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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?

#291

Post by throw1234651234 »

tgb wrote: post #105
bemmu wrote: post #100

"Permutation City" by Greg Egan is mind-bending in a way similar to The Matrix, except taken up a few notches. Explores the consequences of consciousness being just a pattern. Would it continue if the pattern is paused? Seems yes, since we survive being unconscious. So we move in space and time, but still consciousness feels continuous. What if you pause it, destroy it, recreate it somewhere else. Would it not contin…

Greg Egan's an impressively good author even though he's writing about the kinds of sci-fi setups that usually come hand-in-hand with bad dialogue and poor characters. I actually think Quarantine is my favorite of his that I've read so far, though the sci-fi parts are less strong than Permutation City, some of it's philosophical aspects about identity feel like they're more immediately relevant. Also take a trip to h…

Right, he came highly recommended, but he is just boring. His stories exist to present a sci-fi concept, not be a good story. Same as Neal Stephenson's later work, which is a tragedy.

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

#292

Post by poulsbohemian »

giu wrote: post #200
enitihas wrote: post #88

Highly recommended for everyone: "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahenman. If you have difficulty interacting with people 1. How to win friends and influence people (Easy read) 2. Seven habits of highly effective people (Harder read) To learn how to write well: On writing well To understand how large products are made: Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT

I have a conflicting relationship with "How to Win Friends and Influence People," and maybe some of you may relate to this. Disclaimer: I only read a small, initial part of the book, and I'll explain the reasons behind this. For one, I liked the initial parts of it; for example, remembering first names is a nice and very attentive thing to do, and in general people appreciate it when I can remember their first name a…

It's probably been 32 years since I read How to Win Friends, but my take on it was that it is like many things we learn throughout life - first we model, they we practice, finally we make it part of our nature, and eventually we achieve mastery.

I didn't come away with the impression that the techniques are intended to be used in a hollow, phony way, so much as to show the reader a set of steps to get started toward genuinely showing interest in other people.

Not everyone can jump right in to Siddhartha or Zen and the Art or some of these heavier books that might take people out of their default self-absorption towards greater awareness of other people and their needs, but Carnegie wrote something that is easy to access and get people started down a path.

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

#293

Post by chimprich »

nicbou wrote: post #211
mjberg01 wrote: post #127

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig takes you deep into the philosophy on what is 'quality'. Once you see it you can't unsee it. A powerful excerpt from the book: 'So the thing to do when working on a motorcycle, as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one’s surroundings. When that is done successfully then everything else follows natura…

Despite all the praise it got, I really struggled with that book. I hated it so much that I had to check if I didn't pick the wrong book by accident. I found that it's a very polarising book. It's life-changing for some, and garbage for others. There were a few insightful passages, but most of the book was pretentious rambling. It was difficult to understand what the author was even trying to say, with his head so fa…

I thought it worked as a story, but the philosophical insights of it were either junk or too subtle for me to understand.

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

#294

Post by wigl »

enitihas wrote: post #88

Highly recommended for everyone: "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahenman. If you have difficulty interacting with people 1. How to win friends and influence people (Easy read) 2. Seven habits of highly effective people (Harder read) To learn how to write well: On writing well To understand how large products are made: Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT

Thinking, Fast and Slow is good if you like pop-sci, but has aged like milk if you are into the science.

I respect Kahneman for walking back some of his claims since but he needs to publish a revision.

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

#296

Post by bobyfyfy »

Lavery wrote: post #197

House of Leaves is a great novel. Will feel like a completely fresh take on narrative form. Infinite Jest is also great, if you haven't read it. It gets a lot of bad press mostly due to being fetishized by a particular type of insufferable person. The book has its flaws, but is a great piece of writing and (depending how old you are, where you are in life, etc) may offer a different lens. Also, the writing is excelle…

I've read both of these, and don't recommend them.

House of Leaves has a very uninteresting plot, and raises more questions than it answers. It's physically painful to read, because most pages, you have to rotate the entire book every which way since the words go in spirals.

Infinite Jest is good, but way too long. A good 70% of the book could have been cut out or condensed. The writing is also intentionally bad, which makes it harder to read. There are definitely good lines, but it's kind of like DFW used a random sentence generator and some of the lines just happened to be amazing, but 90% of it is garbage.

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

#297

Post by nicbou »

donquichotte wrote: post #217
nicbou wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite all the praise it got, I really struggled with that book. I hated it so much that I had to check if I didn't pick the wrong book by accident. I found that it's a very polarising book. It's life-changing for some, and garbage for others. There were a few insightful passages, but most of the book was pretentious rambling. It was difficult to understand what the author was even trying to say, with his head so fa…

I had a similar experience. Reading secondary literature gave me some context about Pirsig's own mental illness and his struggles overcoming his son's death, but in the end I was still disappointed. Edit: Also, it's not about motorcycles at all. If you are interested in motorcycle travel, read Ted Simon's Jupiter's Travels instead.

I read Jupiter's Travels right after. It's indeed a much better book about motorcycle travel. It's a very accurate depiction of what it's like to travel on a motorcycle. It still blows my mind that someone achieved this before ATMs, hotel booking sites and fuel injection.

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

#298

Post by jtlienwis »

Sholzenitzen's Gulag.

Twains Pudd'head Wilson and "The Corruption of Hadleyburg"

Ayn Rand et al "Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal"

Peter Kropotkin "Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution"

Tannehill, Morse "The Market for Liberty"

Albert J. Nock "Our Enemy the State"

Stephan Wolfram "A New Kind of Science"

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

#300

Post by maest »

gdubs wrote: post #205
m3kw9 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that work in a programming environment, to not separate one self from the surroundings?

There’s another great book on Zen called “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”. I think what Persig is getting at is “non-judgmental observation”. The ability to look at things with no ego involved, like an absolute beginner — so that you’re mind is open to the solutions that naturally present themselves. Both of these books had a big influence on Phil Jackson — the Bulls basketball coach. His interpretation was to not “force”…

> calmly contemplating a system until you get to a point where the next right decision reveals itself.

I think I am not getting it because that just sounds like thinking about things and designing stuff.

I mean, sometimes, I focus on getting the right primitives so that the rest of the decisions just naturally fall out from that, but I'm not sure that's what you meant.

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