The Big Billion Startup - Story of Flipkart
It actually helped us understand the startup scenario in developing countries.
Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
91–100 of 211 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#921. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 2. The Selfish Gene 3. Podcast: Kings of Kings https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings... Each one of these were worth every minute of read/listen. Edit to add: The world around us feels like it was created as we see it today. But these books and the podcast, combined, show us how we got here, where we are today. Wars, long periods of peace, pandemics, evo…
omg Dancarlin is so underrated. His storytelling is insane, king of kings is definitely one of his best.
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#93Robert Greene’s books, in particular 48 Laws of Power and Art of Seduction.
After reading the 48 Laws of Power, and feeling somewhat inspired, I also started with the Art of Seduction. Some red flags started popping up, and upon doing some research I found he heavily puts his personal touch on historical events, which ultimately brought down both books in my eyes.
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#941. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 2. The Selfish Gene 3. Podcast: Kings of Kings https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings... Each one of these were worth every minute of read/listen. Edit to add: The world around us feels like it was created as we see it today. But these books and the podcast, combined, show us how we got here, where we are today. Wars, long periods of peace, pandemics, evo…
I would take a lot of the unevidenced narrative in 'Sapiens' with a huge pinch of salt. Both the book and the author have been criticized, rightly in my opinion, the former for elevating the theories of a very specific and ideological branch of anthropology to facts, and the latter for being a grifter who does not know much about anthropology.
Agreed, I found that writing also chose to use quite manipulative, or even emotional language to subtly get the lean towards the author's way.
Which is completely fine if the book were presented as "Here's just my opinion on what may have happened", rather than presenting it as "Scientific history of mankind" - this aspect is what bothered me the most.
But we suppose the group who would fall for this kind of strategy is the exact audience the author was going for.
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#95'The Psychology of Money' was worth the time. It is a very impactful book for anyone that has anything to do with earning & spending money. IOW, all of us.
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#96Losing the Signal is a really well written book about RIM/Blackberry. A cautionary tale about losing focus.
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#97Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny.
To avoid evil there is nothing more important than understanding how highly intelligent and likeable people end up perpetuating it. This book is a stunningly well written exploration of that.
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#98Debt: The First 5000 Years by great late David Graeber. It opened up my mind to a whole new reality which was hidden in plain sight.
For me it was Graeber/Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything, which validated the viability of alternative realities
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#99The Overstory by Richard Powers: this book changed the way I look at trees. I'll be driving some days and out of nowhere notice a tree and appreciate it. This book inspired me to consider that there is an objective meaning to life.
The Incerto Series by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: where to start...I started reading this series over a decade ago and I still think about it weekly. It can be very dense to get through as I took a lot of notes. But I think it's worth the trouble. One of my favorite chapters is via negativa. This is the concept that it is easier to know what NOT to do than what should be done. Many interested ideas flow out from that when it comes to personal health, public policy, and morality.
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: this book opened up my eyes to a host of mental biases. It's similar to some of Taleb's work but IMO easier to read. My favorite chapter surrounded the idea of the self as your memory vs your experience. Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it?
Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?
#100* Philosophy
Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation.
Surprisingly readable and insightful, even if you don't buy his metaphysics. Einstein had Schopenhauer's portrait on his wall and considered him a genius.
* Poetry
John Milton - Paradise Lost
Powerful and beautiful writing.
* Fiction
Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel. Funny and a real feast of words (the translation is a work of art in itself)
Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain. Haunting and moving
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Dangerous Liaisons. Scandalous, gripping.
Ivan Turgenev - First Love. A masterclass in writing. Short, sensitive and exquisitely told.
Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time. Exceptionally rich and a beautiful study of love. Reading it is like living another life.
PG Wodehouse - the Jeeves series. Hilarious, perfectly frivolous, light and sunny
* Non-fiction
Stuart Russell - Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control. Potential bad outcomes from AI and what we might be able to do about them
Noam Chomsky - Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. How public discourse is shaped and controlled
Karl Popper - The Open Society and its Enemies. How to work against totalitarianism