371–380 of 1001 posts
- I read Brave New World (Huxley) when I was young, and it didn't have such a strong impression on me at the time, but it has strongly influenced some of my political takes over my whole life.
- The four steps to the Epiphany (Steve Blank) showed me that there can be method to the apparent madness that is entrepreneurship.
Antifragile: How to live in a world we don't understand by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I realized that my bad relationships are mostly the result of my lack of skin in the game. That indifference is not an advantage but that it is paralyzing. That I have to feel to be able to risk and do something. In addition to applying the concept of antifragility to many external things. It has motivated me to start a business and to…
> changed my perspective on research could you elaborate on that? pro research or against?
It inspired me to think about the role technology can play in improving someone's life, enhancing their development, helping them thrive.
Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance This helped me understand the duality of the logical/mechanical and the creative/artistic. Then merging the two.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I had never really thought about investments before, or the difference between assets and liabilities.
War and peace by Tolstoi. It made me aware that someone as successful and powerful as Napoleon himself was by a large extent only a product of the people and the mood at the time. What I mean is that it wasn't him who inspired the people; it rather was just the Zeitgeist he was the perfect person for. I'm not a native speaker and can't really put it into words, but it completely changed my view of the amount of influ…
War and Peace came immediately to mind for me as well, but mostly because I do not think I have ever read a more magnificent novel. I'm a literature professor, and in academic literary study, we don't spend a lot of time talking about which books are "better" than others. But personally? I'll just never get over that one. I suppose I'd have to add Aeschylus' The Oresteia (the oldest of the ancient Greek tragedies we…
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this one yet: "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion", by Jonathan Haidt [0]. This book fundamentally changed how I think about religion and politics. It helped me understand a lot of behaviors which I'd previous considered absolutely incomprehensible. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Relig...
Guns, Germs and Steel by Diamond. Also Foundation Trilogy by Asimov because of the incredible creativity needed to tell that story
Strongly disagree. The geographic determinism theory of GG&S is frustrating and ignores significant factors in the rise of the West. This review is something I generally send out to people after they've read GG&S, and strongly recommend Eric Wolf as an author. He puts many of the points I would make significantly more eloquently: https://www.livinganthropologically.com/eric-wolf-europe-peo...