and left brain (the "Master" and "Emissary" in the title, respectively) have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. The first half is pure neuroscience, the latter half teased-out implications of the former. It is a brilliant work. Second, Debt: the First 5000 Years by the late David Graeber -- What is the historical relationship of debt with social institutions such as barter, marriage, friendship, slavery, law, religion, war and government? Why do we keep debts fuzzy with friends, but settle them immediately with strangers? What exactly is money? I imagine that the processes noticed by both McGilchrist and Graeber are interrelated in profound ways (i.e. the dual advent of physical currencies and complex civilizations incentivized profound shifts in cognition, arguably in favor of disembodied abstraction and decontextualization, creating in its wake what is termed "mental illness"). And why not? A final choice: The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy -- "The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." When Jesus says to turn the other cheek, Tolstoy asserts that he meant to abolish violence, period. A favorite quote: "The attitude of the ruling classes to the laborers is that of a man who has felled his adversary to the earth and holds him down, not so much because he wants to hold him down, as because he knows that if he let him go, even for a second, he would himself be stabbed, for his adversary is infuriated and has a knife in his hand. And therefore, whether their conscience is tender or the reverse, our rich men cannot enjoy the wealth they have filched from the poor as the ancients did who believed in their right to it. Their whole life and all their enjoyments are embittered either by the stings of conscience or by terror."
• preordained 5y ago
  The Disappearance of the Universe, by Gary Renard
• senjindarashiva 5y ago
  - How to live on 24 hours a day (Arnold Bennett) A short and fairly simplistic view of daily life that really changed how I look on time. - How to run a big ship (Cptn Rory O'Connor, RN) Really made me think about how much of modern leadership and management theory is a rehash of old theory. But now we replacing the individuals responsibility with hired consultants that should "teach" us how to work. - Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) Together with my Grandmother really showed me a way to live with focus on what matters. Apart from this there is a lot of fiction that has added up to create the ideals I try to live by today and to be fair I think you can do worse than basing your ideals on classical fantasy and science fiction.
• redbar0n 5y ago
  Getting Things Done, by David Allen.