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Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?

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Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?

#113

Post by kitbrennan »

`Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance`

The book looks at what it means to say something has 'quality'.

It didn't teach me any new philosophical methods or theories, but it did make me look at my own work differently and start asking: how can I make something with the highest quality? What compromises that quality? What is a method that leads to the highest quality?

Translating that to my business life: in the startup scene I've scene a lot of startups treat lean as gospel (myself included at one point), and as a result they compromise on the quality that both themselves and their customers are happy with. So I certainly found it useful to have a book that made me think about this.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?

#117

Post by _nullandnull_ »

ElComradio wrote: post #84
suhailpatel wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also read Starting Strength. I'd been lifting before I read it but my technique was very poor. The most I got out of the book was cues (such as actively push legs out when squatting to avoid cave in). Would definitely recommend!

Getting a trainer is going to be better than trying to DIY from a book, at least to 'show you the ropes'. It's not like following a recipe or something where it's obvious if you have the right amount of ingredients; you might think you are doing it right when you are doing it wrong and have no way to tell.

I disagree about the trainer unless the user is a novice or is okay spending a lot of money on a trainer. In my experience all personal trainers are not created equal. The chapter on doing squats in Starting Strength is 80 pages long. Odds are it would cost you a couple of hundred dollars and many session to get that much information from a good trainer. Reading the book, watching the DVD and working with light weights to focus on correct form would be a better approach that hiring a trainer. After those steps are done it would be useful to hire a trainer to check your form and give you tips.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?

#119

Post by siyer »

dirtyaura wrote: post #81
martythemaniak wrote: post #11

Introduction to Systems Biology - Design Principles of Biological Circuits, by Uri Alon. It opened my eyes to a whole new field that will become a massive industry over the coming decades. Much like a Systems course in engineering covers recurring design patterns in physical systems (feedback loops, noise filters, pulse generators, etc), this book uses the same approach for biological systems. It is written from an e…

This sounds a really interesting read. Though system biologists seem to disagree: http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R1JC09V3NPULY3 Any thoughts on that?

It's perhaps more precise to say that some biologists disagree (as is perhaps inevitable). Alon's book is was the required textbook for the Systems Bioengineering (III) class at Johns Hopkins as of 5 years ago (which is when I took it). It's definitely well within the mainstream of the field.

Re: Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?

#120

Post by owurkan »

kitbrennan wrote: post #113

`Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance` The book looks at what it means to say something has 'quality'. It didn't teach me any new philosophical methods or theories, but it did make me look at my own work differently and start asking: how can I make something with the highest quality? What compromises that quality? What is a method that leads to the highest quality? Translating that to my business life: in the st…

I'm 46 and have read it 3 times over the past 25 years. Definitely a book that changed my life!
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