Martin Eden by Jack London. Really stressed why education actually matters.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Same.
Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
331–340 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#332Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I had never really thought about investments before, or the difference between assets and liabilities.
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#333I think one book that changed a lot was the Qur'an - it made me an atheist. I don't come from a muslim background but it made me realize, how some religions (well at least the abrahamitic ones) came to be.
I am not a muslim and see multiple sides of islam but you cannot just say- Qu'ran you have to mention the editor as well. (Unless you read the original arabic version).
It matters a lot since I've seen eastern books having hugely varying translations.
For example, an Indian friend of mine tells me that 'I am become God ... ' is a very inaccurate representation of the original hindi text
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#334"Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell. Not an easy read, but it deeply changed the way I think about incentive structures and the law of unintended consequences. It's a tough pill to swallow for people (like myself) who cling to utopian ideas, but the older I get the more I realize we must live in the world as it exists, with human nature as it really is. Dreaming of a better world is counter-productive if one does not…
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt is amazing too - https://mises.org/system/tdf/Henry%20Hazlitt%20Economics%20i...
Downloaded :-)
I also went looking for an audiobook version. Looks like Downpour has it DRM free: https://www.downpour.com/economics-in-one-lesson
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#335Definitely "The Machine That Changed the World" by Womack, Jones, and Roos [0]. This is "the first book to reveal Toyota's lean production system." Before reading it, I had never imagined just-in-time production or value chain mapping, or vehicle assembly lines that can profitably produce quantity one of a product before being reconfigured to produce a different model (SMED: single minute exchange of die). Now I see…
Kaizen seems to be manufacturing's equivalent of agile. Everyone says they do it, but almost no one actually does it because that would mean totally re-configuring their business.
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#336The First and Last Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti.
It changed how I think about identity by showing me the danger of labels, and made me appreciate the beauty of life.
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#337Animal Farm was a really important book for me. I picked it up aged about 10 or 11 and I remember being really struck by how easily the pigs were able to exploit the other animals' grievances with humans to secure their own power. It felt like a grown-up story with some quite powerful, disturbing meanings under the covers. So I told my English teacher about it and all she told me in response was to go look up the Rus…
Does anyone have any recommendations for reading up on the Russian Revolution? Books, videos, or otherwise.
A famous contemporary account is Ten Days that Shook the World. it was written by an American who, it's safe to say, was fairly pro-communist.
But really it's such a pivotal moment in modern history that you're not going to starve for material. It sounds glib, but in this instance you could do worse than start on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#338“The Design of Everyday Things” changed the way I see literally everything. You’ll never look at doors the same way again, and prepare to forever be frustrated by poorly designed objects, and delighted by incredibly well designed ones. There is no better book on the philosophy of UX, imho.
Great book, and you're right, everyone I know who's read it (including me) says the same thing about doors afterwards.
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#339The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
It was the first/only book that put into words feelings I've had for my entire teenage-->adult life around the complexities of a dysfunctional middle class family.
Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?
#340Science, Strategy, and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd,History of Sexuality by Foucault, Methophors to Live By by Lakoff
All of these portray the world as a series of systems. First deals with interconnected systems like war, business, conflict, the second the notion that culture itself is a series of systems of power and sexuality has been used as a system of power, and third that most of our thought can be made from simpler set of blocks i.e metaphors from which we construct almost all of existence.