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Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

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Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#401

Post by gonehome »

gamegoblin wrote: post #191

If you want smaller, quicker payoffs (but in no way cheaper!), consider the anthologies of short stories by Ted Chiang. Most of them are 15-45 minutes to read, with a couple longer (1-2 hours). I've read both "Stories of Your Life and Others" and "Exhalation" in the last month and I turned to my wife and said "that story just blew my mind" for probably 75% of the stories. You can find a few online. Here is a very sho…

I really liked the lifecycle of software objects and liking what you see: a documentary.

All of his stories are good though.

I’d recommend True Names by Vernor Vinge and After Life by Simon Funk if you like Ted Chiang: https://sifter.org/~simon/AfterLife/

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#402

Post by BtdTom »

alibaba_x wrote: post #244
davedx wrote: post #174

The Magus, John Fowles Dune (all 6) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig Manufacturing Consent The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan If This Is a Man, Primo Levi Light, M. John Harrison

All 6 Dune books? The first one was a masterpiece but the rest are not as widely praised.

Personally, I love the first four books, although the be warned they take a different tone than from the first book. The last two are good, but Heinlein passed away after writing the sixth book. I believe his son tried to continue the series, but I haven't read past that.

I highly recommend reading at least the first four books.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#403

Post by carapace »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #233
state_less wrote: post #225

You might like the Gateless Gate by Mumon. http://oaks.nvg.org/gate-struggles.html Hui-Neng's "Your Minds Move" The wind was flapping a temple flag, and two monks started an argument. One said the flag moved, the other said the wind moved; they argued back and forth but could not reach a conclusion. The Sixth Patriarch Hui-Neng said, "It is not the wind that moves, it is not the flag that moves; it is your minds that…

Ok, cute, but does it mean anything? Of course the wind moved the flag. Are they all ignorant of physics? No of course not. Its some metaphysical plug about relationships or something. One of those 'one hand clapping' things. I guess the point is to get you to stop overanalyzing. Which I'm doing. But no, I didn't get my mind blown by monks in semantic circles. I guess I'm not ready to be enlightened.

The first one is literal: there is no wind, there is no flag.

The physical universe is as a reflected image on the surface of a lake, illusory.

However, the "level" at which that is true is above/below/beyond the "level" at which there "really" is wind and flag.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#404

Post by chrischattin »

enitihas wrote: post #88

Highly recommended for everyone: "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahenman. If you have difficulty interacting with people 1. How to win friends and influence people (Easy read) 2. Seven habits of highly effective people (Harder read) To learn how to write well: On writing well To understand how large products are made: Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT

"Thinking, Fast and Slow" was pretty underwhelming to me given the hype. There's much better stuff out there if you're interested in cognitive biases, behavior, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#405

Post by theblahblah »

dkural wrote: post #249
gherkinnn wrote: post #143

Anything by Hermann Hesse. Not mind bending. No Twists. No roller coasters. Just a calm conversation with the author and yourself. And yet, it had a profound impact on me. One poem I revisit every once in a while: https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=119749 If you understand German, I do believe it needs to be read in its original tongue. The translations I found thus far were not entirely convincing.

I used to like Herman Hesse, and gradually realized the straight line from Hesse to Nazism. His distinct lack of human understanding is what bothers me at core. His female characters barely exist except as mirages in the eyes of men, and his male characters are little more than intellectualized brains. It's the type of book one likes as a teenager / young adult and realizes is BS later.

I had a contrasting experience with Hesse. Narcissus and Goldmund was really influential on me. It made me realize that life doesn't have to be about buying stuff and fucking the same woman for the rest of my life. It drove me to travel and experience many things. Through that process I gained perspective you just can't get by being stuck in an office working so you can buy shit you don't need, most of the time advancing the subliminal competition your wife is in with her girlfriends.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#406

Post by gitrog »

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut was probably the most recent one for me. I guess the book in its entirety is probably fairly mild by modern sci-fi comparisons, but without wanting to spoil anything there is a certain species in the book whose outlook on life immediately changed my perspective of reality.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#407

Post by crimsonalucard »

kangnkodos wrote: post #250

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins The book is written to convince the reader that evolution is valid. But to me, the shocking thing was to really understand the religious argument for the first time, and understand why evolution challenges that world view. In a nutshell, there is a web of related arguments which support the belief that God exists. One of them is that the eye is so complicated, that it must have…

The foundations of peoples' beliefs are not tied to logic or truth, it is tied to time, effort, character and way of life.

Any change in belief that will influence their way of life will raise psychological shields. People will very readily change their logic to maintain a belief if that meant preserving other other aspects of their lives that they have put time and effort into.

This book is written for people who already understand the true nature of science and religion. I highly doubt it can convert people, I have yet to find a technique or even a book that has the ability to do so. It's just the way people are...

Whenever you see someone convert from religion to science most of the time the underlying foundations of it had nothing to do with logical realization and more to do with some form of minor or major trauma.

If you experienced a conversion to science from religion and you yourself describe the experience as a "logical realization" I would argue that you probably weren't that invested in the religion in the first place OR that there was some associated trauma that coincided with the "logical realization."

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#408

Post by justinmeiners »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #262
__s wrote: post #241

The Fountainhead Or anything Vonnegut or Philip K Dick A personal "brain expanding" book for me was The Miracle Planet but timing is everything, as an 8 year old who had only been reading children's books it taught me that you can read through anything with persistence The Bible has a lot of mind games & plot twists. I read it as an atheist seeking better perspective on a couple thousand years ago

I can't take anyone reading Ayn Rand seriously anymore; it's what all the selfish right-wingers read and take as gospel, those that take a massive shit on everyone but themselves - Trump to name but one. And it's ironic because Rand herself was fervently atheist and hated conservatives as they turned to religion and nationalism in the 50's.

The major theme in the fountainhead is integrity to ones personal convictions and artistic craft and has almost no direct reference to conservative politics.

This also amuses me as Trump is pretty far from the Greenspan/Rand economic perspective too.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#410

Post by jredwards »

gitrog wrote: post #406

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut was probably the most recent one for me. I guess the book in its entirety is probably fairly mild by modern sci-fi comparisons, but without wanting to spoil anything there is a certain species in the book whose outlook on life immediately changed my perspective of reality.

I always preferred Cat's Cradle.
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