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Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#211

Post by odonnellryan »

camjohnson26 wrote: post #57

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. As a teenager it gave me an intellectual basis for my faith and helped me see it could be defensible. Darwin's Doubt by Stephen Meyer. If God exists methodological naturalism can't be completely true. This book helped me see that there's still areas science can't fully explain, like the information explosion of the Cambrian Explosion. Please don't burn me at the stake.

I'd just like to point out that there's a big difference between things that we currently can't explain using rational methods and things that rational methods will never be able to explain.

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#212

Post by chauhankiran »

eric24234 wrote: post #192
madmax108 wrote: post #49

Siddhartha 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…

Hindu god Ganesha was created to curb Buddhism and thats why Buddhism is not famous in india.

Ganesha was way before ( even before Krishna ) Buddha. So, not sure from where you get this to info.

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#213

Post by rocannon »

phaus wrote: post #206
hallz wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That might be the point. I didn't make it that far because after what seemed like 60 pages of the author talking about how he's naturally a world class performer at pretty much everything he's ever tried to do in his entire life I got tired of the bullshit time-share salesman style of writing. Where does the actual advice start? This book is recommended pretty much every time someone asks a similar question, I might…

I think the book is worth reading. His inspiration for writing 4HWW was his experience running a supplement business, which he later sold - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Ferriss#Career

Prior to reading the book, I had a retire-early mindset. My idea was to work hard at high paying jobs and save a lot so I could retire early. After reading the book, I had the idea to create multiple streams of income in order to achieve the goal of retiring early.

Others have mentioned that it's not easy to find a lifestyle business that earns you enough income to live off of, and I've also had that problem. However, I've had partial success. I don't think I'd have ever pursued this path without reading 4HWW. It's not an instruction manual, though.

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#215

Post by amorphous »

superasn wrote: post #198
amorphous wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean this lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p20QhBz-Tik ?

It's here (1). Starts around 10 min mark. It's the one he used to give to people who he attended to personally I think. (1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPV-UbSH3KU

thanks!

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#216

Post by briankirby »

hood_syntax wrote: post #134
camjohnson26 wrote: post #57

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. As a teenager it gave me an intellectual basis for my faith and helped me see it could be defensible. Darwin's Doubt by Stephen Meyer. If God exists methodological naturalism can't be completely true. This book helped me see that there's still areas science can't fully explain, like the information explosion of the Cambrian Explosion. Please don't burn me at the stake.

Although I'm not as religious as I used to be, I still highly regard 'The Screwtape Letters'. CS Lewis is an excellent writer.

I'm not religious at all and still loved 'The Screwtape Letters'. I recently found myself reminded of TSL while watching 'The Good Place'. It's not of nearly the same depth as TSL but plays with some of the same concepts.

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#217

Post by timtas »

Entangled wrote: post #46

"For a New Liberty" by Murray Rothbard, not only solidified my understanding of power, politics and the state already explained in "Anatomy of the State" by the same Rothbard, but also opened my mind about the eternal struggle between power and liberty, aggression and defense, the essential traits of life in the whole universe.

This is a very impactful book, but challenging for those new to the topic. I would recommend reading his "The Ethics of Liberty" first.

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#218

Post by timtas »

The Law by Frédéric Bastiat [1]

Weighing in at 75 pages, you can read this 176 year old classic in a weekend. For some reason Locke's Second Treatise on Government made it into the canon as the be-and-end-all of the classical liberal political philosophy, and this masterwork was overlooked. Just read it.

[1] https://mises.org/library/law

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#219

Post by lalitctae »

madmax108 wrote: post #49

Siddhartha 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…

We read Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha) story in 8th standard (CBSE) in India.

Re: Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life?

#220

Post by dorkwood »

dorchadas wrote: post #76
tmaly wrote: post #33

Earlier 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.

In the book, Tim Ferris makes his money by selling phoney brain supplements to golfers. That's not a new idea, but it's a profitable one.

I think part of the reason I'll never have a great deal of money is that the idea of tricking someone into buying a useless product makes me uncomfortable. As does adding more plastic and trash into the world.

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