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Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

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Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#421

Post by war1025 »

I don't know that any of them changed how I think about everything, but some books I liked that I think are somewhat less well known:

- Thanks for the feedback [1]. How to give and receive feedback well.

- Start [2]. Sort of your run of the mill self help book. Thought it had some nice insights in it.

- Glass House [3]. Talks about the deterioration of industrial towns and the society that used to be built around them.

- Thinking in Bets [4]. Approaching situations from the perspective of a gambler and how to choose what to do when you don't know all the facts.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114120-thanks-for-the-...

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17249189-start

[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29939240-glass-house

[4] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35957157-thinking-in-bet...

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#422

Post by clucas »

news_hacker wrote: post #327
scrumper wrote: post #162

Animal Farm was a really important book for me. I picked it up aged about 10 or 11 and I remember being really struck by how easily the pigs were able to exploit the other animals' grievances with humans to secure their own power. It felt like a grown-up story with some quite powerful, disturbing meanings under the covers. So I told my English teacher about it and all she told me in response was to go look up the Rus…

Does anyone have any recommendations for reading up on the Russian Revolution? Books, videos, or otherwise.

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924, by Orlando Figes

Unfortunately not available in electronic form, but well worth the trouble of paper.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#423

Post by moultano »

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

It's mindblowing just as a work of history (prehistory really) but it also entirely changed how I viewed environmentalism. It made me realize that untouched wildernesses don't exist. Every single landscape on earth has been irrevocably and entirely reshaped by humanity. The Earth is a garden and we are its gardeners, now we just need to get good at it.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#424

Post by kovacs »

ehsanu1 wrote: post #402

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg is an amazing eye-opener. It's a book about how how to interact with your fellow humans in a way that enriches the lives of everyone around you. It's full of things that should be obvious, but in practice are not. You can think of it as a more advanced version of Dale Carnegie's "How to make friends and influence people", with more focus on conflicts, and a specific c…

Satya agrees with you ;-)

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-satya-nadella-nonv...

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#425

Post by btilly »

news_hacker wrote: post #327
scrumper wrote: post #162

Animal Farm was a really important book for me. I picked it up aged about 10 or 11 and I remember being really struck by how easily the pigs were able to exploit the other animals' grievances with humans to secure their own power. It felt like a grown-up story with some quite powerful, disturbing meanings under the covers. So I told my English teacher about it and all she told me in response was to go look up the Rus…

Does anyone have any recommendations for reading up on the Russian Revolution? Books, videos, or otherwise.

For a feeling of what the early Soviet Union was like, I highly recommend We the Living by Ayn Rand. If you don't like her politics, I still recommend it to understand exactly what it was that she is reacting against.

That book is not exactly autobiographical. But she does draw very heavily on her own personal experiences to draw that time and place as accurately as she could. For example the purge that ended Kira's university education was not made up, and indeed would have ended Ayn Rand's career if she had been one year younger.

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#426

Post by vvanders »

bit1 wrote: post #223

Definitely "The Machine That Changed the World" by Womack, Jones, and Roos [0]. This is "the first book to reveal Toyota's lean production system." Before reading it, I had never imagined just-in-time production or value chain mapping, or vehicle assembly lines that can profitably produce quantity one of a product before being reconfigured to produce a different model (SMED: single minute exchange of die). Now I see…

This American Life did a fantastic episode[1] on the NUMMI plant, highly recommend it.

[1] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/403/nummi

Re: Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?

#428

Post by marvindanig »

scrumper wrote: post #162

Animal Farm was a really important book for me. I picked it up aged about 10 or 11 and I remember being really struck by how easily the pigs were able to exploit the other animals' grievances with humans to secure their own power. It felt like a grown-up story with some quite powerful, disturbing meanings under the covers. So I told my English teacher about it and all she told me in response was to go look up the Rus…

Totally, I agree! Even though George Orwell is more known for 1984 but his work truly shines with the Animal Farm. It is a children's book fwiw but every aspect of it is meant for the grown-ups. Outstanding!

Luckily if you're in Australia, you can read this book for free because it is public domain there.

[1] https://bubblin.io/cover/animal-farm-by-george-orwell (iPad-book)

[2] http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt

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