I'm in the middle of the biography of Robert Moses, "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro and just finished re-reading "A Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. As a fairly successful yuppie that came from Not A Whole Lot, it's really knocked me down a few pegs and made me realize that being a pompous ass about my exercised social mobility isn't all that special.
Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
131–140 of 254 posts
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#132Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…
I am... shocked as this 80% is is my list for the very same reasons. Surely you've enjoyed Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter as much as I have, if not (yet), this is my thank you to you.
To anyone who read GED in the past, more than a few years ago I mean, I highly recommed reading it again. Your updated self will appreciate its beauty even more.
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#133I recently finished "The Singularity Is Near" (2005) by Ray Kurzweil. I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet.
Super optimistic author and indeed a great book to think about after reading it.
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#134– Economics / sociology –
A Farewell to Alms https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691141282/
Cartesian Economics https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616407395/
The 10,000 Year Explosion https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465020429/
The Righteous Mind https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307455777/
Mindstorms https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465046746/
– Philosophy –
Tao Te Ching https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060812451/
Meditations https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545565678/
– Autobiography –
Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/
Recollections of Eugene Wigner https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738208868/
– Fiction –
Fahrenheit 451 https://www.amazon.com/dp/030747531X/
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#135Wolfram, Stephen. A New Kind of Science. Wolfram Media, 2002. [1] Wikipedia: "The thesis of A New Kind of Science (NKS) is twofold: the nature of computation must be explored experimentally, and the results of these experiments have great relevance to understanding the physical world. [...] [Wolfram] argues an entirely new method is needed to do so because traditional mathematics fails to meaningfully describe comple…
Caveat lector. This book inspired some juicy reviews:
A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity by Cosma Shalizi 21 October 2005
A Thirty-five Year Old Kind of Science by Juergen Schmidhuber, based on a letter to Intl. Journal of High-Energy Physics, vol 43:5, June 2003.
looked up at http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~wclark/ANKOS_reviews.html
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#136The Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic by Eliezer Yudkowsky provides an interesting introduction to some ways of thinking that may be new or surprising.
Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan is interesting for considering models of reality (also his other books).
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#137'I Am That' by Nisargadatta Maharaj
'The First and Last Freedom' by J. Krishnamurti: Mainly because of what he says regarding Free Will. Later I read 'Free Will' by Sam Harris, and I think Sam explains the same idea in more detail. Citing 'The First and Last Freedom': "Thought is nothing else but reaction; thought is not creative."
'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck
'The Little Prince' by A.S.Exupery: when I was a child it made me reflect about society.
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#138Our Mathematical Universe - Max Tegmark
Being and Nothingness - Sartre
Chaos - Gleik
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Feynman
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am... shocked as this 80% is is my list for the very same reasons. Surely you've enjoyed Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter as much as I have, if not (yet), this is my thank you to you.
To anyone who read GED in the past, more than a few years ago I mean, I highly recommed reading it again. Your updated self will appreciate its beauty even more.
Yes. I found this to be true in general, and not just with books but also film, music and even programming languages.
Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
#140Influence by Robert Cialdini. Models by Mark Manson. Eloquent Ruby by Russ Olsen.