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Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

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61–70 of 434 posts

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#61
- Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

- The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake

- Sherlock Holmes: The definitive collection

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A strong upvote for Thinking Fast and Slow. I think it should be required reading in school, or at least parts of it.

Keep in mind that the findings in Chapter 4 have NOT been replicable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Replic...

(Un-replicable.)

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#64
Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it taught me how despite big changes in technology and society and way of living, very little changes when it comes to our personal struggles and concerns; Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, because it helped me realize that in any situation, my attitude is what I always have control over; and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey because it greatly contributed to my mental framework for how to be productive and for this quote, which is probably my favorite of the past decade:

“In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.”

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#65

https://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Lif... Nonviolent Communication. I think it was linked on HN where it caught my attention. This book teaches a great way to communicate, but for me, it has also helped me think about my feelings and how I can communicate those feelings better. I feel more in touch with my feelings and more empathetic as a direct result from following what the book is teaching.…

The co-author of this book is (seems to be) Deepak Chopra who acquired quite a fame for his liberal use of quantum physics terminology (quantum woo-woo) and for producing thoughts and ideas which typically turn out be not very coherent under a closer scrutiny (https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra), i.e. for "sounding deep while saying nothing"

I wonder how his co-authorship affects contents of the book. I bought the book (b/c of this thread, not even looking at the authorship), and I will judge the book based on its contents, but suporting financially a de-facto cult leader of a not very rational movement doesn't sound like a good move from my perspective.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#66
2010 - Outliers, Malcom Gladwell

2011 - In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

2012 - Born to Run, Christopher McDougall

2013 - Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss

2014 - Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon

2015 - Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins

2016 - Black Swan, Nicolas Taleb

2017 - Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman, Richard Feynman

2018 - The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

2019 - Three Body Problem (series), Liu Cixin

These aren’t publishing years, just the year these books transformed me.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole left/right dichotomy is a bugaboo. Politics is the continual friction between individuals and various groupings of people.

> various groupings of people. why isn't left/right a valid grouping then?

The directions lack meaning.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole left/right dichotomy is a bugaboo. Politics is the continual friction between individuals and various groupings of people.

>The whole left/right dichotomy is a bugaboo. Not exactly. Grouping along left/right, conservative/progressive axes is in effect a severe dimensionality reduction, simplifying thousands of metrics of political stance into two neat little clusters. It is technically valid, but overly reductive and forces black/white thinking into the common psyche which itself becomes a source of friction.

The cardinality, not the directionality, is the driver.
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