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Ask HN: What book changed your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#331

Post by nnadams »

cutler wrote: post #292

"Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffrey Friedl. While reading Dreamweaver 3 Bible I became intrigued by the Find And Replace options which included regular expressions. At the end of the chapter was a reference to Friel's classic and I found a copy in a local London library. That led me to "Programming Perl" by Larry Wall and the beginning of my career as a developer. The O'Reilly Perl collection is unsurpassed to…

I came here to post that same book!

When I was a kid I wanted to make an IRC chatbot. I didn't know much, but I read online you could use regular expressions to match text commands. I felt like I needed a book, saved up money, and got my mom to drive me to the next town. Our little library didn't have any computer books. I remember her paging through and asking if I really wanted this "technical manual".

Mastering Regular Expressions was the start to my programming career as well. Having references to a bunch of other languages spurred my curiosity to learn them. I eventually bought some of the O'Reilly Perl books as well.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#332

Post by nsantos »

- The Dune books. The depth of everything in it awes me. Every time I re-read them, I find some nuance I missed from the last reading. The way it portrays politics, religion, and basically the entangled web of life in general blew my mind when I first read it, and still does.

- Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony. I'm not sure I can put into words how it has impacted me, though, but it has. I guess it's more of a visceral reaction? I can't honestly say I can relate to the protagonist, since I've never been in his shoes (and I hope to never be; having every one in your family---save for one of your sisters---murdered, raped, or raped-then-murdered by pirates isn't exactly something to ascribe to). I love how Hope (the protagonist) can empathize with pretty much anyone, though---at least eventually; and I guess I relate to how deeply he feels things.

- Pretty much everything by Heinlein. It has once again become fashionable (I think it goes on in cycles) to shit on Heinlein's works, and I get where naysayers are coming from. Heinlein himself always maintained he wrote primarily to entertain, even though he can get kind of preachy at times.

The very first Heinlein I got my hands on was The Number of the Beast--, while I was a teenager. Flying cars, non-benevolent Other Beings, multiverses possibly made manifest through the sheer act of imagining it... For a kid who dreamt of one day becoming a nuclear physicist after having watched ST:TOS (Scotty is mah boy), that book was revelatory. Every Heinlein I've read after that has just gone on and contributed to who I am as person today: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land (both editions), To Sail Beyond the Sunset, et al.

It's almost literally impossible for me to overstate how much Heinlein's works has shaped who I am as a person, regardless of whatever flaws others might ascribe to his work.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#333

Post by Existenceblinks »

Existenceblinks wrote: post #329

None, seriously. Sorry for not giving any inspiration. I have only read technical books like Static/Dynamics mechanics, TCP/IP, Material Science, mostly engineering stuff etc. Because I wouldn't want much reading about someone else's opinion or view of truth. People may find they are useful for learning broad spectrum of perspective, but I find that they all fall into limited set of views that I never be surprised to…

Downvote? For science based books and non fictions? OP asks for what books changed your life, not books you like. You could say every single book changed your life, but that is as useful as my answer that said none.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#334

Post by wrycoder »

oriettaxx wrote: post #160
dinom wrote: post #27

https://mises.org/library/anatomy-state

> Rothbard regards the state as a predatory entity. > It does not produce anything but rather steals resources from those engaged in production. wow!! downloaded, thank!

Try Bastiat, The Law.

About 75 pp. ca. 1850.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#335

Post by nanomonkey »

specialist wrote: post #253
nanomonkey wrote: post #135

The Listening Society by Hanzi Freinacht. It taught me that there is indeed a direction for society to go beyond PostModernism, that is constructive and nuanced. Also explained why it is so rare for people to move into such a stage of development. The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Showed all of the archaeological evidence for vast time periods where alternate governance models were put into p…

Ditto The Dawn of Everything . I binged on everything Graeber thru the apocalypse. Debt: the First 5000 Years rewired my brain. FWIW, I enjoyed everything Jill Lepore the same way; they're good compliments. Will give The Listening Society a try, thanks.

The Listening Society starts off strangely, and doesn't really explain it's thesis directly. The author even says they won't do so in the first chapter which fired off a bunch of warning bells for me, as it seemed like a filtering function for the gullible.

All for not, the author really is going somewhere. And it felt worth it to me.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#336

Post by fastball »

StopDarkPattern wrote: post #294
carabiner wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked PON but it did seem to fall under the "thanks I'm cured" or "happiness is a choice" school of personal development. It works for some people, maybe those who sometimes fall under a bad mood once in a while, but doesn't do much for real mental illness. It's like telling a lifelong alcoholic that drinking is a choice or an overweight person that eating is just a choice. How do you stay on that horse if you fall…

How to tell someone is trying to trash something. Unnecessary abbreviations. Its literally everywhere. The Power of Now is a transformational book and is extremely enlightening. Everyone should read it.

Not sure I understand your comment? Are you criticizing that GC abbreviated the books as PON rather than spelling out Power of Now?

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#337

Post by DoreenMichele »

Diet for a small planet and the followup book by I believe her sister called Recipes for a small planet for which she wrote the intro.

The first half of the first book is about the political causes of hunger in the world and advocates for vegetarianism as an antidote to such. The intro to the followup book states that protein complementarity is easier than she made it out to be and she regretted making it sound harder than it is.

It's one of the reasons I eat a semi vegetarian diet. Changing my diet has had a big impact on my health and feeling like how I live makes a difference helps protect me from the sense of doom about climate change and what not that many people seem to have.

It also made me feel like there is no need for this to be such a polarizing us-vs-them topic. She talks about how "eating one less (grain fed) hamburger " makes a difference , so we can change the world with relatively small changes to our own behavior. It doesn't require extremist positions.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#338

Post by AngeloAnolin »

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

While technically many people will consider this as a child's book, the lessons and teachings on this book will be timeless and be relevant in whatever stage you are in your life. This has profoundly impacted my life in more ways than I can imagine and I am going to pass this book to my kids as they up.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#339

Post by aklemm »

insaider wrote: post #319
RajT88 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanism might he the term that you are describing. The idea that a deity is not needed to find meaning and derive morality.

What's the term for when the pursuit of knowledge is regarded as the highest morality? That's where I mostly get my meaning at least.

There might not be one because a morality requires considering others, but simply pursuing knowledge does not. Unfortunately, you’ll soon have to reckon with how that knowledge affects your actions in order to call it a morality.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#340

Post by haroldp »

cutler wrote: post #292

"Mastering Regular Expressions" by Jeffrey Friedl. While reading Dreamweaver 3 Bible I became intrigued by the Find And Replace options which included regular expressions. At the end of the chapter was a reference to Friel's classic and I found a copy in a local London library. That led me to "Programming Perl" by Larry Wall and the beginning of my career as a developer. The O'Reilly Perl collection is unsurpassed to…

This was my first real "programming" book, and my first O'Reilly animal book and it changed the course of my life in a real and tangible sense. I read it cover to cover and did all off the exercises, and then moved right on to Learning Perl. To this day, I watch people struggle with regexes or dismiss them, but I'm done finding what they were looking for before they can finish complaining.
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