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Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

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Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

#71

Post by shubhamjain »

austenallred wrote: post #16

Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…

> Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up

Having picked this a few weeks ago, I am finding it hard to finish because of the ponderous writing. I admit that first few chapters were a revelation, but the cultural verbosity regarding everything becomes wearing quickly. "The Ascent of Money" is much better primer on the evolution of financial system.

Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

#74

Post by mck- »

polarix wrote: post #70
maaaats wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not aimed at only you, but a trend in posts like these: When it's no particular order and you don't comment on what a book is or why you recommend it, I feel the list becomes kinda useless. And when a post is upvoted much that contains a lot of elements, I don't know which book gained those votes.

One value of an unordered unannotated book list is in reinforcing books you've already read, and providing a little extra push towards the action potential on the ones you haven't.

Also known as Collaborative Filtering in recommender systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_filtering

Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

#75

Post by TheAceOfHearts »

A few weeks back I read "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion". It was very insightful. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up immediately recommending it to many of my friends.

The author does a good job at getting the main points through. He ends each chapter with a summary of the discussed points, and at the end of the book he sums em all up again.

Not a book, but I've been consuming many Jordan Peterson videos on YouTube. He has presented me with many new arguments and ideas which I hadn't previously considered.

Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

#76

Post by etplayer »

austenallred wrote: post #16

Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…

>Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up

For me it's nice to see this is being recommended even outside social anarchist/Communist circles.

Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

#78

Post by mashmac2 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #66
austenallred wrote: post #16

Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…

> Debt, the first 5,000 years It's often cited on HN, but I've found it very dense and difficult to read.

I've had the audiobook version recommended for this exact reason - easier to listen to than to read :)

Re: Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?

#79

Post by austenallred »

etplayer wrote: post #76
austenallred wrote: post #16

Fantastic question. The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in…

>Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up For me it's nice to see this is being recommended even outside social anarchist/Communist circles.

Interesting, I see it most often in anarcho-capitalist circles
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