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

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

ask.metafilter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 316 posts

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

#251

Post by TeMPOraL »

bokonist wrote: post #237
pretoriusB wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. The origin of the term evil is theological. But the word and concept of "evil" still is useful in a secular world. My definition of evil: "A person is evil if they repeatedly cause large amounts of unnecessary suffering to innocent people, as a result of a correctable character deficiency." If someone repeatedly causes net increases in suffering due to greed, pride, vanity, callousnes…

> The vast majority of the deaths to the Indians were due to old world disease, and cannot be reasonable blamed on settlers.

As far as I know, the settlers at least tried to use what is in fact a biological weapon on Indians on numerous occasions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_biological_warfare#N...

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

#252

Post by FuzzyDunlop »

jrajav wrote: post #199
reinhardt wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad most such catch-the-carrot self help books don't address "I have no idea what I want" situations, let alone "I don't really want anything" or worse.

> "I don't really want anything" Congratulations. You won.

Unless you get that feeling because you, say, suffer from depression (as I do), where that might progress to "I don't even want to be alive."

But even before that, the feeling isn't one of having everything you need already. It's one of almost crippling apathy.

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

#253

Post by powertower »

neumann_alfred wrote: post #245
powertower wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious about your view as a German who has formed a strong opinion on WW2... Someone once said the following, what do you think of it? Quote - History is always written by the victors. Considering the absolute defeat of Germany during WW2 ( and complete victor control of it afterwards ), I would argue that the last place you'll find an accurate, unbiased, and neutral depiction of what really caused and transpire…

I never absorbed the allied POV. IBM greatly helped with the logistics of the death camps, Hitler was Time magazine man of the year, Pearl Harbour was basically sacrificing a few ships to be able to enter the war, and the result is America was the superpower of the world, also having gained Nazi rocket scientists and "experts in fighting communism". I don't mean to make a clear point with all this, just throwing out…

> so what is "from a German perspective"?

The video details the world events at that time that question if Germany was really the aggressor the Allies made it out to be, or if it was instead provoked into a war step-by-step.

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

#254

Post by bokonist »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #251
bokonist wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evil is a BS theological notion. The origin of the term evil is theological. But the word and concept of "evil" still is useful in a secular world. My definition of evil: "A person is evil if they repeatedly cause large amounts of unnecessary suffering to innocent people, as a result of a correctable character deficiency." If someone repeatedly causes net increases in suffering due to greed, pride, vanity, callousnes…

> The vast majority of the deaths to the Indians were due to old world disease, and cannot be reasonable blamed on settlers. As far as I know, the settlers at least tried to use what is in fact a biological weapon on Indians on numerous occasions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_biological_warfare#N...

That is true, but that type of tactic was rare and came much later on. The vast majority of the deaths came via disease that was introduced completely unwittingly by the settlers, and spread on its own far beyond the points of contact.

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

#255

Post by neumann_alfred »

powertower wrote: post #253
neumann_alfred wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never absorbed the allied POV. IBM greatly helped with the logistics of the death camps, Hitler was Time magazine man of the year, Pearl Harbour was basically sacrificing a few ships to be able to enter the war, and the result is America was the superpower of the world, also having gained Nazi rocket scientists and "experts in fighting communism". I don't mean to make a clear point with all this, just throwing out…

> so what is "from a German perspective"? The video details the world events at that time that question if Germany was really the aggressor the Allies made it out to be, or if it was instead provoked into a war step-by-step.

I think I'll pass. As I said, I already kinda have that in a history book written and printed by actual Nazis during their reign.

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

#256

Post by nikanj »

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…

If this was all it took, the slums and housing projects would be a lot emptier than they actually are.

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

#257

Post by canttestthis »

vog wrote: post #146
danenania wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, writing code is the easy part, the fun part. Every programmer loves to sit down and bash out features. Even if they do so in ways that they know (or don't know) are perilous, ugly, or inefficient, there is still that beautiful rush of progress, and people will still pay for the service. The discipline to step back, reevaluate, and think conceptually rather than pragmatically is much more difficult to accomplish…

I fully agree. So the advice should be not merely be "code", but: Code long-term on a real-world project, cooperating with other coders. (ideally, on a Free Software project)

Why must it be a free software project?

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

#258

Post by rhizome »

pretoriusB wrote: post #240
return0 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. Well, not wanting to, say, sacrifice your loved ones for something or play dirty to get it, doesn't mean you don't want it. It just means you are a moral guy, instead of a ruthless jerk. I want a new car, but I'm not willing to steal to buy one --even if…

Logically you're asking about putting the cart before the horse, though. You can tell by the way you structure your questions about this that you're putting way too fine a point on it, and that you're combining goals that simply don't occur to most people. Who's goal is to sacrifice their loved ones for any reason? It just doesn't come up when deciding what to do. How many goals would ever require sacrificing loved ones? Sure, "behind every fortune there is a crime," but to start with the 'crime' part? Only criminals and sociopaths (cue CEO vs. psychopath study) do that.

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

#259

Post by thenomad »

Joeri wrote: post #152

Books that actually caused changes in my life: Yes Man ( http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Man-Danny-Wallace/dp/1416918345 ) This book made me realize that I was defaulting to "no" in many aspects of my life. After this book I changed many things in my life, and ended up meeting and dating my future (now present) wife. Overall my life has been much improved by defaulting to "yes". The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work ( http://w…

I'd second the 1st, 3rd and 4th of these. Peopleware is awesome - obviously - and The Happiness Hypothesis has had plenty of press.

However, don't underestimate Yes Man. It's by a comedian, but it's still a very powerful and interesting read.

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

#260

Post by davemel37 »

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…

Sounds like a modern adaptation of Napolean Hill's book Think and Grow Rich. Everything is a product of a burning desire. When you having a burning desire for something, you find a way to make it happen. You....Do whatever it Takes.
Post reply on HN