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Ask HN: What is the most mind expanding book(s) you have read till date?
The book(s) may be related to your profession or not at all. The thing that matters is that it caused a paradigm shift in your mental model of the world or a topic or whatever?
Mine was Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs or SICP.
- ldbooth 4y agoThe Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
- faisito 4y agoon the origin of memes...
- mcenedella 4y agoThe revolutionary thesis here is… Genes aren’t a way for people to make more people. Rather, people are a way for genes to make more genes. (Selfishly). Really an astounding re-framing of biology, and one of the best books of science literature I’ve read in my life.
- tmpburning 4y ago1984... but it is just curious to see how much further we have gotten.
- ksaj 4y agoMetamagical Themas from Douglas R. Hofstadter. I even have both a soft and a hard cover copy on my shelf. This book opened my mind on a lot of subjects big time.
- themodelplumber 4y agoProbably _The Mind Map Book_ by Tony Buzan. This was a long time ago, but the book was beautiful right off the shelf and it made so much immediate, intuitive sense. It also came at just the right time in my life when I needed to focus on broad outlays of information, but didn't yet realize it, or how to do it. Later on I developed my own method but I still go back and browse the book from time to time. A few years after my first reading, I used mind mapping to help me with a very stressful job and was able to get weeks ahead of my work there, using the extra time to learn about interesting new tech. But beyond the principles/methods themselves, the book opened my mind to the idea that one could find ways to work with additional inspiration and productivity in the ideas & concepts space, which I built on as a foundation later as a professional trainer and coach. The author's lecturing presence and style was also pretty unique. He was a broad thinker by nature, and was able to impart the beauty of such as quite uniquely different from the deeper sort of thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEokHNWf-Qg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEokHNWf-Qg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Buzan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Buzan Interesting post idea, thanks.
- imakwana 4y ago1975 ACM Turing Award Lecture on "Computer Science as an empirical inquiry: Symbols and Search" by Herbert Simon & Alan Newell (inventors of list processing). https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/simon_1031467.cfm https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/simon_1031467.cfm Herbert Simon later went on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions on "Bounded Rationality" in decision making. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1978/simon/lecture/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1978/sim...
- sideshowb 4y agoOn the non fiction front one that comes to mind is The economics anti textbook (hill and myatt). Though this was 12 years ago, public discussion of economics has progressed a little bit since, so it may not have quite the same paradigm busting feeling it did for me back then, but it's still pretty good. Other mind expanding non fiction... Feynman lectures (all 3 volumes) Design patterns (don't hate me lol. Obviously less revelatory if you've already absorbed the knowledge by other means. And for flip's sake don't overdo them! )
- makeworld 4y agoThe one that comes closest for me is Blindsight by Peter Watts.
- temptemptemp111 4y ago[dead]
- zetalyrae 4y agoThe Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. The Requiem for Homo Sapiens tetralogy by David Zindell.
- lioeters 4y agoHappy to see you mention the latter. I read Neverness as a teenager, and have re-read the book several times over the years. It influenced the way I see the world, and many of the ideas and phrases have become part of my own life narrative. I definitely count it as one of the most mind-expanding books I've read.
- r053bud 4y ago“The Mind Illuminated” by Culadasa (John Yates). Completely changed my life.
- sambapa 4y agoIn what ways? I'm in the third stage and there are many good changes. But are the next stages "more of the same" or are they qualitatively different?
- r053bud 4y agoSome of the progression is very subtle, but I have found noticeable differences in each stage. For example, I see myself around Stage 6 since major distractions have ceased and I am working on dullness - this has lead to a much deeper meditation practice and I didn't fully realize dullness was a challenge until I followed this guide. Granted, the practice can be dry sometimes, so I like to sprinkle in guided meditations from the "Waking Up" app or "Insight Timer". I also HIGHLY recommend Yoga Nidra practice for those who have a difficult time falling asleep.
- d4rkp4ttern 4y agoThis was the single book that helped me establish a regular meditation practice working up to 35-45 mins/day. Very precise and clear instructions. Don’t have to read all of it. There is a shorter version with compact instructions as well
- kazinator 4y agoGödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid BTW, there is another music-related "EGB" that Hoffy missed! The keys G, B and Eb (separated from each other by a major third) used in John Coltrane's "Giant Steps". Major-third-spaced tonality changes, particularly masked by ii-V-I cadences, became known as Coltrane Changes.
- stirfish 4y agoThe Argonauts by Maggie Nelson [1] A Life's Work by Rachel Cusk [2] The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin [3] We Real Cool by bell hooks [4] [1] >The moment of queer pride is a refusal to be shamed by witnessing the other as being ashamed of you. [2] >Birth is not merely that which divides women from men: it also divides women from themselves, so that a woman's understanding of what it is to exist is profoundly changed. Another person has existed in her, and after their birth the live within the jurisdiction of her consciousness. When she is with them she is not herself; when she is without them she is not herself; and so it is as difficult to leave your children as it is to stay with them. To discover this is to feel that your life has become irretrievably mired in conflict, or caught in some mythic snare in which you will perpetually, vainly struggle. [3] >The terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men. Many of them, indeed, know better, but, as you will discover, people find it very difficult to act on what they know. [4] >Showing aggression is the simplest way to assert patriarchal manhood. Men of all classes know this. As a consequence, all men living in a culture of violence must demonstrate at some point in their lives that they are capable of being violent.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- preordained 4y agoThe Disappearance of the Universe, by Gary Renard.
- dopidopHN 4y agoThe Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. a book by science history writer James Gleick. The guy who wrote « chaos ». It’s not about « computer », but rather the inevitable march toward our now ( with computers ) Each chapter break down a particular advance, or area of science that was changed by information theory ( before information theory was a thing ) Some titbits : until the telegraph, the second faster way to carry meaning was putting a bunch of guys on horses. The fastest was using drums over a river. — Talking about telegraph, the French had something innovative going on just a few years before it’s invention. Based on tower relay and a elaborate flag code.
- abdullahkhalids 4y agoI taught a freshmen course with some readings from this book. It was quite an interesting experience.
- mrmincent 4y agoProbably reading GEB and The Illuminatus! trilogy at the same time, switching from one to the other when my brain couldn’t handle any more of what I was currently reading. Something about the combo helped me disconnect from the religion I had been raised in, and helped me see that there are many ways to view the world and life.
- sidkhanooja 4y agoFor this year, mine was Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. TL;DR - the book explains how humans are predictably irrational and how seeming cognitive ease in decisioning is simply laziness in action since the brain will substitute a tough decision for a similar but easy one! It has made me reflect upon why I think the way I do, helped me to remove most bias from my actions, and also has a great suggestion that you should ask others to check you if you sound stupid, which is not great for your ego but is necessary nonetheless.
- 33955985 4y agoI am a massive, massive fan of Thinking Fast and Slow. However, I am careful about application, because a lot of those studies seem not reproducible.
- w0de0 4y agoCrime and Punishment Leaves of Grass Persuasion Foundation The Diary of Lady Murasaki The Remains of the Day Travels in Siberia Anabasis A Brief History of Time The Rebel
- uaas 4y agoInfinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
- sambapa 4y agoDoes body expanding also count if you are a philosophical monist? ;) Overcoming Gravity 2 - buy this book and a pair of gymnastic rings and you are set for life in terms of fitness (...ok, you should also do squats and deadlifts with weights)
- sideshowb 4y agoHaha. 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes by Dave Macleod. Definitely expanded my climbing.
- p0d 4y agoThe Bible. I was just sitting reading the book of Revelation considering how many movies lift images directly from this book of the Bible. Then I read from Proverbs that charm is deceptive and beauty fades away. I regularly need reminded not to assign more value to good lookers. This being ironic, as I am no David Hasselhoff. The Bible has been shifting my paradigm for 30 of 50 years.
- beyond_based 4y agoThis Time The World, by GLR.
- grafelic 4y ago"The Illuminatus! Triology" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.
- cwdegidio 4y agoThis book turned me into a rabid RAW fan... which in turn lead me to Discordianism. That journey then led me to Rev. Ivan Stang and the Church of the Subgenius. So pretty much, RAW and Robert Shea directly made me the weirdo I am today.
- sideshowb 4y agoInteresting, I went into this expecting a lot and it really missed the mark for me. Maybe I was too old?
- grafelic 4y agoPerhaps, read it when I was 15 years younger and haven't reread it. "Set and setting" is more important than age in some sense, age is more important than "set and setting" in some sense, and "set and setting" and age is equally important in some sense.
- j_crick 4y agoGreat to see RAW is getting some mentions here. His other stuff can be of interest too, like Prometheus Rising and Cosmic Triggers. It’s not that what he writes about is necessarily scientific or rigorous, but he offers a bunch of worldview building blocks that one can try and find very useful.
- galfarragem 4y ago“The Beginning of Infinity” from David Deutsche. Even if you are a die-hard pessimist it will open some cracks and plant seeds on your mind. Disguised as a physics book - not an easy read - this is a treaty on optimism.
- febed 4y agoCTRL-F deutsch. Not disappointed.
- frontman1988 4y agoAshtavakra Gita(Ancient hindu philosophy poem) : It really opened a new dimension of thinking for me. It's main message of identifying yourself as the witness consciousness is quite trippy and the sanskrit used is quite powerful. It plays around with the concepts of soul , karma and concept of non-duality in quite radical ways. I found it quite an empowering way of going about life, one can only imagine how it must have felt for the original author/s who discovered it as an "insight" on the reality of life. Such people nowadays would be called delusional though.
- leephillips 4y agoAny English translation worth reading?
- frontman1988 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavakra_Gita#Translations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtavakra_Gita#Translations Thomas byrom's "The Heart of Awareness" is a popular translation for a quick read. If you want something denser with commentaries and explanations, Swami Nityaswarupananda's translation is great. Another good translation keeping western audiences in mind is Duet of One by Ramesh Balsekar.
- leephillips 4y agoThanks!
- vram22 4y agoThere should be but I don't have the name handy right now. Check out translations of Advaita and other Hinduism scriptural books by the Ramakrishna Math.
- vram22 4y agoAnd the main texts about Advaita are the Prasthana Trayi: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi
- fm2606 4y ago_What Should I Do With My Life_ by Po Bronson There are a lot of stories of people who hate their jobs and make a switch. One was a lawyer who became a truck driver. A doctor who became a programmer (iirc ... I do remember she was in tears because she didn't want to disappoint their family not sure if she wanted to be a programmer or not). This book gave me the courage to leave engineering field and become a firefighter paramedic. 1st best career decision I made at the time
- mharig 4y ago> firefighter paramedic Are you neutral good or chaotic good? And can you achieve a third class when you level up? Sorry, couldn't resist.
- fm2606 4y agoNo worries...but honestly have no clue what you mean.
- jxidjhdhdhdhfhf 4y agoThat says a lot of good things about you
- markus_zhang 4y agoI think it's a classic adnd 2e dual classing.
- stevenhuang 4y agoLeslie Kean's UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record. Reading this started my deep dive into the rabbit hole of high strangeness phenomena. Can't say one way or another if it's all just bunk or not, but at least it's entertaining.
- r2_pilot 4y agoHave you paid any attention to Skinwalker Ranch?
- stevenhuang 4y agoQuite a bit! I read and listened (podcasts) all I could find about it, in addition to all surrounding context, from all points of view (supporters and detractors). Fascinating case. Unfortunately what it all comes down to is experiential testimony, and I still believe that without physical evidence or extraordinary film footage of some kind (which apparently exist but haven't been released due to "reasons"), all attempts to rationalize the existence/non-existence of this phenomenon will remain speculative (I'm aware it's not exactly easy to prove non-existence). I actually find this whole topic a wonderful epistemic exercise; initially everything is trivially dismissible so you Bayes weight to impossible and crazy, but as you dive into all the accounts throughout history you really can't be so sure of your initial assessment anymore. What will move the needle to improbable is if we "solve" physics (QM vs gravity, theory of everything etc) and definitively rule out all mechanisms in support of high strangeness phenomena (i.e., there really is only 4 fundamental forces, no extra physical dimensions, etc). Until then my head cannon for all this might just be we're being toyed with by unthinkingly scientifically advanced entities. Or.. spirits and the supernatural is real and is entirely non physical, the phenomenon is itself intelligent, and thus cannot be studied by conventional scientific methods (but even then I'd think the scientific process should work). Ah well, see how fun it is to speculate :). Hopefully with the recent shift in government attitude towards UAP we'll see some hard data released soon and make more accurate assessments.
- HellDunkel 4y ago1. Felix Denk - Der Klang der Familie: Berlin, Techno and the Fall of the Wall 2. Brian Greene - The Fabric of the Cosmos 3. Jürgen Teipel - Waste your Youth
- dbs 4y agoDemon haunted world by Carl Sagan Why: skeptical/scientific thinking
- hypertele-Xii 4y agoMy own diary. It's like debugging a server log of your mind. Note that I quickly deviated from any expected norms of "dear diary, today _____ happened and it made me feel ______", and instead simply decided to write, whatever cames to my mind, every day, no matter how nonsensical. Most of it is pointless and cringe, but there's some brilliant opinions, descriptions of values, and even poetry in there. A diary is, after all, literally an expansion of your mind into the physical realm.
- yef 4y agoGood answer. Personal writing can also help you understand stressful events in life.
- DrStartup 4y agoShantaram Power of Now Go Giver Art of Profitability Challenger Sale Sapiens Player of Games Rogue Warrior
- ineedausername 4y agoCollected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 09 Part 2 Aion_ Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self I should mention that for many, his late work is completely insane, and he has indeed suffered psychosis at his latest years. I should also mention, anecdotally speaking, you can experience dissociation and suffer peculiar dreams just by reading through this.
- ismaildonmez 4y ago“The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion” by Jonathan Haidt.
- nathanaldensr 4y agoThe Blessing of Humility by Jerry Bridges. I've been a very prideful person nearly my entire life. This book really opened my eyes and also led me to Christian faith. I highly recommend it, even to children like my older son that also struggle with humility. Also, of course, I'd recommend reading the New Testament, as it is the source for much of the material in Humility.
- markus_zhang 4y agoThe soul of the new machine. Prompted me to complete the hardware part of nand2tetris and now looking for something between it and rigid textbooks such as Computer Architecture.
- sp332 4y agoPermutation City by Greg Egan. I actually didn't like the story that much, but the book is just dense with ideas that I keep thinking about years later.
- scottfweintraub 4y agoThe Phantom Tollbooth. Hands down. Yes, it helps if you read it before you are 10, affecting dramatically more of your life than anything read as an adult.
- i_dont_know_ 4y ago"The Dawn of Everything" by the Davids, Graeber and Wengrow. It's a little dense and a bit meandering at times, but the core idea behind it: we have a strong bias in believing that civilization comes in stages. We believe we go 'hunter/gatherer/primitive' -> agriculture -> 'real' civilization. Basically, this is totally false. Not only is it totally false, but one of the reasons we might have this bias is because, while the native Americans were being eradicated, Western thinkers and theologians had to justify why Western civilization was 'better', despite native Americans basically giving Westerners the seeds for individual liberties and social blueprints for the Western Enlightenment... It really uprooted my deepest beliefs about human history, civilization, and (most importantly for me) what I believe "the future" should look like. Mind-expanding for sure.
- Balgair 4y agoSeconded! The thing that I think about from them is the 'Reverse Fermi Paradox'. We've been humans for ~200k years now. Just in the last 10k or so have we had 'civilization'. What were we doing for the other 19/20ths of our time here? Ice ages don't account for all that time and there were warm periods in them. What was going with us all that time? I think about it a lot also in context of their reviews of different cultural models. It seems we spent a lot of time experimenting and trying out a bazillion different ways to organize and have families and be in a tribe. Since we've no record of it, I'm fascinated by how our deep ancestors lived as a culture and how different it was.
- no1groyp 4y agoAwareness by Anthony de Mello
- neau 4y agoElaborate please. What made the book stand out to you?
- electroagenda 4y agoIn terms of knowledge: "A brief history of nearly everithing" In terms of soft skills: "Outliers"
- ankaAr 4y agoAround the World in Eighty Days, from Jules Verne. I read that when i was a child and blowed my mind with glimpses from other countries, other cultures and the joy of reading. I think that after that book i had the question: how 100 years ago he was able to write about those places?. Then i never stopped to read. After that i started to develop the addiction i have about knowledge. EDIT: oh, and the final plot twist.., was amazing.
- markus_zhang 4y agoRecommended. Actually anything by the venerable Verne. I was fascinated by his books when I was 8-10.
- mharig 4y agoThe Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams All you need to know about the universe. And mankind.
- rektide 4y ago1000 Years of Non-linear History by Miguel De Landa was a read from a long long time ago that was a good materialistic philosphy read, that helped me see & feel the world as morpholically advancing. It gave me a sense of what shifts & changes are, how they occur, and gave a narrative for many of the changes that reshaped humanity across the last 1000 years. Used a neat lense of geomorphology that was entertaining. Non-zero: the Logic of Human Destiny was anothrr very good materialistic philosophy read for my impressionable young mind. Talking about human cooperation & emergence of civil order. Not nearly as in depth but I think of it as also quite related to the History of Everything, mentioned in other comments here.
- lcall 4y agoThe Book of Mormon (with the Bible). After decades of reading it repeatedly, it does not run out of ways to comfort, strengthen, give direction & confidence & pea ce, and help me want to be a better person. Cover to cover, amazing to me. Also Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Be proactive; Begin with the end in mind; Put first things first; Think win–win; Seek first to understand, then to be understood; Synergize; Sharpen the Saw (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effecti...).
- Fynis96 4y agoThe Law of One, a set of channeled transcripts by an entity named Ra (in congruency to the sun god Ra of Egyptian times) proclaiming to be three levels of densities, or major evolutions, ahead of our own as humans. Great read whether it sticks around as a belief for you or not, akin to any other religious text in my opinion. Can be read for free at lawofone.info Definitely read the intro before jumping into the meat of it for the great context provided by the L/L Research team for what comes after.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 4y agoThe Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich are Rich, the Poor are Poor--and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car! by Tim Harford This book very much changed my understanding of home international finance worked and why.
- febed 4y agoFor me it was „the mystique of enlightenment“ by UG Krishnamurthi. It helped me let go of my craving for the idea of enlightenment.