http://www.amazon.com/dp/039370789X by Steve Andreas. Not a book everyone needs, and it says the techniques don't work for everyone, but if you're plagued by internal attacks, getting them toned down and less common feels like a superpower.
What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
261–270 of 316 posts
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#262Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#263Funny how a chain of thought goes: 1. I read a few titles and thought "Hmm, I'll go and buy a few of these on Amazon." 2. Then I thought: "I already have some of these books that I never read, I could gift them to others." 3. Perhaps I could set up some sort of book exchange where HN users can share books. 4. It would barely be worth the hassle and cost of postage. 5. Couldn't we share digital copies and avoid the po…
Fear not, Ben Franklin already went down this thought path. An old fashioned library will stock most of these titles, and might order the others on request. I'm fortunate enough to live in a city where the library does home delivery ("It's like amazon, but without the money"). Having to physically return the books can be daunting, but it's a small price to pay for eclectic reading habits with no buyer's remorse. I'd…
I've never heard of a public library offering delivery. Could you tell us where you live? Will they take back the old books if they are delivering new?
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was required to read Blue Ocean Strategy for class. Definitely an eye-opening read.
I'm curious to know what you got out of Blue Ocean Strategy? It's one of the few books I ended up giving away... I felt the book's idea was entirely summed up by the title, and then dragged out for 300 pages. Once I grokked the idea of "Be a Nintendo Wii in a Playstation/XBox world", I felt I didn't get more from the book. But it's been many years since I read it.
"The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, nothing more, nothing less." -- Maxim 29 from The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#265It gets suggested all the time, but How to Win Friends and Influence People is my answer. No other single book will help you out more in life.
Seconding "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Took me a while to read it because the title was a big turn-off, but it's not as manipulative as it sounds. The audio book is great if you commute to work. Sometimes I would listen to a chapter on the way to work and then apply the lesson that very same day. Amazing. It will change the way you think about your interactions with other people. Another book I love, in…
I also second "How to Win Friends and Influence People". I'm just about to start another iteration of re-reading it. I know I still have a lot to work on, but I have already changed things in my life for better thanks to it. The best recommendation I read so far was on LessWrong. To quote,
"An excellent collection of the deeper and most subtle forms of this practice of this sort can be found in Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, one of the only self-help books I've read that was truly useful and not a regurgitation of cliches and applause lights. Carnegie's thesis is basically that being nice is the most powerful of the Dark Arts, and that a master of the Art of Niceness can use it to take over the world. It works better than you'd think."
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#266The 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…
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Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait... Are you saying Mao is evil? Are you summing up all his actions, and written works with one quote from one essay... He wrote when he was young? And some how it's evil?
Mao killed millions of people. That's evil. Period.
No, the bad policies of a government, with Mao at the helm, led to the deaths of millions of people. Ted Bundy killed people. There's a difference.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#268The 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…
> Like step over people? Screw the ones who love me? Be unethical? Ignore other parts of my life?
To find another, possibly riskier, way if these prove unacceptable (as they should). The point is to not give up.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#269My 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 gives you an interesting perspective on things which is always good.
You will see a lot of the subchapter type arguments mentioned in the news and the like and at least now you have one perspective on the issues which even if you don't agree with it forces you to articulate your own side better.
It's a really good book for a layperson to start thinking about the economics section of the news. It's written well, too.
I have given away ~20 copies of this book so far and have gotten nothing but praise even from Marxists.
I don't know why I even bother to make this long post since Austrians in general are very,very far removed from being status quo-ists so your comment doesn't even make sense. The book is also not overly Austrian apart from the recommended reading.
Feel free to recommend a better "basics of economics" book.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait... Are you saying Mao is evil? Are you summing up all his actions, and written works with one quote from one essay... He wrote when he was young? And some how it's evil?
> Are you saying Mao is evil? Mao is evil to roughly the same extent Hitler is evil.
Where do you slot the various members of the American or British political administrations into that line-up? Does it go by how many people they killed? Or is killing one person enough?