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Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

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Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#351

Post by celticmusic »

raamdev wrote: post #64

Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it…

Mans Search For Meaning affected me in a way that very few books ever have. You grow up knowing about the holocaust, you see the imagery, but it's all impersonal. You understand why it's a horrific deed, why hitler was a horrible human being, and why we as a society should never allow that to happen again.

But there's just something about Frankl's descriptions, at least for me. It personalized it in a way I had never really experienced before. That book horrified me in a way that none of the other material on the holocaust ever had.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#352

Post by biophysboy »

guzey wrote: post #338
biophysboy wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Guzey, thanks for hopping in. I like your blog. Walker's book is sloppy. The graph you mention last is egregious. No disagreements here. Honestly I agree with you at least partly on all of your points. So why did I miss your points? I was trying to give better evidence/info relevant to the topic of each point. My hope was people would read it and continue to respect sleep as an open and very interesting biologica…

Got it. I apologize if my tone was too harsh. I do stand by all of the bold-font headings, but yes, primarily the post is directed at Walker. My current stance on sleep is that we don't know much about it and we don't know much about how much exactly we need to sleep. I'm collecting some notes on sleep (very preliminary so far) here: https://guzey.com/sleep/

Oh its alright, I didn't feel attacked.

If you're curious, here's another GWAS open-access paper on sleep: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08917-4. Its self reporting, but its tricky to do EEG or some other technique on half a million people. Also this associated portal is cool: http://sleepdisordergenetics.org/home/portalHome

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#353

Post by SamPatt »

sharcerer wrote: post #298
gpanders wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Factfulness and Enlightenment Now utterly transformed my outlook on life and the state of the world. These two books turned me from a cynical complainer into an optimist. Cannot recommend them highly enough.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb thinks it's BS. There's been a lot of debate on Pinker's book. https://www.vox.com/2015/5/21/8635369/pinker-taleb

Wrong Pinker book. Taleb took issue with Better Angels of Our Nature, which is Pinker's book about the decline of violence.

Enlightenment Now is different. Taleb might also have opposed that book (he likes to pick fights) but that's not what your link describes.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#354

Post by celticmusic »

4NDR10D wrote: post #26

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure [1] by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt I didn't necessarily agree with all of it but it helped me understand the changes I've seen across workplaces, colleges and beyond. It was also a nice way of thinking more "grey" in terms of the current political climate, and trying to understand the reasons behind peop…

I haven't read the book, but I've listened to Jonathan Haidt talk on this subject, and I had the exact same response as you.

For me, I just flat cannot understand this current generation, from safe spaces, to being mentally broken over the smallest things. I've always viewed it as a dishonest way to try and get power over people.

Until Jonathan Haidt. He helped convince me that these young people are legitimately fearful of the world around them.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#355

Post by SamPatt »

cs702 wrote: post #171

Let me add two books that are among the best I've ever read: * "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress Hardcover," by Steven Pinker -- even if you disagree with him about some things (for example, on principle), the book is really worth a slow, careful read. * "The Better Angels of Our Nature," also by Steven Pinker -- in many ways, this is a precursor to the above book, and also wort…

If you like these books I'd highly recommended two more.

Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley.

More from Less by Andrew McAfee.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#356

Post by celticmusic »

seren wrote: post #302
s_Hogg wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how Dune is becoming more and more relevant. Not because of any dystopia thing, but because the fundamental issues it talks about (unstable power systems, ecology and power, the right to sovereignty) are becoming more and more mainstream. If they make another movie, I think it could potentially do quite well.

In case you don't already know they are actually working on a new version of a Dune movie to be released in two parts, first movie at the end of 2020 IIRC, directed by Denis Villeneuve

lmao, they're always working on a new Dune movie I think.

It's been 20 years since I last read through the 2 dune series, but I still think they're one of the best I've ever read.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#358

Post by emodendroket »

tptacek wrote: post #347
emodendroket wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The New Testament grabbed me in a way I didn't anticipate.

That's interesting. I was raised Catholic and am still now a sort of very detached Catholic and I read the New Testament earlier this year and it had kind of the opposite effect on me --- not so much in any fundamental way regarding what I believe spiritually, but in my attitude towards the church itself. I spent 12 years having priests and nuns drill the basic story in all its details into my head, and what's in the…

That sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.

I do think coming into it without any particular expectations, and while watching secular videos about it, was actually helpful in being able to get something out of the text. I was raised Catholic but I guess my upbringing wasn't particularly rigorous in that way so I didn't have that many preconceived notions about what the text was "supposed to" say.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#359

Post by kaycebasques »

thomk wrote: post #58
kaycebasques wrote: post #23

The Six Pillars Of Self-Esteem. Even if you think you already have high self-esteem, there's no such thing as too much self-esteem. Someone here on HN first made me aware of it. It's such a great framework for self improvement. I've read it 3 or 4 times and did all of the exercises the first 2 times.

What was the result of doing so? I'm genuinely curious.

I’m way more honest about my values and whether my actions align with those values. When there’s an inconsistency between my actions and values I either realize that the value is not actually a priority and I have the peace of mind to let it go, or I’m motivated to change my actions to align with my values.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#360

Post by cworth »

kaycebasques wrote: post #23

The Six Pillars Of Self-Esteem. Even if you think you already have high self-esteem, there's no such thing as too much self-esteem. Someone here on HN first made me aware of it. It's such a great framework for self improvement. I've read it 3 or 4 times and did all of the exercises the first 2 times.

From other discussions of the book, I’ve heard it is inflected with libertarian politics. Did you find that distracting while reading it?
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