131–140 of 399 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A request: please don't put quotes in code blocks. It makes them completely unreadable on mobile.
I've italicized them. I wish HN had some other way of stylizing quotes.
> “I wish HN had some other way of stylizing quotes.”
Me too, also simple ordered lists and ```inline code```.
The Snow Geese by William Fiennes....just for the sheer perfection of the prose.
_When Prophecy Fails. A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World_ by Leon Festinger, Hank Riecken, and Stanley Schachter. I have no idea if it's popular or not but it certainly is fascinating. A small cult is growing around a woman who claims that the world will end at a specific date and that some will be saved in a specific way. When the date comes and there's nei…
How To Measure Anything [1] by Douglas Hubbard. The basic gist of the book goes something like this: in the real world (especially in a business setting) there are many things which are hard to measure directly, but which we may care about. Take, for example, "employee morale" which matters because it may affect, say, retention, or product quality. Hubbard suggests that we can measure (many|most|all|??) of these thin…
The writing style makes it hard to read (almost like an academic research paper) it's tough to keep urself interested. However the learnings are substantial too.
“Reminisces of a Stock Operator” by Edwin Lefevre. Thinly veiled autobiography of Jesse Livermore, a 1920/30’s trader and his experiences, including foreseeing the crash of 1929.
A psychoactive book, science-based (YMMV).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/897536.Neurospeak
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Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson"
Impossible to categorize, incredibly challenging. Gurdjieff was a genius on the level of Leonardo da Vinci, but where Leonardo studied the outer world, Gurdjieff studied the inner world. This three-volume tome is his effort to encode and transmit his particular school of thought.
Gurdjieff has had a deep and obscure influence on Western culture. For example, in the Monty Python's Flying Circus movie "The Meaning of Life" an abridged description of his philosophy is given in the boardroom scene about the meaning of life, right before Terry Jones asks, "What was that about hats?"
How To Measure Anything [1] by Douglas Hubbard. The basic gist of the book goes something like this: in the real world (especially in a business setting) there are many things which are hard to measure directly, but which we may care about. Take, for example, "employee morale" which matters because it may affect, say, retention, or product quality. Hubbard suggests that we can measure (many|most|all|??) of these thin…