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Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

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Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#11

Post by oifjoijoifj »

Bad_Initialism wrote: post #2

I thought, "That sounds like an interesting book." And then I read the precis on Wikipedia. Humans. Everything has to be a fucking competition. Turned me right off reading it. This is one of the (many) things I hate about humans. Along with ideas that go in to the brain and get stuck there and have to be defended to the death without the brain ever having thought critically about them even once. Why gatekeep? Why com…

It was written by a journalist and a jew, not a typical human. The OP is probably an advertisement.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#12

Post by sloaken »

Two classic books by Douglas R Hofstadter

    Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
and

    Metamagical Themas
Both are heavy reads. But I would recommend looking at Wiki article before buying, available used. Just to make sure they fit your style of brain.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#13

Post by tomfox2 »

Agraillo wrote: post #5
tomfox2 wrote: post #3

I feel the same way. The last time I read Kevin Kelly's Out of Control, I had a similar experience — constantly searching for materials, adding supporting arguments, and feeling as if I had retained nothing after just one read.

After reading the description, I'd say this is one of those books that interprets phenomena around us in a novel way, without claiming we should jump off "the shoulders of giants." There have been several like it in my reading history, but since I can't name them instantly, they probably weren't that thought-provoking.

Books that offer profound inspiration are truly treasures of human civilization, but nowadays, it's rare to find a physical book that makes you want to read it in one sitting, unable to put it down.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#14

Post by Desafinado »

If you want truly, truly heavy and thought-provoking you need to get away from brick-and-mortar bookstore, commercial, non-fiction, and get into work that's produced within and for academia.

For example, I've learned more from Anthony Giddens, Crawford Young, and Peter Berger in a handful of books than almost everything I've learned from pop books combined. The real stuff you want to read is in academia and fairly hidden from public view.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#15

Post by Agraillo »

Desafinado wrote: post #14

If you want truly, truly heavy and thought-provoking you need to get away from brick-and-mortar bookstore, commercial, non-fiction, and get into work that's produced within and for academia. For example, I've learned more from Anthony Giddens, Crawford Young, and Peter Berger in a handful of books than almost everything I've learned from pop books combined. The real stuff you want to read is in academia and fairly hi…

Not to argue, but your comment was also thought-provoking, thanks :) It seems like most works of academia are not provoking; rather, they are shaping. Many are written by specialists in the area who carefully choose what to state and suggest, and very often follow the structure of a big "thought" that is further explained and explored. Few pop books that might meet my criteria are basically digests, but fact-based ones. It's interesting that "Thinking, Fast and Slow" is a middle ground in some sense. Daniel Kahneman is definitely from academia, and in my opinion, he wrote a digest of what he touched on during his career, which was also thought-provoking for me, but not on a big scale.

Can you name some works by the mentioned authors that might be called thought-provoking digests of some area of expertise?

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#16

Post by Desafinado »

Agraillo wrote: post #15
Desafinado wrote: post #14

If you want truly, truly heavy and thought-provoking you need to get away from brick-and-mortar bookstore, commercial, non-fiction, and get into work that's produced within and for academia. For example, I've learned more from Anthony Giddens, Crawford Young, and Peter Berger in a handful of books than almost everything I've learned from pop books combined. The real stuff you want to read is in academia and fairly hi…

Not to argue, but your comment was also thought-provoking, thanks :) It seems like most works of academia are not provoking; rather, they are shaping. Many are written by specialists in the area who carefully choose what to state and suggest, and very often follow the structure of a big "thought" that is further explained and explored. Few pop books that might meet my criteria are basically digests, but fact-based on…

Not really, that's kind of my point. A lot of pop non-fiction takes a few, minor commercial ideas that could be an essay and stretches them out into a book with a lot of fluff.

Academic books will literally change the way you view the world in fundamental ways, they go beyond the digests you mention.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#17

Post by oldsklgdfth »

The writings of Neil Postman. Specifically,

* "Amusing ourselves to death": visual media is fundamentally different from writing and that impacts society. As a medium it supports certain messages better than other, ex. emotion.

* "Technopoly": defines the difference between tool-using and technocratic societies and impacts it has on society.

* "The End of Education": what is the purpose of an education system.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#18

Post by runjake »

Both of these are quick, easy reads. Don't read about the plots ahead of time.

Replay by Ken Grimwood: https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-Grimwood/dp/068816112X

Illusions by Richard Bach: https://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Adventures-Reluctant-Richar...

---

Bonus: Anything by Kevin Kelly. He always seemed to be over-hyped by influencers, so I avoided his work for the longest time. That was a mistake.

Re: Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

#19

Post by aristofun »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #8

The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a long thought-provoking reflection on the nature of Quality - in the sense of excellence. I re-read it every few years, and still don't understand it fully. Even more pertinent now in the age of low quality AI produced content.

the most boring and thought-killing book I've ever tried to read
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