David Allen's Getting Things Done
Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
241–250 of 365 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#242The best two books for engineers are 1) “How to win friends and influence people” 2) “Never split the difference” The first one will teach you how to work with people. The second will teach you how to negotiate salaries, raises, and promotions among other things. I don’t recommend many technical books because engineers can find all of that on the internet and are much more at risk of being bad at people stuff.
> 1) “How to win friends and influence people”
I found it kind of bad. Like, really bad. 50% 'oh my, this is common sense' and 50% 'so that's where the cliche of Americans thinking that we Germans are honest, direct and potentially abrasive come from.'
I mean, I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it, but I found it very lacking and when taken literally, a bit absurd.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve read the Bible and frankly I wouldn’t recommend. Putting aside that the different translations can sometimes drastically change the meaning of some stories, the English Bible as a whole is harder to grok than Shakespeare. Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out. And some of the male testaments were only included hundreds of years after the deat…
I didn’t say it was an easy read. For good or for bad - those books require efforts. But once you dig to at least 1% of the stories and ideas - you save weeks skipping tons of shallow books out there.
Reading something unenjoyable just for the sake of not having to read something else that you might enjoy doesn’t sound like a particularly compelling reason to read the first book.
Besides, if all you’re trying to do is compress lessons in story writing then you’re better off skipping the Bible and picking up a collection of kids stories - particularly for ages 6 and below because those will often also follow the same lessons of morality to help children understand how to interact in a modern society and are only a few short pages long so much quicker and easier to read than the Bible :P
The only reason I see to read the Bible is if you have a specific interest in the history of Christianity. Even Christians these days pick an choose which parts of the Bible to read and then distil those down into short stories and songs rather than reading the texts in full.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1) “How to win friends and influence people” The folks I know who have this on their bookshelf tend to be dishonest, manipulative, self-centered pricks.
I think the main message of the book is to "put yourself in the shoes of others". And that definitely does not create dishonest, manipulative, self-centered pricks. In fact, that teaches people empathy.
Empathy is an important part in understanding how to manipulate others. Without being able to put yourself into their perspective it's difficult to determine what actions will have which effects.
People over/misuse the word empathy, often conflating it with sympathy and/or compassion, when they're very different things.
A book can teach empathy while guiding people to be manipulative or exploitive of others. Just because you're able to see things from another's perspective (empathy) doesn't mean you'll give a damn about them or feel what they're feeling (sympathy).
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#245Firstly, as a meta comment I think HN has jumped the shark. Secondly, come on. You can listen to around 200 audiobooks per year while commuting, doing chores, excercising etc. Lastly: if you only ever want to read a couple of few books, these should be the dictionary and thesaurus.
Apologising in advance to derail from the point of this comment. Lately, I've been giving audiobooks a go. It really does make "consuming" a book much, much easier. Listening during commute/chores is a huge plus. But also, I can't help but feel that listening to books is far less engaging, rewarding than reading them. I've found this holds not just for immaculately written books, but even for easy reads (e.g. wheel o…
Honestly I find I have a fairly low success rate with audiobooks. Temporary distractions might cause me to zone out and miss a part of the story, and "rewinding" to listen to the same part again isn't as easy as just re-reading a paragraph. I also find that I can be put off good books by poor narration, particularly if there is a lot of dialogue involved.
I find I have most success with "pop science" books. Not too deep or difficult to follow, little or no dialogue.
> should I continue to pay thrice as much for a book that I'd enjoy twice as less?
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but are you saying you are paying three times as much for an audiobook as for its physical equivalent? If so, where/how? I've cancelled it now, but when I had an Audible subscription, it worked out as way cheaper per book IIRC.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not a book I would recommend without a trigger warning.
For the Art of War? If you need a trigger warning for a book that’s been around for 2500 years you should stick to Golden Books.
If you know the art of war, and you do understand that it requires no trigger warning, why would you assume it applies to it and not the book you do not know about?
Ponder and deliberate before you make a move.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#247Not sure if it's the only book I'd recommend if I have to stick to the rules, I think others have already done that for me here but: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is very funny but also the back story to how it got published is both sad and interesting. ...and if I can pick a second book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance by Robert M. Pirsig. ...and a third: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Wow! More or less the three books I would've suggested in the same order. I would happily get some more suggestions until I encounter a book I haven't read (e-mail in bio)
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#248I know this is irrelevant for most people on here I pick Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning'. I started having thoughts of ending myself for the past two, three years and this book really helps my brain get out of that mental state. It's a very short book than can be read in an afternoon.
Essential reading as far as I'm concerned
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#249I've gifted copies of Six Easy Pieces [0] to numerous people now, it's the only book I can say that for. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553.Six_Easy_Pieces
Would you recommend his lectures on computation too?
Dunno, but I do hand out the youtube link for his Eselan talk on computer heuristics whenever people want to understand how a computer works.
The thing about Six Easy Pieces is it's an exceptionally accessible subset, so it's a great gift for folks that could benefit from a quick physics refresh/primer. It's a small booklet.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting theory. It does appear to be incredibly naive at times when taken literally. Although there are some rather matter of fact conversations about the progression of political regimes to the point of tyranny, i.e., the post-democratic degenerate phase... which reads as a prophesy to me personally in these times. Totally agree with your other statement.
Additionally, the society he's attempting to explore is a society in which justice is the single overriding principle. I think if there is anything to take away from that, it's that such a society maybe isn't so great. His critique of democracy does absolutely have a few good points. A lot of people get really mad when they see it, but I don't think that is at all constructive. If democracy is a good idea, it must st…
People get mad because its a concept they have faith in, have been indoctrinated to believe, and they also depend on it to keep political chaos at bay. You can't just pull the ideological rug out from under them, for they will fall--into the abyss. We aren't dealing with pure concepts here, but ideas that have life attached to them. Some ideas are preserved simply to preserve the life bound to them.
I'm afraid this is all a moot point because democracy has already disappeared in the U.S.. We're a democracy in name only. Hopefully we don't go the way of the DINOsaurs.