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What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

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Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#101

Post by chemcoder »

The best book imho will be "Bhagvadgita as it is". Problem is it is a religious book and hence people are going to be biased about it. But if you are willing to let go the thiest or athiest part (leave the commentaries seriously!), the very meaningful part of the book can be seen .

This book is a conversation taking place on the war field and depicts the persons inability to take decision to go ahead because of various questions. I recommend going only through 2nd chapter and no further, it would be an overkill. In normal life the important part is to get determined to work and get it done .The theory postulated in the 2nd chapter seems to work in the practical life effectively when Krishna tells arjuna to go on with the war and he is reluctant to do so as he finds it immoral , full of vain and dangerous to social well being of everyone. He doubts himself . The weak in his heart and unrest sets in his mind, a common thing occurring in almost all of us . He seeks the answer to all this questions and this is what the reason of the conversation. IMO the book requires considerably unbiased mind and hence its a hard read. It is not supposed to be inspiring it is supposed to work . Considering this , you wont find any magical arrangement of words so it should be taken as theory and used in practical cases . Well if it works for you then great or you can just ignore it . But surely with proper reasons of course :)

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#102

Post by neumann_alfred »

edw519 wrote: post #67

The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want by Mike Hernacki There are many inputs that affect success: intelligence, hard work, work ethic, emotional balance, determination, and even luck. I believe that the single most important of these over which we have the most control is determination. This book is provides a pretty good recipe to cultivate your own determination. I'm even going to tell you t…

"I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want."

Yeah, Mao wrote about that too. You can't get being a decent person that way though.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#103

Post by vikramhaer »

martinced wrote: post #38
TallboyOne wrote: post #25

Absolutely hands down this: http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/d... Within a day I was memorizing lists of 75 items forwards AND backwards. Completely random items as well. It makes remembering names a joke, you will remember them for years. I gave the book to my 15 year old brother and explained to him how much the book meant to me and that it was a very quick read (most of the good stuff is…

Oh, these memory tricks... Not unlike the ones waiters and martial arts practitioners do use. You hardly need a book for that: I saw a waiter talking on TV about what he was doing. I heard two or three sentences or so. And, hacker way, I devised my own memory trick to remember items. No book needed for that ; )

Mind sharing what it was that the waiter was talking about? As well as the way you devised? Would be great to get some insight!

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#104

Post by shantanubala »

neumann_alfred wrote: post #102
edw519 wrote: post #67

The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want by Mike Hernacki There are many inputs that affect success: intelligence, hard work, work ethic, emotional balance, determination, and even luck. I believe that the single most important of these over which we have the most control is determination. This book is provides a pretty good recipe to cultivate your own determination. I'm even going to tell you t…

"I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Yeah, Mao wrote about that too. You can't get being a decent person that way though.

Revising it to "I am willing to do whatever it takes within my existing system of values to get what I want" makes it less pithy.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#107

Post by biscarch »

fferen wrote: post #90
biscarch wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any suggestions on what books? I've been looking to go further with mathematics.

I'll take this opportunity to once again plug Strang's excellent linear algebra series [1] with associated textbook [2]. Also right now I'm working through some Cornell lecture notes [3] (that read a lot like a textbook) on manifolds and differential forms. It's meant for college sophomores and juniors who have taken linear algebra and vector calculus, though it provides a very good calculus supplement in the appendi…

Thanks for the suggestions.

I self-taught my way from single variable calc to somewhere around linear algebra/multivariate calc. I'm not sure how to proceed but the manifolds looks interesting.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#108

Post by Herring »

endtime wrote: post #7

I recommend The Way of the Superior Man ( http://www.amazon.com/Way-Superior-Man-Spiritual-Challenges/... ). My roommate lent it to me after an ugly breakup. The title is a little silly (I certainly wouldn't describe myself as "spiritual") and I don't agree with every word of it, but after reading this book I finally felt like I understood women and relationships, and I met my now-wife a few months after reading it.…

I've just read half of it & I'll probably end up finishing it because it's so interesting. But I really dislike the implication that leadership skills (purpose, reliability, equanimity) are intrinsically male, while childishness is intrinsically female. At least now I know what type of women to avoid.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#109

Post by mailshanx »

crntaylor wrote: post #19

The book that has changed my life the most, so far, has been The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman. In 2010 I started a job that was far, far ahead of my skillset. I'd written fewer than 10,000 lines of code in my life, and I was completely ill-prepared for the work I was supposed to be doing. I picked up SICP about a month or two into that job. Fast forward a year, and I felt t…

Could you please elaborate on your programming journey? I'd be very interested to know.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#110

Post by wging »

biscarch wrote: post #80
tikhonj wrote: post #72

I would nominate some book on abstract mathematics. The superpower is knowing that advanced math is not completely impossible to follow. After a while, the superpower becomes actually knowing some advanced math. I won't say it's easy, but nothing fun really is. In short: math is not scary! It also really changes how you think and view the world. Lately I've been having some fun with universal algebra, but I think any…

Any suggestions on what books? I've been looking to go further with mathematics.

Might be fun (depending on your temperament! but you asked...) to go through Principles of Mathematical Analysis by Walter Rudin (RIP). Also known as 'Baby Rudin.' (Try to forget that there's a 'Big Rudin'; it will only depress you.)

Baby Rudin is a tough book if you're not used to a spare definition-theorem-proof style. It's many people's first experience with real math. It demands a lot from you--when people say reading mathematics is entirely different from reading an ordinary book, they mean reading a book like this. But if you want superpowers, and you don't favor being bitten by radioactive spiders...

See this Amazon review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R23MC2PCAJYHCB/ref=cm_cr_dp_tit... Ignore the fact that he spells "chapter" as "chaptor", he's still on point.

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