71–80 of 434 posts
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think - by Hans Rosling. Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, 1921-1933 - by Anne Applebaum. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Phillip Tetlock. The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A strong upvote for Thinking Fast and Slow. I think it should be required reading in school, or at least parts of it.
Keep in mind that the findings in Chapter 4 have NOT been replicable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Replic...
The Black Swan by Taleb and Thinking, Fast and Slow by Kahneman are two books that pretty much completely changed how I view the world, and have made me much happier as a direct result.
Bhagavad Gita for me, both, personally and professionally https://www.ancient.eu/Bhagavad_Gita/
However, I see its core messages as deeply problematic. The entire work is a justification of violence, obedience, and traditional social roles. It's simply amazing to me that Gandhi, the most famous advocate of non-violence in history, was a huge fan of it.
Also on my list are the already-mentioned "Getting To Yes" and "Nonviolent Communication". I also really enjoyed "Good for You, Great for Me" by Lawrence Susskind, which is a slightly more real-world take on the ideals put forth in "Getting to Yes".
I also studied Physics in College and my course on Classical Mechanics was really the impetus to continue down that path for a while. Textbook was "Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems" by Thornton and Marion.
My top recommendations here for the Hacker News crowd - with a nudge for the under-rated, are:
The Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd
https://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox
Profound idea that everyone has a primary time focus: either Future-focused, Present-focused, or Past-focused. Fascinating implications of each. Because I'm so future-focused, reading this book helped me understand people who are very present-focused. Also great advice on shifting your focus when needed. I read it 7 years ago, but still think about it almost every day.
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Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel, and Want - by Nicholas Epley
https://sivers.org/book/Mindwise
Many new brilliant insights, especially about over-estimating the differences between you and others, thereby separating into us-vs-them tribalism. Scan to the end of my notes, to see. If you know more books like this, please recommend them to me. I adore this subject.
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The War of Art - by Steven Pressfield
https://sivers.org/book/WarOfArt
Have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what “Resistance” is. This book is about that. Read it.
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E-Myth Revisited - by Michael Gerber
https://sivers.org/book/EMythRevisited
Absolutely everyone who is an entrepreneur or wants to be one needs to read this book. I first read it after 10 years of successfully running my company, and was still blown away and totally humbled by its wisdom. Re-reading it today, I'm amazed how my view of business was completely changed by this one little book. See my notes for examples, but definitely read the book itself to get the real impact.
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The Courage to Be Disliked - by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
https://sivers.org/book/Disliked
Wow. A profound little philosophy book from Japan, communicating the psychology of Alfred Adler - a rival of Freud. Told as a conversation between an angry student and a patient teacher. A little book so good that I rushed home from other activites to keep reading it, and finished in a day. A surprisingly fresh perspective on how to live. (The “disliked” part is not the point, so don’t let the title distract you.)
https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Lif... Nonviolent Communication. I think it was linked on HN where it caught my attention. This book teaches a great way to communicate, but for me, it has also helped me think about my feelings and how I can communicate those feelings better. I feel more in touch with my feelings and more empathetic as a direct result from following what the book is teaching.…
> it has also helped me think about my feelings
The book focuses on communication with others, but effectively fosters constructive inner dialogue as well. I know of at least one other person who claimed it helped them avoid destructive habits.
> it has helped me put more structure around tough conversations
I deescalated a nasty dispute between two people close to me after reading only the first few chapters. I was impressed because I wasn't the type of person to emotionally connect with people so effectively.
I believe the world would be a better place if more people read this book.
Changed the scale I perceive existence
* Elements of Statistical Learning - Hastie, Tibshisrani * (Lot's of machine learning books to list: PRML, All of Stats, Deep Learning, etc.) * Active Portfolio Management - Kahn, Grinold * Thinking, fast and slow - Kahneman * Protein Power (the Eades') / Why we get fat (Taubes) * Why we sleep (Walker) * Deep Work / So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport) * Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) * Getting to Yes (Fisher)
The short story was lengthened in to the novel and was ruined, in my view, by all the Freudian-influenced attempts to sexualize and psychoanalyze the protagonist. It was a real let down after the brilliance of the short story, which had absolutely nothing to do with any of that.
Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it…