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Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

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Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#321

Post by marttt »

rcarmo wrote: post #103

Definitely The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. If only so they would understand The Answer and the latent absurdity of our civilization. Although the bit about the plague from a dirty phone might be a little too close for comfort these days (but that just goes to show how fascinatingly “complete” the book is).

Douglas Adams seems strangely forgotten, considering how great he really was -- or maybe he isn't forgotten, in the British Isles and elsewhere?

As a grammar and syntax nerd, I was a huge fan of his puns on rhetoric.

"The mere thought," growled Mr Prosser, "hadn't even begun to speculate," he continued, settling himself back, "about the merest possibility of crossing my mind."

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#322

Post by pengaru »

koonsolo wrote: post #310
pengaru wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bec…

I get your point indeed. I'm not a psychologist or something, so this is my opinion. But once you have empathy, you must be a real psycho to not feel a damn at that point. I cannot imagine having empathy but then totally lacking sympathy (in a sane person).

Learning to separate empathy from sympathy with a conscious choice is part of adulting, a facet of establishing and enforcing (emotional) boundaries.

Those who lack that ability are quite vulnerable, it's one of the most rampantly exploited human flaws. "Bleeding Hearts" are a hugely exploited demographic, where people largely experience reactionary emotional sympathy and effectively lack empathy as a distinct observation they may then deliberate on what response is appropriate.

The psychopaths are the ones who either after deliberation never care, or can't even bother to deliberate on what they're seeing, which to the observer is tough if not impossible to disambiguate from a lack of empathy. Psychopathy is a pretty blurry thing though IMHO.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#324

Post by TheMonarchist »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #314
TheMonarchist wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NWT also contains small changes to accommodate the Russellites' belief system. I don't even speak English natively and can read KJV. I guess it just isn't more difficult than reading in foreign language in general. Update: Samuel Johnson's dictionary helps with word definitions from 18th century. Noah Webster's dictionary is good too.

Does that even matter though? The KJV was written to best fit in with Christianity in that period of time and situtation. You won't find a Bible or any religious text without bias from those who are translating it.

The dynamics of the KJV were different. N competing Versions had caused divisions among the people, so the king ordered the making of one universal standard. The translation committee was aware of the goal and tried to avoid bias. Curiously it didn't result in N+1 competing Versions, but KJV was almost universally approved and many older Versions were retired. Readers have been content for over four centuries now.

In the case of NWT I think the bias matters because JWs deviate fatally from Christian orthodoxy.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#325

Post by orange8 »

laumars wrote: post #267
orange8 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out. > My point was that the sincerity and authenticity of the Nee Testament is comprised because they withheld accounts. You spoke only of one withheld account, that of Mary, and you said it was because of her gender. And when you say it lacks authenticity, is it because it's a mans account? Meaning a mans acco…

> You spoke only of one withheld account, that of Mary, and you said it was because of her gender. Yes, and I explained why I did in the post above > And when you say it lacks authenticity, is it because it's a mans account? Meaning a mans account cannot be authentic in its own right.. Fuck me this is getting repetitive. Let’s just forget all mention of gender because my points stand up without that context. The poin…

> Let’s just forget all mention of gender because my points stand up without that context.

Good. I rest my case then.

> The points being the Bible lacks the accounts from those closest to Jesus and his teachings.

Moving on, assuming you are talking about Mary here, and have read the gospel of Mary, can you tell us just a few things that it contains that are lacking in the other gospels, written by men who were also very close to Jesus?

> I don’t really know why you’ve got fixated about gender nor why you find it so offensive that was even mentioned in the first place. I wasn’t trying to undermine the feelings of any alpha males on here

hmmmm... ok

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#326

Post by lnwlebjel »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #133

I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world. Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it. Some time back, someone did a nice…

> why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity.

If that's the question you're after, you'd probably enjoy The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, and some parts of Sapiens by Harari, both of which approach this question from outside of religion (while I'd argue that reading the books on your list approach it much differently).

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#327

Post by harperlee »

hermitcrab wrote: post #84
superasn wrote: post #42

I guess it would depend on the category, like if you are doing any sort of front-end dev then one book I'd recommend over any other is Don't make me think which is still relevant today. For the smb/indie-hacking I think E-myth revisited really changes your whole perspective about running a small business, especially when you read yourself on the pages. Also there is one book which I don't think everybody should read…

The E-myth revisited seems to be one of those business books where they took something that could have been an article, or maybe even a paragraph, and dragged it out into a whole (extremely dull) book.

If the book were a paragraph, you wouldn’t be exposing yourself to the idea during the X hours that it takes to read the book.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#328

Post by hermitcrab »

harperlee wrote: post #327
hermitcrab wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The E-myth revisited seems to be one of those business books where they took something that could have been an article, or maybe even a paragraph, and dragged it out into a whole (extremely dull) book.

If the book were a paragraph, you wouldn’t be exposing yourself to the idea during the X hours that it takes to read the book.

If it is the duration/repetition that matters, couldn't I just read the same paragraph over and over? It wouldn't be any more dull than the book.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#329

Post by jldugger »

avinassh wrote: post #317
jldugger wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The second will teach you how to negotiate salaries, raises, and promotions among other things. “Never split the difference” is a really good book, but I'm really confused by this context. The book is 90 percent 'how to encourage rational thinking in your counterparty.' The author's experience is in suicide prevention and hostage negotiation, where all you really want is the counterparty to do whats already in thei…

Do you know any books which can help in salary negotiation?

I mean, I've never used it but Fearless Salary Negotiation[1] is commonly recommended?

[1]: https://fearlesssalarynegotiation.com

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#330

Post by orange8 »

laumars wrote: post #287
orange8 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have read the gospel of Mary, why don't you tell us more about your take on in? How does it differ from the other male written accounts? What in your opinion makes it more authentic? What does it talk about that the others don't? Please give us something more details that the generic "not authentic" refrain. > It’s not that impressive of a feat. Indeed. If you don't remember the books in the bible that give a…

> If you have read the gospel of Mary, why don't you tell us more about your take on in? How does it differ from the other male written accounts? What in your opinion makes it more authentic? What does it talk about that the others don't? Please give us something more details that the generic "not authentic" refrain. Given the conversation that lead up to this point, I’m going to respectfully decline this offer becau…

> I’m going to respectfully decline this offer because I’m not really in the mood to risk another argument on another topic.

lol!

> Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out.

> I didn’t say the Bible lacked any female accounts.

It looks like I'm doing a better job than yourself of keeping track of what you've said.

> Book editors generally work in conjunction with the author

Generally? That's a "wildly off" assumption

> I take it from that is that you don’t see an issue with reading a reinterpretation that happened without the authors input?

A "reinterpretation"? That's not what a book editor does.

> Putting aside questions about the truth behind Bible specifically, can I assume from your comment that you view non-fiction works as a dramatisation too?

Drama, by definition is a specific type of fiction. So how can non-fiction works be dramatized and remain non-fiction? And just because something is non-fiction does not make it the absolute truth. We all have perception filters and imperfect memories so seeking that kind of intimacy with a books author through their work is a futile exercise. A book is a one-to-many communications medium, not a face to face communication. And everyone derives their own version of the truth from the same book. Even if Mary miraculously appeared and told you her story, if you asked her about it again one year later many of the details will have changed! Long story short: that absolute truth you seek does not exist.

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