Atlas Shrugged
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Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
91–100 of 225 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#92For me it wasn't a book but NPR's planet money podcast that triggered my foray into reading up on real world economics. It does a great job at pointing at important concepts that are relatable and breaking it down into simpler parts I can pick up at anytime and travel deep into understanding it. Sorry if this is off-topic, but thats what comes to mind when I think of a constant source of highly valuable information (…
I really enjoy Planet Money too. As an economics noob, what type of reading/books do you recommend for one's foray into real world economics?
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#93Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Never really been one to enjoy popular books on philosophy (Alchemist was overrated, Monk who sold his Ferrari cliched, The Secret just boring ...IMO) and picked this up at a used book store. The book truly put a new perspective on life for me. Perhaps it was a combination of the time when I read the book: Undue stress, massive imposter syndrome, that feeling of not moving ahead in life, a…
Perhaps I'm still not at that time and place in my life where I'd appreciate Siddhartha. I found it thoroughly nauseating. And the forced translation of Sanskrit idioms was especially cringe inducing.
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#94The Buddhist Bible. A collection of Buddhist texts collected by a few Beat Generation types.
Anything by John Gottman regarding the four horsemen of the relationship apocalypse. It really pinpointed some serious communication issues I had with romantic partners.
Code. It's what got me here!
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would second the 4-Hour Workweek, yet I am still searching for a profitable idea. How long did it take you from reading the book to reaching the ability to quit your job?
Same. The profitable idea is the hardest thing for me. It seems like everything I think of has already been done before.
With 7+ Billion people on the planet most people have done something similar to any idea. Isn't the point in the book that you can still succeed by creating your own flavor of an idea or selling that idea to a new market?
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#96Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Never really been one to enjoy popular books on philosophy (Alchemist was overrated, Monk who sold his Ferrari cliched, The Secret just boring ...IMO) and picked this up at a used book store. The book truly put a new perspective on life for me. Perhaps it was a combination of the time when I read the book: Undue stress, massive imposter syndrome, that feeling of not moving ahead in life, a…
Perhaps I'm still not at that time and place in my life where I'd appreciate Siddhartha. I found it thoroughly nauseating. And the forced translation of Sanskrit idioms was especially cringe inducing.
I haven't read Siddhartha, and expect I won't like it, but perhaps the Sanskrit idioms translate better into German? (https://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/sanskrit-and-ger...) Did you read the book in German? Or if not, which translation (Wikipedia lists at least six: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siddhartha_(novel...)?
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#97One book is too restrictive to decide. People change, surroundings change, situations change...so would it be with books that have changed us or influenced us.
I'll leave you here not with a book, but with one tiny piece of one tiny book:
The first chapter of "Illusions" by Richard Bach. As with other fantastic works that others have listed here, a distinguishing factor about these impactful or "life changing" works is that you can re-read them countless times and benefit from them anew on every read. This first chapter is one such work for me.
I'm not implying that the rest of "Illusions" is worse than this first chapter (on the contrary, it's great), but this chapter is short, yet so powerful, and best of all, it stands by itself.
Bonus, if you like to read brief but powerful pieces, pick up "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran and read the chapters that interest you. I'd suggest the "On Giving" chapter as a great start.
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#98The divided mind / healing back pain - Books by John E. Sarno. To give you a background I have struggled with back pain all my life. After dozens of MRIs, X rays, physiotherapy, ayurveda, yoga, posture exercises, and spending almost 100,000 in the last 15 years on this, a simple book saved me. The effect was so powerful that I could feel the symptoms fading while I was reading it. It gave me my life back. A few weeks…
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Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#99For me it wasn't a book but NPR's planet money podcast that triggered my foray into reading up on real world economics. It does a great job at pointing at important concepts that are relatable and breaking it down into simpler parts I can pick up at anytime and travel deep into understanding it. Sorry if this is off-topic, but thats what comes to mind when I think of a constant source of highly valuable information (…
I really enjoy Planet Money too. As an economics noob, what type of reading/books do you recommend for one's foray into real world economics?
I'd start with books by Tim Hartford and Richard Thaler and go from there.
Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps I'm still not at that time and place in my life where I'd appreciate Siddhartha. I found it thoroughly nauseating. And the forced translation of Sanskrit idioms was especially cringe inducing.
I haven't read Siddhartha, and expect I won't like it, but perhaps the Sanskrit idioms translate better into German? ( https://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/sanskrit-and-ger... ) Did you read the book in German? Or if not, which translation (Wikipedia lists at least six: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siddhartha_(novel... )?
I read the Hilda Rosner's 1951 English translation. Maybe I'll give one of the newer translations a try.