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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?

#901

Post by dwighttk »

ph0rque wrote: post #409
p0d wrote: post #258

I read through the bible every year and each time it shapes my thinking. For example, I was reading Exodus this morning about how we should care for the foreigner. I imagine several thousand years ago this was pretty radical. It also seems very relevant today.

I've been listening to the Bible when I drive somewhere almost every day since the beginning of last year. I use Prof. Horner's plan, which divides it into ten lists, and provides a consecutive chapter to read or listen to for each lists. So, ten chapters a day at 1.25x (it sounds like a New York cadence) takes about 25-35 minutes. The YouVersion Bible app makes it automatic for me. The idea is that you get an intens…

does the YouVersion app continue all 10 lists for the full length of the plan? Each list has a different number of chapters and I haven't done the math, but it looks like they aren't going to evenly line back up after 1 or two cycles. Looks like an interesting plan to me, but based on my YouVersion experience it seems like they are probably non-ideal. Obviously you like it, so I'm curious how it works.

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

#902

Post by supersrdjan »

Balgair wrote: post #122
jpollock wrote: post #75

Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" - it changed how I approach teamwork and conversations. It made me aware of how my behaviour was limiting outcomes. :) Frankly, it made me aware that I was being an asshole and that I should change. However, it wasn't necessarily the book, but the course that I found really useful.

A LOT of people are put off by the name of the book. I would highly suggest you not judge Carnegie's book by it's cover. It is filled with brass-tacks advice and concrete examples of how to improve your own life and the lives of others around you. Though the title may seem 'manipulative', the book is anything but that. Consider the title as a marketing gimmick from 1933 and read the book nonetheless.

incidentally, Dale Carnegie didn't write that title. The main title and all the chapter titles were written by an advertising copywriter named Vic Schwab. Arguably the titles made it the publishing phenomenon it is. Schwab also wrote a book that probably changed the lives of many marketers. It's title is "How to write a good advertisement"

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

#905

Post by billfruit »

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 think something similar, and even more scarier is 'The Lord of the Flies'.

Also perhaps 'Watership Down'.

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

#906

Post by rramadass »

wildermuthn wrote: post #619
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…

I use non-violent-communication (NVC) constantly, at work and at home. It basically is a method that forces you to listen and to speak without judgment. But “People Skills” by Robert Bolton is a much more scientific and nuanced approach that I’ve found greater success with. They key is to so ingrain these methods that you are no longer using a method. In the end, you simply really care about what people have to say,…

Humans are "Hard" because they are individuals with their own motivations, drives, capricious emotions and in a word, are not always "rational". I feel most of the books on management/organizations/communications, approach Human Communications from a utopian viewpoint. They assume a path of least resistance and then impose a structured process (fad of the month) to arrive at a positive end goal. I have come to the conclusion that this is all unworkable BS (note books like "Leadership BS", "Bullshit Jobs" etc.) and we need to change our approach completely based on actual realities rather than wishful thinking. To that end i found the following books useful;

The Art of Worldly Wisdom (aka The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence) by Balthasar Gracian - A set of aphorisms with penetrating insight into Human Nature.

Why we do what we do: Understanding Self-Motivation by Edward Deci - A short book from a psychologist.

The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work by Peter Block

Management: A Political Activity by Ted Stephenson

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

#908

Post by YouAreGreat »

scottlocklin wrote: post #232
ndiscussion wrote: post #30

The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. The gene is the unit of replication, and this affects every process in this universe.

Yeah, that was a biggie for me, until I read "Darwinian Fairytales" by David Stove. Everyone who has read Dawkins needs to have a look at this. A philosopher has a look at what Dawkins actually says and realizes it is basically medieval demonology dressed up in pseudoscientific verbiage.

> "Darwinian Fairytales" by David Stove

The search engine coughed up a PDF. I randomly opened it (p. 173) and read up to this author-provided "TL;DR" on p.176:

The main reason, however, for thinking that sociobiology is false, is the simple one I gave at the beginning: that it is obvious that human beings are the most intelligent and capable things on earth. But genes are not human. Therefore (etc.).

Uhhhm. Really?

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

#910

Post by MikeCapone »

saberience wrote: post #635
MikeCapone wrote: post #211

So many, and I wish I could write a long paragraph on each, but I'm unfortunately short on time. I'm posting any in case just one person who hasn't heard of those checks them out and gets value: -Godel, Escher, Bach (Douglas Hosfstadter) -The Mindbody Prescription (John E. Sarno, completely cured my long-term crippling RSI that kept me from using computers and was ruining my life) -Feeling Good (Dr. Burns, cognitive…

The 5 Love Languages is not supported by any scientific research, basically, it's a load of bollocks. It's just the latest self help book to be in vogue.

Lots of things that work aren't supported by scientific research (yet?). It's your choice not to use it, but to claim that something is bollocks probably means that you will never follow what most people tell you about lots of things (where are all the double-blind peer-reviewed studies about how to bake a good cake or write a good novel?).
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