Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

This explains so much of human behavior, but I hesitate to recommend it to people because it is so easily weaponized. To borrow from Harry Potter, it's the closest thing I've seen to a book of charm spells, but was written as a defense against the dark arts. Better everyone read it rather than just the marketers.

What I really love about this book is how much of politics it has explained for me, including the downfall of the USSR and the American civil rights movements, but also newer events like Schwarzenegger's poltiical career.

If you like this, I'd also recommend:

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg

All are in a similar vein. For more focused book on human behavior, I recommend first time team leads/managers read:

"Switch" by Dan and Chip Heath

A solid guide to changing organizational behavior.

This book radically changed my understanding of reality, consciousness and the nature of self. I’m a very skeptical and scientifically minded person; this book looks at the subject of life after death from an evidence based approach.

- Never Split the Difference

- From Zero to One

- Way of the Peaceful Warrior

- Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

- Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health

KJV is cool for the Cormac McCarthy-esque prose [strike that, reverse it], sounds great when declaimed, but it is kind of a chore to machete through as a reader.

There are so many variants these days, it's not unlike choosing a Linux distro