"The Self-aware Universe" by Amit Goswami. Opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the world around us, and finding new ways to react to events that affect us. Wish I'd read this when I was much younger - before I had decided with a high level of confidence that I am completely in control of everything I do, all that happens to me and how I react to events. Seeing yourself as a minuscule part of a whole you perhaps will never fathom, allows you to simply focus on doing your best when you can and not get overly possessed with results. One of the many mystic-physics books that were very much in fashion for a while, but the one that stuck to my consciousness the most.
Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
181–190 of 280 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#182Rationality: from AI to Zombies really changed my way of thinking in many ways. It's very hard to describe it or sell it in a few sentences. Partly because it covers so many different things. And partly because I read it so long ago and have already absorbed many of the good ideas in it. They no longer seem exciting and new, and just feel obvious. But they certainly weren't when I first read it. I constantly see plac…
Rationality is good, but I found Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality to be a much more pleasant read about the same topics by the same author. Both books suffer from the same problem, the lack of an editor. They could be half the size and it would make them a much more convincing and entertaining read.
The HP books also suffers a bit from being written one chapter at a time. But at the same time, it's an interesting concept seeing a story evolve that way. I found some of the first chapters a bit long-winded, but after that I think the book found its direction.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#183Rationality: from AI to Zombies really changed my way of thinking in many ways. It's very hard to describe it or sell it in a few sentences. Partly because it covers so many different things. And partly because I read it so long ago and have already absorbed many of the good ideas in it. They no longer seem exciting and new, and just feel obvious. But they certainly weren't when I first read it. I constantly see plac…
Rationality is good, but I found Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality to be a much more pleasant read about the same topics by the same author. Both books suffer from the same problem, the lack of an editor. They could be half the size and it would make them a much more convincing and entertaining read.
So there isn't much new stuff in Rationality that one wouldn't already find in HPMOR, for those who have read the latter?
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#184"How to get what you want", by Raymond Hull. Everything else follows, like a bootstrapping process. Wish I had found it 10 years earlier. Changed my life forever. I could recommend dozens other books, my walls are lined with shelves of books, but you and me are different and all you'd need is this one book to find everything else you'd need to read or do.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#185"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. Technically this book is about how humans interact with things, but actually it covers a lot more topics that one can think: how humans act, err, how they make descisions, how memory works, what are the responsibilities of conscious/subconscious. Also you'll start to dislike doors, kitchen stoves and their disigners)
This book changed how I look at the world. I highly recommend it.
Did it? I'd heard so much about it and I was very disappointed - seemed to be a lot about door knob design (Yes I know it's an example but seemed a bit obvious, maybe it's been absorbed into the design literature so much that it's everywhere now and so the book is no longer surprising)
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would recommend Christians read the Bible for exactly that reason. Christians should be forced to confront the absurdity of their holy book and the psychotic lunacy of the Abrahamic God before deciding not only to base their life and worldview on it, but to raise their children to believe in it and to vote for candidates who enshrine it into law. At the very least, we might have far fewer Christians who insist upon…
> At the very least, we might have far fewer Christians who insist upon Biblical literalism. Many of those who insist on Biblical literalism have already read this stuff. You lose one life. Try again.
>Many of those who insist on Biblical literalism have already read this stuff.
I would argue that many likely haven't, or at least not all of it. There are plenty of Christians who construct a coherent narrative of what the Bible "says" in their heads based on cherry-picking and second-hand interpretation, believing it was inspired, word for word, jot and tittle, Old and New Testaments (in whatever form their church currently accepts[0]) by God Himself. They're told that Jesus was prophesied about in Daniel, and that certain monsters in Revelation represent Apache helecopters, and that everything makes perfect sense because the dots are connected for them.
But if one wants to believe that the world was created in seven literal days, one either has to fudge the definition of "days" (which many do) to account for the actual evidence, and come up with some reason for there being two completely different creation accounts in the Bible, or come to terms with the fact that the Bible is a work of fiction written by fallible human beings to understand their world in ways we understand far better now.
When I was in Sunday School aeons ago, I certainly had more questions about the Bible than answers, and it eventually became clear that the people teaching me had no greater or more profound insight into the nature of reality than I had. There are bound to be others who will read the Bible and start to have doubts that what's described there represents absolute truth. When you read it yourself, it's incoherent and irrational.
But you're right, there are some people you just can't reach.
[0] let's just ignore the numerous Biblical canons in existence, or that awkward period when all non-Latin translations were considered heresy, or that other awkward period when there was no singular canon, only numerous oral traditions and Gospels, many of which were decided after the fact to have not been the Word of God after all...
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#187Non-Fiction: "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, because it changed my understanding of people for the better. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard Feynman, because it gave me a model for how to enjoy life. "Models" by Mark Manson, because it helped shape my understanding of heterosexual relationships. "An Introduction to General Systems Thinking" by Gerald Weinberg, because it illu…
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, because it changed my understanding of people for the better. Absolutely everyone should read this book. I wish it had a better title. "Understanding People" would be an excellent one.
Meanwhile on Google:
Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You
Get you out of a mental rut, give you new thoughts, new visions, new ambitions.
Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
Increase your popularity.
Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#188The bible, cover to cover: if reading western literature or philosophy produced in whatever year A.D., the bible is required reading for comprehending many the references and various rhetorical modes. I'm irreligious from a muslim background myself but I'm reading it now. Same goes for the qoran, my family is not a practicing muslim family and thus I never read it, but it's a part of the canon, must be read. I'm not…
Is it really necessary to read it cover to cover? A lot of it seems quite drawn out, and there seems to be a lot of overlap, particularly between the four gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
Those 4 gospels offer varying perspectives and are worth reading as well. They each offer something different and can be helpful when studying. For example, Luke's account offers insight as to what was going on during the time of Christ's birth(see Chapter 2, the decree from Caesar Augustus) while Matthew starts off with the genealogy of Christ. So I believe that reading cover to cover is worth it.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#189Mini Habits - It gave me a new perspective of how to go about making changes in my life, that aren't so burdensome. I have developed several habits: a. Writing a Gratitude Journal b. Going to Gym in the morning c. Programming in the morning d. Reading in the morning I copied some of my highlights here: http://www.chestergrant.com/26-highlights-from-mini-habits-b...
How long is your morning?! :)
I get up around 4:30. Work isn't until 8:30.
Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?
#190Books that are mentioned multiple times in this thread: The master switch; Sapiens/Homo Deus; How to Win Friends and Influence People; The animal farm; The lean startup; The Bible. Ctrl+F these names in this page for rationale. Is there an "awesome books" repo on Github? I wonder.
There is: https://github.com/hackerkid/Mind-Expanding-Books
I've started to maintain a list of awesome books from HN on my profile here.
http://shelfjoy.com/sia_steel/non-technology-books-that-have...
Currently noting down the ones on this thread.