Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 254 posts

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

#81

Post by eliben »

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.

It is dense and difficult to read, I agree. But it's also very insightful, and hence recommended. I agree with the other comment that listening to difficult books is generally easier than reading.

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

#82

Post by deepakjois »

shubhamjain wrote: post #71
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.

A good summary of the key arguments in the book can be found in this programme that aired on BBC, hosted by David Graeber himself (the author of the book)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05447pc

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

#83

Post by RealityNow »

Debt, the first 5,000 Years (David Graeber) - Learned that most of history has been communist (eg. hunter gatherer societies), shops of the past were run on credit (eg. tally sticks), money/capitalism tended to emerge with the rise of the state, taxing to feed soldiers for war, and that the drive to pay off one's debt fueled a lot of the cruelty of mankind (eg. Hernan Cortez, Casimir).

21 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism, Bad Samaritans (Ha Joon Chang) - Learned that free trade is generally bad for developing countries, countries need to build out high productivity industries to grow their economy in the long term and avoid a balance of payments deficit (unless blessed with oil or something), manufacturing is vital to a country's economy and its service sector, "free markets" are a constantly evolving political definition with numerous inherent double standards, the only reason most of us in first world countries are paid well has nothing to do with our own superior ability (eg. bus driver in India vs. Norway), but due to immigration control and the institutions we inherit.

Also looking for more book recommendations, so feel free to send some my way!

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

#86

Post by etplayer »

brudgers wrote: post #47

Critique of Pure Reason Philosophical Investigations The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Foucault's Pendulum Snopes == The Hamlet , The Town , The Mansion . A River Runs Through It Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World A Pattern Language The Analects Bhagavad Gita Apology The Republic Touch the Earth The Pity of War: Explaining World War I The Civil War: A Narrative

>Foucault's Pendulum

What's this about?

>Critique of Pure Reason

What did you find particular challenging to your worldview? As a side note, you may be interested in Critique of Pure Tolerance which has an essay by Robert Wolff and Marcuse. Have you seen The Dialectic of Enlightenment?

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

#87

Post by etplayer »

austenallred wrote: post #79
etplayer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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

That's very strange for me to hear, considering the position of the author himself and some of the views espoused in the book. Though I shouldn't be saying that books ought to be restricted to certain ideological followers. As a Communist myself I have my own favourites but I doubt they'd be so useful to anyone here.

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

#89

Post by travmatt »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #75

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 consum…

If you liked the righteous mind you'd similarly enjoy "The Dictators Handbook" by Bruce Burna De Mesquita - he explores how rulers looking to maintain power are all driven by similar incentives, and similarly provided a clear framework for analyzing political or business strategy.

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

#90

Post by farnsworth »

spookyuser wrote: post #43

What is a Mental Model? I've heard this word tossed around so much recently and I still don't feel like I understand what it means.

You could say that humans understand the world by building a "model" of it in our minds. When we are trying to decide how to act, we can simulate a situation by running it through the model. For example, you might have a model of your boss that helps you predict how they will react if you give them bad news. And you might have a mental model of your country that you can use to predict what will happen if it goes to war or goes broke. Every time you learn something, you can use it to adjust your mental model. It's like a simulation of the world inside your mind. Pretty cool, actually.

People can end up with very different mental models of the same objects because they trained them with different data (ie, had different experiences growing up) or because other mental models impacted the interpretation of the data, and the development of those different mental models.

Post reply on HN