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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?

#211

Post by b3b0p »

Lots of great suggestions here. I believe the answer will be different for everyone based on their weaknesses and what super power people desire to learn. I've added about half of dozen of these to my Wish List now.

I don't read many books (I want to read more), but when I do I like something engaging, fun, imaginative, and different. So, I'll recommend any good fiction book that engages you. A book you can't put down. You want to keep reading to find out what happens next. It causes you to think, it causes you to imagine. It can cause you to think about things uniquely instead of being told to do so and give all sorts of ideas and new thoughts. If like me, you will end up remembering the characters, the situations for almost life and want to come back to re-read it some day.

My favorite modern day fiction books are fantasy / science fiction, something I would never experience in this world. In order: Shadows of the Empire by far my favorite, no reason off the top of my head and I am not a Star Wars fan, but I love it none the less. Followed by Harry Potter series. It's honestly a very fun read. Lord of the Rings and Hobbit will be popular choices I'm sure, but they just did not catch me and engage me like these 2.

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

#212

Post by hluska »

"How to win friends and influence people" has blessed everyone I know who has read it with the power of BEING A MASSIVE PRICK. Since that isn't the kind of super power we want, I'd suggest "Power Reading". Being able to read faster than anyone you know will pay off in dividends (provided you never tell anyone that you read an entire novel during your lunch break)...

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

#213

Post by jdreaver »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #163
kriro wrote: post #34

My candidates (not in order): Getting Things Done (Superpower: Time Management) Bargaining for Advantage (Superpower: Negotiation) The Art of Learning (Superpower: Learning) Telling Lies (Superpower: Facial expressions etc...somewhat of a cheat since you'll probably need to read more on the topic) Economics in One Lesson (Superpower: Understanding the fundamentals of economics...and wandering down the dark,Austrian p…

Economics in One Lesson (Superpower: Understanding the fundamentals of economics...and wandering down the dark,Austrian path eventually) Austrian economics is the opposite of a superpower. It's a mental device for rationalizing the present state of the world so that you never have to act .

It's a mental device for rationalizing the present state of the world so that you never have to act.

Well, except for the fact that an Austrian economist would change almost everything about how most Western governments handle economic policy. That's a cute sentence though.

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

#214

Post by hluska »

jakubp wrote: post #168
tarabukka wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my problem with self-help books... you must try to replace years of your own learning, rationalizing and understanding with someone else's ideas, absorbed only through a few hours of reading. Naturally, it falls apart quickly.

Interesting. Why do you think it falls apart? Is there something a book author can do to make it "stick"? Is there something the book _reader_ might do (e.g. before / during reading the book) to be more receptive? What other medium would work better in your opinion for the kind of life change that self help usually tries to create?

My experience with self help books is quite similar to my experience with people who read "Learn how to program" books. Some people go into the book with a head full of steam, but they give up as soon as things get hard. Other people start with the same enthusiasm, but they push through the difficult parts and (eventually) become great programmers.

The best educational materials I've ever read always start from the perspective that what you're about to learn is freakishly hard and it will take hard work to gain even a modicum of skill. Tragically, writing that on the cover of a book would likely kill sales.

As a reader though, I like to remind myself that I'm embarking on a voyage of learning, not one of already knowing. I remind myself that this is going to take a whole lot of work and that I will be frustrated many times. As long as I'm willing to do the homework, I can learn how to do almost anything.

As for your third question, you'll find tremendous variance as people have a number of different learning styles. I'd argue that any kind of personal change would work similarly to expert performance, so I suspect that the best medium is whatever medium does the best job of encouraging deliberate practice.

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

#215

Post by powertower »

pretoriusB wrote: post #181
neumann_alfred wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evil being subjective, my answer is "fuck yeah". Stalin and him were full of it.

Evil is a BS theological notion. I wish people would stop perpetuating it. People act. Sometimes they do things that hurt other people. But they are not "evil". Including serial killers: they can be mentally ill (physiologically), or have severe psychological problems because of childhood abuse and such. Hitler, for example, was the elected leader of a huge country, with a grassroots following for years. Millions of…

> Evil is a BS theological notion. I wish people would stop perpetuating it.

History is written by the victors.

This is a plain-and-simple fact, and the only fact you'll find in History.

Everything gets re-written to fit the winner's point-of-view.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_history#History_a...

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

#217

Post by return0 »

Most self-help books are written by people who haven't "made it" themselves, yet consider themselves qualified to write about it (though, in this process they do become rich).

Probably the most overlooked subject in my education was ethics. Moral philosophers have already pondered about every possible choice one is bound to make in his life. Hence i find "Fundamentals of ethics", which summarizes all ethical theories to be the one book that helped me make moral choices in a more thoughtful and systematic manner.

http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Ethics-Russ-Shafer-Landau...

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

#218

Post by return0 »

pretoriusB wrote: post #178
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…

> The secret is: "I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Like step over people? Screw the ones who love me? Be unethical? Ignore other parts of my life? Plus, who said that (a) I know what I want, (b) what I want is good for me (c) what I want is good for society in general, anyway? Not to mention that the whole premise is BS. As if by knowing this "secret" will help anybody. A regression to miracl…

That probably depends on what one wants to do, but some people do suggest that being ruthless is the ultimate way. Example: http://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp...

Point is, if one is not willing to do whatever it takes, he probably doesn't really want to do the said thing, but rather tries to live up to social expectations.

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

#219

Post by Dylan16807 »

pretoriusB wrote: post #209
Dylan16807 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you can be objectively 'ill' but not 'evil'? Sounds like you're handling your own pile of BS. 'severe psychological problems' that cause people to deeply hurt others for their own happiness is within spitting distance of a definition of evil. Also I'm not going to get deep into your halfassed retelling of history but (per capita) genocide is worse than murder is worse than bombing cities is worse than bombing armi…

> So you can be objectively 'ill' but not 'evil'? Yes. Mental illness is something that can be objectively examined and testified by medical experts. "Evil" is a BS non medical pulp journalism term that takes us back to the witch-hunting days... > 'severe psychological problems' that cause people to deeply hurt others for their own happiness is within spitting distance of a definition of evil. Only one is a SPECIFIC…

I meant that everything was per capita, sorry for being unclear there. As in: kill two million people as part of genocide and it's worse than having two million slaves. And yes I'll tell standard slaves they have it better than far worse treatment combined with starvation and followed by execution. You really think they'll disagree? Slavery may kill you early but it's no death camp.

Also I don't know why you're acting like giving more examples of evil acts is going to make me decide the word evil is useless.

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

#220

Post by icelancer »

dsirijus wrote: post #176
icelancer wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps my favorite line from a physical training author is: "I said it was simple. Not easy." Applies to many things in life.

Most, even. Nice quote.

Dan John, for those wondering. An excellent author.
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