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Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#41

Post by graeme »

The Four Hour Workweek. It showed me:

1. How to make a business without "experience" 2. A model of how to make an automated business

Changed my life and led me to create a mostly automated business that is still going seven years on.

Note: this book often rubs people the wrong way, and requires caveats.

The four hours refers to maintenance work, in my interpretation. I could maintain my business on four hours. But, it would gradually atrophy. So, I grow it. But, with the liberty to take a lof of time off, when I want.

For those allergic to Tim Ferriss, Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling is an excellent read.

But, the four hour week was the book that hit me like a ton of bricks and changed the course of my life.

The business, if anyone is curious: https://lsathacks.com

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#42

Post by schizoidboy »

adjkant wrote: post #22
schizoidboy wrote: post #17

The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley. Debatable but opened up a new perspective for me.

Could you elaborate on the new perspective for you? What was the previous one? I was intrigued by the title and looked up the book and found this review, and it seems to bring up some good points. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/102880724?book_show_ac...

I felt drowned in pessimism from media, culture, and family for most of my life up to that point, and this book opened up an optimistic perspective on global prosperity, health, violence, education, work, inequality, environment, etc. It makes rational arguments for this general optimism rather than hand-wavey optimism. I think it can be summarized as: "Things aren't so bad for the average human and are improving in most of the important ways. We've hit on patterns (science, markets, etc.) that seem to work, and we should continue to work at making things even better."

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#44

Post by boulos »

sixhobbits wrote: post #12

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt It changed the way I think and most of my existing ideas.

This book didn’t exist until that long ago, so it doesn’t seem like a fair choice for “I wish I had read this when I was younger”.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#45

Post by donatj »

Anthem by Ayn Rand. It’s really short and a tad trite but really made me rethink things. Still the only book I have read in a single sitting.

The Art of UNIX Programming. 10 years ago me really could have used it, feel like I wasted way too much time figuring out things this would have explained. Honestly I don’t know if I had been ready to hear it though.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#47

Post by adjkant »

schizoidboy wrote: post #42
adjkant wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate on the new perspective for you? What was the previous one? I was intrigued by the title and looked up the book and found this review, and it seems to bring up some good points. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/102880724?book_show_ac...

I felt drowned in pessimism from media, culture, and family for most of my life up to that point, and this book opened up an optimistic perspective on global prosperity, health, violence, education, work, inequality, environment, etc. It makes rational arguments for this general optimism rather than hand-wavey optimism. I think it can be summarized as: "Things aren't so bad for the average human and are improving in…

Thanks, appreciate the detail :)

I very much agree with that philosophy and would consider myself a rational optimist if I had to label, hence the intrigue.

While optimism is good, I think it needs to be paired with equally important perspective. As that review points out, the general trend doesn't mean we can't go backward for long periods of time in multiple areas. That optimism needs to be paired with a push for improvement over complacency, which I think is the easy comfort optimism can give.

Sorry if this is preaching to the choir, but hopefully someone gains value out of this.

Edited because I just trailed off in the middle of a thought on my first go round.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#49

Post by ternaryoperator »

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. It's astonishing to get useful, relevant advice on how to conduct yourself across two millenia. I recommend the translation by Gregory Hays, which removes the academic feel of other translations, and so makes them relevant and, at least in my case, actionable.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#50

Post by aaachilless »

boulos wrote: post #44
sixhobbits wrote: post #12

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt It changed the way I think and most of my existing ideas.

This book didn’t exist until that long ago, so it doesn’t seem like a fair choice for “I wish I had read this when I was younger”.

In my opinion the goal of a thread like this isn't to share missed opportunities but to highlight potential opportunities for readers today.
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