Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
201–210 of 365 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#202The selfish gene by Richard Dawkins. Everybody should understand evolution.
I haven't read The Selfish Gene - but The Blind Watchmaker was an excellent book also about evolution. Probably more appealing to the tech crowd too (it has programs!)
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#203Enchiridion of Epictetus (and other Stoicism works like Marcus Aurelus Meditations). I myself prefer the epicurism point of view, but this book learn you mainly than there is not point to be to much emotional on the many things in life than you cannot control.
Agree, both books really changed my point of view on many subjects such as life and death
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#204The Enchiridion, aka The Handbook.
Simple language. Simple lessons. Life changing guidance that has stood the test of time.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#205For European, I would recommend Basic Economics from Thomas Sowell. To have a total opposite mindset of the socialist we have here was mind blowing for me.
I really liked his book "Intellectuals and Society" as well. Of course, it is opinionated but there's also a lot of great insight on the root of disagreements in politics. His theory being that there are two broad competing visions of the world: the utopian vs the tragic. Thomas Sowell himself adheres to the tragic vision (e.g. human nature is essentially unchanging and that man is naturally inherently self-interested, etc.).
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#206Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. Makes you look at work so differently. We aspire to do our best work, but what if the outcome of the work on the world is adding up to it becoming a worse place?
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#207I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world. Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it. Some time back, someone did a nice…
Bhagavad Gita. Sure why not. India does not have enough problems. Its still not recovered from the caste system. Why not bring the strict version and fuck it up like the pre British era.
And please do not spread the lies on British for the caste system. The varna system(caste system) is the basis of the vedas(hindu religous book).
For those who wants to know what the caste system is, read this essay by an scientist and activist https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/ambedkar/web/readin...
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#208I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world. Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it. Some time back, someone did a nice…
This is maybe a completely un-informed comment, but does religion have much to do with the actual books? From my own personal experience 90% of the people I meet who call themselves religious couldn't quote more than 10 lines.
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#209I'd say that The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't [0] is the book for the current moment. Don't be put off by the subtitle. It's not about condemning a particular group as fuzzy thinkers. Rather, it's a manual for overcoming your own biases with immediate, actionable advice. For example, if you express your beliefs as "percent confident" rather than "true or false," it's easier to up…
It sounds like you might like Susan Haack's "Evidence and Inquiry."
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out. Does the gender of a books author really matter?
It does when those books were purposely excluded because the author was female. It also matters a lot when one of the books excluded was written by the person who was actually closest to Jesus too. Thus her accounts should surely matter at least as much as the mens (probably more so in reality). The New Testament was collated in an era when organised religion was used as a tool for man to retain control. To that end,…
> It does when those books were purposely excluded because the author was female. It also matters a lot when one of the books excluded was written by the person who was actually closest to Jesus too.
Which book was this? How do we know about it, and have you read it?