Could also be any written content, like a blog post or an essay.
Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
1–10 of 30 posts
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#2It's hard to name just one, but off the top of my head, a few obvious possibilities include:
The Selfish Gene (Dawkins) - helped nudge me over the line in terms of really identifying as an atheist, by satisfactorily refuting any lingering hints of the "irreducible complexity" argument that were lodged in my brain.
The Fountainhead (Rand) - I actually saw the movie before reading the book, but the Howard Roark character is a real role model character to me.
The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Blank) - As far as I'm concerned, this is THE book for startup founders / entrepreneurs. Very detailed, very logical, iterative process for building a company, defining a product, finding customer base, etc.
Nineteen Eighty-four (Orwell) - Read this one my senior year in High School and it left a profound mark on my psyche. I was already leaning towards a very individualistic / libertarian worldview, but 1984 really enflamed my hatred for big, heavy-handed, oppressive government(s).
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#3Probably One, Two, Three, Infinity by George Gamow. Got me started, as well as a few others.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Two_Three..._Infinity
Name drops Neil deGrasse Tyson (Is he that old?)
Internet Archive has a 1961 copy.
https://ia801305.us.archive.org/19/items/OneTwoThreeInfinity...
The Nature of the Universe, by Fred Hoyle, as well.
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#4Here are a few of mine:
Flatland by Edwin Abbott - if it doesn't break your brain thinking about seeing in shadows of reality, and never being able to all of anything at once, you need to read it again
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - read it a couple years ago on vacation as my "beach read". Thought a bunch of what he wrote was pretty interesting/entertaining (though I disagree with some of his presuppositions and/or conclusions). Also made watching Tenet more enjoyable. And gave me an idea for a story (that I do not know how to write) wherein there is a class of people who only "remember the future" - they know what is going to happen before it happens, but as soon as it happens, they forget ... iow, they experience time half-backwards (they live it forward, but can not recall anything once it's occurred - it's all a "prediction" or "guess" to them...just like the future is to everyone else)
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy - contemplating a 100% 'conventional' WWIII, Clancy does a couple interesting things in the story that I have often wondered why they have not been talked about elsewhere (maybe they have in classified circles, but certainly not anywhere I have run across them) ... notably, using a A-10 Thunderbolts flying close to the deck over the ocean to strafe thin-hulled warships
Learning Basic for Tandy Computers by David A Lien - first programming book I ever had/used (it's even available on Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/LearningBasicForTandyComputers/) ... got me into programming/scripting when I was about 10
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#5Interesting question.
The book that popped into my head from my subconscious when I read the question was 'Catch-22'. I was a teenager when I read that. It taught me to be less naive, more cynical. It was also very, very funny. And it tickled my offbeat Sense of Humor.
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#6Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Left around at home to indoctrinate me into "stuff" at age 8. Ended up being the first sparkle of my rebellion against "stuff".
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#7Here are a few of mine: Flatland by Edwin Abbott - if it doesn't break your brain thinking about seeing in shadows of reality, and never being able to all of anything at once, you need to read it again A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - read it a couple years ago on vacation as my "beach read". Thought a bunch of what he wrote was pretty interesting/entertaining (though I disagree with some of his presuppos…
An A-10 has limited range and no radar to hunt for warships. The scenario you described would perhaps work best against a mass amphibian assault with hundreds of landing craft approaching, such as something Taiwan would face.
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#8You may not like it, but the bible is still the most influential book today.
Even if you’re not spiritual or never read it yourself - all the story archetypes used in modern fiction are there. Not to mention ethical standards.
Literally there is very little fundamentally new in literature that isn’t there already in the bible in one way or another.
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#9You may not like it, but the bible is still the most influential book today. Even if you’re not spiritual or never read it yourself - all the story archetypes used in modern fiction are there. Not to mention ethical standards. Literally there is very little fundamentally new in literature that isn’t there already in the bible in one way or another.
Does anyone really read it, though? I'm a catholic and never read it in full... Someone said it on X "if christians really believe that that is the word of God, they should be reading it much more than they actually do". Applies to me..
Re: Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?
#10When I was around 14 or so I read an blogpost that we would now describe as being incel-like. It had a really profound and negative effect on my relationships with women for almost a decade unfortunately.