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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?

#21

Post by henryaj »

lut4rp wrote: post #19
Vanit wrote: post #13

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. Maybe not mindbending, but a must read for us engineers prone to burning the midnight oil.

Careful with this one, the content is controversial and considered unscientific: https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

Damn, I was too late...

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#22

Post by saheb37 »

t-writescode wrote: post #3

Thinking 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!

You might enjoy Undoing Project by Michael Lewis as well, it's like the backstory of Thinking Fast and Slow.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#23

Post by fit2rule »

GlennS wrote: post #17
fit2rule wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this book completely degrading, even to the point of nauseating .. it discounts tens of thousands of years of human experience with describing itself, producing a taxonomic monster that is of very little actual use to the common man beyond providing a convenient excuse for ones failings and for the nature of humankinds more banal spirit. Science can be repressive. Dawkins is a classic example of the iron fist…

I think you may have missed the point? It's not about genes for selfishness.

I didn't get that impression at all. What I walked away from was a feeling of dire unease at the popularity of Dawkins' opinion that human beings are machines that can be broken and manipulated by their environment, and that social scientists can exploit this fact to their own ends, in industry, culture and war. It may be 'true' inasmuch as the fact that applying his theories give predictable results, but even the most heinous oppressors of humankind were capable of such truth. When you remove the human spirit as a factor, eventually all you get is a pile of dirt. That, to me, was ultimately degrading in the end. I don't think modern science is as close to a solution of what makes life, life, as it thinks it is - but probably that's just my genetics, which has predisposed me for an interest in the metaphysical beyond test tubes and beakers ..

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#24

Post by VSerge »

Erich Fromm's "Escape from freedom". It is very well written and the subject matter is truly mind-bending: how can an educated people decide to throw their freedom away and give power to a dictator? E. Fromm was German psychologist, and jewish. He fled to America in the 1930s. He writes with a composite point of view, at the intersection of psychology, sociology, and philosophy, without getting stuck in a narrow analysis, and I think this is what makes this books and others by him so good.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#25

Post by joeberon »

fit2rule wrote: post #23
GlennS wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you may have missed the point? It's not about genes for selfishness.

I didn't get that impression at all. What I walked away from was a feeling of dire unease at the popularity of Dawkins' opinion that human beings are machines that can be broken and manipulated by their environment, and that social scientists can exploit this fact to their own ends, in industry, culture and war. It may be 'true' inasmuch as the fact that applying his theories give predictable results, but even the mo…

Of course it's degrading, but it's true and it's the world we live in. It's okay if you want to put your hands over your ears and keep your eyes closed, but don't expect others to do the same, and don't be surprised when they have a better grip of reality.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#26

Post by code_biologist »

If you're into biology, Nick Lane's books will blow your mind. Two in particular I'd recommend:

1. The Vital Question - An explanation of the genesis of complex life through bioenergetics. Explains why complex life is likely very rare in the universe.

2. Power, Sex, Suicide - Why mitochondria are awesome, and also responsible for the emergence of sex, cancer, and mortality.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#27

Post by fit2rule »

bobosha wrote: post #16
lgas wrote: post #12

I would recommend Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter if you haven't already read it.

TBH I have attempted to read it many times but escapes my feeble mind. GEB is one of those books ...

I always find that the best way to get something out of GEB, which I have consumed a thousand times, is to read it backwards.

;)

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#28

Post by fit2rule »

joeberon wrote: post #25
fit2rule wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't get that impression at all. What I walked away from was a feeling of dire unease at the popularity of Dawkins' opinion that human beings are machines that can be broken and manipulated by their environment, and that social scientists can exploit this fact to their own ends, in industry, culture and war. It may be 'true' inasmuch as the fact that applying his theories give predictable results, but even the mo…

Of course it's degrading, but it's true and it's the world we live in. It's okay if you want to put your hands over your ears and keep your eyes closed, but don't expect others to do the same, and don't be surprised when they have a better grip of reality.

Ah, there you go, exhibiting precisely the moral authority I find repugnant in followers of the Dawkins cult.

What makes it true?

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