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Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#181

Post by readthenotes1 »

pjmorris wrote: post #47

My three favorites from Gerald Weinberg: 1. 'The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully' I was put off for a decade by the click-bait title but this is a profound little book that helped me get perspective on problem solving in my work and myself. 2. 'Becoming a Technical Leader' The text is great; working the exercises for yourself will make you a stronger thinker. 3. 'An Introducti…

I'm here for _Are your lights On? _

--associate member of the Weinborg

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#182

Post by yoyo348 »

For me a book of chess problems to resolve like : "My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer" are book that i read to help me thinking and in "background" and inconsciously resolve my problems. It make me thinking in a way imaginative. I solve problem by really resolve problems but in a game : chess.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#183

Post by nashashmi »

xchip wrote: post #173
nashashmi wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Can a man be a soldier and father?” Mel Gibson: “I would think so. I hope being good at one makes me better at the other.” (And vice versa). - from movie “We were soldiers … and young”

How so?

Being a soldier is more than just about fighting in war. It’s about handling difficulties. It’s about constantly being on the move even when you are tired. It is about protecting your comrades. It is about containing your anger in difficulty. It is about discipline. It is about management, leadership, camaraderie. It is about being human.

It is about way more stuff than that. And maybe one day someone will share everything it is and more. Or maybe like me you willl just keep wondering and keep learning.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#184

Post by Fission »

kaiju0 wrote: post #141
tizio13 wrote: post #106

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The private thoughts of a person with terrible power. An emperor who could put to death anyone he chose. Create the law by speaking it. Command any one to his bed if the mood took him. These pages are filled with Aurelius’ private struggles to be a good man, despite the frustrations of the world. His words helped me become a more social thinker.

Totally agree. But the language and wording structure is a slog to get through.

There are a lot of different translations with varied ease of reading, modernity of prose, and fidelity to the original source.

The one by Gregory Hays is one of the newest and is my preferred translation.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#187

Post by heresie-dabord »

yboris wrote: post #110

One of my all-time-favorite philosophers is Daniel Dennett . He wrote many excellent books through which you can learn how to think better on specific topics and in general. But one of his books he focuses specifically on thinking: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking https://www.amazon.com/Intuition-Pumps-Other-Tools-Thinking/...

Dennett, theory of humour as a debugging instinct.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262518697/inside-jokes/

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#188

Post by alexpetralia »

- Seeing Like a State: how legibility informs how societies and people view reality

- Antifragile: how things benefit from volatility

- Hold Me Tight: relationship advice

- The Lucifer Principle: energy flows

- Scale: how patterns persist across various scales

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#189

Post by an_aparallel »

Fission wrote: post #184
kaiju0 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. But the language and wording structure is a slog to get through.

There are a lot of different translations with varied ease of reading, modernity of prose, and fidelity to the original source. The one by Gregory Hays is one of the newest and is my preferred translation.

thanks for mentioning this - i was reading it and the older language was offputting, but i could see the beauty in whatever glimpses i got :)

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#190

Post by rramadass »

lukas099 wrote: post #154
JackMorgan wrote: post #8

From a software engineering standpoint: - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (doing all the exercises is key). This book helped me think about how programs run, how state is stored, how you can build out asynchronous computation, and how you can build your own languages. - Designing Data Intensive Applications. This book profoundly changed how I think about application performance and data. It describe…

> Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (doing all the exercises is key). I tried this, but got stuck on the first exercise that had you prove some mathematical thing. I concluded that I was too stupid for the book.

>I concluded that I was too stupid for the book.

Never assume anything like this.

You just need different approaches to study different subjects.

Here is an approach which works for me which you might also find useful. There is too much out there to Study and Time is limited so the first thing to do is to Skim, Pick out the main Ideas/Concepts, Figure out their relevance to you and only after that revisit the Topics again if needed in Depth and doing the Exercises as needed. You need multiple passes over the subject matter, each focusing on different aspects and the last couple of passes putting everything together in a personal mental model.

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