Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#211

Post by abalashov » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:15 PM UTC

I wish I had read Real World Divorce, much of which can be found on realworlddivorce.com. It's notable for the fact that Philip Greenspun is a major contributor to it, which I found most surprising and intriguing.

I don't want to duplicate a lot of text, so I'll link to my Amazon review of it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2UKHDY7L4NPSV/re...

TL;DR it's the only bit of literature I've found that's got the real talk, and in data-and-comparison driven ways hackers will appreciate.

Yeah, obviously I'm going through a divorce, but I really think this book should be required reading for anyone before they get married in the US. I don't say that lightly or confer that kind of veneration unto books at the drop of a hat.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#212

Post by xaedes » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

gkya wrote: post #199

xaedes wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a passage (Revelation 8) that could very well describe a nature catastrophe instead of godly will. Also other stuff like Job 26:10 ("He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.") which describes day/night boundary on earth quite well. That made me think. What if there is other stuff that could actually be related to secular events and knowledge. And so I star…

Myth is science. It's how people transferred knowledge from generation to generation, and it's always based on observations of the world. Thing is though, in the ancient times they didn't have the access we started to have in the last centuries into the structure of things, so all they could do was to interpret that which they saw and that which they learned through earlier myths. Dismissing religion and myths as fai…

Equating myth and science will focus discussion on that statement. But the important part comes after that first statement:

Myth and religion are the giants that todays science is standing on.

"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." -- Newton

Todays universities where born out of the church. I will just gonna quote wikipedia[1] here: "These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools, and it is difficult to define the exact date at which they became true universities, although the lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe held by the Vatican are a useful guide."

Dismissing our past is certainly not the way to go.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#213

Post by SirLJ » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

ballooney wrote: post #201

SirLJ wrote: post #39

I wish as a kid I had access to the following: "More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite" https://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Than-God-Relations/dp/0143... Market Wizards, Updated: Interviews With Top Traders https://www.amazon.com/Market-Wizards-Updated-Interviews-Tra... The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders https://www.amazon.com/New-Market-Wizards-Conversations-Amer..…

I've noticed (as a non american) that every single book I see in american airport book shops (at least the sort of business/self-help ones which seem to constitute 95% of american airport book shops) follow this exact title style: $PITHY_PHRASE: $MEANDERING_SUBTITLE_THAT_IS_A_BIT_TOO_LONG It's very unimaginative.

must be some sort of publisher's fad, but a great observation indeed :-)

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#214

Post by alexilliamson » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:39 PM UTC

"The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" By Peter Frankopan. This book tackles essentially all of human history, tying together the world's major cultural shifts with the socioeconomic forces that brought them to pass. For readers who have implicitly come to believe that the center of the world has always been Western Europe (I had), this book will greatly shift your perspective (Eastward). I've never learned so much from a book, and damn is it entertainingly written.

"Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with bits and pieces of GTD methodology, but I encourage you to check out the full text. There are a lot of great ideas in there there that I didn't find reading online about GTD. I have been a serious GTD user for more than a year now, and I feel amazingly more in control of my life. Everything I've done in that time - from planning my wedding, to projects at work, to completely organizing my house - has gone smoother than I can remember projects going ever before.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#215

Post by raybb » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:43 PM UTC

alexilliamson wrote: post #214

"The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" By Peter Frankopan. This book tackles essentially all of human history, tying together the world's major cultural shifts with the socioeconomic forces that brought them to pass. For readers who have implicitly come to believe that the center of the world has always been Western Europe (I had), this book will greatly shift your perspective (Eastward). I've never learned so…

I'm thinking about getting the GTD book now that you've mentioned it.

Any chance you could give a TLDR?

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#216

Post by raybb » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:52 PM UTC

kahlonel wrote: post #86

tmaly wrote: post #49

4 Hour Work Week, it gave me some perspective on the 9-5 job I wish I had given more thought to earlier in my life when I had more time. 80/20 principle, while mentioned in the 4 hour work week, it really has a lot more to offer in the book. How you should go about leveraging your time. There was a real gem in there about how books are really the best way to acquire knowledge and a great way to approach reading in th…

I was going to mention this book. Glad you did it :) Totally changes your perspective towards success.

Is this this book you guys are talking about?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368593.The_4_Hour_Workwe...

The reviews seem pretty mixed but I might pick it up just to see for myself.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#217

Post by watwut » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 2:57 PM UTC

i336_ wrote: post #121

aisofteng wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You imply that emotional intelligence and reasoning ability are a tradeoff. They aren't.

Woops, that was unintentional. Although... now I think about it... when I'm anxious (I have reasonably mild but fairly broadly scoped anxiety), I can become more emotional/instinctive/reactive to things, and my ability to reason can be greatly impacted as well. So I do think there is some indirect correlation, in practice.

Emotional intelligence does not imply that you are driven by emotions. It imply that you understand them, which makes it easier to control how you react.

Someone who is emotional is not displaying emotional intelligence at that moment.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#218

Post by Joeri » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 3:03 PM UTC

qb45 wrote: post #183

Joeri wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There is more in rationality, but nothing you'd terribly miss, at least IMHO.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#219

Post by i336_ » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 3:08 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #217

i336_ wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woops, that was unintentional. Although... now I think about it... when I'm anxious (I have reasonably mild but fairly broadly scoped anxiety), I can become more emotional/instinctive/reactive to things, and my ability to reason can be greatly impacted as well. So I do think there is some indirect correlation, in practice.

Emotional intelligence does not imply that you are driven by emotions. It imply that you understand them, which makes it easier to control how you react. Someone who is emotional is not displaying emotional intelligence at that moment.

I definitely agree with you there.

Often when I feel certain ways, I don't have reference points to mentally articulate how I'm feeling - if I even have the ability to consciously distinguish the feeling and highlight it. That shuts down a lot of internal dialog and analysis before it has the chance to take place.

When I'm anxious, my thinking is clouded across the board, which makes this weakness all the more apparent.

I wonder if there are any books out there that specifically help to instil an understanding of the nuances in emotional processing.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#220

Post by dinosaurs » Sun, Jun 04, 2017, 3:12 PM UTC

On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

I read it at 18 and I wish I had read it way earlier. It taught me to be mad, to live life, to get out and see the world. But looking back at it, it also taught me how to be responsible and how to not to be a jerk.

It, above all, showed me what beautiful writing is.