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Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most overrated" - means that you've heard from a lot of people who liked it a lot more than you, got a lot out of it. I read a lot of movie user reviews on IMDb, and often people rant angrily about incredibly overrated movies, with the impression they're saying something about the movie and not about themselves. Maybe they feel smarter or better than the people who liked it. As if not being able to appreciate someth…

> Anyway, why try to stop people reading a book millions have learnt something from? That was not my intention, to stop someone from reading it. I explicitly said that: > 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.

Sure, I understand. But a comment saying just "I learnt nothing from that book." wouldn't be worth posting on here, not substantive. People talking about overratedness sound like they're on a mission to right a wrong. I appreciated your change of tack; originally I had sentences in my previous comment saying your first sentence read like you wrote it before you read the book, and your third like you wrote it after, but I deleted them. :-)

It is fascinating though how the most common subject in lists like this on here seems to be How to Win Friends and people saying it's great, other people saying it's overrated, not worth reading. Another thing I learnt from those movie reviews was that someone writing about why they love something is usually far more worth reading—is for much better reasons, says more about the thing—than someone not liking it, which often depends on arbitrary personal factors - not being advanced enough to appreciate it, being too advanced, feeling misled by the advertising or word-of-mouth, preferring or being used to a different style etc

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyway, why try to stop people reading a book millions have learnt something from? That was not my intention, to stop someone from reading it. I explicitly said that: > 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.

Sure, I understand. But a comment saying just "I learnt nothing from that book." wouldn't be worth posting on here, not substantive. People talking about overratedness sound like they're on a mission to right a wrong. I appreciated your change of tack; originally I had sentences in my previous comment saying your first sentence read like you wrote it before you read the book, and your third like you wrote it after, b…

I thought about my comment and also yours, you made think about why I wrote this.

I probably want other readers to remind that they should not blindly trust recommendations from HN.

Edit: If everyone agree's on something, new readers will more likely accept the fact that this book is worth buying, but if a few say the opposite, the reader has to evaluate before buying.

I once bought the book 'garry kasparov - how life imitates chess' because of HN reviews, It was probably the worst book I've ever read, full of obvious things.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?

#144
post #4

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."

The book the 48 laws of power is about manipulation which I don't like. I consider Carnegie's book, The 7 habits of highly effective people excellent books to learn how to help other people through win-win situations.
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