Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

571–580 of 1001 posts

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

#571

Post by williamdclt »

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #335
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…

Kaizen seems to be manufacturing's equivalent of agile. Everyone says they do it, but almost no one actually does it because that would mean totally re-configuring their business.

A good approach to this is to start small. Apply kaizen on small things, get the "kaizen culture" ingrained in your team/company culture, and slowly move on to bigger things.

Not gonna lie, it's very hard

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

#572

Post by regularfry »

drieddust wrote: post #349
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…

In software people use agile as an excuse to not think through the core architecture. I believe agile was invented to incrementally improve an already well thought production process. Once the assembly line was setup, agile was used to eliminate the unproductive activities. I am not sure agile will be helpful to build the assembly line itself? In most scenarios that's what people try to do with agile.

You're describing Lean. Similar and related, but not the same.

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

#573

Post by FabHK »

dmux wrote: post #35

"Metaphors We Live By" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson changed how I thought about language and how I use it to orient myself in the world. "Thinking in Systems: A Primer" by Donella Meadows changed how I approached designing/troubleshooting software systems as well as changed how I think about political policy decisions and their results. "Object Thinking" by David West dramatically altered how I approach designin…

The only book I've ever bought judging by the cover (well, the title) only was George Lakoff's Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. It wasn't what I expected (what did I expect??), but it was insightful and thought provoking. One of the first books I've come across that shows you that the world is much, much more complicated than the simple (and "obvious") stuff we are taught in school.

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

#574

Post by gorpomon »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #308

OK, it might be a bit embarrassing to post this, but I'm going to say Marie Kondo's "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up." Not so much for the tidying part (though I did find that extremely helpful), but the whole idea of only keeping things in your life that "spark joy" (not an exact translation by the way - "spark excitement" or "spark meaning" are other ways I like to think about it) has had a profound impact on…

It's a really great idea, and the way people are taking to it is really nice to see. I even see people understanding after a few eye rolls the importance of her more Shinto inspired things (such as being thankful to items).

From her I learned that all items have a home. I had heard such an idea before, but her explanation made it stick. Now I don't lose keys or gloves or ear muffs, they all have a home in my house. It's not ideal placement, I often end up backtracking a bit, but I think the idea isn't to wring efficiency out of every decision, but to just know and accept, and that feels ok when you're around joyful things.

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

#575

Post by scrumbledober »

the second through third book of the ender's game saga dealt a lot with how to communicate with aliens that may not communicate in any way we could really even understand, and whether or not there were beings that we would never be able to communicate with. It may sound pretty autism spectrum but it's something I often think about when communicating with other people.

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

#577

Post by gashaw »

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, A Guide to Rational Living by Albert Ellis, Feeling Good by David Burns - changed the way I see and cope with things and people that used to "cause" me lots of stress in the past.

Behave by Robert Sapolsky, The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson, Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman - we are animals shaped by evolution. The human brain isn't perfect and makes lots of silly mistakes. I learned not to belive everything I think.

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

#579

Post by regularfry »

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…

For me it was a sequence of books that did it. The Phoenix Project first, then David Anderson's Kanban book. Some tine after that was The Goal and Deming's Out Of The Crisis, and a book of Taichi Ohno musings.

You're right, what has been seen cannot be unseen.

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

#580

Post by lucianthorr »

pmoriarty wrote: post #13

The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson https://www.amazon.com/Illuminatus-Trilogy-Pyramid-Golden-Le...

Wilson's "Everything is Under Control" was another important one for me after the Illuminatus! Trilogy. That's what sent me down the path into Thomas Pynchon, Hakim Bey, Noam Chomsky, etc. Can't really turn back after that.
Post reply on HN