Rules:
1. Only one book.
2. Can't be a technical book e.g. 'Programming C' doesn't count.
Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
1–10 of 341 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#2How to win friends and influence people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influen...
I have to keep reminded myself to apply the rules, but very sound advice.
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#3Catch 22. I use Yossarian's behaviour to justify my own.
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#4Think Like a Freak by Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner (authors of Freakonomics) was a recent read that I liked a lot. It distills much of their economic thinking into a collection of meaningful practices. You could read it in a day.
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#5Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
He puts into words concepts of life so close to us yet so foreign sounding that makes us rethink everything in our lives.
When you ask people "What is the opposite of fragile", they usually answer robust, which Taleb proves to be incorrect by introducing a new concept, the Antifragilty. It entangles so many things in economic, academic, science, finances and other systems with several tales from the past revisited with a new lens.
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#6Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein
There were many other books that influenced me, but the concept of a "Fair Witness" stuck with me - specifically, the idea that one should be aware of what is known versus what is inferred.
> Fair Witnesses are prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. As a demonstration, Harshaw asks Anne to describe the color of a house in the distance. She responds, "It's white on this side". Harshaw explains that she would not assume knowledge of the color of the other sides of the house without being able to see them. Furthermore, after observing another side of the house would not then assume that any previously seen side was still the same color as last reported, even if only minutes before.
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#7Tools of titans, Tim Ferris.
Body and mindset hacking from leading thinkers and experimenters, in a concise format
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#8The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, a professor at MIT.
Some might call it a business book. It focuses primarily on teaching readers to use "systems thinking" to turn companies into learning organizations that respond and adapt to change. That's useful advice to those in management positions, but I have to be honest and confess that the chapter on personal mastery changed my life in a big way. It put into words something that I had been thinking and feeling for a long time: namely, that we have the power to change the systems that influence us.
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#9I can't immediately find it right now, but if memory serves, the last time this came up, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" seemed to be the strongest answers.
I have since read, enjoyed, and been influenced by both.
Neither are properly regarded as "non-technology," but I think from your point 2 it's clear that you are just looking to exclude training manual type texts.
Hitchhiker's in particular imparts a lot of great advice for creativity in technical fields, and software in particular, but does it using a fictionalized world with comedic logical oddities.
Another book I'll add, which has some of these properties, is "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins (although take note that this book is highly erotic and explicit).
Re: Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?
#10Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein There were many other books that influenced me, but the concept of a "Fair Witness" stuck with me - specifically, the idea that one should be aware of what is known versus what is inferred. > Fair Witnesses are prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. As a demonstration, Harshaw asks Anne to describe the color of a house in the distance. She responds, "I…
But why not go further with some radical solpsism:
1. Why assume it is a house at all and not a facade?
2. Why assume that your eyes are not defective as to color?
3. Why assume your memory of the word "color" and "white" are correct?
4. Why assume that you heard the question properly?
5. How do you know the meanings of words haven't changed since you learned them many years ago?