Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#31

Post by poushkar » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 2:52 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #23

"How To Win Friends And Influence People" helped me a lot with social skills that are obvious to most people but not to me. It's still something I work on regularly, it doesn't come naturally.

I double this. Listened to the audiobook recently. I've always considered myself quite a communicative person, but only after the book I realized how much improvements can be done here. Still, I find it a bit manipulative, so I would only use the techniques in working environment and stay "myself" and direct with friends.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#32

Post by aliencat » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 2:56 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #23

"How To Win Friends And Influence People" helped me a lot with social skills that are obvious to most people but not to me. It's still something I work on regularly, it doesn't come naturally.

I have had the same experience. It has always been difficult for me to handle social relationships with others when growing up (I cannot understand how others feel/think about me). "How to win friends" offers an (behaviourism?) insight into what you do can make others feels what. It's like a handbook really!

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#33

Post by swiftisthebest » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 2:58 PM UTC

bmer wrote: post #10

A series of essays and books impacted my life the most. It all started on a sunny day, when I was a structural engineering intern full of hope and a beautiful girlfriend, waiting for my code to run(blah blah iteratively determine deflections of structures with non-linear stress-strain responses blah blah), when I read: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD10xx/EWD103... I quit my job the next day. This wa…

Poor man baby.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#34

Post by dannels » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 3:32 PM UTC

Abundance by Peter Diamandis totally changed the way I look at businesses and future technology and helped me clearly see the difference between exponential growth and linear growth changing the world.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#35

Post by babayega2 » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 3:33 PM UTC

Millennium trilogy. I was a math guy, those books convinced me to be a computer dude.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#36

Post by alex_ixd » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 3:54 PM UTC

"The Illuminatus! Triology" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea

I did my first reading in high school and it was absolutely brilliant. I never expected so many twists and turns where characters melt into one another and plots jump from world domination conspiracy theories to self discovery and awakening.

Decades later, I am now looking more into Robert Anton Wilson's other work (in particular Maybe Logic) and am seeing some very interesting applications, especially in software quality and artificial intelligence.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#37

Post by binalpatel » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 3:59 PM UTC

The Rational Optimist.

It helped me realize (along with other things), that no, the world isn't getting worse. Things are much better than they've ever been for most people, and they're only getting better, faster.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#38

Post by ruler88 » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 5:23 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #23

"How To Win Friends And Influence People" helped me a lot with social skills that are obvious to most people but not to me. It's still something I work on regularly, it doesn't come naturally.

this is one of few books that i actually read several times in my life.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#39

Post by stryan » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 5:32 PM UTC

"Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle. It's easy sometimes to get caught up in the idea of doing things for technology sake or because it would be cool to implement or to make a lot of money. Reading this book really made me start to think about why I'm taking certain actions and the type of person I want to be. While you may not necessarily agree with Aristotle's conclusions on ethics or even some of the premises he starts from (his justification for slavery is notoriously...bad) the Ethics is great example about how to rationally determine the "most ethical" action to take in a situation or at the very least will introduce you to such types of reasoning.

Re: Ask HN: What book impacted your life the most and how?

#40

Post by galazzah » Mon, Aug 08, 2016, 5:57 PM UTC

I read "The five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom. Sure it might be fictional and meant for a younger audience, but this book really changed the way I think. Really makes you realize that every little interaction you have with someone affects that person for the rest of their lives in one way or another; and vice versa.