I like this question for its introspective impact. It is hard not to interpret the question as "If you could recommend one book, which would it be?" My answer isn't one that I would necessarily call a "must read." Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea was simply the right book at the right time for me. It was more about what it led me to discover through more reading and more books than the book itself.
Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?
71–76 of 76 posts
Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?
#72"Fooled by Randomness" by N.N. Taleb.
It showed how big a role chance plays in our lives, and how to make the most of it.
Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?
#73Mastery by George Leonard - learning that goal of doing something was not to reach a goal, was the most profound lesson I learned towards enjoying what I do everyday by the way of enjoying the process.
Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?
#74The Bible. Probably has impacted the society I live in more than any other book and society in turn has impacted me. It's well-worth reading for a lot of reasons.
Along the same lines, I have enjoyed several times a little book called "Searching for and Maintaining Peace", by Father Jacques Philippe. It gives a Christian/Catholic perspective on how to deal with the troubles of life: fear of being without, fear of suffering, dealing with the suffering of loved ones, impatience with the shortcomings of others, kicking ourselves when we commit a fault, etc.
The short answer is to acquire and maintain an interior peace, no matter what the circumstances. This allows the grace of God to act through us. The book develops this idea from several angles, in about 100 pages.
Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?
#75A series of essays and books impacted my life the most. It all started on a sunny day, when I was a structural engineering intern full of hope and a beautiful girlfriend, waiting for my code to run(blah blah iteratively determine deflections of structures with non-linear stress-strain responses blah blah), when I read: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD103... I quit my job the next day. This wa…
You seem interesting, mail me and let's talk.
hi, thanks! I am not sure why I would be interesting though? Could you share some of your motivation for wanting to talk?
Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?
#76A series of essays and books impacted my life the most. It all started on a sunny day, when I was a structural engineering intern full of hope and a beautiful girlfriend, waiting for my code to run(blah blah iteratively determine deflections of structures with non-linear stress-strain responses blah blah), when I read: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD103... I quit my job the next day. This wa…
Most importantly: Did you marry the beautiful girlfriend?
Nope. Switching fields from something that had a stable pay (civil engineering) to something where I am likely to be homeless (math, especially since I am not a genius), was one of the many nails in the coffin our relationship.