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Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#241

Post by pc2g4d »

zuzuleinen wrote: post #12

I highly recommend 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. This book gave me the courage to take responsibility in my life and start working towards things which are important for myself. As the author once said, you don't get not to pay a price, you only get what price to pay. It actually gave me the courage to leave Berlin and go back to my country(Romania) which even though is more poor and low in quality of publ…

I'll add a recommendation for the condensed audio version of "Maps of Meaning" available on his podcast. From Amazon's blurb on the book: "A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind."

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#242

Post by hosh »

sevensor wrote: post #117

Since nobody's recommended The Prophet yet, I'll give it a mention. In my circles, and maybe yours, it's become a bit of a bad joke, the kind of thing that gets mined for quotes to read at a wedding. But while it's quite brief, it covers all the big themes in life, and whether you agree with it or not it can give you a structure for thinking about them.

An Austrailian friend of mine gave the book to me as a gift. The words might be mined for quotes, but when it is fresh, and when approached with an open mind, it's got a lot of wisdom.

In my local circle, I don't know anyone who has ever read it :-)

Someone else that seems to be similar -- J Krishtamurti. I haven't had a chance to really dive deep, but the few talks of his I have heard in pieces were all pretty awesome.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#244

Post by hosh »

paulmatthijs wrote: post #86

Give and Take by Adam Grant - even after a few years, it still causes me to constantly reflect on my own actions’ motive and if they’re “otherish” or not. Getting Things Done - not the method but the insight that you can’t manage time, only your actions. And that it’s OK not do to anything without having to make excuses to yourself. The 2nd and 3rd Ender novels - Ramen and Varelse are concepts that apply to vega/vega…

Yeah, I ended up liking the 2nd and 3rd Ender novels more, particularly as I grew older.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#245

Post by emodendroket »

lostcolony wrote: post #222
WhompingWindows wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a practicing Christian, I don't know many, can you indulge my curiosity? Do you believe in the literal truth of the bible, creationism, the big bang? I am a scientist and I doubt I'd ever be convinced to follow a religion whose followers believe in some stories and myths that are essentially anti-scientific. I don't mean to be harsh or barbed, I'm just saying I'd view the book as a mythological artifact from 2…

Not the poster, but as a Christian, no, I find the idea of the Bible being taken literally as rather surprising, and a rather recent invention. Just on the face of it, there are 'books' in the Bible meant as history, books meant as 'self-help', despondent mullings on the meaning of life, a love letter, personal recountings, letters written to others...these are all kinds of authors and approaches here, and so it stri…

"The wages of sin is death" refers more to the general idea of human mortality, doesn't it?

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#246

Post by DLA »

mountbranch wrote: post #113

- Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter - Principles, Ray Dalio - L'Etranger, Albert Camus - Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire - The Dao of Capital, Mark Spitznagel - Howl, Allen Ginsberg - On the Road, Jack Kerouac I could go on and on...

Totally agree with mountbranch here.

Principles is fantastic. At the same time you may read and think "sure, common sense" but then did you think that before you read the item -- probably not. I feel this is a book to keep for a lifetime. Can't wait for Ray's economics book.

Cool animated summary here: https://www.principles.com/principles-for-success/

The Dao of Capital is deeper. The chapter on Conifers (yeah, pine trees) and how they exist with and balance times of trouble versus opportunity is well worth the price of the book.

Also, and not least, Nassim Taleb's books: Fooled By Randomness, Black Swan, and Anti-fragile. Poetic, deep, useful, and entertaining. Fantastic. A pleasure to read and listen to in audio while driving/traveling.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#247

Post by emodendroket »

fsloth wrote: post #227
emodendroket wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad it worked for you. All the talk of the pain body and the egoic mind just fell flat for me.

"All the talk of the pain body..." The point with these therapeutic visualizations is to try how they work, personally, as an actual tool to solve a concrete dilemma. As such it does not matter how useless they sound in written form. Human mind has these psychlogical switches that just seem to work in specific situations. For example of a pathological "switch", the gambler is lured by an unpredictable sequence of los…

I will say that meditation is one of the few things that felt good when I had a head injury.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#249

Post by larntz »

petra wrote: post #190
pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason I am repulsive towards 'self-help' books. I always have a feeling that you just cannot sum up all the things to be "happy" or "content" or whatever in one book. I have seen numerous people who read inspirational quotes/books but the act the opposite way. I feel it is very difficult to change how the internals of a person work, reading a book will definitely push you in the right direction, motivate yo…

>> I am interested to know, how often when you face a situation, you stop and think, oh I read this and that in a book, I should act this way instead of my natural intuition to do the other way. This of course won't work. But reading a book, finding a usefull tool in it, and practicing it until it become a part of your skills is possible.

This is absolutely true.

The way to change behavior is to actually change something and consistently practice that change.

It requires a great deal of commitment. Progress is generally slow. Set backs happen.

But if you actually change something and make it a diligent practice eventually it will be part of who you are.

There are a huge amount of people that read/share/talk about feel good life change quotes/books/etc that are doing nothing more than playing psychological tricks on themselves while avoiding the hard discouragingly long process that is required to make actual changes.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?

#250

Post by twosuns19 »

I recommend following Muslim Kurdish scholar. In his large collection of work, he tried to answer questions: who am I? Where I came from? And where am I going? Start with chapter 10 of "The Words" book. If you like that chapter, read chapter 17 (17th word). If that make you introspect more then read chapter 24th. Chapter 24 will take you to the beginning (Chapter 1)--The First Word.

http://www.nur.gen.tr/en.html#maincontent=Risale&islem=read&...

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