A non-tech, non-business recommendation: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera. A beautiful story, told with equal parts philosophy, psychology, and humor, and honestly heartbreakingly beautiful.
This is my suggestion as well.
Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
101–110 of 280 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#102A non-tech, non-business recommendation: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera. A beautiful story, told with equal parts philosophy, psychology, and humor, and honestly heartbreakingly beautiful.
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Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#103The Master Switch : This really puts a lot of things into context, especially if you're in tech industry. It's basically a history of the entire Information Technology, and it's fascinating how same things happen over and over again, pendulums swing back and forth over and over again, and people keep making same mistakes over and over again. Also you can see the larger picture of why some large tech companies make th…
Surprised this isn't higher given the demographics of HN. Another one that felt similar to me, but more focused on mass media specifically and its effect on society, was Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Be warned, you will have a very dim view of the future of humanity if you read all the way through.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#104The compound effect - Darren Hardy.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#105There are some books I keep coming back to when I am "feeling lost and/or hopeless", when my "back is up against the wall and/or feel cornered", when I feel like I have "hit rock bottom" or I just need to "escape reality"... This list contains books I have read/listened to more than a couple times: !For inspiration:! 1. Loosing my virginity (Richard Branson) - Richard Branson's Autobiography. From student magazine to…
Thank you for this awesome comment :-) I'm gonna pick up some of these!
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#106The Holy Bible Start With Why The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Think Like a Freak SmartCuts
I really liked The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck as well. I realized, while reading, that I give far too many, and working on not doing that has made me happy.
Edited for fat-finger syndrome.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Personally, because a thorough understanding of the Bible shows that its teaching is quite different to what is often portrayed in media and in the assumptions of people like myself who had not previously read it. You can take many individual parts of the Bible out of context and make it sound like madness but reading the whole in its entirety has a narrative that many miss. For those raised on the internet and faste…
If you're already christian, I'd recommend not reading the bible cover to cover. I did, and it made me an atheist.
Do you mind explaining why? I'm not looking for a heated argument. I'm just curious what aspects of it drove you away.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#108There are some books I keep coming back to when I am "feeling lost and/or hopeless", when my "back is up against the wall and/or feel cornered", when I feel like I have "hit rock bottom" or I just need to "escape reality"... This list contains books I have read/listened to more than a couple times: !For inspiration:! 1. Loosing my virginity (Richard Branson) - Richard Branson's Autobiography. From student magazine to…
Thanks! Your summaries are really helpful.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#109Eric Hoffer, The True Believer. You will see applications for the principles in this book in all aspects of society and politics. Easy to read and unassailable insight into what makes people join a common cause.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#110Philosophy/Psychology: The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, / Julian Jaynes. Hard to tell if crazy or genius, but well worth a read. Read at 38, wish I had read this at 20 or so. Most of us take our inner voice for granted, but should we really? And what if there was evidence supporting the idea that there's another inner voice, but our modern upbringing suppresses it (but it does reapp…
Regarding Julian Jaynes, I also read the book, do you know that the Westworld series touches on his views directly? For more about inner voices, you might like this article http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/a-mental-disease-by-any-o... and the books by Malidoma Patrice Some.
Snowcrash also plays heavily with Jaynes' ideas, as does Embassytown.