Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#201

Post by smogcutter » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:04 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #100

How To Measure Anything [1] by Douglas Hubbard. The basic gist of the book goes something like this: in the real world (especially in a business setting) there are many things which are hard to measure directly, but which we may care about. Take, for example, "employee morale" which matters because it may affect, say, retention, or product quality. Hubbard suggests that we can measure (many|most|all|??) of these thin…

Sounds interesting. I’m sure the book covers this, but isn’t this how you wind up with perverse incentives? Once managers figure out that you’re measuring X as a proxy for Y “thing we actually care about” they’re going to start optimizing for X, with potentially unpleasant results.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#202

Post by jdkee » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:07 AM UTC

withparadox2 wrote: post #170

benatkin wrote: post #169

Lila by Robert Pirsig. Everyone knows about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). Lila is not as well known, but it's fun to read if you really enjoyed ZMM. https://www.amazon.com/Lila-Inquiry-Robert-M-Pirsig/dp/05532...

Does it talk about the same thing as ZMM?

Lila delves further in the Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ) which is quite fascinating. His dialogues on static vs dynamic quality coloured my view of the world for years.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#203

Post by nrjames » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:10 AM UTC

West With the Night, by Beryl Markham. It’s a beautiful autobiography about and by a woman who grew up in British East Africa, became a bush pilot, and eventually became the first person to fly across the Atlantic from East to West, departing from Britain.

I recommend not reading the introduction.

https://www.amazon.com/West-Night-Memoir-Beryl-Markham/dp/08...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Markham

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#204

Post by jdkee » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:10 AM UTC

This title may be relatively well-known among the HN crowd, but Interface by Stephen Bury aka Neal Stephenson is an amazingly prescient read. I find it Stephenson's most insightful and critical work that reflects contemporary America.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#205

Post by dwd » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:17 AM UTC

The Journey to the West - Wu Cheng'en

Abridged English translation:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100237.Monkey

In its book form this story is basically unknown in the English-speaking world despite being considered one of four literary classics in Asia. And the 70s TV show that was based on this story was very faithful to the source material, particularly the humour.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#206

Post by perdid0 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:18 AM UTC

Gog by Giovanni Papini.

I read it in Spanish, and apparently it's not the easiest book to find in English, but if you do, it's definitely different.

https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=2493

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#207

Post by 8bitsrule » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:23 AM UTC

carapace wrote: post #136

"Neurospeak" by Robert Masters A psychoactive book, science-based (YMMV). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/897536.Neurospeak - - - - Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" Impossible to categorize, incredibly challenging. Gurdjieff was a genius on the level of Leonardo da Vinci, but where Leonardo studied the outer world, Gurdjieff studied the inner world. This three-volume tome is his effort to encode an…

BT is very challenging, allegorical and for a very select group.

In less time, I'd bet on Ouspensky's Tertium Organum or Fourth Way (or both in that order). Ousp. is more pragmatic/Western, and "self-remembering" can be a valuable exercise anywhere/when.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#208

Post by carapace » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:26 AM UTC

peignoir wrote: post #145

carapace wrote: post #136

"Neurospeak" by Robert Masters A psychoactive book, science-based (YMMV). https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/897536.Neurospeak - - - - Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" Impossible to categorize, incredibly challenging. Gurdjieff was a genius on the level of Leonardo da Vinci, but where Leonardo studied the outer world, Gurdjieff studied the inner world. This three-volume tome is his effort to encode an…

Gurdjieff the cult leader / charlatan? Who used to paint birds in yellow to sell them as canaries? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff I agree he is brilliant but at the same level as the founder of the Scientology or other cult leaders who became awfully rich Talking about a good book to read on cults / religion : https://infidels.org/library/historical/unknown/three_impost...

He wasn't a cult leader nor did he become rich (his fortunes waxed and waned) despite being able to fleece people apparently at will.

The fake canary caper is assumed to be autobiographical, as is the brazen theft of the "IP" of the plaster statue-maker, but the time he almost initiated an orgy and then shook everyone down for donations was reported by a (sympathetic!) eye-witness. It's not included in "Beelzebub's Tales" at any rate.

You don't think L. Ron Hubbard is brilliant do you? I mean "Battlefield Earth" is pretty good (the book not the movie.) To me, comparing Hubbard to Gurdjieff is like comparing Nicholas Taleb to Isaac Newton.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#209

Post by p1esk » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:29 AM UTC

Can you say more about the harmony book? What did you like about it?

Re: Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

#210

Post by ficklepickle » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 2:29 AM UTC

From Nut House to Castle: The Eddy Haymour Story

Non-fiction

Story of a guy with a dream, screwed over by the government. His cousin storms the Canadian embassy in Beirut, demanding Eddy get his day in court. He does, and prevails.

Crazy story that occurred where I grew up, however it was before my time. I had driven past this "castle" a hundred times before I found this book. Every copy is signed by the author.

Here is a recent article detailing the story: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/eddy-haymour-ratt...