121–130 of 144 posts
Here's a brand new one, from a famous history podcaster, Mike Duncan of The History of Rome fame. The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic It would have been great if everyone had read this in the 80s, 90s, 2000s... An under-analyzed period of Roman history.
"Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, Second Edition The book changed the course of my life. It allowed me to build a sustainable business, that at some point became my full-time job. The magic of that book comes from the fact that it allows you to gradually develop a compassion. For your customers, prospects and all other living beings in this world. Having that compassion embedded, you start to see a lot of subtle t…
Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people. The book had opened my mind on how people react to criticism. Human Relationships, Steve Duck. Relationships are so important in life, and not at all obvious for everyone, yet we are all left to ourselves on them.
I wish I could live more by the insights of this book. also given its content the real title should be "How to win friends and manipulate people."
It's funny how western (probably American) HNers are mentioning the "how to succeed everywhere" books all over this thread. This is silly, methinks. I would mildly suggest those people to take a bit wider look at where they live and why they consider those books important to be read as early as possible. For me, I don't regret about not having read anything, I'd rather regret about having read too much and nothing su…
But it's so true that the entire trend amongst my peers (and the greater North American) attitude towards "life hacking" and "self optimization" is becoming overkill. This is an article I recently read that articulates really well on this whole cultural focus of "how to succeed" books:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/improving-ours...
Some quotes: "In our current era of non-stop technological innovation, fuzzy wishful thinking has yielded to the hard doctrine of personal optimization. Self-help gurus need not be charlatans peddling snake oil. Many are psychologists with impressive academic pedigrees and a commitment to scientific methodologies, or tech entrepreneurs with enviable records of success in life and business. What they’re selling is metrics. It’s no longer enough to imagine our way to a better state of body or mind."
"There is a great deal of money to be made by those who diagnose and treat our fears of inadequacy; Cederström and Spicer estimate that the self-improvement industry takes in ten billion dollars a year."
How to Read a Book - Mortimer Adler
How to Read Slowly - James Sire
The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people. The book had opened my mind on how people react to criticism. Human Relationships, Steve Duck. Relationships are so important in life, and not at all obvious for everyone, yet we are all left to ourselves on them.
From my standpoint, this is one of the most overrated books of all times. I stopped reading it somewhere in the middle because it did not tell me anything new at all. I understand we are all different and have our strengths and weaknesses, what is totally obvious to you is probably a new concept to me.
However, I think the important point of the book is that Carnegie succinctly collects a small number of behaviors that will improve your social life if you apply them. So you might not learn something new in the book, but hopefully it will teach you to focus on these known things instead.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, in most fields of employment, measure of merit is either hard or downright impossible. Hence, people have to invest a ton of time into creating an illusion of superior competence. Just look at developers - nerd-posturing discussions in the office, chasing latest frameworks, faking passion by doing open-source commits etc. It's a sad world we live in.
Never said that merit was purely based on work. I'm just saying the West doesn't have positions that are based on how close you are to the king, family connections, caste, or other mystical reasons. The funny thing that I've gotten in response is that people seem to believe that merit is only based on how your technical skills are. That's just one part of the job in the tech field.
It's funny how western (probably American) HNers are mentioning the "how to succeed everywhere" books all over this thread. This is silly, methinks. I would mildly suggest those people to take a bit wider look at where they live and why they consider those books important to be read as early as possible. For me, I don't regret about not having read anything, I'd rather regret about having read too much and nothing su…
Agree with comments re: books are invaluable sources for one to experience, learn and empathize etc. But it's so true that the entire trend amongst my peers (and the greater North American) attitude towards "life hacking" and "self optimization" is becoming overkill. This is an article I recently read that articulates really well on this whole cultural focus of "how to succeed" books: https://www.newyorker.com/magazi…
I think the problem we're facing is not in itself the desire to improve ourselves. Rather, it's doing it with the wrong focus and for the wrong reasons.
I found this quote from the article illuminating: "Spicer reflects that he has spent the year focusing on himself to the exclusion of everything, and everyone, else in his life." There is nothing inherently bad about improving your diet, working on your physical fitness or boosting your self-discipline. Becoming healthier and more productive can be worthy goals, but if they cause you to forget the people around you, they are the wrong goals. Self-improvement that is limited to the self is nothing but glorified egocentrism. We can become better athletes, better workers, better anything; but if we don't become better friends/neighbours/partners while we're at it, it won't make us better people.
Secondly, the reasons why we wish to improve ourselves. This is something I cannot talk about without reference to my Christian faith, because the two are deeply intertwined. For my faith tells me that I am not perfect and never can be on this earth, but that that is all right, because God loves me just as I am. At the same time it tells me that God loves me too much to let me stay the way I am, that He has given me an incredible potential that I can develop and that I can work on my imperfections knowing that He will help me. Therefore, when I read books or form habits to improve myself, I am not doing so because I need to, but because I can. I don't have to prove anything to anybody, but I can joyfully grow and develop in areas in which God has given me a greater potential than I have currently reached.
"Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, Second Edition The book changed the course of my life. It allowed me to build a sustainable business, that at some point became my full-time job. The magic of that book comes from the fact that it allows you to gradually develop a compassion. For your customers, prospects and all other living beings in this world. Having that compassion embedded, you start to see a lot of subtle t…
You specifically mention the second edition of the book. Is there a particular reason you would not recommend the "revisited" third edition? I'm not sure if you're actively recommending against it, or if you're just recommending the edition you happened to read.
The reason for that is added chapters about mobile usability. That addition made the book a bit noisier and somewhat hard to follow.