Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep in mind that the findings in Chapter 4 have NOT been replicable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow#Replic...
For a book of 38 chapters, that’s not half bad!
Indeed, it's only 1/38 bad.
Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
251–260 of 434 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha, no. You don't get a free pass of some single shared reality. There is an infinite bunch of realities, and the one you see is defined by your own experience only. In other words, what you perceive is what that you are. Or that you can't perceive that what you can't accept. Hat tip to Douglas Adams who described this idea that obvious.
Haha, no to you. Except that the majority of people perceive realities that are highly, highly similar indicating that they are all perceiving a singular thing outside of their own experience. There's a reason why people who deviate too far from the norm get locked up. There's also a reason why you understand the reality that I am describing to you right now. Likely because we are both perceiving the same thing. In o…
You have heard of witnesses supposedly seeing the same event but having profoundly different interpretations haven't you? They believe them fully but what they see changes based on genetics, culture, history of the person. There are as many realities as there are people.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#253Probably Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger or Prometheus Rising back in 2010. The “reality tunnel” concept has defined much of my personal and intellectual exploration of the past 10 years. “ When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented. We tend to think they are mad, or that they are crooks trying to con us in some way, or…
I truly believe there is a shared reality separate from our experiences. The further you are from that reality the more "stupider" you actually are. It's not all apples and oranges. Some people are right some people are wrong and some things are better than other things.
Robert Pirsig used the word "mythos" to describe this in Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.
To quote:
The mythos-over-logos argument points to the fact that each child is born as ignorant as any caveman. What keeps the world from reverting to the Neanderthal with each generation is the continuing, ongoing mythos, transformed into logos but still mythos, the huge body of common knowledge that unites our minds as cells are united in the body of man. To feel that one is not so united, that one can accept or discard this mythos as one pleases, is not to understand what the mythos is.
There is only one kind of person, Phaedrus said, who accepts or rejects the mythos in which he lives. And the definition of that person, when he has rejected the mythos, Phaedrus said, is "insane." To go outside the mythos is to become insane.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#254Second-most would be `this naked mind` by Annie Grace (wrt: alcohol).
Edit: Crud, `why we sleep` was easily my first, but I'm now digging into the potential debunking of it.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#255The Count of Monte Cristo - This is one breathtaking epic. I have been putting off reading this novel for quite some time and occasionally see this name popping up in HN too, but never gave a serious thought for giving it a go. Was I wrong! This is an epic in its true sense, and you will feel a sense of amazement as you progress through the novel. I'm quite a reader, and I have not experienced such amazement when rea…
Completely agree for the Count of Monte Cristo, but wanted to add that I had a similar experience more recently with Shogun (James Clavell) which I found equally inescapably immersive.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#256The Count of Monte Cristo - This is one breathtaking epic. I have been putting off reading this novel for quite some time and occasionally see this name popping up in HN too, but never gave a serious thought for giving it a go. Was I wrong! This is an epic in its true sense, and you will feel a sense of amazement as you progress through the novel. I'm quite a reader, and I have not experienced such amazement when rea…
Which translation (if so) of "The master and Margarita" have you read? It's on my to read list for some time but when it's time to pick it up, i'm always turned off from finding the right one.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#257Dune and Lord of the Rings. Both have such detail to their worlds that is rarely done well in other works. On top of the world building, I enjoyed the internal struggles that both Paul and Frodo had to go through to become better people and achieve their goals
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Factfulness and Enlightenment Now utterly transformed my outlook on life and the state of the world. These two books turned me from a cynical complainer into an optimist. Cannot recommend them highly enough.
Noticed multiple recommendations of Factfulness and decided to read a sample from Amazon. While I'm fully onboard with the material, the writing style put me off: it felt very egocentric and self-congratulatory.
Strange. That’s not how it came across to me.
Maybe checkout some of his ted talks to get started: https://www.ted.com/speakers/hans_rosling
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#259The Three Body Problem Changed the scale I perceive existence
An epic story that goes far beyond hard sci-fi. The 3 book series takes a bit of time to finish, but is well worth it.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#260Some great books have already been mentioned but those which were the most personally influential which haven't yet been mentioned:
- Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Kochland by Christopher Leonard
- Masters of Doom by David Kushner
I read a lot of "business consultant" books and began to be annoyed with them since many of them can be summed up by the title and the first couple of chapters.
I like the books above because they presented factual events that allow you to draw your own conclusions.
I especially like Schwarzenegger's book and Bad Blood because of their depth. It was interesting to hear about Schwarzenegger's crazy business ideas like how he became a millionaire before becoming an actor and how he bought a 747.
I found the audiobook "Master's of Doom" (book is 2003 but audiobook is newer) to be really entertaining as it was read by actor Wil Wheaton who did a great job.