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

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

#761

Post by joe_the_user »

Society Of The Spectacle, Guy Debord

One can't really summarize the argument. It essentially describes the structure of modern society as it's existed since, say 1960 or early. The text may seem opaque but if you read it closely, you actually need any explanatory texts, though they exist.

Honorable mention: Game Theory Evolving, Herb Ginitus Biochemical Individuality, Roger J. William The Working Brain, Luria Using Your Brain For A Change, Bandler The User Illusion, Norretrander How The Beattles Destroyed Rock And Roll, Elijah Wald Mathematical Logic, Manin The Ascent Of Man, Bronowski The Book Of Secrets, Osho

[1] https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.ht...

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

#762

Post by cypherpunks01 »

Tomte wrote: post #532
ehsanu1 wrote: post #402

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg is an amazing eye-opener. It's a book about how how to interact with your fellow humans in a way that enriches the lives of everyone around you. It's full of things that should be obvious, but in practice are not. You can think of it as a more advanced version of Dale Carnegie's "How to make friends and influence people", with more focus on conflicts, and a specific c…

It drove me up the wall and I didn't finish it. All this "if you answered c, e and f, we are not of the same opinion" feels passive-aggressive to me. The whole thing feels manipulative to me. It makes me think that people try an insincere way of talking to me, in order to manipulate my feelings and reaction. I've had huge discussions with friends who try to live the book, and neither of us could make the other see th…

I found the opposite, that by verbally giving context to feelings it can be a more honest and effective communication. And no, the book does not say you should "only talk about my own perception and feelings" and discourage making direct requests of others in order to ask to cuddle—it merely allows you a helpful framework to communicate feelings around it if communication is difficult. See zestyping's sub-response to a sibling thread.

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

#763

Post by JDDunn9 »

How to Measure Anything, by Douglas W. Hubbard.

When he says anything, he means anything. How to measure the value of a human life, how to estimate things you know nothing about (like the gestation period of an African elephant), and how to get better at measuring things with limited information.

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

#764

Post by xyzwave »

40four wrote: post #707

I can't belive nobody has mentioned "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. To be fair, I'm not a big recreational reader. But this one will always stick out to me. When I read it in college, it had such a profound effect on me, I belive it literally helped shape who I am as a person even to this day Maybe it was right place, right time. It is certainly an impressionable age, but I have read it again as an older man, & it w…

When I initially read this thread I had precisely the same reaction.

Emerson and Thoreau weren’t just naturalists preaching justice. Their Nature is the same Nature Marcus Aurelius refers to in Meditations. Once you put their work in the context of the Trinitarian/Unitarian debate of the early 19th century, you see how deeply they thought about not just civilization, but science and philosophy together.

I’d add to Walden, Emerson’s Nature, and especially his essay Man, the Reformer. In today’s ultra-specialized and mostly-capitalist society, this piece has the power to simultaneously shatter and solidify your identity and sense of worth.

The Transcendentalist practically gave young America its voice following independence. They’re certainly worth revisiting if you only remember Walden as a reclusive pond.

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

#765

Post by kamaal »

scrumper wrote: post #162

Animal 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…

>>I told my English teacher about it and all she told me in response was to go look up the Russian Revolution.

You have to only look at the management hierarchy in your company. Pigs in the Animal Farm novel eat apples.

We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.

Why do you think your bosses get business travel, no limit credit cards, RSU, big bonuses and neat double digit monthly pay check.

It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples.

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

#766

Post by linkmotif »

putzdown wrote: post #615

Maybe trite, but the Bible. For a mind-blowing experience, read Matthew chapters 5–7, and have in mind that the topic is: “what it means for a person to be righteous, or good.” The analysis of the role of moral rules, the place of worry and anxiety in driving us to short-sighted compromise, the tension between “secret” good-doing versus good-doing for public recognition, are all potent, helpful, and life-changing.

Great class if you are into the Bible: https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145. I just listened to it like a podcast.

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

#767

Post by cypherpunks01 »

aphextron wrote: post #326

Ulysses, by James Joyce. It will change your whole conception of what language is and how it can be used. It’s not about the characters or plots; they are recycled from antiquity. It’s about the absolute mastery of interrelation between words and imagery. It is something that has a meaning entirely emergent of its’ own self referential structure, rather than what is being described , in a sense that is almost mathema…

Audiobook version

https://archive.org/details/Ulysses-Audiobook-Merged/

Origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(broadcast)

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

#768

Post by yogeshp »

1. Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension [1]

2. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.[2]

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33426.Hyperspace

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95887.Eat_That_Frog_

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

#769

Post by closeparen »

radicalriddler wrote: post #528
freedomben wrote: post #152

"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…

The problem with just accepting how the world really is, is that it pushes many people into a state of stagnation, never really pushing the status quo. If you refuse to accept the society you live in today, then you have more incentive to change it tomorrow.

An understanding incentive structures and their design is one of the most important tools you'd need to make a significant change.

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

#770

Post by yawaramin »

_cs2017_ wrote: post #696
nikivi wrote: post #7

One book that changed me was reading Master and Margarita in Russian for the first time. It was the first book I started reading I could not put down until the end. Gained a lot of appreciation for literature at that time. The other book that I enjoyed and changed me was ‘The Wisdom of Insecurity’ by Alan Watts. I was a fan of Alan Watts works through his lectures already and it was wonderful to hear his ideas in wri…

Could you share a few quotes or ideas from Master and Margarita that changed how you think? I really liked the book, but mostly because I thought it was funny and had great plot. I fear I missed all the deep wisdom.

> Cowardice was undoubtedly one of the most terrible vices - thus spoke Yeshua Ha-Nozri. 'No, philosopher, I disagree with you: it is the most terrible vice!'

(This is Pontius Pilate's response to Yeshua.) To me this is about staying silent when you see evil being committed. But it doesn't even have to be 'Evil with a big E', it's just about speaking up when you see something that doesn't sit right with your morality.

The other big takeaway for me was about how Margarita threw away all the rules of society to save the Master (her beloved). But she did it for more than just his sake, I think; she certainly took her liberation from society's expectations of women.

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