Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#541

Post by habosa » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

A few fiction choices:

  * The Alchemist - the closest thing in my life to a religious text.  Just a beautiful story that I can recall at any time for some calm.

  * Desert Solitaire - just read this recently and it gave me an entirely new outlook on the relationship between humans and nature. 

  * Don Quixote - I was blown away by how a book that is ~600 years old could make me laugh and keep me interested.  Changed how I think about people 'a long time ago' since they could enjoy the same books I do.

  * House of Leaves - this one just split open my brain in an irreversible way, sort of like how you hear people describe certain drugs.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#542

Post by admirethemeyer » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

I know this is a recent book but it got me to think about personal, religious, and government motivations from a different perspective.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#543

Post by RoboTeddy » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

'The Power Broker' by Robert Caro is ostensibly a biography, but it's actually about how power works. The protagonist starts out employing idealistic methods, but falls flat on his face, and comes to delight in any means of achievement. I found that once I understood the protagonist's raw goal-seeking, and the dynamics that emerge from it, I started to recognize similar dynamics at many levels of society and government.

Barack Obama read it at 22 and said it was mesmerizing and that it shaped how he thinks about politics.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#544

Post by Nerada » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:45 PM UTC

akinsketch wrote: post #374

"Deep Work" by Cal Newport. It completely changed how I view my work, and how I spend my time, more than any other generic self-help book I've come across. It isn't the usual "delete Facebook, and everything will be fine" blog post. The main take-away for me is making a well-defined separation between "busy"/"shallow" work and "deep" work. This takes the form of spending long, uninterrupted periods engaged in deep wo…

I'm actually reading through his "How To Become a Straight-A Student" right now. Nothing particularly profound, but the task tracking method is definitely helping me stay on-top of college work while having a full-time job at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#545

Post by lolptdr » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:46 PM UTC

intellectronica wrote: post #354

Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse Beautiful book, full of wisdom. It's short but I had to read it multiple times (and I'll probably read it many times more, each time discovering something new and deeper and relevant to my current state of play).

Awesome, was hoping this book would show up. I only had to read the first 2 pages to know the whole of my philosophy summed up. It is not easy to read since it requires many analogous references to really apply it, but worth the effort. Definitely re-readable.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#546

Post by bodzio2019 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:48 PM UTC

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Changed my point of view on ... everything.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#547

Post by IMAYousaf » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:51 PM UTC

As a child, Roald Dahl had a profound impact on me. His autobiographies Boy and Going Solo made me want to explore the world more.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#548

Post by acabal » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:52 PM UTC

pmoriarty wrote: post #120

LyndsySimon wrote: post #47

Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. Bottom line: judge your success in life by how well you make your decisions, not by your outcome. You have full control of your decisions, and often no control at all over their results.

If you enjoyed Marcus Aurelius, you'd probably enjoy reading Seneca. "On The Shortness of Life" [1] is my favorite work of his, though there are many other gems among his letters. [1] - https://tripinsurancestore.com/4/on-the-shortness-of-life.pd...

I'm a big Seneca fan. You can read all of Seneca's dialogues, including "On the Shortness of Life", for free at Standard Ebooks: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/seneca/dialogues/aubrey-st...

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#549

Post by vermaden » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:53 PM UTC

There are two such books:

* Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

* Discipline Equals Freedom by Willink Jocko

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#550

Post by acabal » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:55 PM UTC

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #344

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this one yet: "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion", by Jonathan Haidt [0]. This book fundamentally changed how I think about religion and politics. It helped me understand a lot of behaviors which I'd previous considered absolutely incomprehensible. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Relig...

I just finished reading this and it is definitely incredible. It put in to words the many jumbled and foggy thoughts I've been having on the subject for a long time. I feel as if I can perceive people's motivations so much more clearly now, and so many people's apparently contradictory behaviors are suddenly explained and obvious. Fantastic and very important book.