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Ask HN: What book changed your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#361

Post by abecedarius »

SantalBlush wrote: post #285
crashingintoyou wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to assume that your use of "briefly" there is preceding your attempt at a short synopsis, rather than that your views have shifted again. Personally I'm depressingly cynical when it comes to Pinker's views, looking at, e.g., https://twitter.com/robinhanson/status/1496685550241292293 and then thinking about how now, given modern weaponry one man's decision could basically destroy all life on earth. A few billion…

Please tell me the chart in that twitter thread adjusts for deaths per capita. It looks like it doesn't.

The y axis is deaths per 100,000 people

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#362

Post by barry-cotter »

vesche wrote: post #265
kaladin-jasnah wrote: post #249

The Stormlight Archive (series) by Brandon Sanderson has probably changed my life the most. I don't think I've enjoyed a book as much or have had one mean as much to me as I've have with this series. The series is incredibly inspirational since despite being a high fantasy novel. In fear of spoiling the plot, I'm being vague: it tracks the stories of (multiple) people who go through difficult life situations and lear…

Thanks for being vague, I just started The Way of Kings last week. I've read Elantris and the first Mistborn trilogy from Sanderson. I'm roughly half way into this first book of The Stormlight Archive and I've already come to the conclusion that this likely is my favorite of his work. I very much agree with your thoughtful sentiment. I've been wondering if the story of Joseph from the Bible had influence on Kaladin's…

> Sanderson is a Christian

To be more specific and accurate he’s a Mormon. I’m told that the Cosmere owes a lot to Mormon theology, like the henotheism, embodiment of God and non-trinitarianism.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#363

Post by CraftingLinks »

Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett, when I was 15, 25 years ago. I was already less than sympathetic to the whole God idea, but that book was the revelation that made it all click. I still remember the moment, p.53 or so, when he explained how a simple algo and a few billion years could explain all biology we see around us. As a kid, i was simply stunned,i immediately embraced the idea and it's consequences and never looked back.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#364

Post by lars512 »

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.

In Stoic virtue ethics, practical wisdom (phronesis) is the central virtue. But it doesn’t mean pursuing book knowledge, it means learning how to handle, think about and navigate all aspects of life well. In short, how to live “the kind of life worth living” (eudaimonia).

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#365

Post by cyode »

lbotos wrote: post #31

It's trite but Crucial Conversations. I think the key is that you have to read it when you are trying to collaborate with someone and you can't seem to communicate. In that moment, the guidance is a serious level up. If read outside of that context you'll say "well, yeah, sure, duh." In situ, it will help you better communicate (speaking and listening).

It's been a few years since I read this (when I briefly considered switching from software engineering to management) and the one thing that stuck is the advice to "start with heart" during your crucial conversations.

Trite indeed, but it's not a bad phrase to have bouncing around in your head before you have to deliver critical feedback or resolve an interpersonal conflict. Never forget you're talking to a fellow human.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#366

Post by canadaduane »

NateEag wrote: post #205

Non-violent Communication, by Marshall Rosenberg. It taught me so much about how to empathize with someone and genuinely listen to what they're saying. It's a bunch of very straightforward advice that I would never have gotten to on my own and which is _really_ hard to put into practice, but so worth it when you do.

This one changed my life also. The diverse personalities and foreign cultures we all experience as "other" can be confusing--and for me, seemed to have no core theory that could broadly guide my interactions with people.

Non-violent Communication helped me to understand there is a shared underpinning to the experience of being human--that emotions are fundamental, and that there are some universal human needs. From that foundation, I could see how important it is to observe the context of any conversation with someone, and to react based on an empathic curiosity of their feelings & needs. This freed me from a more narrow reaction space that was based on my interpretation/story of the content of their communication.

Someone can be screaming "I hate you!" and be feeling hurt, alone, and scared. I think we recognize this most in connection with people we are close to and love, but don't know how for people we don't know or don't yet "love." Reacting to the content of someone's words vs. attempting to understand the contextual emotion & human needs almost always diverges into vastly different potential outcomes.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#367

Post by codazoda »

Handbook of BASIC, Third Edition by David I. Schneider published in 1988

This book probably launched my career in programming. When the book wore out, I carefully cut off the spine, hole punched it, and moved it into a 3-ring binder. I still have it.

It’s a complete reference to the language I cut my teeth on as a teenager. The appendix was particularly useful.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#369

Post by vishnugupta »

Debt: The First 5000 Years

It’s difficult for me to put in words the influence the book had and continues to have on me.

QED by Richard Feynman is a close second. It pulled a veil off from my eyes, made me really understand what science is all about.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#370

Post by TimTheTinker »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #250
no-dr-onboard wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m so excited by this comment. 1) As gp said, the historical grammatical hermeneutic is the way to go for interpretation. And 2) the book of Ecclesiastes is definitely a beautiful way to stay grounded. Just the mere fact that Solomon, the author, had access to everything his age could offer and still ended up writing Ecclesiastes Ch 11 is mind blowing. Everything passes away. This world, your legacy, your wealth, me…

> Nihilism then?”. The Bible unabashedly says “yes, if you don’t have God” I am not trying to argue theology here, just giving another perspective. I was raised an an observant Catholic household, and I went every week from ages 5-19 and missed only a few times due to illness. But I never believed, I just don't have a spiritual bone in my body. None of what you quoted from Solomon about the impermanence of our materi…

> It is a colossal failure of imagination to think that without God people must believe nothing matters.

I haven't ever talked to an unbeliever who believes nothing matters, though I've heard of nihilist philosophers. I suspect non-philosophers who believe in nihilism usually have something from which they're trying to escape; they're not being honest with themselves. Of course each moment matters - it's a time of lived experience for billions of people.

On the other hand, as a Christian, I'm accustomed to thinking a lot about eternal destiny and how things will end up in an ultimate sense. For me, the idea of no God existing opens up a yawning chasm of eternal emptiness I find frightening to imagine -- it would mean when I die, there's nothing more for me; and when we all die and no humans are left, that'll be it for all of us. At that point, will anything that transpired previously matter at all?

I suppose for those who consciously or subconsciously know they're guilty of sin, the idea of annihilation is far preferable to facing judgment for their sins in the past, so I can see how atheism would be an attractive option, ultimate meaninglessness notwithstanding. But Christianity is primarily about what to do with that guilt -- that God's son Jesus paid the price for your sin and mine, and he offers forgiveness to those who will trust him and call on his name. (And I'm sure you've heard that before.)

So while I agree stuff matters right now even without belief in a God, for me the meaning of the past and present pale compared to what matters (if anything) in the eternity of time that lies ahead.

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