Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
121–130 of 234 posts
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#122Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724
My comment there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#123Dune, by Frank Herbert. Bear with me on this. It was a bridge into politics, ecology, religion, and economics, as well as an amazing world-building narrative. It got me interested in philosophy and literature, and the roles they play in creating, describing, or influencing cultures. It is my keystone book.
You should also read the book which inspired Frank Herbert, Lesley Blanch's _The Sabres of Paradise_:
https://arnoldkhan.medium.com/how-the-sabre-of-paradise-insp...
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#124Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I was overly social, choosing others over myself. I thought it was the way, possibly due to my Christian upbringing. But I learned that to say “I love you”, one must first be able to say “I”. Rational self interest is a good ethical basis for a non-sociopathic human. If you’re a sociopath, it’s horrible, which brings me to my next recommendation: Humandkind by Rutger Bregman (in Dutch: “Most people are good”).
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#125I am that - Nisargadatta Maharaj
Come as you Are - Emily Nagosky
The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk
The ministry of the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#126The Histories by Herodotus was life changing for me (see my handle!). But, be aware that it has to be a good translation: the online free ones are not the ones you should read. Why? Because until I read it my only other experience with writing of that era was the bible readings from when I attended synagogue (before I realized that there was no god). I always found the bible stuff strange, but I forgave it, because I…
Can you recommend a translation?
I wholeheartedly recommend the Landmark Herodotus: https://www.amazon.ca/Landmark-Herodotus-Histories-Robert-St...
The indices, maps, and other additional information was a great aid in understanding the text.
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#127Free Will by Sam Harris.
Before reading it I felt like I had free will, but I didn’t know how to articulate why. A few hours later (it’s not a long read), it was clear to me that free will is an illusion.
To summarize, we can control what we do, but we can’t control what we want to do, which is a product of our genetics and our environment —- neither of which we have much control over.
This realization has eliminated all regret from my life, since it means that wishing I had made a different decision in the past is akin to wishing the laws of the universe were different.
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#128"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. It really helps me to see my own issues and shortcomings.
Then I read "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley which really push me towards psyche exploitation. And last big one was:
"Freedom From the Known" by Jiddu Krishnamurti and it was a buddhist mind-bomb.
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#129A lot of good books in this thread and I have read many of them, but in retrospect these 3 titles have had the greatest effect on me:
The End of Faith by Sam Harris: Crystallized a lot of things I have been thinking about over the years.
Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett: Really delved deep into what evolution is and the way it affects how everything in the world works.
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life by Jon Kabat Zinn: What is mindfulness? Why is it important and how can you apply it to your every day life (like the subtitle says). Bearded guru in a cave at top of mountain is optional.
Re: Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
#130English:
Do you consider having a new layer in your thinking process "life changing"? Then, I would say-
1. Deep Work and So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport. He goes against famous ideas such as "follow your passion" and provides you with alternative actionable advice.
2. Black Swan by N. Nicholas Taleb. It makes you aware of unhinged "platonistic thinking" where stuff are "explained" looking back. And people expect to use these explanations in future. I also learned about silent evidence which is, of course, a type of survivorship bias and sampling bias. Whenever, I see a straigh-forward "explanation", alarm goes off inside mind- 'this is too simplistic, and thus oversimplified, and not entirely correct'.
3. Made to Stick by Cheap Heath and Dan Heath: this book explains why some ideas stick and why some don't. From this book, you also learn how to make ideas stick. You start to see the world in a different way.
4. Godel, Escher, Bach: others have already mentioned it. It is life changing. I am still reading it.
5. Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen: Indian past is generally seen as a golden age heavily tied to religion and faith. Sen, in an articulated, smooth, and scholarly way provides evidence in contrary. The past of India is also an age of reason, athiesm, debate, faithlessness, unorthodoxy, and opposing of religions. Sanskrit is the first language to have athiestic text, maybe.
Bengali:
I used to feel very bad about my ethnic identity, and felt ashamed about it. (I was 14/15.)
Then I read the book "Those Times" by Sunil Ganguly. It is a novel based on history and historical figures, the Bengali renaissance, the feminist movements of Bengal.
This was the first time I ever felt confident about my ethnic identity, and fount a history I could take pride in. Totally changed me. It was like finally having soil under my feet for the first time in my life.
Bouddha Dharma by Haraprasad Shastri: This is a history of Buddhism in Bengal region.
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These are just some of many. I am in my early 20s and I have read 250 books till now, and all read in recent years were carefully chosen. Many had meaningful impact in my life.