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

Post by ar_lan » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

ronyfadel wrote: post #137

mke wrote: post #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…

I’m finishing the Four Hour Work Week.. this book just reads like a “get rich quick”/scammy collection of snippets. It’s conflicting at times (“money isn’t the end-all be-all” v/s “how I made 10k$ a month sipping piña coladas”). The only useful takeaway was not to waste your life 1) wasting time and 2) working, which is fair.. but the message is wrapped with so much ego I ended just being annoyed through most of the…

Post by billman » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

andreilys wrote: post #186

stocktech wrote: post #2

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.…

I'm not sure you need to read the whole book to get value out of it. I'm not knocking the idea of NVC, I think it's helpful, however, reading the book it seemed like the author took a great article/blog post and turned it into a meandering book to jack up his speaking fees. You can save yourself the time/money and just read the Wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication

Post by vforissi » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 9:12 PM UTC

Post by theatraine » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 11:57 PM UTC

_conquistador wrote: post #376

theatraine wrote: post #260

Some 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…

I've read all of these except Kochland (just ordered it now) and complete agree. You have great taste! Check out American Kingpin by Nick Bilton for a read somewhat similar to Bad Blood. Do you have any other recommendations?

Post by Intermernet » Tue, Dec 31, 2019, 2:08 AM UTC

ar_lan wrote: post #390

Intermernet wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read 3 different versions of the bible and it converted me from an agnostic to an atheist. I think GP may have been predisposed to religion (or at least to the social aspects of joining a church) as the bible, as interesting as it is, is only as interesting as any other selected and vetted collection of philosophy and story telling. Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam also have very interesting texts worth rea…

> it converted me from an agnostic to an atheist I don't think these are necessarily mutually exclusive, but treating them as if they are, I'm curious why. I would presume your definitions, based on this, that: * agnostic = "I don't know if there is anything" * atheist = "I do know that there is nothing" I have mostly met agnostic atheists, being "I don't know if there is anything, but I believe there's nothing", whe…