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

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

#911

Post by krrrh »

Regardsyjc wrote: post #682
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #344

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this one yet: "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion", by Jonathan Haidt [0]. This book fundamentally changed how I think about religion and politics. It helped me understand a lot of behaviors which I'd previous considered absolutely incomprehensible. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Relig...

Have you read any of his other books? I loved his TED talks and few lectures that are up on YouTube.

The Coddling of the American Mind which he co-wrote with Greg Lukianoff is an important book about problems faced by the current college-age generation and the effects that social media, helicopter parenting, and certain ideologies have had on them. The Atlantic article it started as is also good, but the book expands and improves on the argument.

It’s less of a classic as the Righteous Mind because it’s more focused on a topical issue. I think it pairs well with Laura Kipnis’s Unwanted Advances.

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

#912

Post by rcarmo »

I can name

- The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (there is absolutely nothing quite like it, and it taught me to laugh - or at least giggle - at anything)

- Dune (the notion of mental discipline, at least as idealized by Frank Herbert, made an impression on me)

- Sherlock Holmes (focused awareness and logic)

- Godel, Escher, Bach - The Eternal Golden Braid (multiple takes on awareness, logic and creativity)

There are more, but I tend to avoid Malcom Gladwell style books (and Freakonomics uses a lot of the extrapolation-by-slingshot-logic approach) and the like because they play upon our biases and are often quickly disproved.

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

#913

Post by plogik »

Roelven wrote: post #722

A book I keep coming back to (re-read every two years or so) and recommend others is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It has shaped my thinking on 'what is good' or 'what does quality' mean. As an engineer it is easy to appreciate the author slowly going insane about the details he keeps coming back to, and as a human it is invaluable to have an understanding yourself of when something is 'good'. Highly r…

+1 for this. I read it every 5 years or so

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

#914

Post by awshepard »

jtr1 wrote: post #676
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #308

OK, it might be a bit embarrassing to post this, but I'm going to say Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up." Not so much for the tidying part (though I did find that extremely helpful), but the whole idea of only keeping things in your life that "spark joy" (not an exact translation by the way - "spark excitement" or "spark meaning" are other ways I like to think about it) has had a profound impact on…

I don't think this is embarrassing at all. After the initial purge, I couldn't believe how much it changed my purchasing habits. I now have a very simple rubric that prevents me from buying things I don't need. Tidying Up reads as a sort of mild self-help manual but it conceals a powerful anti-consumerist undertow (speaking as an American, anyway)

I really like the phrase "anti-consumerist undertow!" but I also visualized it in the opposite way - consumerism as the undertow, and "Tidying Up" as the "swim parallel to shore until you're out" advice.

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

#915

Post by _urga »

misiti3780 wrote: post #684

1. All of Nassim Taleb's Books - They changed the way I thought about tail probabilities and risk taking + bar bell strategies in general 2. Thinking Fast and Slow - made me think about all of the biases that my mind has that I dont even realize 3. The organized mind - This book gave me a lot of ideas about how I can change my life to live with less distractions and maybe do thinks more efficently 4. The Vital Questi…

Bart Ehrman is not the most conservative scholar. He's also been known by peers to have two faces, depending on who he's dealing with, whether his audience is academic or pop.

Bruce Metzger is a far more reliable (and recognized) guide, regardless of religious inclination. At worst, you will have a more balanced perspective after reading Metzger, and at best you will see where Ehrman has let you down.

"Over 100s of years and many errors" is pseudo-science. It makes for a Dan Brown novel for the uninitiated, but it doesn't fit the facts. Few mainstream scholars today would deny the accuracy of the New Testament documents, nor their 1st century authorship and dating.

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

#918

Post by nkrisc »

The book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

After I read it, I felt like I could see the world for what it really is: just a bunch of fallible humans all pretending they knew The Way Things Should Be. Popes, CEOs, tech gurus, presidents, the lot of them all desperately clinging to their beliefs lest their followers abandon them.

That book made me realize that all the truths everyone "just knows" and takes for granted aren't necessarily truths. They're beliefs, or myths. Even so, there isn't anything necessarily wrong with that: a culture or civilization needs beliefs or myths to function, but what those beliefs are can determine the ultimate fate of that civilization and whether it's sustainable.

What I really took away from it is that I no longer really believe anything. Or perhaps more accurately, I recognize when something I hold true is actually a belief and not truth, and am willing to question it or understand that I continue to hold it despite any supporting evidence. I learned that beliefs are choices people make, for reasons their own.

I was always an atheist, but I realized religions are just more beliefs like any other belief people hold as true.

I learned that some beliefs can be beneficial ("If I'm good to others, others will be good to me") and others destructive ("Humans are the pinnacle of evolution"). Ideas don't need to be true to be helpful (which is why the relentless drive in tech communities, often, for the objective truth or a logical ordering and categorization for everything rubs me the wrong way).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(novel)

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

#920

Post by hibee72 »

The first book that changed my life was "The Second Sex" by Simone De Beauvoir. Is not an easy book to read, with many philosophical and historical references, but it really shaped me. It changed my perception of women and also my awareness as a man. Another thing that changed my life was not a book by a record. It's not the same thing, I know, but I must name it because I was influenced more by its literary part (the lyrics) than by its music. The album is "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" by Genesis.
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