I'm looking for mind games, plot twists, brain expanding books, and literally anything that transforms me into a smarter, wiser person.
Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
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Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#2Asimov’s Foundation and Robots series. Images and stories from those still pop into my head randomly decades later, and bits and pieces appear throughout pop culture. From the original trilogy up to Foundation’s Edge would be a good portion size.
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#3Thinking Fast and Slow. I recommend this to absolutely everyone. It’s a huge study on how everyone thinks, even when they think they’re above thinking like that. Truly amazing!
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#4For serious thought: anything by Krishnamurti :)
Jorge Luis Borges is the man for fiction.
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#5"The Magus" by John Fowles
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#6The Codex Seraphinianus. It's basically knowledge structure without content, because it is, by design, incomprehensible. Makes you think about hypothesis-making, information design, and simple intellectual humility.
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#7I confess 'mind games' and 'plot twists' don't correlate to my personal notions of wisdom. Googling 'books wisdom' turns up a lot. My one sentence bit of wisdom is currently from Charlie Munger: "I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do."
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#8The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. It describes what science believes life to be, and it can be very upsetting. Understanding it, however, made me a more confident and happier person than I was before.
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#9Guns, Germs and Steel.
Actually, any well researched history book. View on the world gets changed drastically, and usually for better.
Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?
#10Nausea, J.-P. Sartre