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Ask HN: What book(s) had a profound impact on your life and why?
I have recently read "Dopamine Addiction" and I came to realize I have severe video gaming addiction, which sadly has been causing issues in my life for the last 15 years. I somehow was completely blind to the severity of the problem. I have lost friends, relationships, performed poorly in high school.
Programming in college and competitiveness of it kept me interested enough to do extremely well and graduate.
I somewhat knew it was a problem a year or two back when I started having feelings of being a complete failure after long gaming sessions. I felt worthless. Frankly, during this time I have been working, earning a good income and delivering good work.
This book really opened my eyes that addiction has many forms and explained why I find boring tasks difficult to complete. This year I'm attempting to stop gaming, minimize social media use to HN/Niche subreddits, and focus on reading more books, refreshing CS knowledge and working on side projects.
Is there anything you have read which had a profound impact on your life?
- pseufaux 4y agoSounds weird but Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. By far it’s my favorite fantasy series, and have read it quite a few times since I was a kid. I find that it has tinted my view of how the world works. Looking back, it provided heroes I looked up to and modeled myself after.
- amalgamated_inc 4y agoHa I only made it to volume 26 or so. Kind of lost its zest after 20 books I'd say.
- pseufaux 4y agoSee that’s your problem. If you give up after 26 or so 900 page volumes then you never get to the good part around book 47. /s :} Edit: fixed numbers
- amalgamated_inc 4y agoI knew I shouldn't have quit so soon!
- amalgamated_inc 4y agoHuman Action The Sovereign Individual
- mtmail 4y agoRelated from last 12 months "Ask HN: What book changed your life?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30734709 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30734709 (522 comments) "Ask HN: What is the best book you have read with the greatest impact on you?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31728760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31728760 (48 comments) "Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32896299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32896299 (87 comments)
- steven_noble 4y agoWhen I found it in a second-hand bookstore in roughly 1990, "The Third Wave" by the Tofflers had a huge impact on me as it made the future seem foreseeable and not automatically gloomy. I don't think it would stand up today, but that's a different matter