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Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

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Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#51

Post by 2bitlobster »

rookie123 wrote: post #24
rutgerv wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gödel, Escher, Bach completely blew me away and quite radically changed the way I looked at the world. Highly recommended.

Can you elaborate on how it changed your way? Would help in understanding context.

For me, systems thinking, incompleteness theorem, writing style, consciousness... Definitely helped set my path in building thinking tools as a career.

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#52

Post by ravenstine »

Here are mine:

- "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene

- "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker

- "Left of Bang" by Patrick van Horne and Jason Riley

- "Influence" and its follow-up "Pre-suasion" by Robert Cialdini

- "Courage is Calling" by Ryan Holiday (yes it was published this year but I found it helpful)

- "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

- "No One Ever Told Us That" by John D. Spooner

- "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki (Not something I'd read today but there was some good things in their for my naive 20 year old self)

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#53

Post by whoisninja »

palencharizard wrote: post #18

A few have stood out: - "The Defining Decade: Why Your 20's Matter and How to Make The Most of Them Now": it motivated me to find a fulfilling a career in tech (among other things). - "On the Shortness of Life" (Seneca) - Really made me take a hard look at my life, for the better. - "Eat and Run" - Interesting read about an Ultramarathoner. Inspired me to find the motivation for doing "tough things" in general.

Seneca and Epictetus literature never disappoint

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#54

Post by yboris »

I keep remembering Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most fondly. I suspect that is where I had come across the most-dense (in good advice) collection of approaches for talking about difficult things with people. I read it in my early 20s and feel like I've been using the recommendations ever since (I'm 36 now). It's written by people involved with the Harvard Negotiation Project after many years of practice with facilitating difficult conversations.

https://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Conversations-Discuss-What-...

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#55

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

Walden - Thoreau

Meditations - Aurelius

Taught me that simply existing peacefully can be exhilarating.

The Prince - Machiavelli

Shrewd and cunning. I don't find myself applying his ideas but I definitely encounter them.

Edit:

Healing Back Pain - Sarno

Self explanatory. No longer experience back pain, wrist pain, or other minor aches and pains.

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#57

Post by simonebrunozzi »

Lord of the Rings. Read it in 3 days (afternoons after school and evenings to late nights), felt... alive/awaken, during and after reading it. I was maybe 12 years old.

1984. First real sense of society at large, totalitarianism, and other "grown-up" stuff. I was maybe 12 or 13.

Brave New World. Same as 1984, except I was maybe 14 or 15.

1491 and 1493. Amazing way to deeply understand history, and completely new perspectives on America pre and post Columbus.

The Pillars of the Earth. First time a novel captured me so deeply, in terms of sense of history, and sense of other people's lives.

Then, various novels, mostly from Italian authors (I grew up in Italy).

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#58

Post by amutex »

"A Mans Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl - Understanding suffering, finding purpose in life.

"The Dream Machine" by M Mitchel Waldrop - Biography of JCR Licklider and history of computing.

Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?

#59

Post by mawise »

I know people like to hate on it, but "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferris. It made starting a company feel accessible and prompted me to quit my first "real" job to try building something. I've since gone back to "real" jobs but the plausibility of starting a company has stuck with me.
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