91–100 of 185 posts
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind , by Shunryu Suzuki I was 19 and living in a van, camping under bridge overpasses in Colorado so I could just ski all day every day. My naive uneducated mind was formulating some sort of psuedo-hippy philosophy around the state of ecstasy reached in the perfect ride down a mountain through powder. Little did I know the "no-thought" mantra I had been inculcating was just a pale impression of…
Reading of Kevin Mitnick's exploits and benign (to me) curiosity was inspiring as I was testing out my own hand at hacking and social engineering in college. His approach to SE allowed me to get over the fear of dealing with individuals in my job hunt and to generally see people more as people (strangely enough).
The book is full of excellent anecdotes on the joys and consequences of sincere curiosity. To this day it still inspires me to ask "What is behind x/ if I push/pull/turn/fuzz this x" and "What happens if I just ask for x"
Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt. It's old but many of the lessons he teaches are still relevant today. It opened my eyes to the danger of only thinking about the things that are easily observable, and ignoring the "unseen" things. > The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely f…
This is one of those books where if you know only a little about economics after reading it you'll know even less. Economics in one lesson is heavy on rhetoric and light on substance. The lesson is "look for hidden externalities". Which is by itself totally fair: we should indeed be mindful of externalities. However when dealing with complex sociological questions there are always negative externalities and the case…
How can he propose to do something about what's not understood? Both action or inaction have consequences and those consequences once understood would motivate a new action or inaction. I'm not criticizing, I ask this because I didn't understand well the argument in its abstract form.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
"A Guide to the Good Life" by William Irvine. It's an approachable guide to stoicism and it helped me become less attached and less anxious about things that I have no control over. I really value the increased peace of mind. I took a lot of notes when I first read the book ( https://booknotes.quora.com/Notes-on-A-Guide-to-the-Good-Lif... ) and I still revisit them occasionally. (The notes don't replace reading the b…
I have always had a little bit of the spiritual side to me, but in the last ten years I have come even more to appreciate both the philosophy of stoicism and Buddhist teachings, which have a huge amount of overlap in my opinion.
This book is pure gold, however one has to approach it with a right mindset. It's not the best literature, per se, you will ever read, but if you take a deeper look, it's very simple, yet very profound. It somehow reminds me of the quote from Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett long time associate, and one of the wisest man alive) - "Take a simple idea, and take it seriously"
The Inner Game of Tennis. My coach gave me his copy from like 1998 that was very, very worn and I could tell he had read it many many times. He was a badass, grew up in South Central, would ride his bike to nicer areas of LA where there were tennis courts, and just hit against the wall until someone else would show up & he’d ask to play with them. Ended up playing in High School, and getting a full ride to a DI colle…