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Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

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Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#271

Post by crawfordcomeaux »

gotrythis wrote: post #267
crawfordcomeaux wrote: post #109

"Nonviolent Communication" (NVC) by Marshall Rosenberg I was emotionally disconnected from people and myself from ~10~33 years old via information addiction (compulsively doing everything up to the "doing" parts of creation). My disconnect kept me from learning how to communicate my empathy to others, as well as kept me from fully considering/respecting their needs. Around a year ago, I broke through denial over sexu…

I second this. I think NVC is on of the most important books that exists and should be taught in all schools, at all levels. Most of what we do is communication, and this is how to do it in a way that connects with people. I listen to the 8 hour lecture on youtube a couple of times a year and have read the book easily a dozen times.

I've listened to the lecture a few times, too. Great stuff! Here's the link for anyone interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4tUVqsjQ2I

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#272

Post by mvindahl »

macca321 wrote: post #3

Catch 22. I use Yossarian's behaviour to justify my own.

A favourite of mine as well. I read it when I was about 20 and it blew my mind. I later read other books by Joseph Heller but I really shouldn't have bothered. Catch 22 was really his main opus.

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#274

Post by mvindahl »

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. When I read it in the late 90s, I had already read complete accounts of world history and thought myself well-informed on the topic, yet virtually every chapter blew my mind.

The book is about the patterns that drive human history, both the written history that we know and the vast period of prehistory which we have a pretty good idea about these days due to genetics and linguistics. A recurring pattern has been people moving around, displacing less fortunate people. Further, Diamond looks for root causes to explain why some tribes or nations would gain an edge over their neigbours, and a lot of the explanation is ultimately found in technology and animal farming.

Before I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel", I had been under the impression that the world was a fairly static and ecologically stable place until the European age of discovery started uprooting everything. In reality it was nothing like that. Almost every strip of land is inhabited be people whose ancestors fought off other people, and cultures expanding beyond ecological sustainability and suddenly collapsing is a common event.

Runner-up: anything by Hunter S Thompson

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#275

Post by Mikhail_Edoshin »

rchen8 wrote: post #185

"The Road Less Traveled" by M Scott Peck. By far the best self-improvement book I've read. About discipline, love, growth and religion, and grace. I don't consider myself to be religious, but it's made me apply traditional values and spiritual growth from religion to help me become a better person.

Came here to write about it. Also "Abounding Grace". I'm going to read all his books.

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#276

Post by nurettin »

jonathansizz wrote: post #245
pklausler wrote: post #120

"The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. It describes biology from the perspective of the gene as the unit of natural selection, rather than the organism or the species, and demonstrates the power of that perspective to explain much about the natural world. But then, the author generalizes the concept of a gene to that of the replicator , which is any kind of pattern that influences its environment to produce copies of…

But please continue by reading more rigorous work on evolution, or you run the risk of being badly misinformed. I suggest, at a minimum, a decent textbook. Here I'd recommend Douglas Futuyma's Evolution . Follow this up with some key works in the field, such as Gould's early critique of naive adaptationism, The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme . Also consi…

What is misinformative in the selfish gene?

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#277

Post by screwgoth »

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I read it a couple of years after I hit my teens and was going to go to Junior College. It validated all my beliefs about meritocracy, atheism and recognition of self. To this day, I read it ( or parts of it, anyway) just to maintain my sanity

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#278

Post by senjindarashiva »

The Call of the Wild translated for children by the Swedish translator Maj Bylock. This book opened the world of classical literature for me and without it I probably would have missed about half of the books I've read in the last 15ish years

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#279

Post by lazy_gator »

mvindahl wrote: post #274

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. When I read it in the late 90s, I had already read complete accounts of world history and thought myself well-informed on the topic, yet virtually every chapter blew my mind. The book is about the patterns that drive human history, both the written history that we know and the vast period of prehistory which we have a pretty good idea about these days due to genetics and lin…

Yes, that book completely changed my world view. I still think about it consistently almost 6 years later. He took a very empirical approach to a problem that is often discussed using less than thorough methods.

Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?

#280

Post by ud0 »

Think and Grow Rich.

It totally turned my life around, no I didn't get a ton of money but it completely shifted my mentality, changed the way I saw the world, opened my eyes.

The strongest lesson the book had on me was that it made me realize that a man if he is willing can change his life, change what he doesn't like about his life and make it right. I just finished high-school when a family friend gave the book to me.

I learned about goals, how to set goals, it gave me the audacity to dream big, I learned that the man can influence the mind which influences matter.

I just started learning to code at the time, fast-forward seven years later, a kid from a humble background living in the lower-middle-class Africa who couldn't afford a laptop had no access to stable electricity and could not even afford to pay for internet connection, is now a Software Engineer in a big Co. in Europe.

With all those challenges and even more faced by a poor African, I was able to scale through, motivation and drive that was ignited over 8 years ago still burning strong.

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