Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#111

Post by vowelless » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:48 PM UTC

jagrsw wrote: post #65

stocktech wrote: post #2

https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Lif... Nonviolent Communication. I think it was linked on HN where it caught my attention. This book teaches a great way to communicate, but for me, it has also helped me think about my feelings and how I can communicate those feelings better. I feel more in touch with my feelings and more empathetic as a direct result from following what the book is teaching.…

The co-author of this book is (seems to be) Deepak Chopra who acquired quite a fame for his liberal use of quantum physics terminology (quantum woo-woo) and for producing thoughts and ideas which typically turn out be not very coherent under a closer scrutiny ( https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra ), i.e. for "sounding deep while saying nothing" I wonder how his co-authorship affects contents of the book. I bo…

Thanks for mentioning this. I don't go near anything that guy touches. Will be skipping this book.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#112

Post by Rerarom » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:49 PM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #110

I'd have to go back through my Goodreads list to see exactly which books that I read which fell into this decade versus another. But of the stuff that I've ready pretty recently, the couple that jump to mind immediately are: Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter Thinking: Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Education of Millionaires: Everything You Won't Learn in College About How to Be…

I also reread Foundation recently and realized an underlooked aspect of it: beyond the psychohistory and the mentalics, it is perhaps the best look at how the future of nuclear tech was perceived by the sci-fi mainstream before Hiroshima.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#113

Post by jaxOLantern » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:49 PM UTC

Zen mind beginner’s mind: Highly recommended to anyone interested in meditation. Helped me understand the non-goal aspect of the practice.

Gravity’s rainbow: Not the easiest read but immensely rewarding. For better or worse some of Pynchon’s vivid descriptions are burned into my soul.

Crime and punishment: I’m not into literature but this one is worth it. A great dive into human psychology.

Deliverance: intense story, read it in one night. Not sure it taught me much but man it is good.

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. Great insights on the way ideology and politics work.

Wasted time on a bunch of self help books. Most tips contained in these require you to accept yourself and the world to be applicable. And that’s the hardest bit...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#114

Post by Rerarom » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

jaxOLantern wrote: post #113

Zen mind beginner’s mind: Highly recommended to anyone interested in meditation. Helped me understand the non-goal aspect of the practice. Gravity’s rainbow: Not the easiest read but immensely rewarding. For better or worse some of Pynchon’s vivid descriptions are burned into my soul. Crime and punishment: I’m not into literature but this one is worth it. A great dive into human psychology. Deliverance: intense story…

Also no self help book can tell you what your goals should be. The best of them say this outright.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#115

Post by s3nnyy » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:51 PM UTC

Everything from Nassim Taleb, basically "the incerto", his four books are basically one book (https://www.amazon.com/Incerto-Fooled-Randomness-Procrustes-...)

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#116

Post by vowelless » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:54 PM UTC

jgalt212 wrote: post #43

t-writescode wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A strong upvote for Thinking Fast and Slow. I think it should be required reading in school, or at least parts of it.

Keep in mind that the findings in Chapter 4 have NOT been replicable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Replic...

Indeed. Kahneman actually wrote a comment on the blog post that surfaced this issue:

https://replicationindex.com/2017/02/02/reconstruction-of-a-...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#117

Post by vowelless » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:55 PM UTC

rapper wrote: post #96

I skimmed through the answers and didn't find anything to do with math. To anyone interested in math, what math text/books and papers of the decade seemed the most interesting to you? As far as fiction, this decade I discovered Peter Watts, Ted Chiang and Clive Barker. Now I am obsessed with horror and sci-fi in the style of these authors. If you are into these genres (and possibly authors), who/what blew you away th…

Didn't see my answer... ?

If you want to go into papers, that should be a different topic IMO.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#118

Post by vowelless » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:56 PM UTC

gjstein wrote: post #75

I know "Getting Things Done" by David Allen is a book the HN crowd occasionally loves to hate, but I came across it at the right time in my life and was the impetus I needed to reorganize my life and put systems in place to ensure that I ... well ... started to really get things done. Since then, I've built up my Emacs ecosystem to support a GTD-derived workflow and I've never looked back. Also on my list are the alr…

Only reason I didn't mention GTD is because I read it more than 10 years ago. It was very influential indeed. Probably the most important book I read in the decade before this one.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#119

Post by 2color » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:57 PM UTC

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

By David Deutsch

In the book he details his theory of everything. Quite ambitious and very thought provoking.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#120

Post by steveeq1 » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 10:58 PM UTC

dustingetz wrote: post #92

For founders: #1 is Oren Klaff Pitch Anything. Then: Crossing the Chasm, Zero to One, Blitzscaling, Never Split the Difference, Oversubscribed: A Founders Guide to Seed Fundraising, Exactly What To Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact, Miracle Morning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

"Never Split the Difference" is a negotiation book with what I feel are manipulative and dirty tricks. HNer's should definately read it so you can recognize the common techniques negotiators, salesmen, and lawyers use in their jobs. It will help prevent you from being taken advantage of in a situation like that.

But for god sakes, don't employ these techniques yourself.