"If you're so smart why aren't you happy?" by Raj Raghunathan. Very practical book on being happy rather than pursuing happiness.
Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
31–40 of 389 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#32I 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 loved the message of self-reliance and "bearing your burden" in the book personally, it really reminded me of Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Could've done without all the religious metaphor but I understand the point of it being there.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#33The Three Pillars of Zen by Roshi Philip Kapleau
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#34Flowers for Algernon, without a shadow of a doubt, had a huge impact on how I regard intelligence in others and myself, and it also put the pursuit of success into a new context for me. Lastly, it made me evaluate the prospects one has going into life, with respect to what is (and isn't) under once's control.
Honestly, "Flowers for Algernon" is the most frightening story I ever read. It made me realize that whatever intelligence I have right now I got basically by accident and that I may lose it at any time. There's nothing I can do to prevent this and - in case it happens - (EDIT: in the end) I won't even recognize what I lost. The only thing I can do is to leave some kind of a mark on the world, right now, before it happens. It turned out to be a great motivation for doing creative stuff - in my case, I chose to write things, blog posts, articles, pet project write-ups, things like this. Definitely one of the most impactful stories I've ever read.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#35Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn - great book about mindfulness written in a style that's very easy to digest.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#36I 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 loved the message of self-reliance and "bearing your burden" in the book personally, it really reminded me of Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Could've done without all the religious metaphor but I understand the point of it being there.
Yes, I could have done without the religious metaphor as well, I hope some potential readers will not be put off by this because it really is a great book. Something stayed with me after reading this book and I'm so glad I didn't give up when reading about too many religious analogies.
Peterson also gave a presentation about his book for those who are interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5RCmu-HuTg
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#37Goedel, Escher, Bach - an eternal golden braid. This book is so rich with philosophical content it will change you.
I really struggled to read this. It's so dense, in an almost impenetrable way. Am I the only one? I did some skimming, but never seemed to catch on.
Yeah, it's a struggle. I've attempted to read it twice, and never made it all the way through. Still immensely rewarding though.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#38Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#39I have learned things from some of the ones mentioned. But I also have one that is a bit different than the others here so far.
In 2001 I came down with a heart condition. I was 42, had two young kids, a good job, and basically did not know what to do. Spent a lot of nights up at 2 am. I read through the Aubrey-Maturin series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series. On their face, they form an adventure series of historical novels (they fit into a category that Great Britian has, naval fiction). But it seemed to me then and still seems to me now that they are literature, an extended meditation on what it means to be a man.
In any event, they fitted my circumstances. I learned a great deal. They helped me. (I advise starting with the second one, Post Captain.)
Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?
#40If a "life-shattering crisis that completely wrecked my world view" means a breakup definitely read "No More Mr. Nice Guy" from Robert Glover.
I hung out on the forums for that book for a while. Helped me on my path, there were a lot of hard but important truths there.