Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What book changed your life?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 539 posts

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#141

Post by agumonkey »

p0d wrote: post #126
geocrasher wrote: post #95

First and foremost: The Bible. Not the watered down "everybody goes to heaven" theology that most people subscribe to, but rather an evidence based approach that uses the Bible to interpret itself as it was designed to do. Secondarily, this book saved my life in the sense that it helped me understand my depression, a clinical depression so deep that my psychologist had never seen such a thing previously: Get Out of Y…

I agree. I would also add continues to change my life. I read the Bible every day and am constantly amazed how relevant ancient wisdom is today. In recent years teaching from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament taught me how to understand my work. There is such a lot of nonsense on HN and the net about success. So many are pursuing a pipe dream. Below helped me to work hard, enjoy what I have, and not be concerned abou…

Man, I tried reading the bible, maybe some pages are to be skipped, I couldn't keep after 5 ... too many "don't have sex with your cousin's wife unless her father owned a goat" logic.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#142

Post by 1647423593 »

eps wrote: post #97
zorr wrote: post #47

How to win friends and influence people - Carnegie Think and grow rich - Napoleon Hill That last one made something click in my head but I find it hard to describe what it is exactly. The key concepts that I learned from this book are in my thoughts and actions every single day.

+100 for Carnegie. The simple lesson of trying to look at things from other people's perspective is absolutely invaluable. Also, Cryptonomicon was an unexpected eye-opener on how every privacy-oriented tech will be instantly abused by people you'd never want to have it in the first place. Cypherpunk has a flip side and it's pretty damn dark.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#144

Post by Mildlypolite »

Dostoevsky 's crime and punishment has taught me a lot about the human spirit.

I've nothing practical to say that the book taught me but the consequences in real life of what dostoevsky has taught me are innumerable and at the same time too subtle to talk about them. I learnt the meaning of love (a romantic and deep one) but also the meaning of hate, self destruction. What nihilism is and what are its consequences. Human spirit is complex and I feel that today's society tend to simplify it in a very rough way.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#145

Post by geocrasher »

agumonkey wrote: post #141
p0d wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I would also add continues to change my life. I read the Bible every day and am constantly amazed how relevant ancient wisdom is today. In recent years teaching from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament taught me how to understand my work. There is such a lot of nonsense on HN and the net about success. So many are pursuing a pipe dream. Below helped me to work hard, enjoy what I have, and not be concerned abou…

Man, I tried reading the bible, maybe some pages are to be skipped, I couldn't keep after 5 ... too many "don't have sex with your cousin's wife unless her father owned a goat" logic.

My suggestion: Start reading in Matthew. Once you get through, go back to Genesis and Exodus. Leviticus is a harder read, but worthwhile because it provides so much context for the rest. But if need be, skip to Judges- it's an action packed book, and I genuinely enjoy it, as I do Ruth. If you get stuck on Chronicles, skip to Ezra. Esther is an especially wonderful book!

What I'm really trying to say is: The Bible isn't a book that HAS to be read in order. It's not presented in chronological order and every book has individual value. Once you develop a love for the Bible, then the harder reads will be that much easier :)

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#146

Post by garyrob »

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunru Suzuki. I first encountered it when I was around 19, and came back to it at various points. At around age 55 I finally started a serious Zen practice which involves an hour a day of meditation, working on koans with a Zen teacher, and more. I've been doing that for around 10 years. It has truly been life-altering in the deepest possible way. I've read other Zen books but that one by Suzuki is the one that started everything and it still holds a unique and very valuable place.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#147

Post by unmole »

tomrod wrote: post #125
profunctor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What bad consequences of socialism are never talked about?

I'm assuming the grandparent commentor is confusing communism with democratic socialist states? The Scandinavian states look pretty nice overall.

And you are confusing welfare states with socialism.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#148

Post by AlecSchueler »

Bessel Van Der Kolk's _The Body Keeps The Score_.

I had an extremely abusive childhood environment and mostly blocked it out through my adult years but had many obvious self-descructive, anti-social, self-sabotaging and socially untenable behaviour patterns that I couldn't understand or shake.

That book gave me the understanding of my own development and, furthermore, an idea of the tools that I could use to finally stand tall as a member of the human race.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#149

Post by drakonka »

Maybe not a very useful answer, but for me it was the Narnia books when I was around 6. I already liked reading before then, but that was mostly simpler booms. Narnia really opened my eyes to a whole new level of wonder with reading and solidified my love of fantasy and science fiction forever.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life?

#150

Post by tomrod »

unmole wrote: post #147
tomrod wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming the grandparent commentor is confusing communism with democratic socialist states? The Scandinavian states look pretty nice overall.

And you are confusing welfare states with socialism.

I'm not, thanks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism

Post reply on HN