Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect? • Hacker News Board

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

#251

Post by sarabande » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:20 PM UTC

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…

This book was not worth the hype for me; I read the whole thing, but regret purchasing it.

- It sorely needed an editor. Echoing other's sentiments, it could have been - It used a gratuitous amount of Bible quotes, which

  1. weren't necessary to make his point,

  2. were often referenced as if they were data, and how people actually behave, rather than anecdotes/fiction

I got suckered into to buying the book because the author is a compelling public speaker. I enjoy his lectures.

In retrospect, though, part of what makes him a compelling public speaker are his highly emotional arguments, which don't seem to be founded on great reasoning, and therefore make for a bad book, since we have more time to be critical about arguments when reading.

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

#252

Post by lacker » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:20 PM UTC

coleifer wrote: post #213

War and Peace, Tolstoy. There are some tedious passages where Tolstoy develops a theory of history, but the realness of the characters, and their struggles to find themselves, is described better than any other book I've read. It's a beautiful story. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Don't need to be an alcoholic to see that our efforts to run and order our lives often can end up making us more miserable. Read th…

If you liked War and Peace you would probably also like Anna Karenina. Although I might not need to tell you that ;-)

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

#253

Post by Glench » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:22 PM UTC

The book Non-Violent Communication lead me to examine my communication style and deeper motivations/feelings. Practicing it changed the communication in all my relationships for the better, even if the other person wasn't practicing NVC.

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

#254

Post by rgbrenner » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #215

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…

Fundamentalists and literalists are a very small minority of Christians and their movement is more or less a reaction to science/the Enlightenment that didn't really exist in any significant strength before the 19th Century (and honestly it's hard to square with a careful reading of the Bible, which contradicts itself in ways that present problems for literal readings). Even as far back as Augustine you have Christia…

this definitely depends on where you are. In the US, 1 in 4 are evangelical [0].. and 24% believe the bible is the literal word of god [1].

0. Pew paper, no longer available.. so wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20090304020453/http://pewforum.o... There's probably more up to date poll on this somewhere though.

1. http://news.gallup.com/poll/210704/record-few-americans-beli...

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

#255

Post by sesteel » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:24 PM UTC

dlwdlw wrote: post #199

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as well as Godel, Escher, Bach. Helped me see the limitations of rationality, rigor, and measurement.

Godel, Escher, Bach changed my entire world view.

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

#256

Post by rgbrenner » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:27 PM UTC

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…

I mean, Jesus is quoted as saying "Go tell that fox", when speaking of Herod; there is no other mention of Herod being anything other than human. Clearly, if the Christian message is to be taken as truth, it shows that God is able to speak in metaphor

24% of the US believes the bible is the literal word of god[0].

Knowing some evangelicals personally... they would say Herod literally told the fox. Through god Herod was able to speak to the fox.

Remember, in adam and eve, the snake and eve have a conversation. So clearly it is possible that animals can talk. Many christians believe adam and eve is a literal telling of what happened.

0. http://news.gallup.com/poll/210704/record-few-americans-beli...

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

#257

Post by castlecrasher2 » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:28 PM UTC

pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #182

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…

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 use so-called self-help books to find philosophies I resonate with but didn't know about. Basically, I improve my strengths by reading about principles I share with an author who has thought about it longer than I have.

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

#258

Post by Balgair » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:29 PM UTC

sarabande wrote: post #251

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…

This book was not worth the hype for me; I read the whole thing, but regret purchasing it. - It sorely needed an editor. Echoing other's sentiments, it could have been - It used a gratuitous amount of Bible quotes, which 1. weren't necessary to make his point, 2. were often referenced as if they were data, and how people actually behave, rather than anecdotes/fiction I got suckered into to buying the book because the…

Peterson is very good at speaking and lecturing (practice makes perfect!) and I enjoy his work. That said, his tack is largely an updated stoic philosophy. A good idea, don't get me wrong. Still, if you liked his book, I'd go back and read more about stoicism. Here are some suggestion, but if anyone else has others, please chime in:

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Au...

https://www.amazon.com/Senecas-Letters-Stoic-Thrift-Editions...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism

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

#259

Post by Balgair » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:30 PM UTC

sesteel wrote: post #255

dlwdlw wrote: post #199

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as well as Godel, Escher, Bach. Helped me see the limitations of rationality, rigor, and measurement.

Godel, Escher, Bach changed my entire world view.

How so? I read it, and though very good with the logic/math, I wasn't as moved. I'd love to know more about your journey.

Edit: For me 'Information' by Glieck was very good, as it summed up the logical 'journey of man' as a struggle to refine signal to noise. When interpreting math/logic as such, I was floored and a lot of things made more sense to me.

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

#260

Post by acrodrig » Fri, May 11, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

db1 wrote: post #13

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Mostly the bits about how our society is mostly built on collective fictions. 2. Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse I remember being very moved reading this, but I can't quite remember why. Looks like it's time to re-read it.

I second Siddhartha, I think it's the closest I have come to understanding "enlightenment" (whatever it may mean for each person). Give it a try.