Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?
The selfish gene - for understanding human behavior
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - for understanding how to be content
Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up
Wright Brothers - for understanding how technological breakthroughs happen
Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in business (it's not what you think)
Hackers and painters - for understanding startups and how/why they work
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - for understanding beauty in the routine
Essentialism, the disciplined pursuit of less and Walden - for understanding how "stuff" gets in the way of happiness
Les Miserables - for understanding love
shubhamjain on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up Having picked this a few weeks ago, I am finding it hard to finish because of the ponderous writing. I admit that first few chapters were a revelation, but the cultural verbosity regarding everything becomes wearing quickly. "The Ascent of Money" is much better primer on the evolution of financial system.
deepakjois on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
A good summary of the key arguments in the book can be found in this programme that aired on BBC, hosted by David Graeber himself (the author of the book) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05447pc
vpribish on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I started "The Ascent of Money" and was very happy with the first half or so - then I set it aside for a few years and worked for a hedge fund. When I picked the book up again I couldn't stand how basic, boring, and mistaken the second half was. I wish I could follow your example and suggest a better book :)
sirspacey on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
enlighten us - what did you learn?
vpribish on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
fair question, but I don't recall the specifics that disappointed me. It's totally possible that the first half of the book was just much better than the second, and it wasn't anything about my thinking that was responsible. it wasn't a controlled experiment :) ok - paged through the book a bit again and the main thing is that the early stuff was totally new to me (18th century Dutch bonds!) - and the latter is a well-researched rogue's gallery of recent, well-known failures (Enron, Japan's lost decade(s), the recent financial crisis (the book was published in 2008) ). Overall there is a focus on failure and a bunch of editorializing that didn't impress me on the recent stuff and casts doubt on the objectivity of the more distant historical parts.
edit: uh - i didn't answer your question. i learned that, holy-crap, it's hard to attribute cause to effect and very very easy to fool yourself. The market is not efficient - but it's usually close enough that correcting doesn't pay that much.
PappaPatat on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I am... shocked as this 80% is is my list for the very same reasons. Surely you've enjoyed Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter as much as I have, if not (yet), this is my thank you to you.
synapse0 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
To anyone who read GED in the past, more than a few years ago I mean, I highly recommed reading it again. Your updated self will appreciate its beauty even more.
arsmoriendi on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Yes. I found this to be true in general, and not just with books but also film, music and even programming languages.
_jdams on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
GEB* :)
austenallred on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I have not but I absolutely will
LrnByTeach on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Great to see my favorites here ...
Snowball (Warren Buffet), Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller biographies - for understanding the mental mindset to win in business (it's not what you think)
Hackers and painters - for understanding startups and how/why they work
Essentialism, the disciplined pursuit of less and Walden - for understanding how "stuff" gets in the way of happiness
yodsanklai on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Debt, the first 5,000 years It's often cited on HN, but I've found it very dense and difficult to read.
luckyt on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
I agree 100%. The beginning was good, gave many unconventional views of what is the essence of debt and money, especially in other cultures and periods in history. But in the middle of the book, the author started rambling about the history of everything with a loose connection to money or debt, with no real point to be made. I gave up reading somewhere around there.
ashark on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Probably depends on the kind of stuff you're used to reading, but I thought it was relatively light and lively, haha. My favorite part was the author's knack for writing a paragraph that caused me to think of several critical questions or potential holes, then immediately follow it up with a few paragraphs addressing most or all of those questions and plugging the holes.
mashmac2 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I've had the audiobook version recommended for this exact reason - easier to listen to than to read :)
thefuzz on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I've heard exactly this about the book, audio book > text
eliben on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
It is dense and difficult to read, I agree. But it's also very insightful, and hence recommended. I agree with the other comment that listening to difficult books is generally easier than reading.
pklausler on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Selfish Gene is a great book but human behavior is hardly its main topic.
austenallred on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Yup, that's just the mental model I gleaned from it
steelframe on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Selfish genes can result in completely altruistic and sacrificial behavior in an individual.
phaus on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
For Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller, which biographies do you recommend?
kornish on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Not the OP, but Ron Chernow's Titan is a phenomenal chronicle of Rockefeller.
austenallred on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Yes. And the Carnegie biography by Nasaw is long but very good.
sprafa on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
Can you please list which biographies of Carnegie and Rockefeller you recommend ?
krishna2 on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
For Rockefeller, there is Ron Chernow's. There is also this book : The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition by Charles R. Morris
Links: https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr-ebook/...
https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Carnegie-David-Nasaw-ebook/dp/...
https://www.amazon.com/Tycoons-Carnegie-Rockefeller-Invented...
austenallred on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
The Tycoons is great!
fiftyacorn on Sept 4, 2017 [-]
Is the Carnegie one his autobiography?
austenallred on Sept 4, 2017 [-]
No, biography by Nasaw
etplayer on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Debt, the first 5,000 years - for understanding money and finance from the ground up For me it's nice to see this is being recommended even outside social anarchist/Communist circles.
austenallred on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Interesting, I see it most often in anarcho-capitalist circles
etplayer on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
That's very strange for me to hear, considering the position of the author himself and some of the views espoused in the book. Though I shouldn't be saying that books ought to be restricted to certain ideological followers. As a Communist myself I have my own favourites but I doubt they'd be so useful to anyone here.
alehul on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I'm definitely pro-capitalism personally, but I think a collection of books that offer a convincing argument towards another perspective would be well received in the HN community. You should consider posting some.
padobson on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I have to agree with this. I have strong opinions about economic and political systems, but I also recognize these are some of the most contentious questions and viewpoints out there. In light of that, a thoughtful and reasonable look at alternatives is the best way to reduce some of that contention.
frgtpsswrdlame on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
The Progressive Assault on Laissez-Faire by Barbara Fried. It's more pragmatic, aka not Marx/theory but it has some good arguments against our current econ/legal framework.
RealityNow on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Debt, the first 5,000 Years (David Graeber) - Learned that most of history has been communist (eg. hunter gatherer societies), shops of the past were run on credit (eg. tally sticks), money/capitalism tended to emerge with the rise of the state, taxing to feed soldiers for war, and that the drive to pay off one's debt fueled a lot of the cruelty of mankind (eg. Hernan Cortez, Casimir). 21 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism, Bad Samaritans (Ha Joon Chang) - Learned that free trade is generally bad for developing countries, countries need to build out high productivity industries to grow their economy in the long term and avoid a balance of payments deficit (unless blessed with oil or something), manufacturing is vital to a country's economy and its service sector, "free markets" are a constantly evolving political definition with numerous inherent double standards, the only reason most of us in first world countries are paid well has nothing to do with our own superior ability (eg. bus driver in India vs. Norway), but due to immigration control and the institutions we inherit.
Also looking for more book recommendations, so feel free to send some my way!
cgmg on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Learned that free trade is generally bad for developing countries The consensus among experts on the matter is that protectionism has a negative effect on economic growth and welfare, while free trade has a positive effect.
There are challenges to be sure, but free trade is most definitely a net positive for developing countries. Countries whose governments prevent their citizens from engaging in international trade tend to be much worse off.
RealityNow on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Well read "Bad Samaritans" to see why the consensus amongst economists is wrong. There isn't a single first world country that developed under free trade. The US and the UK were highly protectionist with steep tariffs, and it was only after they gained world dominance that they started opening their borders and demanding free trade from everyone else.
The economic "miracles" of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were all highly protectionist, and their now world-renowned industries were heavily subsidized by the government over decades. Toyota took 30 years to make a profit and 60 years to become a dominant player in the auto industry. Had these countries adopted free trade policies, these industries never would have developed due to being unable to compete with foreign competitors, and Korea and Japan would still be third world countries exporting textiles and refined sugar.
The developing countries that did adopt free trade policies (at the behest of the IMF/World Bank/WTO) all grew slower than they did before those policies were in place. Latin America's growth rate since the 80s has been a third of what it was prior, in Africa's case I believe it went from like 1-2% to .2% (don't remember the exact numbers).
The analogy in Chapter 3 titled "My six-year-old son should get a job" is brilliant. If a child is told to get a job and fend for himself, then he'll likely end up working low-productivity dead-end minimum wage jobs for the rest of his life. However if he's able to focus on his studies, get parental support, go to university, maybe do research for a professor on the side - then this insulation from the free market via parental subsidies will pay off in the long run as the child will end up doing much greater higher productivity work. Similarly, developing countries need to invest in high productivity industries to develop.
Highly recommend the book, it's a quick read. I took the same Econ 101 classes where I was taught that free trade is unequivocally good. This book changed my mind, while also helping me realize that much of economics is completely divorced from reality. Even if you ideologically can't let go of the theory that free trade is good, history and the data clearly say otherwise.
binarray2000 on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
The point you make about protectionism is a very good one. But it doesn't tell the whole story. Isn't it interesting that in books about the economic development of the "first world" you never read about imperial politics? It boils down to how looting of other peoples resources and selling/keeping these people as slaves is the key reason for the riches in the "first world" (particularly its western part). And how protectionism came after (or in parallel, in later phases) to protect the looted. And how the West still does the looting of other peoples resources today and (thanks to that) keeps and grows its riches. And how the only thing that has changed is that it doesn't do the slave trade anymore, but how it still uses and profits greatly from the slave labour.
Maybe someone can recommend a book on this.
gras on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
What about science and technology? It seems to me like the Western world has always been more developed in those senses, even back in the time of the Romans. It's also not like Westerners are the only people who ever had slaves; "intrarace" slave trade was and still is alive and well in Africa. It's just the logical step forward from slaughtering enemy tribes, it's humanitarian relative to the alternative.
I'm saying this because of the recent trend of white guilt, which I think is unproductive like any group-based guilt; in a way it's a tool of warfare, a psychological/social weapon and an excuse to persecute individuals for things they did not do themselves.
I'd also like to read more on this, I think I definitely could be better informed.
binarray2000 on Sept 6, 2017 [-]
(1) I'll clarify myself: When I write about imperial politics, I mean the western oligarchy, not the people in the west. Yes, the people in the west have been made complicit in the crime of the oligarchy, but they are also (in a sense) a victim. For example: The oligarchy in England was not able to conquer India alone. Nor would they have risked their lives in the process. For that they have used the people. First they gave more money and power (military grades) to soldiers who would go to another side of the world and risk their lives to fight some foreigners who didn't pose any threat to their families or their country. After these soldiers have done their part, using the same scheme ("more money and power"), administrative officers were sent to administer the looted and to secure the power position of the oligarchy. Again, both groups (soldiers and administrators) were victims as well, risking their lives for a tiny bit of money and power compared to the profits and power gain of the oligarchy. And that pattern continues to be used today. Look for example at the testimonies of US soldiers who were in Iraq (on YouTube 1 [2] [3]). These guys are now physically and psychically sick from the war they were sent to wage for the US oligarchy and the system has no purpose for them (prior to them entering the service and now), but they are still humans with compassion. (2) The argument about science and technology is a complex one. Yes, there were Romans but we don't know sources for their scientific and technological advancements. We do know that, after the Romans, the west fell behind burning books and "heretics", and that the Islamic world was leading in science and technology during that time. We also know that when the west (the western oligarchy) came back with trade, it was followed by the imperial politics. And that continues to exist today as well. Look at the USA: It has made a system where it offers free information on US universities in their embassies. Then the young bright people, many from countries the US oligarchy has destroyed economically, so see no future in them and they come and study in the US. Later, in universities, research facilities and companies (as employees and [co]founders) they become (known) sources for scientific and technological advancements in the US. By doing that, he US is robbing already robbed countries: (a) of their future elite that would build a home country again; (b) their home countries have paid for their pre-tertiary education. And other western countries (oligarchies) do the same.
(3) Considering what I wrote under (1), it were not all "Westerners" but the western oligarchy who was the driver of the slave trade. Also, even thou there was (and still is) slave trade in Africa, the sheer scale, brutality and profit extraction out of slaves by the western oligarchy is not comparable with "intrarace" slave trade.
(4) Yes, white guilt is wrong. You are right that it is a tool of warfare, a warfare between poor people in the west and poor people in other countries, staged by the western oligarchy. No rich people fight in a war, not in the past, not now. And you are right that it is "a psychological/social weapon and an excuse to persecute individuals for things they did not do themselves". There is only the guilt of the oligarchy. If (and only if) the people in the western world say no to being peons in this game their oligarchy plays with their and the lives of other people, then they would do more for the peace in the world than all UN programs for the "third world".
1 https://youtu.be/gdn3bIfP7fk
[2] https://youtu.be/VwwMF6biCJU
[3] https://youtu.be/SOqPBC3ZMn8
lackbeard on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
I think Japan is actually a counterpoint to your argument. Post WW2 was not when it became a first-world economy. I'm pretty sure that when it first industrialized in the late 19th century, it did so under free-trade. (Its government wanted protectionist economic policies but the British forced free-trade on them!)
Daishiman on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
You are oversimplifying a tremendously complex issue. You can have a net positive wealth creation that's reserved for only certain economic sectors while leaving out everyone else. Absolute gains in economic growth are not really indicative of life satisfaction towards everyone in society
ageofwant on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
This only holds for developed economies and trade between peers. Developing economies is much better off protecting themselves against external competition. Of course developed markets would decry this "protectionism", they after all, only care about their own gain.
baddox on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I'm curious if the commenter meant "free trade" in the sense it's used by most politicians, which is to say deals between nations involving trade, which is to say effectively the opposite of "freedom of trade."
thundergolfer on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I read the book a while ago, and the general point was that it is a misconception that capitalistic free trade was a driver of high growth in today's powerful western economies. These countries actually engaged in significant levels of industrial protectionism during key parts of their economic history. I don't think the book was making a point about what is best for developing nations today, just attacking the the idea that laissez-faire capitalism built the US economy.
It's quite a good, short book, if you want to get a perspective on capitalism that's neither from a Communist or a university's Business & Commerce faculty.
PeterisP on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Coincidentally, "the only reason most of us in first world countries are paid well has nothing to do with our own superior ability (eg. bus driver in India vs. Norway), but due to immigration control and the institutions we inherit" clearly explains why a bus driver in a first world country would/should vote for anyone who promises more immigration control and sticking to the institutions we inherited.
afarrell on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
money/capitalism tended to emerge with the rise of the state, taxing to feed soldiers for war There is actually a musical about the way that the US federal government and financial system were founded in order to be able to provide capital for warfighting.
selimthegrim on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
1776?
lackbeard on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Masters Of Doom - The value of an unbalanced life and focused hard work. Also, how to start a startup. A really fun read, to boot. Fooled By Randomness - a) Survivorship bias. b) If you look at revealed preferences, people choose regular small gains with a rare huge loss over regular small losses and a rare huge gain even though that choice is -ev. c) Much more!
Hackers and Painters - One of the most insightful, subversive, and surprising texts out there.
C Interfaces and Implementations - Great examples of good API design and how to build clean modular code.
The Paleo Manifesto - Explains how the origin of religion was probably as a set of models for coping with the transition from hunting/gathering to civilized agriculture. The part of the book where he points out that the story of the fall of man in the Bible is probably the story of this transition is super interesting.
The Game - Made me realize that the narrative told by boomer and gen-x parents about how to attract a woman is probably doing young men (and women) more harm than good. I would not try to treat this as a how-to manual, though. A fun yarn.
Starting Strength - After years of fumbling around in the gym this cut through a lot of bad ideas about fitness, exercise, strength, and health. It lead to the first real (and lasting) progress I've ever made physically.
Understanding Comics - Understanding art and visual communication.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Up there with Hackers & Painters in its rate of insight & surprise per page.
Fail Safe Investing - Thought provoking ideas about why we invest and how best to go about doing that. (The ideas stand up, IMO, but some of the concrete advice on how to implement those ideas is very dated.)
Good Calories, Bad Calories - It turns out that even scientists can be dishonest and corrupted by politics.
orthoganol on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Wow, The Game I had totally forgotten about. Along with the 4 Hour Work Week, those are two books that gave me totally new measuring devices for success and attractiveness when I was in my early 20s. 4HWW redefined 'elite' as young entrepreneurial globe trotters (location freedom), and was probably the main igniter of the digital nomad movement, while The Game redefined attractiveness (for men) as a predominantly behavioral thing - boldness, non neediness, confidence etc. - not a wealth, credentials, or even primarily physical attributes thing (and pretty much ruined going out to bars for half a decade). Agree or disagree, those books really, really impacted thinking for millennials.
autarch on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
In no particular order ... I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter - strongly influenced my beliefs about how consciousness works
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter - made me think more deeply about so many topics
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer - made me both an animal advocacy activist and strongly influenced me towards a consequentialist moral
Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker - more on how consciousness works, this time through a work of fiction
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin - strongly influenced my beliefs about political systems
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins - changed how I thought about animal behavior and what living things do
Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig - strongly influenced my beliefs about US government
Manufacturing Consent by Herman & Chomsky - made me rethink my view of the media and news
colordrops on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Yes! "Godel, Escher, Bach" and "The Mind's I" completely broke down the rigid models I had for how I perceive objects around me and my place in the world.
austenallred on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Great list. Stealing the ones I haven't read.
autarch on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I will warn you that reading Neuropath left me feeling depressed for a couple weeks. It's a great book, but the conclusions it might lead you to may not make you happy.
alphapapa on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
What kind of conclusions do you mean?
autarch on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
That humans are just machines and there's no such thing as free will. I already knew that to some degree before reading the book, but it frames it in a particularly bleak way.
vpribish on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Goedel, Escher, Bach -- If you're reading this page you will dig this book. Guns, Germs, and Steel -- how circumstance drove civilizations. Fun storytelling even if it's a bit too "just-so". definitely trains you to look at any situation and seek it's origins with less initial judgement.
The Visual Display of Quantitive Information -- gets at the essence of communication and medium. more than it seems!
The Alchemy of Finance -- "reflexivity", but if you're also interested in Soros or some finance storytelling it's worth it.
The Selfish Gene -- as everyone else has said.
The Prize -- the history of oil. huh? yeah. Likely to change how you look at the history of technology, government, power, the saudis, and geopolitics.
enkid on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
By the way,Guns, Germs, and Steel, while an interesting book, and brings an interesting perspective, is largely discredited from what I've read.
vpribish on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
yeah, i was trying to allude to that. I found the way of looking at things compelling, regardless.
CPUstring on Sept 4, 2017 [-]
One of the key things that the book does is say, "Hey, you're probably looking at history with fundamental attribution bias goggles on. Take those off." The civilizational features that go into its namesake may not be sufficient or necessary features of wealthy civilizations, but they are important things to consider.
xtiansimon on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Hmm. Not to repeat, I think I must dig deep into the archives... Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity. Institute of GS, 1958. 1
The Institute of General Semantics has a current website [2], is on Facebook, and has several articles on Wikipedia.org [3].
One of the mind-bending premises (Wikipedia.org):
"Non-Aristotelianism: While Aristotle wrote a true definition gives the essence of the thing defined ..., general semantics denies the existence of such an 'essence'. [...] In general semantics, it is always possible to give a description of empirical facts, but such descriptions remain just that—descriptions—which necessarily leave out many aspects of the objective, microscopic, and submicroscopic events they describe. According to general semantics, language, natural or otherwise ... can be used to describe the taste of an orange, but one cannot give the taste of the orange using language alone."
1: https://books.google.com/books/about/Science_and_Sanity.html? [2]: http://www.generalsemantics.org/ [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_General_Semantics
taurath on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
That seems really interesting from reading the abstract - I wonder if its possible that by training non-verbality it could become easier to think on the various levels without confusing them?
maxprogram on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Poor Charlie's Almanac -- can't beat Charlie Munger when it comes to explaining how the world works. Fooled by Randomness, Black Swan, Antifragile -- Nassim Taleb reviles lots of new ways to think, first in finance, then everything in later books.
The Origin of Wealth -- Similar to Antifragile with a lot of mental models packed in on many different subjects: economics, business, biology, ...
The Design of Everyday Things -- the bible of design. Read it to know why everyday frustrations with tech are probably not your fault. His book Emotional Design is a good compliment.
The Essential Drucker -- "essential" reading for anyone in management or scaling a startup.
History, and why the world is the way it is today:
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
The Birth of Plenty, William Bernstein
They Made America, Harold Evans -- fantastic history book with each chapter telling the detailed story of a businessperson or inventor in U.S. history
thedevil on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
This list is close to mine. I would also add:
-
Influence: the Psychology of persuasion
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Selfish Gene
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Emotional Design
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Antifragile
-
How To Fail At Everything And Still Win Big
andrewb1 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Poor Charlie's Almanack. It's a compilation of talks and essays from Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet's business partner. This book has single-handedly changed my invest strategies and mindset. Instead of trying to buy low and sell high, Berkshire Hathaway holds a large cash position, until they find something they consider to be a sure bet, take a large stake and hold. I now have the quote "Be right and hold tight" written at my work table.
MarkMc on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Poor Charlie's Almanack is a fine book, but as it's just a collection of speeches and short stories the content is somewhat unstructured. I prefer "Seeking Wisdom from Darwin To Munger" by Peter Bevelin: https://www.amazon.com/Seeking-Wisdom-Darwin-Munger-3rd/dp/1...
supershobu on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
This is one of the most powerful books I have read.
makerleader on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
This is the best "reference" book out there in my opinion. My algorithm for making decisions now boils down to:
Filling out this: https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/02/decision-journal/
and referencing applicable models from Seeking Wisdom and https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/mental-models/
schlagetown on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Mindstorms, by Seymour Papert - for understanding the relationship of learning and technology; a smart, humanist, empathetic approach to education [See also: The Children's Machine; Deschooling Society] Clock of the Long Now, by Stewart Brand - for the concepts of deep time and the long now; appreciating a sense of how we experience time and our place in history [See also: Time and the Art of Living]
Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott - creative parable that's very helpful for conceptualizing abstract concepts of topology and higher dimensions
Thinking in Systems, A Primer, by Donella Meadows - great introduction to systems thinking, which is a useful lens for appreciating the complexity of all sorts of complex phenomena
A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander - great work of urban design, useful framework for looking at design systems and how pieces fit together on different scales [See also: Death and Life of Great American Cities]
Oulipo - A Primer of Potential Literature - nice introduction to the Oulipo and ideas of constraint as creative / poetic device [See also: Exercises in Style; Eunoia]
Impro, by Keith Johnstone - great primer on improvisation, really made me appreciate its impacts beyond just the theater, for example the importance of status in social relations
The Power Broker, by Robert Caro - unbeatably rich and compelling look at how power and politics actually work, for better (power gets things done) and for worse (power blinds and corrupts)
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard - beautiful, meticulously observed study of the natural world close at hand; made me appreciate the power of looking deeply and persistently
Le Ton beau de Marot, by Douglas Hofstadter - remarkable exploration of language and translation, in all its magic and complexity…both deeply personal and deeply researched, a must-read for lovers of language
The Library at Night, by Alberto Manguel - turned me on to the various lenses through which we can conceive of and appreciate libraries; their vast power and potential
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville - for really hammering home the grand, powerful potential of great literature and well-wrought language [ See also: Don Quixote; Infinite Jest]
jventura on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert Glover. Raised as a peaceful kid whose introversion taught me to try to control my world and keep things to myself, I am now more aware of how much healthier it is to set boundaries and just let the world run its own course. Immensely happier!
nitrogen on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality fanfic by Eliezer Yudkowsky provides an interesting introduction to some ways of thinking that may be new or surprising. Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan is interesting for considering models of reality (also his other books).
orthoganol on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
An anthropology textbook in college called "Culture as given, Culture as choice" - basically the good parts of Sapiens minus the preachy, questionable aspects. Another college textbook, "Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century", I think is the best book you can read if you want to understand our capitalistic societies today.
"Incognito" was great for exploring models from cognitive neuroscience, in same vein as Hofstadter works.
French Enlightenment thinkers - esp. Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, who are not only awesome but in my opinion articulate the core of what's actually worth defending in Western civilization, not to mention are formative of actually good political views.
German idealism, really starting with Kant to lay groundwork, and working up through Hegel, has hands down been the most wild and impactful philosophical journey I've taken. I don't recommend it unless you have some formal background or unusually strong appetite for philosophical reasoning, or (not including Kant) you'll probably just dismiss it or simply not be able to meet the exorbitant time demands required to reach a satisfying level of understanding.
Writers like Borges, Calvino, theater of the absurd - just plain, intellectually stimulating fun.
Disclaimer, I like contemporary 'critical theory' tinkers too, because they make you think outside the box.
BeetleB on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Bargaining for Advantage : Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Lies my teacher told me : everything your American history textbook got wrong
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
Thinking, Fast and Slow
jeffersonheard on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Getting More - Stuart Diamond. I still think this is the best book on the art of negotiation. Getting Things Done - David Allen. If you have adult ADHD like me, and you haven't read this, it's the first system that's really worked for productivity for me.
Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl.
Living Buddha, Living Christ - Thich Nhat Hanh.
Cosmos - Carl Sagan.
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin.
The One who Walks Away from Omelas - U.K. LeGuin.
Wild Seed - Octavia Butler.
The Heike Monogatari - (tr. Helen Craig McCullough) “The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. The proud do not endure, like a passing dream on a night in spring; the mighty fall at last, to be no more than dust before the wind.” If you need a comparison. this is the Japanese historical equivalent of Game of Thrones combined with a bit of MacBeth. The rise and fall of two shogunate families, and an analysis of the tragic flaws of character that brought their fall about.
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo.
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett.
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad.
The Guide - R. K. Narayan.
Evidence - Mary Oliver.
All of Us - The Collected Poetry of Raymond Carver.
Silence - Shusaku Endo.
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Murakami Haruki. This and the next four are odd choices, perhaps, since it's a surrealist book, but IMO books that force your imagination to work hard do as much for creativity and fresh ideas as any of the more popular methods.
The Well-Built City (The Physiognomy / Memoranda / The Beyond) Jeffery Ford - Surrealist novellas best described as about the protagonist living and achieving agency within the constructs, dreams, and nightmares of a "Great Man's" mind.
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson.
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon.
Dhalgren - Samuel L. "Chip" Delany.
camwiese on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Nice to see Heart of Darkness on here. In what way did it shape your mental model of the world?
dangle on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Great list, thank you. Dhalgren is incredible. Glad to see it.
i_dont_know_ on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Two that I almost never see on these kinds of lists, but really think they should get more acknowledgement: "Crucial Conversations" - breaks down how to have what might otherwise be an uncomfortable conversation about anything. I really think everyone should read it.
"The Enchiridion" - A stoic guide, boiled down, short, and very very relatable even in the modern age.
scottlocklin on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
"Money: whence it came from and where it went" by John Kenneth Galbraith -title is self explanatory. "Darwinian fairytales" by David Stove -the antidote to Selfish Gene; funnier too.
"Prediction, Learning and Games" by Cesa-Bianchi and Lugosi -the right way to think about sequential machine learning -a toss up with "Conformal Prediction" by Shafer, Gammerman and Vovk
"Decline and Fall of the Roman empire" and "Italy and her invaders" (by Thomas Hodgkin) have had huge impacts on my understanding of civilization. Couldn't help but; it took years to read them all.
Recently "The Attention Merchants" by Tim Wu -how advertising has screwed up humanity since snake oil merchants, and how we're on the cusp of another revolution in this field.
I actually strongly disliked Hofstadter's book.
TheAceOfHearts on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
A few weeks back I read "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion". It was very insightful. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up immediately recommending it to many of my friends. The author does a good job at getting the main points through. He ends each chapter with a summary of the discussed points, and at the end of the book he sums em all up again.
Not a book, but I've been consuming many Jordan Peterson videos on YouTube. He has presented me with many new arguments and ideas which I hadn't previously considered.
travmatt on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
If you liked the righteous mind you'd similarly enjoy "The Dictators Handbook" by Bruce Burna De Mesquita - he explores how rulers looking to maintain power are all driven by similar incentives, and similarly provided a clear framework for analyzing political or business strategy.
TheAceOfHearts on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Thank you for the suggestion, the premise sounds really interesting. I've just added it to my queue.
afarrell on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
This CGPGrey video is a decent summary of parts of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs
phugoid on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I'm bracing for a serious downvote... I have to admit that Anthony Robbins had a big influence on my thinking, particularly with "Awaken the Giant Within." The message was - you can control how you feel. Nearly twenty years later, I can see the limitations of his ideas - the danger of creating an arbitrary belief system for yourself and the selfishness of simply deciding what you want and rigging everything in your existence to get it. I also came to believe it's OK to not be happy all the time. But I will always respect Robbins' direct explanations of human motivation and how it can be nudged.
That and 'Single Variable Calculus; Early Transcendentals'; the universe is about change and math can model nearly all of it.
tinsilver on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Republic - Plato - why societies form the way they do Either/Or - Kierkegaard - as a father of Existentialism his views on society helped put things in perspective for me
It's All About Time - John Furey - surprised I don't see this mentioned more - how people organise their thinking based on a time-based motivational model https://www.amazon.com/Its-All-About-Time-Companies
tinsilver on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
On the topic of mental models, others have mentioned Feynman - but here's a discussion on why he was such an unusually effective scientist partly because of his use of less common mental models http://jamesclear.com/feynman-mental-models
mmmpop on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I'm in the middle of the biography of Robert Moses, "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro and just finished re-reading "A Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. As a fairly successful yuppie that came from Not A Whole Lot, it's really knocked me down a few pegs and made me realize that being a pompous ass about my exercised social mobility isn't all that special.
dave_sullivan on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
"A Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde Don't you mean "The Picture of Dorian Gray"? (Google it, it's Picture but everyone says Portrait for some reason)
unfunco on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
I've known people to confuse the title with a portrait of the artist as a young man, by Joyce.
mmmpop on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Whoops I did mean that!
travmatt on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
I'm in the middle of the biography of Robert Moses, "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro If you're finding you're learning a lot through that book, I'd also recommend Caro's series on LBJ. It's utterly fascinating and a vivid analysis of political public power.
dwaltrip on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
"Godel Escher Bach" and "I am a strange loop". I only made it half way through GEB, however the latter is a bit easier to get through.
For me, these books marked the beginning of a lifelong journey of "self" contemplation and intellectual/philosophical exploration.
patrickdavey on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
I might have to "Godel Escher Bach" again after reading these comments. I found it incredibly dense and hard to read.. My own pick for a book that made me think differently is "crucial conversations".
dwaltrip on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
I might try out "I am a strange loop". It's more approachable.
maaaats on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
From AI to Zombies by Yudkowsky. Interesting framework and thoughts about knowledge, perception and how we deal with biases. Can be downloaded for free/pay what you want here https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/
spookyuser on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
What is a Mental Model? I've heard this word tossed around so much recently and I still don't feel like I understand what it means.
ismail on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Have been reading and researching for my postgrad and in some cases "Perspective" & "Mental models" are used interchangeably. However i like to think of it in this way:
Perspective: The point of view from which something is looked at
Mental Model: A mechanism or thought pattern to make sense of something or understand something about some situation
You can never break out of your perspective of looking at the world. So a mental model is always confined within a specific perspective.
Example:
Supply&Demand is a model that helps you understand pricing in markets. The point of view/perspective is that of an economics/economist perspective. You could just as easily look at the same situation from a different perspective such as sociology or even psychology.
In other words, mental models are like a short cut to look at situations, solve problems and understand the world from different perspectives.
spookyuser on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Very interesting, thank you.
outlace on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Humans (and probably anything else) don't have access to the complete set of raw data that makes up our environment. We have imperfect data streams coming from our sense organs and from that we build a model of reality, which may have varying levels of accuracy for different people (e.g. we could say a schizophrenic has a disturbed model of reality). The idea being that reading a lot books, traveling, or in general exposing oneself to as much varied data as possible will improve the accuracy of your model of reality.
farnsworth on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
You could say that humans understand the world by building a "model" of it in our minds. When we are trying to decide how to act, we can simulate a situation by running it through the model. For example, you might have a model of your boss that helps you predict how they will react if you give them bad news. And you might have a mental model of your country that you can use to predict what will happen if it goes to war or goes broke. Every time you learn something, you can use it to adjust your mental model. It's like a simulation of the world inside your mind. Pretty cool, actually. People can end up with very different mental models of the same objects because they trained them with different data (ie, had different experiences growing up) or because other mental models impacted the interpretation of the data, and the development of those different mental models.
CGamesPlay on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
It refers to a person's perception of the outside world and how well the person is able to predict the future and understand the causes of events. Sort of like how a machine learning "model" is the mechanism by which a program understands it's inputs.
andrei_says_ on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I am That by Nisargdatta Maharaj. Shifted my perception of who/what I am. Not a book but Marshall Rosenberg's many lectures, audiobooks and workshops on nonviolent communication. I am now able to set boundaries in a peaceful way, and see myself and everyone, no matter what their actions, through eyes of effortless compassion.
mck- on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
1 Balthasar Gracian, "The Art of Worldly Wisdom" Timeless classic, 300 short maxims containing sage advice, written in beautiful prose. One of those books you can read just a few pages whenever you feel like. Currently re-reading it for the third time since I first read it 10 years ago. Still updates my mental model.
[2] James Allen, "As a man Thinketh"
At 21 pages, by far the most impactful piece of work on an impact-to-effort ratio. Very simple, yet very true. Changed my mental model completely, also 10 years ago, and also a book I'm re-reading for the third time.
[3] Nassim Taleb, "Black Swan"
A much more modern business book on the now-mainstream concept of "Black Swan" events. But the true value of this book goes beyond the concept – it changed my view of statistics, knowledge, empirical scepticism, philosophy, cognitive biases, societal dynamics, and sure, made me quit investment banking.
[4] Brian Greene, "Fabric of the Cosmos"
Mind-blowing primer on physics, all the way from Newtonian physics, to General Relativity, to Quantum Mechanics, to String Theory (and beyond). Concepts explained without a single equation.
[5] Douglas Hofstadter, "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid"
What a unique masterpiece. Covers a wide range fascinating concepts through the three geniuses in Math, Art, and Music. Most mind-blowing is his meta-writing style, using short fictional dialogue interludes (sprinkled with easter eggs) to convey each concept in very subtle manner. The joy when you see it.
1 http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/aww/index.htm
[2] https://wahiduddin.net/thinketh/as_a_man_thinketh.pdf
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Swan_(Taleb_book)
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fabric_of_the_Cosmos
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach
UPDATE: format
xutopia on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. I come from a very religious background and it helped shape my way of thinking around superstitious thoughts of all kinds.
invalidOrTaken on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Complexity: The Emerging Science At The Edge of Order And Chaos was a good read. I strongly recommend reading Jurassic Park at the same time, as the two were both influenced by the recognization of complexity as a "thing" in the late 80's/early 90's. The two are really about the same thing, but JP tells it through dinosaurs. While I have the floor, I've mused lately that Jurassic Park is like the perfect scary morality tale for young researchers. You hear cautions about endogeneity and omitted variable biases, simultaneity...but the worst that will happen if you mess these up is your paper is wrong. Crichton described a world where lack of scientific discipline led to getting eaten by dinosaurs.
colechristensen on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
You'd like Chaos by James Gleick
mrmyers on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Modeling the world generally (as in, why mathematics works and can apply to the real world): =Bertrand Russell=
- An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth
- A Theory of Knowledge
- Logic and Knowledge =W.V. Quine=
- Word and Object
- Mathematical Logic =Norbert Weiner=
- Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine =Smullyan=
- Diagonalization and Self Reference Squishy Human Things: Thomas Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Norbert Weiner - The Human Use of Human-Beings Bertrand Russell - A History of Western Philosophy Karl Popper - The Open Society and Its Enemies Daniel Dennet - Consciousness Explained E. Abbot Abbot - Flatland
marcrosoft on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Almost all books by Harry Browne. Specifically "How I found freedom in an unfree world".
NumberCruncher on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Could you recommend something non investment related from him? How I found freedom is one of the books I re-read every year.
marcrosoft on Sept 6, 2017 [-]
His "how to sell anything" book is great if you are into marketing or sales. It basically boils down to: ask what they want, summarize their needs and ask them if your summary is accurate, tell them how you can deliver on their specific needs, if you can't tell them and move on. If your summary is accurate and fits their needs ask if they are willing to pay for your solution. This advice seems incredibly simple and obvious yet people tend to do the opposite.
majewsky on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman describes mental models that I apply all the time when designing products or processes.
brudgers on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Critique of Pure Reason Philosophical Investigations
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Foucault's Pendulum
Snopes == The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion.
A River Runs Through It
Programming Erlang: Software for a Concurrent World
A Pattern Language
The Analects
Bhagavad Gita
Apology
The Republic
Touch the Earth
The Pity of War: Explaining World War I
The Civil War: A Narrative
etplayer on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Foucault's Pendulum What's this about?
Critique of Pure Reason
What did you find particular challenging to your worldview? As a side note, you may be interested in Critique of Pure Tolerance which has an essay by Robert Wolff and Marcuse. Have you seen The Dialectic of Enlightenment?
brudgers on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I didn't mean to imply that any of them challenged my world view. Only that each shaped my mental models. Foucault's Pendulum is about semiotics on one level and cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics on another.
Critique of Pure Reason put radical philosophical skepticism (and hence empiricism) in perspective. I find the model of the human mind useful in some situations.
Thank you for the recommendation. My philosophy reading days are mostly in the past or perhaps future. Currently, my reading interests seem to be elsewhere.
etplayer on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Of course, of course, I forgot the actual question the post was about as I got far down into the thread. Thanks for your descriptions, I'll be checking out FP.
lolive on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Foucault's pendulum is Dan Brown power 1 billion. A super story about the secrets of history. I never managed to read it (it IS dense). But as a audiobook, it was superb.
selimthegrim on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I read it during a particularly horrendous stretch of my first stint in grad school, mostly in my car outside the DMV in Goleta. A very effective set and setting for finishing it.
surak on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy was the best sci-fi I've read. Then there are a lot of other types, e.g Porter mgmt theories.
demircancelebi on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I really liked Asimov's short story Profession when I read it a few years ago. Here is a link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9568027
jamestimmins on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Agreed. The dynamics between general and emperor in determining the safety of Foundation from the Empire at the end of book 2 part 1 is something I think about often.
BrandiATMuhkuh on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
hitchhiker guide to the galaxy: it taught me how small the earth is. And therefore we should use the limited time we have wisely. Also, Don't Panic.
ozim on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I would say not even earth but life, everything and universe is insignificant but it does not matter. So does using your time wisely does not matter, just try to have fun (in a nice way) and don't panic. I am reading it again this week.
omnibrain on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Fiction: Peter Watts - Blindsight Nonfiction: Gödel Escher Bach CS: David West - Object Thinking
pbhjpbhj on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
The synoptic gospels and NT, but to choose one book from the NT, ... The Epistle of James - as it has some strong counterpoints to other parts of the NT particularly the contrast of Pauline notions of grace with charity/works.
Emperor's New Mind, Penrose - probably my biggest take away from it was to consider how human perception works alongside, and co-mingles with, physics.
Web of Life, Capra - considering holistic nature of life, one's connection to the World at large; emergent patterns, complex structure birthing from simplicity (goes well with what I recall of Gleick's Chaos).
Zen and the Art ... - what is value, what is valuable to me, whither/whence/wherefore value; how should I relate to my children (long before i had any) and how to challenge them philosophically.
Republic, Plato - the first book that really set me thinking about the structure of society, about inequalities. And of course about stepping out of The Cave.
Koran & Hadith (partial readings, ie whole sections; couple of major hadith only) - [redacted]; but greater understanding of Islam and of religion in general; taught me to watchfully avoid being tainted by the labels people give themselves and look instead to their actions.
Mein Kampf (partial reading) - ideas have intrinsic moral value, that we should judge ideas on their merits and not by who has them; we should be careful about tarring people by simple association.
Art of War - preparedness, looking to supply lines, avoiding conflicts, not entering "battles" you know you'll lose (which I'd take as 'learn nothing from').
Christianarchy - what it means to be a Christian, who is and isn't "in".
Agrarian Justice, Paine - what is my place politically and economically in the world, whence do I derive the 'rights' to own what I do, whether such ownership is good.
Worth noting here that the ideas and impressions I got are unlikely to be what you will get, we react to books based on who we are, our frame of mind, moods, etc.. Most of these books I read as a late teenager, that at least in part boosts their impact. The impact is not necessarily the purpose of the book, quite the opposite in some cases.
mikesabat on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I'm on a streak of reading Neuromarketing/behavioral economic type books. 1. Predictably irrational is particularly good. Especially the first half. 2. The Confidence Game explains the steps of how con trick people to fool themselves. 3. Buyology is very focused on purchases/retail. 4. Brainfluence. I'm halfway through it. Mostly bite-sized chapters and it's similar to Buyology, but I prefer this book.
whalesalad on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Influence by Robert Cialdini. Models by Mark Manson. Eloquent Ruby by Russ Olsen.
luckyt on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Our Marvelous Native Tongue by Robert Claiborne. This book tells the history of the English language, from its Indo-European roots to the Anglo-Saxon period to Shakespeare until the modern language it is today. It's the book that initially got me interested in language and linguistics, and now 10 years later I'm doing a master's in Computational Linguistics / NLP.
ambletron on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Urantia Book1 There's a peculiar richness, depth, and inventiveness to it that has kept me coming back to it on occasion for over 20 years of intermittent reading. I haven't come across another book quite like it. Of the few people who have heard about it, most bounce right off after skimming it, very understandably so.
But taken as a human project it's really quite an extraordinary piece of work. Having written short fiction and most of a novel before, I feel like I have a sense of the hard work it takes to master the craft of writing, and I have a lot of respect when I see not just good writing but writing that innovates, keeps pushing. The Urantia Book is like a fractal in its simplicity vs the narrative spun out from the seed ideas. The mental model is to merge both a science mindset and spirituality.
Recommend the iPhone app of it (is free, and has a quotes collection included).
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book
drited on Sept 4, 2017 [-]
Here's some: with why I like them Thinking, problem solving related:
Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock: accurate forecasting
Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman: how to avoid bias
Misbehaving: like thinking fast and slow but more hilarious
The checklist manifesto by Atul Gawande: the power of simple process
From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin: lots of mental models to add to your latticework
Business management:
The Outsiders by William Thorndike: capital allocation
The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz: some mental models for managers facing the real-life struggles of startups
Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake masters: for the chapter on what kinds of business are always going to be tough (i.e. ones in perfectly competitive industries)
Worldview:
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why violence has declined
The making of modern economics by Mark Skousen (audiobook): explains various economic ideas through telling the history of the fathers of those ideas.
Investing:
You can be a stock market genius by Joel Greenblatt: where to look for undervaluation
The Essays of Warren Buffett by Lawrence Cunningham: Buffett's thoughts in Buffett's words, neatly categorised by topic
Competition Demystified by Bruce Greenwald: how to identify a high quality business
bengkoang on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
40 hours a week - tim ferris, this book, even though its dated and not applicable in my life, there's a chapter that really boost my confidence about what is the worse things that could happens, it really help me experimented with new stuff, break out my conservative mind, realize its ok to be weird and have made me perceive a different views on problems.
KirinDave on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Predictably Irrational is essentially required reading for anyone who is making decisions for a product. The Information by James Gleick. Remember, Africa has had long range, distributed, fault tolerant wireless communication networks since before Europe had reliable clocks.
Euclid's Window by Mlodonow. The entire arc of history in a sweeping curve towards, ultimately, machine learning.
Reading Doc Smith's lensmen series (particularly the chronologically first 2) helped me recognize how very much pop science culture shapes perception. A futurist in the 20s thinking about interstellar travel has delightfuly different ideas. Wrong ideas, but hey.
Peter Hamilton's sci-fi, particularly the 6 Commonwealth Books: they're so different and so surprising and very happy to present a glowing and balelful view of capitalism in an expansionist universe.
Everyone in the west should.be required to read Ways of Seeing by Berger.
stinkytaco on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Just a few that haven't been mentioned, because I cross over with several others: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bitman. Not so much my mental model, but it's the only book I could ever say "changed my life".
Implementation - (https://www.amazon.com/Implementation-Expectations-Washingto...) This is a great discussion of how best intention in government go awry once they are implemented. It explores how each step makes sense, but something always seems to go wrong.
The Day the Universe Changed (slightly cheating since this was the companion to the TV show, but stands as an excellent book) - How certain innovations changed the way the world works and the way we see ourselves.
rkunnamp on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Courage : The joy of living dangerously - by Rajneesh - for giving that extra push to take risks and live on edge. It is a highly opinionated work, with full of questionable arguments and logic. And, I am not sure whether it resulted in good or bad, but certainly, it has made an influence.
ellius on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
• The Prize • The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
• The Lean Startup
• Poke the Box
• The Elements of Computing Systems
• The Death of Common Sense
• Up the Organization
• The Personal MBA
• The Wisdom of No-Escape
• The Adapted Mind
• Brain Rules
• Getting Things Done
• On Writing
• Steal Like An Artist
• George Orwell: A Collection of Essays
And these are technically not books, but Glenn Greenwald's "Speech to the Massachusetts ACLU" and the Christopher Hitchens speech criticizing the proposed Canadian hate speech law.
drited on Sept 4, 2017 [-]
Loved Brain rules, and Brain Rules for baby is also wonderful :)
DonHopkins on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Stanislaw Lem, Golem XIV. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem_XIV
http://english.lem.pl/works/apocryphs/golem-xiv
„Golem XIV” is one of Lem's most far-fetched intellectual adventures: for the purpose of this book Lem constructs the character of a supercomputer of the future that infinitely overshadows human intelligence. Golem, whose history we follow from its birth until his inexplicable departure from the human world, not only mercilessly criticizes humanity, claims of our culture and delusions about allegedly refining mechanisms of evolution, but also creates a breathtaking vision of further development of artificial intelligence – beyond our cosmos and cognition available within its limits.
http://english.lem.pl/works/apocryphs/golem-xiv/67-lems-opin...
"Mine is also the thesis regarding the relationship between genetic code and various species in which individuals serve only as code's amplifiers - however Golem's opinion is somewhat exaggerated. This concept - that Richard Dawkins called "the selfishness of genes" - I published three years before him."
http://english.lem.pl/works/apocryphs/golem-xiv/69-a-look-in...
Instructions (for persons participating for the first time in conversations with GOLEM)
- Remember that GOLEM is not a human being: it has neither personality nor character in any sense intuitively comprehensible to us. It may behave as if it has both, but that is the result of its intentions (disposition), which are largely unknown to us.
[...]
Toine on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
By far : Things hidden since the foundation of the world - René Girard
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/337517.Things_Hidden_Sin...
michaelmcmillan on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
On Having No Head by Douglas Harding had a profound effect on my introspection. It simply points out who you really are from your subjective. It bypasses the religious mumbo jumbo that so often gets bundled in guides to spirituality by using scientific experiements. Highly recommended!
beefman on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
– Economics / sociology – A Farewell to Alms https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691141282/
Cartesian Economics https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616407395/
The 10,000 Year Explosion https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465020429/
The Righteous Mind https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307455777/
Mindstorms https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465046746/
– Philosophy –
Tao Te Ching https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060812451/
Meditations https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545565678/
– Autobiography –
Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/
Recollections of Eugene Wigner https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738208868/
– Fiction –
Fahrenheit 451 https://www.amazon.com/dp/030747531X/
Dune https://www.amazon.com/dp/0441172717/
pmf on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Dune Do you mind explaining what's great about Dune (I have not read it yet, so maybe without major spoilers ...)?
beefman on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
It's a Messiah story set in the far future. I included it here because it had an impact on the way I understand history (I prefer to leave that a bit cryptic). As a work of fiction I'd call it good but not great. But at the moment I can't think of a work of fiction I'd call great, so I'm probably not the best critic on that point.
Everybody seemed to hate the 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch but I think it's pretty good. The Syfy miniseries got much better reviews but I thought it was only so-so. The film doesn't really spoil the book, which is kinda cool, but may be easier to follow and more fun to watch after having read it. Last but not least, I really enjoyed the recent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune...
callesgg on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Reading-Minds-Henrik-Fexeus/dp/91... Learned how to read peoples emotions more reliably.
wizzerking on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Moon is a HArsh Mistress Robert A. Heinlein The Foundation Series Isaac Asimov Both books provide macro economic examples, and sound philosophy such as "There aint no such thing as a free lunch", and enlighted self interest
xtiansimon on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Wolfram, Stephen. A New Kind of Science. Wolfram Media, 2002. 1 Wikipedia: "The thesis of A New Kind of Science (NKS) is twofold: the nature of computation must be explored experimentally, and the results of these experiments have great relevance to understanding the physical world. [...] [Wolfram] argues an entirely new method is needed to do so because traditional mathematics fails to meaningfully describe complex systems, and there is an upper limit to complexity in all systems."
robotresearcher on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Caveat lector. This book inspired some juicy reviews: A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity by Cosma Shalizi 21 October 2005
A Thirty-five Year Old Kind of Science by Juergen Schmidhuber, based on a letter to Intl. Journal of High-Energy Physics, vol 43:5, June 2003.
looked up at http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~wclark/ANKOS_reviews.html
johnsimer on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Innovator's dilemma & Innovator's solution- why big companies almost always get beaten by startups and how to overcome this 10x Rule by Grant Cardone - you must take 10x more action than you think to get success
Awaken the Giant Within - you can motivate yourself to do anything via the "Pain Pleasure Principle"
Bold: How to go big, make wealth, and change the world - some strategies from Musk, Bezos, Diamandis/Singularity U
The Art of Profitability - Coca-cola from a 2-Liter costs
my full list here: https://goo.gl/9SD8b6
franze on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Thinking in Systems: A Primer https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Systems-Donella-H-Meadows/dp...
Hyperbolic on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Ender's Series - For the essence of xenophobia and subjective realities.
jrs235 on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Outliers - the 20 or so page epilogue at the end titled "A Jamaican Story" had been the best writing I've read thus far that struck a chord and helped me understand "white privilege".
ssivark on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Among my recent reads:
-
Finite and infinite games, by James Carse
-
Antifragile, by Nassim Taleb (IMHO the book rambles on a little too much; some of his hour long YouTube talks convey the ideas almost as well)
-
Obedience to authority, by Stanley Milgram
kyoob on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Finite and Infinite Games blew my mind. I re-read it every couple of years and it recalibrates me every time.
holri on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Essais - Michel de Montaigne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_de_Montaigne
Tepix on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I recently finished "The Singularity Is Near" (2005) by Ray Kurzweil. I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet. Super optimistic author and indeed a great book to think about after reading it.
ibigb on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, http://www.rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/ The First and Last Freedom, J Krishnamurti http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-tex...
fillskills on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
On Intelligence - taught me how our brains work Sapiens - How the world works
Biographies of Steve Jobs and Einstein - Taught me that even geniuses dont work in a vaccum
Lean Startup and essays from PG - taught me how to start a business
jesperlang on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
not going to repeat what's already been said so I will just add one: The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler about human creativity. This was a heavy read but mind-bending like no other, literally had to put it down every now and then to contemplate/write/sketch what I just read. Fascinating!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30676.The_Act_of_Creatio...
kilian on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Dance of Gods novels by Mayer Allan Brenner, free download here: http://www.mayerbrenner.com/download/ They are like a Discworld where magic and programming are basically the same, of sorts, with a large, sprawling world with overlapping storylines. It's a great read and I came away with many interesting lines of thought whilst reading a very fun story.
shadowtree on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations - David S. Landes Agree or disagree with his findings, but it was the first book I read as a teenager that tried to connect seemingly disparate things into a single narrative - culture, technology, luck.
Jared Diamond had a similar, but more simple premise.
I still think of certain passages of Landes' book to this day. The impact of clockworking, the start of the modern tech industry. The impact of protocol and bureaucracy, especially the Spanish one.
LucianLMZ 12 months ago [-]
In no particular order and probably not remembering all: The signal and the noise - Nate Silver;
Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb;
Antifragile - Nassim Nicholas Taleb;
1984 - Orwell;
Man's search for meaning - Viktor Frankl;
Diplomacy - Henry Kissinger (not only international politics but also deep-thinking strategy that can be used anywhere);
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius;
Superforecasting - Philip Tetlock;
Propaganda - Edward Bernays;
Pitch anything - Oren Klaff;
Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond;
How to win friends and influence people& Stop worrying (both by Dale Carnegie);
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins;
Trust - Francis Fukuyama;
apo on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Start with No https://www.amazon.com/Start-Negotiating-Tools-that-Pros/dp/...
Contradicts conventional wisdom about negotiation goals and tactics. Very actionable advice about using interrogative led questions and avoiding the pitfalls of making assumptions during negotiations.
adammcnamara on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Food Rules by Michael Pollan - for understanding food and nutrition Sapiens - for understanding what it means to be human
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant - for understanding groups of humans (civilization)
The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor by Howard Marks - for understanding investing
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin To Munger by Peter Bevelin - for understanding mental models in general
yodsanklai on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
- A very powerful book. It really made a strong impression on me and definitely changed my views on politics, propaganda, governments and so on. Capitalism and freedom. Helped me to understand capitalism and American right-wing ideology.
The grapes of wrath. Actually, I haven't read the book, only watched the movie. It puts into perspective what we see happening with refugees in Europe.
lolive on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The book is a must-read. Did you read Propaganda (by Edward Bernays) after that?
camwiese on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
This is a great suggestion. Thanks!
hirundo on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Origins of Order by Stuart Kauffman - Reality is autocatalytic of life. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - civilization as a struggle of producers vs. looters; selfishness > altruism; the love of money is the root of mostly good.
A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram - Simple rules can yield arbitrarily complex behavior. Therefore reality is inherently computational from the lowest levels.
xtiansimon 12 months ago [-]
This is not book, but it has 'content' and an 'author'. A Coursera course: "Model Thinking" by Scott E. Page https://www.coursera.org/learn/model-thinking
kelukelugames on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The first is the Millionaire Next Door. Gave me a better idea of how to manage my finances and what kind of spending habits to look for in a partner. If you are a tightwad then don't marry a spendthrift. Vice versa. [http://amzn.to/2vAmbW8] The second is On Writing Well. This book changed my view regarding how to write and how important it is to write well. As an engineer I regret how much I avoided writing in school. Now I play catchup after realizing lawyers and others with client facing jobs write much better emails. [http://amzn.to/2vTXu27]
And here are three other books that would be recommended by few on HN.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I used to hate going home until I realized the clutter of stuff made me miserable. [http://amzn.to/2wwvS5h]
Why Men Love Bitches. 100% serious. This book is over the top but I stopped being a doormat in relationships and looked for partners with more self confidence. [http://amzn.to/2wwcYeZ]
The Low Down on Going Down. Yes the title is cheesy, but again I am 100% serious. I think a lot of us have unhealthy expectations due to Internet porn and this book sets the right attitude for the physical component in a relationship.[http://amzn.to/2vTSY41]
And companion book: [http://amzn.to/2wwSpyY]
subsubsub on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Here are all of the books, without the affiliate links:
-
The Millionaire Next Door [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1589795474]
-
On Writing Well [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0090RVGW0]
-
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607747308]
-
Why Men Love Bitches [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580627560]
-
The Low Down on Going Down [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CMX939C]
-
Blow Him Away [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WSV866]
kelukelugames on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I haven't seen anything about posting affiliate links on HN, but thank you for giving people another option.
carapace on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Early on I got into a box of my dad's old NLP books (not Natural Language Processing, the other NLP.) "Structure of Magic" vols I and II, "Frogs into Princes", "Trance-formations", and a couple of others.
NLP grew out of the application of Chomsky's Transformational Grammar to recordings of very effective psychological therapists. (Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, and Milton Erickson.) By the way, this is the same Transformational Grammar that leads to the Chomsky Hierarchy of languages. Neat, eh?
Anyhow, the NLP people rapidly developed a powerful model of subjective reality and replicable results in theraputic settings (e.g. the "Five-minute Phobia Cure" algorithm, among many others.) The capability to reprogram belief structures engenders a change of self-definition even if you don't use it.
"Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid"
"System design from provably correct constructs : the beginnings of true software engineering" about Dr. M. Hamilton's Higher Order Software.
Everything by Robert Anton Wilson. (That's not a title, I mean everything he wrote.)
grok2 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The one book that has reconfigured some aspects of how I deal with people and has helped me in day-to-day life is "Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" (http://a.co/0QoTla6).
subsubsub on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Non-affiliate link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416576142
grok2 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The shared link wasn't intended to be an affiliate link -- just something I got from the share link on the product page -- I was logged into Amazon at that time, but the account I was logged in to isn't signed up as an Amazon affiliate. The original URL that I saw was long, which is why I chose to go with the shorter link provided me.
edpichler on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
-
The Lean Startup, by Eric Rives
-
The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson
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The Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim
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On the shortness of life, by Seneca
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1984, by George Orwell
alyx on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Bernardo Kastrup - Why Materialism Is Baloney Has a lot of impact on current AI theory.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20543665-why-materialism...
saturnian on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words https://books.google.com/books/about/Rational_Meaning.html?i...
RockyMcNuts on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra
Dancing Wu Li Masters, by Gary Zukav
The Naked Ape, by Desmond Morris
The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich Hayek
The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner
The Story of Philosophy, by Will Durant
Grammatical Man, by Jeremy Campbell
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig
Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
maaaats on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Not aimed at only you, but a trend in posts like these: When it's no particular order and you don't comment on what a book is or why you recommend it, I feel the list becomes kinda useless. And when a post is upvoted much that contains a lot of elements, I don't know which book gained those votes.
polarix on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
One value of an unordered unannotated book list is in reinforcing books you've already read, and providing a little extra push towards the action potential on the ones you haven't.
mck- on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Also known as Collaborative Filtering in recommender systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_filtering
RockyMcNuts on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Well Pirsig's Zen and the other ones related to eastern religions and science, are around the idea that there is no locus of reality or meaning, the reality is how everything interrelates. It's kind of like word2vec, the context of other words and real-world situations in which each word is used tells you everything about what it means. Take away a particle's charge and mass and the other numbers we associate with it, and is it still a particle? Those numbers describe how it interacts and all we can really say about it is how it interacts. Plato was off the mark when he talked about the ideal form of different objects. There is no ideal form of a chair, except that chairness is an abstract idea about how things (asses and furniture) interact. Then I think that Grammatical Man and Penrose are around the nature of information, and what can be communicated and understood. And I sort of think that question is at the top of the tree of abstraction about what we think about. Then comes computer science and math which are about any symbolic systems or formal systems that can be computed and reasoned about. Then most everything else is applying those systems to various problems.
Then I think The Naked Ape and Hayek and Flow are around the notion that humans are their own thing. They are tribal and hierarchical and territorial and violent and not nearly as self-aware or even aware of our surroundings as we think we are. You get a lot more mileage out of just observing what they do than about listening to the rationalizations of why they say did it, things like God and blood and soil, i.e. superstitions and us-and-them-ing arbitrary physical features of a pack of mongrels and arbitrary lines on maps. Invitation to Sociology by Berger was another big one on those lines.
And the Heilbroner and Durant are basically inventories of major mental models that people have come up with in philosophy and economics.
galfarragem on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
I would add also: The prince -- Machiavelli (to loose ingenuity)
The little prince -- Saint-Exupéry (to recover some ingenuity)
thefuzz on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Most books by Robert Anton Wilson
nur0n on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
How to Design Programs. It helped make explicit the very concept of mental models.
Exuma on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
https://www.amazon.com/Six-Pillars-Self-Esteem-Nathaniel-Bra... Hands down
andrei_says_ on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
What's the gist of the premise? 370 pages for a list of six items seems a bit inflated (forgive my judgment but am a slow reader and love efficiency)
Exuma on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
All I can say is... I stopped reading self-help books 10 years ago because they all bored me to tears. I HATE fluff. I hate repeated ideas and concepts, I hate long intros... I usually will stop reading books 30% in because it's like "I get it". This book, however, is written by a guy who basically died at 87 and studied self-esteem since he was very young. So basically he's studied the same topic for 60 years, and his ability to convey certain concepts is absolutely profound. He truly understands the concepts down to the core. And it's such a hard thing to explain when you get past the 'surface level', but he repeatedly does over and over throughout the whole book. I probably have over 100 passages highlighted on my Kindle, of particular sentences or paragraphs where I put the book down and was like........... DAMN.
I've referred the book to 2-3 people and they all were blown away. It's a book in a league of it's own. I heard of the book from my friend who mentioned it's his #1 self help book out of his favorite 10, and I can definitely see why.
Basically it just comes down to how well he can talk about such an abstract topic in many different ways, without repeating himself, and eventually one of those ways will 'click' for you.
I find it's also affecting me day to day, in a positive way, which is something books like this have never really done in the past. I tend to like/absorb the info but I don't vibe with the author or their knowledge on the subject enough to commit to whatever exercises they say to do, etc.
andrei_says_ on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Thank you. I'll definitely check it out.
SpinningCode on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Psychology of Self-esteem by the same author is brilliant https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Self-Esteem-Revolutionary-...
subsubsub on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Without affiliate ref code: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0030II1Y6
1001101 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Our Mathematical Universe - Max Tegmark Being and Nothingness - Sartre
Chaos - Gleik
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Feynman
kornakiewicz on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Yesterday I was reviewing answers in this thread. Some might be applicable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14477851
decasteve on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Marshall McLuhan's "Gutenberg Galaxy" and "Understanding Media". Buckminster Fuller's "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth" (and other books and essays of his).
kabdib on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Innovator's Dilemma made me start thinking critically about the kinds of projects large organizations attempt, and why they often fail. It's kind of a depressing book, actually . . .
camwiese on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Not sure if you follow Ben Thompson (Stratechery / Exponent.fm) but he bases a lot of his business analysis around this book. If you liked TID then I highly recommend Ben's writings.
andy_ppp on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I’m really enjoying Open Andre Agassi’s autobiography. It’s beautifully written and makes me think about what it really means to want something. You can definitely get very far hating what you do.
lolive on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Beyond Good and Evil, by Nietzsche. A short history of nearly everything, by Bill Bryson.
lolive on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Oh, and Siddartha, by Hermann Hesse,
lolive on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Oh, and Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes.
lolive on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Oh, and Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand.
almost_usual on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham A Guide to the Good Life - William B. Irvine
sirspacey on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Diffusion of Innovation, by Dr. Everett Rodgers. He discovered the concept of the Early Adopter in the 1950s. I would trade all the startup advice on the internet for that one book.
sunwicked1 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
1)Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 2)The design of everyday things 3) "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" In no particular order.
diedyesterday on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Reading a book by a human mind works pretty much like training a neural network. You get tuned and change in a way that you might not see even if you don't remember.
Ronsenshi on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Blindsight (Peter Watts) - read it some time in university and it has completely changed how I think about things. Figuratively speaking turned my mind inside out.
germainemalcolm on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
Dao De Jing - Lao Tzu A Thousand Plateaus - Gilles Deleuze + Felix Guattari
asddddd on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Divided Self (R. D. Laing). Bit dense at times, and perhaps not relevant to many on HN, but a truly fascinating examination of the edges of sanity.
buddapalm on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius https://g.co/kgs/PkoSGf
jaco8 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Poor no more - Robert Chester Ruark A Coffin Full of Dreams - Frisco Hitt Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil
ignacio_gcaa on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
This cognitive science/cognitive linguistics books were a hinge point for me: George Lakoff:
-
Philosophy In The Flesh http://amzn.to/2xFTKU7
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The Political Mind http://amzn.to/2vU9rF1
Gilles Fauconnier, Mark Turner:
- The Way We Think http://amzn.to/2xFv4ep
Benjamin K. Bergen:
- Louder Than Words http://amzn.to/2wwsMhv
subsubsub on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
All the books, without the affiliate links:
-
Philosophy In The Flesh [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FSJAWK]
-
The Political Mind [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0017T0B2U]
-
The Way We Think [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AAL62RO]
-
Louder Than Words [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00918JOBI]
palerdot on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman
preordained on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Life: The Disappearance of the Universe
Programming:
Effective Java - straight forward pragmatism
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good - took me down the rabbit hole of Haskell, which is just a natural mindbender
emurs on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey- Particularly for Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood chapter
r0brodz on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
https://gitopanisadasitis.github.io/
torbjorn on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
thedeep_mind on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. The book tells you all there is to know about ego and will change the way you see yourself.
outlace on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
-
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
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Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
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Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark
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Statistical Rethinking by Richard McElreath
sdfin on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
'I Am That' by Nisargadatta Maharaj 'The First and Last Freedom' by J. Krishnamurti: Mainly because of what he says regarding Free Will. Later I read 'Free Will' by Sam Harris, and I think Sam explains the same idea in more detail. Citing 'The First and Last Freedom': "Thought is nothing else but reaction; thought is not creative."
'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck
'The Little Prince' by A.S.Exupery: when I was a child it made me reflect about society.
psadri on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Antifragile - way to think about situations in terms of upside/downside exposure
arc_of_descent on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Mind is a myth - UG Krishnamurti Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
Unweaving the rainbow - Richard Dawkins
anishcharith on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
HC Verma concepts of physics
selimthegrim on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Haha is this for JEE?
sguav on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Go-Getter by Peter B. Kyne and Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull
wolco on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies
wittedhaddock on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant ^ This book more than any other
yotamoron on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
'Deschooling society' by Ivan Illich.
andrei_says_ on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Could you elaborate on the concepts and effect they had on you?
batshitinsane on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Ego, Hunger and Agression by Fritz Perls.
tomohawk on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Paul's Letter to the Galatians
dmux on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Object Thinking by David West
phatak-dev on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Millennium series by Tejaswi
bo1024 on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Black Swan. By far.
ntemposd on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
The mom Test
davidhariri on Sept 4, 2017 [-]
Sapiens Desert Solitaire
Meditations
Walden
Meditations
Thinking Fast and Slow
marcuswestin on Sept 3, 2017 [-]
- Deep Work
- Sapiens
k__ on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Blindsight
mrdependable on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Candide
observation on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
One book more than any other: The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Why?
Darwin opens up the door of Deep Time when he explained his discovery. An appreciation of the immensity of time happens to be linked to explanations of how and why things are. Wolfe also deals with Deep Time but in the context of society.
What Gene Wolfe does is he creates books where you need to read between the lines, you need to create hypotheses to understand what's going on. I won't describe it further because it may lose some of the import, it's probably the most important fiction book written in the 20th century.
What I'd like is a photograph of Peter Thiel's library, I'm fascinated by the range of ideas, the meta-ideas he explores. Maybe @sama can smuggle in a camera or we could hijack a roomba.
chris_st on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
This is an amazing set of books (it's four volumes). Possibly, what I appreciate about it most is that he doesn't describe anything, like so many other SF authors do. You just have to figure it out ("read between the lines" is a good way to describe it). The other astounding thing is how incredibly bad all the rest of Wolfe's work is. Really, it's night and day.
observation on Sept 5, 2017 [-]
Maybe he got too close to an Alzabo. Suspect the format puts some people off, I understand it's publisher economics but having 4 volumes paired into 2 books strikes people as complicated as they try to work out how much book they're getting or not getting.
stinkytaco on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
You would probably enjoy Anathem by Neal Stephenson. It's also about deep time.
SomeStupidPoint on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
I think I may be stupid, in that I can only really get details of a model I already sort of understand from most books -- I need it pretty short'n'sweet to get a major model revision. That being said, two papers that have radically changed my mental model are:
Einstein's 1905 paper -- I'd never actually thought about what a clock or time was before, or what it meant for two events to happen "at the same time".
http://hermes.ffn.ub.es/luisnavarro/nuevo_maletin/Einstein_1...
A 2007 summary of MS's approach to (topological) quantum computers significantly changed my model of how physics worked -- likely because I hadn't gotten particularly far in physics before, but also because topological effects seem like they'd be more prevalent than I had initially conceived of (and we might need to rewrite physics to include topological features more explicitly).
https://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1889
ma91c1an on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions, 1999. I first encountered Borges as a 15 year old student in high school. I am now 56. The book was ficciones. It changed my life.
Borges read everything. What made him the genius that he was, is that he remembered everything that he read, and he was consequently able to make droll observations across cultures and epochs.
RodericDay on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Duty of Genius was a great ride, as well as a fantastic introduction to powerful ideas about communication and non-scientific disciplines' wish to imitate science. The Autobiography of Malcolm X makes a brilliant case for angry speech, making the mainstream portrayal of figures like Gandhi and MLK Jr. seem like straight-up whitewashed propaganda.
Delusions of Gender is a fierce analysis of the nature/nurture discussion that rears its head over and over, explaining various mistakes people when interpreting results, both at the research level and at the journalistic level.
Marx's Inferno reinvents Marx in a super clever way.
QAPereo on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
Trying to avoid repeats... M.T.W Gravitation
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
ringaroundthetx on Sept 2, 2017 [-]
The Bible of Options Strategies
Non-Fiction: "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, because it changed my understanding of people for the better.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard Feynman, because it gave me a model for how to enjoy life.
"Models" by Mark Manson, because it helped shape my understanding of heterosexual relationships.
"An Introduction to General Systems Thinking" by Gerald Weinberg, because it illuminates the general laws underlying all systems.
Fiction:
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A Heinlein, because it showed me a philosophy and "spirituality", for lack of a better word, that I could agree with.
"The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, because they showed me how human systems break, and they provided human models for how to see and live in, through, and past those broken systems.
"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky, because it set the bar (high) for all future fiction, especially when it comes to the insightful portrayal of the struggle between good and evil.
bradbatt on June 3, 2017 [-]
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie, because it changed my understanding of people for the better. Absolutely everyone should read this book. I wish it had a better title. "Understanding People" would be an excellent one.
sngz on June 4, 2017 [-]
I've seen this book recommended many times. I read a few chapters and don't feel like it was useful. Some of the stuff is obvious common sense like smile don't criticize others, be a good listener etc. Then it tells you to be genuinely interested in someone. How can you force yourself to be interested in someone? Does the book go into anything actually useful later on?
i336_ on June 4, 2017 [-]
Some people are born communicators and find interaction with others completely intuitive. Others are born with a brain more ready to understand math, or writing screenplays, or software engineering, or business management - and bumble their way through communication, getting a lot wrong, not knowing where the lines are between their successes and failures, and generally having a miserable time.
Books like these define specific scopes to focus on as worth investing time and energy in, with the promise that understanding in these areas will definitely bring reward, as unintuitive as this may seem [to these people].
I wouldn't mind similar ones that explain learning how to learn, on a related note.
aisofteng on June 4, 2017 [-]
You imply that emotional intelligence and reasoning ability are a tradeoff. They aren't.
Joeri on June 4, 2017 [-]
Even if they are orthogonal, they are less likely to occur in the same person than either apart.
i336_ on June 4, 2017 [-]
Woops, that was unintentional. Although... now I think about it... when I'm anxious (I have reasonably mild but fairly broadly scoped anxiety), I can become more emotional/instinctive/reactive to things, and my ability to reason can be greatly impacted as well.
So I do think there is some indirect correlation, in practice.
watwut on June 4, 2017 [-]
Emotional intelligence does not imply that you are driven by emotions. It imply that you understand them, which makes it easier to control how you react. Someone who is emotional is not displaying emotional intelligence at that moment.
i336_ on June 4, 2017 [-]
I definitely agree with you there. Often when I feel certain ways, I don't have reference points to mentally articulate how I'm feeling - if I even have the ability to consciously distinguish the feeling and highlight it. That shuts down a lot of internal dialog and analysis before it has the chance to take place.
When I'm anxious, my thinking is clouded across the board, which makes this weakness all the more apparent.
I wonder if there are any books out there that specifically help to instil an understanding of the nuances in emotional processing.
afarrell on June 4, 2017 [-]
learning how to learn Look at the writings of Dr. Barbara Oakley or at https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn.
i336_ on June 4, 2017 [-]
Thanks so much, this is now on my todo list :) I found someone uploaded all of the videos to YouTube!
Unfortunately I don't have the disk space to download them at this exact moment (been saving for several months for a couple new disks, not quite there yet) so I've base64-encoded the following YouTube playlist URL to heighten the chances the videos stay up til I can grab them (both to archive them and also because I download videos to watch them - old computer).
data:text/plain;base64,aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS5jb20vcGxheWxpc3Q/bGlzdD1QTFcxcDdMZkhNTW5ERVQxcjh2Ymo4a1FENHNndXM1dnFZCg==
I also found https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCojOYrwehhFpaJfYG3DziHA/vid..., which has some related videos (that I think were placed on YouTube explicitly).
graphememes on June 4, 2017 [-]
No, It doesn't. I've read it a few times trying to glean similar understanding and I just cannot for the life of me see anything beyond a basic human social communications and behavior. Perhaps if you knew absolutely nothing about communicating with others it would be beneficial.
cgag on June 4, 2017 [-]
I find the little bit I read helpful because it helps you be more deliberate about these things. Though I stopped because I had a strong "yeah i get it" feeling after a few chapters.
grimoald on June 4, 2017 [-]
You're lucky if this is common sense for you. Sadly, for me, coming from a family where bad mood and malice is daily fare, this book was an eye opener.
SyneRyder on June 4, 2017 [-]
For someone who was socially awkward growing up, it wasn't all common sense for me either. I once had a neighbour tell me "I have a name, you know" and it seemed a crazy thing to say, of course they have a name! It wasn't until reading the book that I understood they were offended that I never used their name in conversation.
ozovehe on June 5, 2017 [-]
I don't use people's names during conversations and no one has ever pointed it out. Maybe I should read that book
allwein on June 6, 2017 [-]
It doesn't necessarily mean during conversations (which can be and sound weird), but could simply mean when greeting them. As an example, do you have a normal bar, restaurant, or coffee shop that you go to? When you go in, I'm sure that they greet you as most places do, and you probably toss of a "Hi" or a "Hey" and that's about it, even if you know their name. Try this next time. When you walk in and they greet you, give them a big smile like you're happy to see a friend and actually address them by name with a "Hey Mark! Can I get a Miller Lite" or "Hey Deb, table for four tonight". It doesn't really take much effort, but it really builds a connection.
WARNING: I'll toss this in as a warning. Don't fake knowing their name if you don't. A sincere "Hi" with a smile is still good. An "Oh hey...(looks at name tag) Jill..." comes off as fake. However, if they go ahead and give you their name ("Hi, I'm Jill and I'll be your waitress this evening") then by all means go ahead and say "Hi Jill" and address her by name throughout the evening.
SyneRyder on June 6, 2017 [-]
It's worth reading, even if just to understand why others are recommending it. Sometimes they're not really recommending the book, but just "this book was the first to get me thinking about people skills". The section on names is Chapter 3, ending with the principle "Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language."
The chapter itself rambles on a bit and claims the success of US presidents & Andrew Carnegie is their ability to memorize thousands of first names... I think that's an exaggeration. But there's an element of truth to it, if you keep it in the back of your mind and try it yourself, memorizing people's names & using their name when you next meet them. (Especially at nightclubs, which is where I probably learned/used it most.)
Think of it as the difference between a letter addressed "Dear Ozovehe" vs "To Whom It May Concern". The latter shows they haven't even tried to get to know you personally. And now you'll notice when email / internet marketers try to use your name for just that reason....
thesumofall on June 4, 2017 [-]
Then it tells you to be genuinely interested in someone. How can you force yourself to be interested in someone? I truly believe you can. I feel the issue is most of the time that we don't want to care. That we value our own ideas and issues higher than those of others. For me the practice of deep listening 1 really helped me to better relate with people with whom I didn't really relate beforehand. Yes, it's exhausting and yes, I fail still often enough but it shows me that we have a choice.
1 https://www.mindful.org/deep-listening/
skookumchuck on June 4, 2017 [-]
Yes, it reads like common sense. But then even major politicians could learn a lot by reading it. Bill Clinton followed its principles. Hillary did not. The book helped me a lot.
thisisit on June 5, 2017 [-]
I started reading it recently and while most of the topics are pretty obvious. But we tend to forget those. For example the very first topic - don't criticize. With the advent of internet things have turned into black and white. The more you point someone the more ardently they will defend. For example Trump supporters. Pushed to brink, they now don't even care for his near impeachment behavior because now defending has become about pride.
wink on June 6, 2017 [-]
I mostly concur with your sentiment. I have read it my summary is maybe "common sense meets idyllic 1950s TV show". Maybe I'm conflating manners and superficially "nice" behaviour and a few other things, but I found many pieces of advice borderline cringeworthy. Then again I do know I am being too honest, but that's mostly a deliberate choice and not lack of empathy. I can refrain if needed.
Added to clarify: I'm German and so some of my (our) attributed directness and terseness is apparently at odds to some American forms of communication, and if you look at the book in this light it makes more sense. Also, I'd still encourage everyone to read it, I just don't buy the awesomeness :)
papaf on June 4, 2017 [-]
I like the story of the factory manager who sees some workers breaking the rules and smoking in in the factory. He gives each of them an expensive cigar and says something like "I'd appreciate it if you guys smoked these outside."
qb45 on June 4, 2017 [-]
Meanwhile on Google: Twelve Things This Book Will Do For You
Get you out of a mental rut, give you new thoughts, new visions, new ambitions.
Enable you to make friends quickly and easily.
Increase your popularity.
Help you to win people to your way of thinking.
Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done.
This actually happens to be a Wikipedia excerpt which Google shows in a big frame in front of real search results. Either somebody did an impressive SEO job or Skynet is getting out of hand.
ArmandGrillet on June 4, 2017 [-]
Very good list. "Models" is an exceptional book (even if poorly written) about how to live a life that will maximize your opportunities to find a partner.
gbersac on June 4, 2017 [-]
I am a huge fan of mark manson and I highly recommand his book "the subtle art of not giving a fuck". Great advice on how to live a happy life : https://www.amazon.fr/Subtle-Art-Not-Giving-Counterintuitive...
Houshalter on June 4, 2017 [-]
Rationality: from AI to Zombies really changed my way of thinking in many ways. It's very hard to describe it or sell it in a few sentences. Partly because it covers so many different things. And partly because I read it so long ago and have already absorbed many of the good ideas in it. They no longer seem exciting and new, and just feel obvious. But they certainly weren't when I first read it. I constantly see places where an idea from the book is relevant and I want to make people read a chapter of it. Examples include insights into evolution, artificial intelligence, morality, and philosophy. There's a short section on how people tend to argue about the definitions of words and how unproductive this is, that I always find relevant. There's a lot of discussion on various human biases and how they affect our thinking. My favorite is hindsight bias, where people overestimate how obvious events were after they know the outcome. Or the planning fallacy, which explains why so many big projects fail or go over budget.
The author's writing style is somewhat polarizing. Some people love it and some people hate it, with fewer in between. He definitely has a lot of controversial ideas. Although in the 10 years since he started writing, a lot of his controversial opinions on AI have gone mainstream and become a lot more accepted than they were back then.
udkl on June 4, 2017 [-]
I'm audiobook-ing "Harry Potter And The Methods of Rationality" by the same author. It presents some of the ideas from "Rationality" but from the point of view of Harry who is portrayed as a rationalist. In-fact the first chapter is titled "A Day of Very Low Probability" where Harry tries to think probabilistically about the new magical world he is being introduced to when he is still living with Aunt Petunia.
I recommend the audiobook because the voice actors have done such a good job with it. I can't help smiling at Harry's pre-pubescent ten year old voice.
Find it here : http://hpmor.com
andai on June 4, 2017 [-]
One hundred and twenty two chapters :o
zeroer on June 4, 2017 [-]
So worth it. If you read it, you'll wish there were more.
Joeri on June 4, 2017 [-]
Rationality is good, but I found Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality to be a much more pleasant read about the same topics by the same author. Both books suffer from the same problem, the lack of an editor. They could be half the size and it would make them a much more convincing and entertaining read.
qb45 on June 4, 2017 [-]
So there isn't much new stuff in Rationality that one wouldn't already find in HPMOR, for those who have read the latter?
justinpombrio on June 4, 2017 [-]
Rationality is much more technical and precise than HPMOR, and covers topics that you couldn't easily cover in fiction. I've read both, and would recommend each even if you've read the other.
Joeri on June 4, 2017 [-]
There is more in rationality, but nothing you'd terribly miss, at least IMHO.
maaaats on June 4, 2017 [-]
The HP books also suffers a bit from being written one chapter at a time. But at the same time, it's an interesting concept seeing a story evolve that way. I found some of the first chapters a bit long-winded, but after that I think the book found its direction.
zeroer on June 4, 2017 [-]
Yea, I agree. Yudkowski found his voice starting around chapter 20. The initial chapters could use a good rewriting.
graphememes on June 4, 2017 [-]
Arguing or getting heated over semantics has always been an irksome detail of human emotion / behavior for me. Guess I'll give this book a read.
nindalf on June 4, 2017 [-]
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It gave me a good understanding of where we, as a species, came from. What did we do, why did we spread across the planet, how did we replace other hominids? What I really appreciated was his ability to explain some of the underpinnings of society like religion, nation states and currency with a relatively simple idea. Afterwards I felt like "damn that's so simple, I should have thought of that!" When you think that, you know you're on to something good. On Writing by Stephen King. This a biography masquerading as a book on writing advice... Or its the other way around. Whichever it is, I think it's a great book for any aspiring writer to read. King explains the basics on how to get started, how to persevere and through his experiences, how not to handle success. Full of honesty and simple, effective advice.
Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari. Most people agree that the War on Drugs is lost and has been lost for decades now. But why did we fight it in the first place? Why do some continue to believe it's the correct approach? How has it distorted outcomes in society and how can we recognise and prevent such grotesque policies in the future? This book offers some of those answers.
Only if you're Indian - India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. Sadly almost every Indian I've met isn't well informed about anything that happened in India after 1947, the year India became independent. History stops there because that's the final page of high school history textbooks. An uninformed electorate leads to uninformed policy, like "encouraging" the use of a single language throughout the country. If I were dictator, I'd require every Indian to read this book.
kesava on June 4, 2017 [-]
One doesn't have to be Indian to read the magnificent book by Guha.
nojvek on June 4, 2017 [-]
Yuval Harari's new "Homo Deus" is excellent. I had a blast reading it. It has a number of things from Homo Sapiens but talks about possible future and fundamental things that drive humans to create technology. Absolute one of my top 5 favorite books.
nindalf on June 4, 2017 [-]
Reading that next!
nindalf on June 4, 2017 [-]
Yes, a person who isn't Indian but has an interest in history or the Sub-Continent or both would find it engrossing. That said, it's optional for them, like how a history of the American Civil War would be optional for non-Americans. But in each case, citizens in their respective countries need to read their history so they understand their country well and be better citizens.
udkl on June 4, 2017 [-]
"Freedom at midnight" is a very well written book that describes the scenes a couple of years before and upto the freedom in 1947. The way the french author duo paint the then lifestyle of the Britishers, the kings and the common man left me satisfied.
Currently I'm slow reading "India - A History" by John Keay. Another well written book.
nindalf on June 4, 2017 [-]
I found Freedom at Midnight illuminating in parts but also dishonest. Their main source, which they did not credit at any time, was Louis Mountbatten, the Viceroy of India. It portrayed him as dashing, capable, diplomatic and a man of action without whom Indian Independence wouldn't have been possible. It's not surprising, because he had veto power over the manuscript, also something they fail to mention. I find such behaviour dishonest, especially as the man was well known as a bungler. The death toll of Partition was entirely his fault, but the book lays the blame elsewhere. Worst of all, I was disgusted by how they derailed the story of Indian Independence by discussing the personal lives of every person involved. (All of them, except of course, the Mountbattens. Lady MBs affairs weren't mentioned ). Could you imagine a book on American Independence devoting reams of pages and ink to who George Washington was sleeping with or speculating if James Madison was gay?
Overall I would say the worst book I have read, on any subject, ever.
cocktailpeanuts on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Master Switch : This really puts a lot of things into context, especially if you're in tech industry. It's basically a history of the entire Information Technology, and it's fascinating how same things happen over and over again, pendulums swing back and forth over and over again, and people keep making same mistakes over and over again. Also you can see the larger picture of why some large tech companies make the decisions they make, and how to successfully compete if you are into that. You will become a pessimist for a while after reading this, just because it feels like there's no meaning in all this since everything repeats itself and nothing is forever, but when you recover from it you'll find yourself much more insightful about the industry and can make better decisions.
mindcrime on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Master Switch : This really puts a lot of things into context, especially if you're in tech industry. It's basically a history of the entire Information Technology, and it's fascinating how same things happen over and over again, pendulums swing back and forth over and over again, and people keep making same mistakes over and over again OK, you sold me. Just ordered a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!
recondite on June 4, 2017 [-]
Surprised this isn't higher given the demographics of HN. Another one that felt similar to me, but more focused on mass media specifically and its effect on society, was Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Be warned, you will have a very dim view of the future of humanity if you read all the way through.
kristiandupont on June 3, 2017 [-]
I love all the answers in here but please, please answer with more than just a title! I want to know why I should care about a book -- sell it to me, don't just throw it out there and ask me to do the work.SirLJ on June 3, 2017 [-]
I wish as a kid I had access to the following: "More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite" https://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Than-God-Relations/dp/0143...
Market Wizards, Updated: Interviews With Top Traders https://www.amazon.com/Market-Wizards-Updated-Interviews-Tra...
The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Traders https://www.amazon.com/New-Market-Wizards-Conversations-Amer...
Hedge Fund Market Wizards: How Winning Traders Win https://www.amazon.com/Hedge-Fund-Market-Wizards-Winning/dp/...
ballooney on June 4, 2017 [-]
I've noticed (as a non american) that every single book I see in american airport book shops (at least the sort of business/self-help ones which seem to constitute 95% of american airport book shops) follow this exact title style: $PITHY_PHRASE: $MEANDERING_SUBTITLE_THAT_IS_A_BIT_TOO_LONG It's very unimaginative.
SirLJ on June 4, 2017 [-]
must be some sort of publisher's fad, but a great observation indeed :-)
SirLJ on June 3, 2017 [-]
One more comes to mind: Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street's Champion Day Trader https://www.amazon.com/Pit-Bull-Lessons-Streets-Champion/dp/...
travmatt on June 4, 2017 [-]
I'd also add "Reminescences of a Stock Operator", which is older but very good.
rtx on June 4, 2017 [-]
Similar to this, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21884038-phantom-of-the-p...
SirLJ on June 4, 2017 [-]
Thank you Sir, I constantly read, so will add it to the queue
SirLJ on June 4, 2017 [-]
Yes, absolutely, I just read it earlier :-)
gkya on June 4, 2017 [-]
The bible, cover to cover: if reading western literature or philosophy produced in whatever year A.D., the bible is required reading for comprehending many the references and various rhetorical modes. I'm irreligious from a muslim background myself but I'm reading it now. Same goes for the qoran, my family is not a practicing muslim family and thus I never read it, but it's a part of the canon, must be read. I'm not sure if I would like to have read these earlier tho, as now I have the consciousness to not be fooled by the stuff in these books. Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth is a very nice guide into mythology and what that and religion are. It's like a vaccine for any sort of fundamentalism or bigotry, if read with some accompanying knowledge of mythological traditions.
xaedes on June 4, 2017 [-]
I read a passage (Revelation 8) that could very well describe a nature catastrophe instead of godly will. Also other stuff like Job 26:10 ("He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.") which describes day/night boundary on earth quite well. That made me think. What if there is other stuff that could actually be related to secular events and knowledge.
And so I started to read from the beginning. Genesis is very interesting actually. I noticed it is mostly inspired by earlier literature, like Arthasis, Gilgamesh and the like. Now I am totally into reading mesopotamia literature and origin stories all over the world. Maybe someday I am done with that and I can backtrack to advance further than Genesis in the bible. Time will tell.
So far it has certainly enlightened my view on early mankind.
edit: typo
gkya on June 4, 2017 [-]
Myth is science. It's how people transferred knowledge from generation to generation, and it's always based on observations of the world. Thing is though, in the ancient times they didn't have the access we started to have in the last centuries into the structure of things, so all they could do was to interpret that which they saw and that which they learned through earlier myths. Dismissing religion and myths as fairy tales because they are not relevant anymore is wrong, for one even fairy tales are, or were, tools for sharing knowledge along generations. Yes, we have better means of knowledge today, but we wouldn't have came here without religion and myths, they have been an important step in cognitive evolution of humankind. And still today important as part of our history and also a still-comtemporary sociological phaenomenon that directly affects us in every way.
xaedes on June 4, 2017 [-]
Equating myth and science will focus discussion on that statement. But the important part comes after that first statement: Myth and religion are the giants that todays science is standing on.
"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." -- Newton
Todays universities where born out of the church. I will just gonna quote wikipedia1 here: "These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools, and it is difficult to define the exact date at which they became true universities, although the lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe held by the Vatican are a useful guide."
Dismissing our past is certainly not the way to go.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university
cocoablazing on June 4, 2017 [-]
Myth is certainly not science. Transmission of belief occurs through myths, not knowledge.
xaedes on June 4, 2017 [-]
And belief is not necessarily orthogonal to knowledge. You can belief in something and it can still be knowledge.
y4mi on June 4, 2017 [-]
eh, i sure as hell will dismiss a 8-bit processor for general computing nowadays though, despite it being state of the art not that long ago. just because something had value before doesnt mean it still does.
xaedes on June 4, 2017 [-]
Neither does it mean that it has no value anymore. Taking your example "8-bit processors": it still has value. Even if it is only for learning purposes.
threatofrain on June 4, 2017 [-]
I think the secular perspective about the bible, Quran, and other Abrahamic sacred texts, is far more interesting than the contents within. This is the perspective so rarely visited by athiests, agnostics, or religious folks.
gkya on June 4, 2017 [-]
Certainly, but it's nice to at least have read the corpus before learning what others think about them. It's a long read, but rewarding.
barbs on June 4, 2017 [-]
Is it really necessary to read it cover to cover? A lot of it seems quite drawn out, and there seems to be a lot of overlap, particularly between the four gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
gkya on June 4, 2017 [-]
It depends on what you want to get out of it. My reading is a philological/historical one, I'm aiming to become a scholar of literature (I'm a humanities student with a passion for computing), and also I'm looking for literary prompts in it, so a deeper understanding is important for me. But if you just want to know what it's about, then you can peruse the book and rely on commentaries and recaps. But all in all it's about 2000 pages, which equals to 4-5 novels, and does not require a linear, uninterrupted reading, so I guess it's worth it. I'm still reading the old testament (1Sa), but AFAIK the gospels do overlap in the story but views and interpretations are different.
king_kerr on June 4, 2017 [-]
Those 4 gospels offer varying perspectives and are worth reading as well. They each offer something different and can be helpful when studying. For example, Luke's account offers insight as to what was going on during the time of Christ's birth(see Chapter 2, the decree from Caesar Augustus) while Matthew starts off with the genealogy of Christ. So I believe that reading cover to cover is worth it.
kowdermeister on June 4, 2017 [-]
I don't know how people can read it, for me it's a pain to read more than a page.
the bible is required reading for comprehending many the references and various rhetorical modes
I'm sure there are modern book about rhetorics
gkya on June 4, 2017 [-]
The English bibles are just unreadable, with all those archaisms. I have a New World Translation that a JW gave me and it seems more pleasant to read, but many say there are problems with opinionated translations. Mine is a CEI Bible, a modern translation in Italian. Tho if you're not into it, it'll be boring nevertheless. I was referring to the contents of rhetorical modes (allegories, metaphors, etc.), not their definitions.
antoaravinth on June 4, 2017 [-]
I felt the same. But if you want to understand the whole bible I would recommend The Bible Project : https://m.youtube.com/user/jointhebibleproject
jwdunne on June 4, 2017 [-]
Why is that? Some of the language isn't all that easy to get through but, taken as a piece of literary work, I don't find it that unreadable.
kowdermeister on June 4, 2017 [-]
It's hard for me, feels like totally unrelated parts are patched together. Tons of contradiction and archaic views even on a single page. But I never read more than a page at a time I always put it back as something I should not waste my time with deciphering what they meant.
jwdunne on June 4, 2017 [-]
It's difficult if I take it as something I'm meant to believe. I always get that tug in my stomach. It's interesting as a reflection of culture, of which religion takes a prominent part in much of history.
I see it like viewing the works of a renaissance artist. Perhaps not as brilliant but similar in that a lot of works have religious themes but your beliefs, what they may be, look past the religion to consider it as part of the work itself.
jwdunne on June 4, 2017 [-]
Can you recommend a good English translation of the Qoran if it exists? I've asked Muslim friends but they seem adamant that it must be read in Arabic or, at least, only know of the Arabic text.
fmavituna on June 4, 2017 [-]
You can read this one from Muhammad Asad, it's very good. http://muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf
I've asked Muslim friends but they seem adamant that it must be read in Arabic
Not sure if these are practicing Muslims but that's simply wrong.
gkya on June 4, 2017 [-]
I can't unfortunately, but many translations exist, some from academical background. I don't think it must be read in Arabic, especially if the reading is a secular one. edit: Saheeh international seems to be a nice translation with heavy annotations, there are pdfs online. I myself will consider this one for my readings.
trwoway on June 4, 2017 [-]
There is this one http://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp, which offers seven parallel translations of the Qoran.
afarrell on June 4, 2017 [-]
Also, do you know of a good annotation of it which provides context to the text and provides information on how passages are interpreted by at least one school of thought?
gmunu on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. You hear 'ancient wisdom' on how to lead the good life all the time. These ancient aphorisms came from a time before the scientific method and the idea of testing your hypotheses. Tradition has acted a sort of pre-conscious filter on the advice we get, so we can expect it to hold some value. But now, we can do better.
Haidt is a psychologist who read a large collection of the ancient texts of Western and Eastern religion and philosophy, highlighting all the 'psychological' statements. He organized a list of 'happiness hypotheses' from the ancients and then looked at the modern scientific literature to see if they hold water.
What he finds is they were often partially right, but that we know more. By the end of the book, you have some concrete suggestions on how to lead a happier life and you'll know to the studies that will convince you they work.
Haidt writes with that pop science long windedness that these books always have. Within that structure, he's an entertaining writer so I didn't mind.
Joeri on June 4, 2017 [-]
This book is my favorite non-fiction book. It is hard to reduce it back to what it is about, but it is filled with very useful insight into how the mind works. The metaphor of the rider and the elephant finally let me explain differences between what I consciously decided and what I actually did.
gmunu on June 4, 2017 [-]
It's a metaphor he also puts to good use in his later book, the Righteous Mind. It's useful to seeing through your own righteousness and recognizing patterns in others. I enjoyed that one too, but it didn't have the same life impact as the Happiness Hypothesis.
travmatt on June 10, 2017 [-]
I'd also recommend 'The Righteous Mind' as a solid basis for understanding political thinking.
therealdrag0 on June 11, 2017 [-]
Definitely the best pop-psych/self-help book I've read.
vizvamitra on June 3, 2017 [-]
"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. Technically this book is about how humans interact with things, but actually it covers a lot more topics that one can think: how humans act, err, how they make descisions, how memory works, what are the responsibilities of conscious/subconscious. Also you'll start to dislike doors, kitchen stoves and their disigners)
lorenzorhoades on June 5, 2017 [-]
My wife told me that this book turned me into a design snob and she constantly pokes fun at me for it. One time, there was a pull handle for a door that needs to be pushed, and i went on a rant about how that is terrible design, and why wouldn't they design it this way, etc. (very similar to the arguments he uses in the book. ) so lately every time she sees something that she knows i think should be designed differently, she does the stupid spongebob mocking meme and goes "tHis sHoUlD bE DeSiGned SoOoO muCh BEttEr!"
thisiswilson on June 9, 2017 [-]
I went on this rant on a day last weekend. Nerdy by endearing is how she put it once I was done.
At least we have the high ground when they stumble over a stair with an offset height.
Joeri on June 4, 2017 [-]
This book changed how I look at the world. I highly recommend it.
chadcmulligan on June 4, 2017 [-]
Did it? I'd heard so much about it and I was very disappointed - seemed to be a lot about door knob design (Yes I know it's an example but seemed a bit obvious, maybe it's been absorbed into the design literature so much that it's everywhere now and so the book is no longer surprising)
tudorw on June 4, 2017 [-]
Man's Search for Meaning (published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism) by Viktor Frankl who survived the concentration camps to go on to develop logotherapy and existential analysis (considered the third Viennese School of Psychotherapy). "lack of meaning is the paramount existential stress. To him, existential neurosis is synonymous with a crisis of meaninglessness", an interesting read, it does not focus on the horrors of the event, instead recognising the human capacity to overcome and rise above.
patforna on June 5, 2017 [-]
One of my favourite books. Read it many years ago and re-read it a few years later. One of the key take aways for me was that we always have a choice of how we deal with adversity and it helped me get through some tough situations.
bor0 on June 3, 2017 [-]
"How to Prove It" by D. Velleman. Introduces logical reasoning, set theory, functions, relations, and proofs. It is the base for understanding any mathematical subject.
myle on June 4, 2017 [-]
"How to solve it" because it encourages you to not just mechanically follow steps, but think critically and solve a problem.
abalashov on June 4, 2017 [-]
I wish I had read Real World Divorce, much of which can be found on realworlddivorce.com. It's notable for the fact that Philip Greenspun is a major contributor to it, which I found most surprising and intriguing. I don't want to duplicate a lot of text, so I'll link to my Amazon review of it:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2UKHDY7L4NPSV/re...
TL;DR it's the only bit of literature I've found that's got the real talk, and in data-and-comparison driven ways hackers will appreciate.
Yeah, obviously I'm going through a divorce, but I really think this book should be required reading for anyone before they get married in the US. I don't say that lightly or confer that kind of veneration unto books at the drop of a hat.
tutufan on June 4, 2017 [-]
Haven't read this specifically, but agree with the concept. Also recommend The Psychopath Code by Pieter Hintjens (the ZMQ guy). Most books are ultimately quite abstract. A few are useful when the shit really hits the fan.
beagle3 on June 3, 2017 [-]
Philosophy/Psychology: The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, / Julian Jaynes. Hard to tell if crazy or genius, but well worth a read. Read at 38, wish I had read this at 20 or so. Most of us take our inner voice for granted, but should we really? And what if there was evidence supporting the idea that there's another inner voice, but our modern upbringing suppresses it (but it does reappear with some illnesses, under duress, etc)?
Fiction:
Different Seasons / Stephen King. A collection of four stories, NOT your usuall King horror genre; one of which became the movie "Stand By Me". another became "The Shawshank Redemption", the third became "An Apt Pupil", and the fourth will likely never become a movie. All are excellent. I actually read it at 16, which was the right time, but I'll list it here anyway; if you've seen the movies and liked them, it's worth reading - the stories are (a) much more detailed than the movies, in a good way, and (b) related in small ways that make them into a bigger whole than the individual stories.
Management (software/hardware oriented):
Peopleware / Demarco & Lister - read after I was already managing dozens of people. Wish I had read it long before. This book is basically a list of observations (with some supporting evidence and conclusion) about what works and what doesn't when running a software team. Well written, and insightful.
The mythical man month / Fred Brooks - wish I had read this before first working in a team larger than 2 people. Written ages ago, just as true today; A tour-de-force of the idea that "man month" is a unit of cost, not a unit of productivity.
fsiefken on June 4, 2017 [-]
Regarding Julian Jaynes, I also read the book, do you know that the Westworld series touches on his views directly? For more about inner voices, you might like this article http://nautil.us/issue/40/learning/a-mental-disease-by-any-o... and the books by Malidoma Patrice Some.
schemathings on June 4, 2017 [-]
Snowcrash also plays heavily with Jaynes' ideas, as does Embassytown.
real-hacker on June 4, 2017 [-]
+1 for Different Seasons. I still get goosebumps when thinking about reading this book a few years ago. This man is a master of words.
faragon on June 3, 2017 [-]
Eye-opening/shocking books: "Science et Méthode" (Henri Poincaré, 1908)
"The Conquest of Happiness" (Bertrand Russell, 1930)
"The Revolt of the Masses" (José Ortega y Gasset, 1930)
"Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley, 1932)
"Reason" (Isaac Asimov, 1941, short story)
"Animal Farm" (George Orwell, 1945)
"Nineteen Eighty-Four" (George Orwell, 1949)
"Starship Troopers" (Robert A. Heinlein, 1959)
"The Gods Themselves" (Isaac Asimov, 1972)
"Time Enough for Love" (Robert A. Heinlein, 1973)
lorenzorhoades on June 5, 2017 [-]
Great list! I love alot of the books you put on this list. I see Brave New World on alot of book lists. I get that it is a groundbreaking work at the time of its publication, but is it really that great nowadays? I've tried to read it on multiple occassions and i find it almost impossible to completely get through the book. his writing style is absolutely maddening (I think its partly because of my OCD, but at certain points the author is carrying on multiple conversations at one time, line by line. Nothing is Particularly surprising to me about this book, and I found it rather boring. I understand that it kind of predicted classical conditioning, but thats all obvious now. I understand that it inspired 1984, but i read 1984 before i tried to read brave new world, so nothing was suprising. Am i missing something here?
faragon on June 5, 2017 [-]
In my opinion, Brave New World is still groundbreaking now. Not because of the writing style, but because of the ideas and messages of warning for the Mankind. From my point of view, being both great novels, Brave New World is very different to Nineteen Eighty-Four (e.g. 1) 1 http://www.pensnest.co.uk/A-Level%20Pages/mod5compare.html
CamperBob2 on June 3, 2017 [-]
Borges: Collected Fictions (https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Fictions-Jorge-Luis-Borges/...) IMO you won't really understand the nature and limitations of fiction until you've read JLB. His work won't change your life, as such, but it will divide it into two parts: the part that took place before you read him, and the part that comes after. You'll always be conscious of that division.
mindcrime on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Four Steps To The Epiphany by Steve Blank. I've learned more about "what goes into building a startup" from reading this book than any other book I've read. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. One of the most inspirational stories I've ever read. A strong reminder to remain true to yourself in the face of all sorts of challenges and adversity.
Mastering The Complex Sale by Jeff Thull. I don't claim to be a great, or even good, salesman. But if I ever become any good at selling, I expect I'll credit this book for a lot of that. I really like Thull's approach with is "always be leaving" mantra and focus on diagnosis as opposed to "get the sale at any cost".
The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon. Like Thull, these guys deviate from a lot of the standard sales wisdom of the past few decades and promote a different approach. And like Thull, a core element is realizing that your customer aren't necessarily fully equipped to diagnose their own problems and / or aren't necessarily aware of the range of possible solutions. These guys challenge you to, well, challenge, your customers pre-existing mindsets in the name of helping them create more value.
The Discipline of Market Leaders by Fred Wiersema and Michael Treacy. A good explanation of how there are other vectors for competition besides just price, or product attributes. Understanding the ideas in this book will (probably) lead you to understand why there may be room for your company even in what appears to be an already crowded market - you just have to choose a different market segment and compete on a different vector.
How to Measure Anything by Douglas Hubbard. It's pretty much what the title says. This is powerful stuff. Explains how to measure "things" that - at first blush - seem impossible (or really hard) to measure. Take something seemingly abstract like "morale". Hubbard shows how to use nth order effects, calibrated probability estimates, and monte carlo simulations, to construct rigorous models around the impact of tweaking such "immeasurable" metrics. The money quote "If it matters, it affects something. If it affects something, the something can be measured" (slightly paraphrased from memory).
I wish I'd read each of these much earlier. Each has influenced me, but I'd love to have been working of some of these ideas even longer.
chegra on June 4, 2017 [-]
Mini Habits - It gave me a new perspective of how to go about making changes in my life, that aren't so burdensome. I have developed several habits:
a. Writing a Gratitude Journal
b. Going to Gym in the morning
c. Programming in the morning
d. Reading in the morning
I copied some of my highlights here:
http://www.chestergrant.com/26-highlights-from-mini-habits-b...
camillomiller on June 4, 2017 [-]
How long is your morning?! :)
chegra on June 4, 2017 [-]
I get up around 4:30. Work isn't until 8:30.
camillomiller on June 5, 2017 [-]
Oh wow. May I ask how long do you sleep every night? I tried to have a morning routine more than once, but the trade-offs where two big to keep it going. Two things stand out for me:
-
It works only in the summer. The absence of natural light at 4.30 in the morning is a big no-no for me. I can't get productive on artificial lights only. Sounds weird, I know.
-
Social life goes to hell. I live in a big city. Keeping up with friends, even if it's just a small circle of those I really want to keep around me, is basically a evening side-job. To get up at 4.30 every day I would probably have to cut this drastically, and I'm not sure the balance would be positive for me. I'm also single, so you know, some nice encounters are usually a matter for the nights.
From my experience, this is a daily schedule that may fit a family person, a short sleeper, a monk or a hermit.
thisiswilson on June 9, 2017 [-]
It doesn't sound weird, sounds human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm#Biological_cl...
sharmi on June 4, 2017 [-]
How do you context switch from one activity to the other in the morning? I believe most mental activities need a warm up and cool down period. I would love to know what strategy you use. When do you hit the sack?
chadcmulligan on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KK0PICK/ref=kinw_myk_... It's about tidying up, but also about making your living space harmonious without clutter. It's not one of those get a box and put your pencils in it and then label it.
nscalf on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin. I was definitely in the right place to take in the topic, but it was, more or less, a book on how you can be "good" without much effort, but to be great or the best, it takes a lot of hard work and time. This book helped me learn that lesson. On top of that, some of Tim Ferriss' stuff on accelerated learning. Learn how to learn first, then learn everything else.
travmatt on June 4, 2017 [-]
I'd second Waitzkin, that was an amazing book.
lowpro on June 3, 2017 [-]
Mans Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, especially good if you're feeling down or disallusioned.
bradbatt on June 3, 2017 [-]
Mans Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl Amazingly powerful read. It is simultaneously completely saddening to read what some humans are capable of doing to others, but also inspiring to see those who were victims of the holocaust and how they looked out for their fellow man during times when they themselves had absolutely nothing.
A tale of the absolute worst and best of humanity.
williamstein on June 3, 2017 [-]
"Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey A. Moore and also his recent "Zone to win". His books explain some of the "deeper structure" to tech business, and is one of the few business-related books I've read that has any depth. By "depth", I mean in the sense that I'm used to from research mathematics (I'm a number theorist by training), where you learn something about a problem that lets you think about problems in a more detailed way.
JSeymourATL on June 5, 2017 [-]
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. Turns out the creator of Dilbert was at one time a mid-senior level manager in Corporate America, who attempted several failed entrepreneurial ventures over the years. He's also a brilliant writer. Totally hooked by Chapter 3: Passion is Bullshit > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17859574-how-to-fail-at-a... �
zem on June 3, 2017 [-]
i discovered 'the phantom tollbooth' in grad school (for some reason, it was pretty much unknown in india when i was growing up). i'm pretty sure kid me would have loved it even more than adult me did.
pixelperfect on June 4, 2017 [-]
I remember telling my parents this was my favorite book when I was 10. I'm currently reading the Chinese translation since it matches my current Chinese reading level, and it's been quite enjoyable, even though a lot of English-specific word play is lost in translation.
saboot on June 3, 2017 [-]
I still remember being engrossed by this as a 10 year old, looking forward to reading this again with any kids I have of my own.
huac on June 4, 2017 [-]
A non-tech, non-business recommendation: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera. A beautiful story, told with equal parts philosophy, psychology, and humor, and honestly heartbreakingly beautiful.
barking on June 4, 2017 [-]
Around the time that came out a widely criticised portrait of the late writer Brendan Behan was unveiled in some gallery and someone came up with 'the unbearable likeness of Behan'
bm1362 on June 4, 2017 [-]
This is my suggestion as well.
patforna on June 5, 2017 [-]
+1. Beautiful!
minouye on June 3, 2017 [-]
Flow https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-... Antifragile https://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-Ince...
High Output Management https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/d...
The Master Switch https://www.amazon.com/Master-Switch-Rise-Information-Empire...
Thinking Fast and Slow https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp...
jamestimmins on June 3, 2017 [-]
Upvote for The Master Switch. It's one of the few books that manages to brilliantly cover a large territory within a small number of pages (<300).
WillPostForFood on June 3, 2017 [-]
Getting Real - got me out of the corporate grind SICP - got me out of the OO grind Each one had a significant positive impact on my life. And both a free online!
https://gettingreal.37signals.com/
http://sarabander.github.io/sicp/
queeerkopf on June 4, 2017 [-]
To Have or To Be? by Erich Fromm. I did read it fairly early and it had an quite an impact on my life and thinking. It put into words a lot of my discomfort with a life focused on materialistic success. And it was inspiring seeing an intelectual combining so many of the thoughts and topics he developed during his lifetime into one coherent and approachable book.
tjalfi on June 3, 2017 [-]
Autobiography/Memoirs: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard Feynman What Do You Care What Other People Think? - Richard Feynman Crime and Guilt: Stories - Ferdinand von Schirach Fiction: The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov Technical: Bulldog: A Compiler for VLIW Architectures - John Ellis
wwwater on June 3, 2017 [-]
I have never heard of Ferdinand von Schirach, but since the two other books of Feynman are really good, I would also like to know, why you recommend the third book. Could you tell more why his autobiography is worth reading?
tjalfi on June 4, 2017 [-]
Crime and Guilt is completely unlike either of the Feynman memoirs. It is a compilation of two separate short story collections that were originally published in German. The author is a German criminal defense attorney and the stories are fictionalized accounts of some of his cases. I probably should have listed it under Fiction. It is not an uplifting read and some of the stories are quite brutal. I recommended Crime and Guilt because it portrays the best and worst of human beings. You will read about a bank robber who starts a new life in Ethiopia. Another story is about the author defending a nameless assassin. A third is about a petty burglar who steals from the wrong victim. Here are some links to more articulate reviews.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/review...
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2013/01/crime-and-guilt-by-fer...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/books/review/Steinhauer-t....
SirLJ on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov - this is a great book, I am lucky my Mom gave it to me when I was a kid...
sthielen on June 4, 2017 [-]
+1. An absolutely wonderful read. I've found myself constantly gifting copies. To anyone looking to purchase, the Alma Books[0] translation is the one I would recommend. [0] - https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov/dp/...
SirLJ on June 4, 2017 [-]
Thank you for the link and the idea, I will follow your lead and start gifting to friends and coworkers...
Schwolop on June 5, 2017 [-]
I should finish this. I got two or three chapters in on a move interstate, and it got lost in the unpacking process.
habosa on June 5, 2017 [-]
Don Quixote. Specifically the translation by Edith Grossman. In high school I was assigned this book but I didn't read it all, it seemed like a waste of time to read 1000+ pages about a silly knight.
A few years ago I got into reading a lot of fiction translated from Spanish and Don Quixote got back on my radar so I decided to give it another try. I was blown away. It's astounding that a book from 500 years ago is still so funny and engaging today. Grossman's translation makes the book accessible and very enjoyable. If you didn't know the history you'd believe it had been published in the last few decades.
I recommend this because it's the best example of how literature can be time travel. When I smile at one of the adventures in the book I know that I'm sharing an experience with readers across centuries. There's almost no other way to get that feeling.
paraschopra on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Beginning of Infinity changed my worldview from thinking progress is slowing down or problems in the world are overpowering to a more hopeful one where problems always be there for humans to solve, and that through human activity we can keep making progress. It also gave hope that one day in future, we might be able to clearly see that good, bad, evil, love, beauty might be fundamental aspects of universe, just like gravity, atoms, and radioactivity is. It also walks through philosophy of science (v/s pseduo-science). All in all, I wish I had read it earlier. Feeling Good because of the tools it contains to battle self-defeating feelings that lead bouts of sadness or depression. I wish everyone would read that book so that they can build mental immunity against circular, depressing thoughts.
satwikhebbar on June 4, 2017 [-]
"The Self-aware Universe" by Amit Goswami. Opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the world around us, and finding new ways to react to events that affect us. Wish I'd read this when I was much younger - before I had decided with a high level of confidence that I am completely in control of everything I do, all that happens to me and how I react to events. Seeing yourself as a minuscule part of a whole you perhaps will never fathom, allows you to simply focus on doing your best when you can and not get overly possessed with results. One of the many mystic-physics books that were very much in fashion for a while, but the one that stuck to my consciousness the most.
kabdib on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Art of Electronics. As a software guy who sometimes is involved in embedded systems, having a good understanding of what's going on at the resistor/capacitor/transistor level would have helped a lot. I did a bunch of hobby electronics as a teenager, but never had circuit theory. I knew a lot about digital design, but not the analog stuff that the whole world ultimately rests on. So now, when I hear a switching power supply whine in protest, I will think of it as the squeals of pain of the engineers whose life I turned into a living hell because of my lack of appreciation for P = IV. I’m truly sorry. I wasn’t thinking. (And this is just the first chapter of that book).
henrik_w on June 3, 2017 [-]
How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie - a timeless classic for people skills, useful in almost all circumstances.
tmaly on June 3, 2017 [-]
4 Hour Work Week, it gave me some perspective on the 9-5 job I wish I had given more thought to earlier in my life when I had more time. 80/20 principle, while mentioned in the 4 hour work week, it really has a lot more to offer in the book. How you should go about leveraging your time. There was a real gem in there about how books are really the best way to acquire knowledge and a great way to approach reading in the university.
There was a speed readying and studying book I came across from a friend that owns a book store that really helped me. I wish I had that book before I entered high school. I can never recall the name, but I will try to find it.
kahlonel on June 4, 2017 [-]
I was going to mention this book. Glad you did it :) Totally changes your perspective towards success.
raybb on June 4, 2017 [-]
Is this this book you guys are talking about? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368593.The_4_Hour_Workwe...
The reviews seem pretty mixed but I might pick it up just to see for myself.
tmaly on June 5, 2017 [-]
Yes, but there is a revised edition with bright orange colors on the dust cover of the hardbound version. The first part of the book on productivity is still very relevant. There are a few dated parts in the book regarding testing an idea.
I still recommend it to all of my friends who have not read it as the bigger picture message is one that is still very relevant today.
Joeri on June 4, 2017 [-]
The left hand of darkness, by Ursula Le Guin. I found it by working my way through the list of joint nebula and hugo award winners (which is a really fun project, because all of them are amazing books). It is my favorite sci-fi book. It changes the way you look at gender, especially if you haven't questioned the concept much before.
edanm on June 4, 2017 [-]
Completely random tip: The Left Hand of Darkness is today's "Audible Daily Deal", so you can get the audiobook version for $3.95. This is true for 2017-06-04. Just happened to notice the email today and thought it might be relevant to someone... if so, enjoy :)
rwieruch on June 3, 2017 [-]
Deep Work + Flow [0]
tedmiston on June 3, 2017 [-]
Thanks for sharing the summary. Deep Work was recommended to me recently so this is super helpful. It seems consistent with common thinking that attention is a muscle to be strength trained regularly. I've been gathering my own book notes in a GitHub repo 1 and added a link back to your post for when I read the book.
lorenzorhoades on June 5, 2017 [-]
I always found this question pretty impossible to answer. There are so many books that i find myself wanting to recommend, and the list soon becomes unmanageable. So, instead i'm going to provide a different resource - Patrick collisons whole library. He color coats the books he thinks are great, and lists hundreds of books. https://patrickcollison.com/bookshelf
dinosaurs on June 4, 2017 [-]
On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I read it at 18 and I wish I had read it way earlier. It taught me to be mad, to live life, to get out and see the world. But looking back at it, it also taught me how to be responsible and how to not to be a jerk.
It, above all, showed me what beautiful writing is.
widowlark on June 4, 2017 [-]
Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter. This book has taught me more about thinking differently than any other.
radicality on June 4, 2017 [-]
Isn't that mostly a book of math problems? I've read some of his other books (GEB, The Mind's I, I'm a Strange Loop) - how does it compare to those?
nemo1618 on June 4, 2017 [-]
It's a collection of columns that Hofstadter wrote for Scientific American. It explores a lot of topics, but personally the one I found most interesting was "superrationality:" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superrationality
zem on June 4, 2017 [-]
it's absolutely the book of his I but copies of to give away. GEB was impressive in it's own way, but a bit too self-indulgent to be fully engaging, and 'le ton beau de marot' is spectacular but pretty narrowly focused. metamagical themas is just plain great in every respect.
alexilliamson on June 4, 2017 [-]
"The Silk Roads: A New History of the World" By Peter Frankopan. This book tackles essentially all of human history, tying together the world's major cultural shifts with the socioeconomic forces that brought them to pass. For readers who have implicitly come to believe that the center of the world has always been Western Europe (I had), this book will greatly shift your perspective (Eastward). I've never learned so much from a book, and damn is it entertainingly written. "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with bits and pieces of GTD methodology, but I encourage you to check out the full text. There are a lot of great ideas in there there that I didn't find reading online about GTD. I have been a serious GTD user for more than a year now, and I feel amazingly more in control of my life. Everything I've done in that time - from planning my wedding, to projects at work, to completely organizing my house - has gone smoother than I can remember projects going ever before.
nazgulnarsil on June 4, 2017 [-]
I would strongly recommend people read both GTD and The life changing magic of tidying up by Marie kondo and, and this is the important bit, draw parallels between them. This is a pedagogical technique that takes knowledge out of the domain of specificity and into general applicability. In this case, it will help point you to the general move David Allen and Marie kondo are trying to point at and allow you to apply it fluidly.
vldx on June 7, 2017 [-]
Which one of the both would you recommend starting with?
raybb on June 4, 2017 [-]
I'm thinking about getting the GTD book now that you've mentioned it. Any chance you could give a TLDR?
steeef on June 4, 2017 [-]
It's not a really long read, and it's worth reading it cover to cover, even if you don't follow its advice to the letter. That said, essentially:
Keep a daily list of all the next actions you want to accomplish, separated by context (e.g., at work, at home, at grocery store)
Break down large projects into next actions. Identify the next thing you need to do to move it forward.
Review your projects and next actions weekly (or more often) to make sure you're not missing anything.
There's other stuff too, but mostly GTD recommends that you write everything down and review it often. Your lists are a way to offload the stuff in your head, so that you can focus on what's right in front of you and not have that nagging feeling that there's something you forgot to do or something more important you should be doing.
It definitely changed the way I approach my day at work, and I feel like I'm able to accomplish a lot more without feeling exhausted at the end of the week.
nihonde on June 4, 2017 [-]
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer. You will see applications for the principles in this book in all aspects of society and politics. Easy to read and unassailable insight into what makes people join a common cause.
ssohi on June 3, 2017 [-]
Fooled By Randomness & The Black Swan by Taleb
skdotdan on June 3, 2017 [-]
I was going to say the exact same thing!
tedmiston on June 3, 2017 [-]
A popular recommendation here, but Getting Things Done by David Allen.
gjstein on June 3, 2017 [-]
This. I learned to use Emacs' built-in org-mode at the same time, and they've helped me survive grad school.
edpichler on June 3, 2017 [-]
On the shortness of life, by Seneca.
galfarragem on June 4, 2017 [-]
The book that I should have read (and re-read) earlier: No more Mr. Nice Guy -- Robert Glover
cproctor on June 4, 2017 [-]
ingenuousness? English is such a mess!
ozovehe on June 3, 2017 [-]
Animal farm by George Orwell: a revelation of the beginning and end of revolution and 'change'. Jewish wisdom for business success. Call of the wild by Jack London: it shows how possible it is to adapt in order to benefit maximally from change -- using a dog's (Buck) life.
davidgh on June 4, 2017 [-]
How We Got to Now, Steven Johnson. Walks you through a half dozen foundational inventions and the process through which they came to be. Fascinating to see what the inventors were trying to solve vs. how the world ended up applying their technology. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand. If you haven't read the book don't judge it by the (awful) movie.
The Liberators: My Life in the Soviet Army. Really opens your eyes to the problems and realities of communism. I love the author's dry sense of humor as he witnesses the absurdity of many of the things he encountered.
Sniper on the Eastern Front, Albrecht Wacker. A view of WWII through the eyes of a German sniper.
Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account, Miklos Nyiszli. A view of the holocaust through the eyes of a Jewish doctor in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Schwolop on June 5, 2017 [-]
How to Become CEO: The Rules for Rising to the Top of Any Organization by Jeffrey J Fox I found this book in a library's junk pile, evidently unread. It has one of those bad 80s covers that suggest it'll be terrible, but to my great surprise, it's great! It's 80 or so one page missives/dictums/edicts that'll take barely half an hour to read through - I re-read it every time I have a job interview coming up or a some kind of major life choice. The author's tone is abrasively direct; this is how it is, not how it should be. And the advice isn't just for wannabe CEOs, it's accessible and attainable for everyone.
ebcode on June 4, 2017 [-]
"Out of the Crisis" by W. Edwards Deming. The author was one of a handful of people who helped the Japanese apply methods of statistical control to their manufacturing processes, which in turn helped them to become an economic superpower after their country's occupation by the Allies. In the book the author takes a deep look at the problems of management in the United States, and provides a list of reforms that would lead businesses "out of the crisis". I only recently learned of W. Edwards Deming, and I wish that I had known about him much earlier.
perfmode on June 3, 2017 [-]
A People's History of the United States
jauzeyimam on June 3, 2017 [-]
Yes absolutely. Howard Zinn—rest in power—is one of the few historians who could 1) detail political arguments and rationales 2) without becoming obtuse in language or overly complex in reasoning and 3) without diminishing in any way the academic integrity of his work. Read this in 9th grade, and it truly did grant a focus to my life that I still carry.
miqkt on June 4, 2017 [-]
Rollo Tomassi – The Rational Male If my younger self had read this, I think my course of life would be very much different than it is right now. Just a caution that it might come off as misogynistic ramblings for some readers.
tripu on June 8, 2017 [-]
• “On Liberty” (John Stuart Mill) for political enlightenment and an impeccable defence of [classical!] liberalism. It's packed with simple but enormously powerful ideas that are also timeless, thus applicable today and to so many aspects of life. • “Don Quixote” (Cervantes): unanimously considered the best work of fiction in the Spanish-speaking world… and on many lists, even #1 of world literature, ever (!). Often overlooked (at least in Spain) by young folks as it is long, the language is archaic, and its themes appear quaint and silly today at first sight. But there's a reason it has been praised for centuries. It's funny and tender. Themes are also modern, and Cervantes' style is playful and innovative, making use of devices such as meta-references, alternative pasts, removal of the fourth wall, etc. I'm not sure how much non-native audiences can enjoy translations, though.
• “The Lord of the Rings” (Tolkien) for the original epic and touching fantasy. (I know many people devour it in their teens, or in their early youth… But I read it as an adult; quite late. Mainly because it seemed to be the only “difficult” book that many of my friends bothered to read, and that predisposed me negatively towards it. Also, my family hadn't read it, and there was no copy of it in our house.)
• “Brief History of Time” (Stephen Hawking): mind-boggling introduction to (astro-)physics, modern cosmogony, etc.
tripu on June 8, 2017 [-]
Oh, and don't waste your time with “How to Win Friends and Influence People”; it is definitely overrated! The whole book would fit in a sheet of paper if you took out unscientific anecdotes, redundancy, and obvious instances of common sense...
jxub on June 3, 2017 [-]
Think and Grow Rich. Amazing, though maybe simplistic, insights.
d0mine on June 4, 2017 [-]
"A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science" by Oakley http://barbaraoakley.com/books/a-mind-for-numbers/ Despite the title it is useful for learning how to learn in general (not just math). Simple techniques supported by the research. I wish I didn't had to reinvent them in high school, college.
xparadigm on June 3, 2017 [-]
A Short History of Nearly Everything -- Bill Bryson
joeclark77 on June 6, 2017 [-]
"Shop Class as Soulcraft", by Matthew Crawford It discusses the intrinsic characteristics of work that lead to satisfaction, growth, mastery, and ultimately happiness. The author is a PhD, worked at a think tank, and quit the white-collar life to go work on motorcycles. He discusses how white-collar work has been hollowed out, transforming "professionals" into "clerks", why so many of us "knowledge workers" feel unsatisfied with our work. The book has helped me figure out how to change my work to be more intrinsically rewarding, and as an IT developer whose technology affects other people's work, it also helps me think more about how to make the end user's life better.
Another great book along these lines is Joanne Ciulla's (2000) "The Working Life", which is a bit more academic and has less motorcycles but is nevertheless very readable.
Razengan on June 4, 2017 [-]
Below The Root [0], by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. A highly imaginative, original, and underrated, world setting.
Also had the distinction of having a sequel in the form of a video game, with the game's story written by the book author herself. 1
The game (for the PC, Apple II and Commodore 64) was way ahead of its time in 1984: [2] and I only just heard of it and the books last month! It definitely needs more recognition.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Sky_Trilogy
1 http://blog.stahlmandesign.com/below-the-root-a-story-a-comp...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdUBefQ1cT4
gingerjoos on June 5, 2017 [-]
The Human Zoo - Desmond Morris ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/333063.The_Human_Zoo ) Morris uses his background as a zoologist to examine human beings as a regular animal; many books have come out of this approach. In this one he draws parallels between the city-dwelling human and the caged animal. This sort of perspective gives you self-awareness about your own tribalism and how we as a species deal with the opposing forces of individuality and longing to belong to a group. Also some ideas on the urban-rural divide that has consequences that leave people on either side puzzled (Brexit, Trump etc.)
real-hacker on June 4, 2017 [-]
Books that are mentioned multiple times in this thread: The master switch; Sapiens/Homo Deus; How to Win Friends and Influence People; The animal farm; The lean startup; The Bible. Ctrl+F these names in this page for rationale.
Is there an "awesome books" repo on Github? I wonder.
real-hacker on June 4, 2017 [-]
There is: https://github.com/hackerkid/Mind-Expanding-Books
wowsig on June 4, 2017 [-]
I've started to maintain a list of awesome books from HN on my profile here. http://shelfjoy.com/sia_steel/non-technology-books-that-have...
Currently noting down the ones on this thread.
xaedes on June 4, 2017 [-]
Oh yes. Siddhartha was really a good read!
CodyReichert on June 3, 2017 [-]
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Superintelligence. This is a really great read about the implications of AI, or general intelligence. It's really intriguing and brings up so many scenarios I've never thought about. Anyone interested in AI should definitely read this. Similarly, On Intelligence is an absolutely brilliant book on what 'intelligence' is, how it works, and how to define it.
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Hooked. Although it's very formulaic, Hooked provides a lot of good ideas and approaches on building a product.
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REWORK. If you're a fan of 37 Signals and/or DHH, this is a succinct and enjoyable read about their principles on building and running a business.
Currently I'm reading SmartCuts and The Everything Store - both of which are great so far.
xaedes on June 4, 2017 [-]
"The Hero with a Thousand Faces" from Joseph Campbell. It opened my mind to understand metaphors and analogies in literature. It allowed me to peek under the surface of text. Seriously, every written piece I read after that was different for me than before.
It also gave me more insight in the human mind and psyche.
Being able to read and understand more literature also gave me more perspectives and deeper understanding of the world and place of mankind in it.
Some other nice reads:
"The Way of Zen" - Alan Watts
"The Book" (On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are) - Alan Watts
"Demian" - Hermann Hesse; but I wouldn't want to read it earlier. I think I read at the exact best time for me (in my late 20s).
pedrodelfino on June 4, 2017 [-]
Hackers and Painters from Paul Graham. I wish I had read that when I was 14 years old.
Amogha_IO on June 4, 2017 [-]
There are some books I keep coming back to when I am "feeling lost and/or hopeless", when my "back is up against the wall and/or feel cornered", when I feel like I have "hit rock bottom" or I just need to "escape reality"... This list contains books I have read/listened to more than a couple times: !For inspiration:! 1. Loosing my virginity (Richard Branson) - Richard Branson's Autobiography. From student magazine to Virgin to crazy ballooning adventures and space! I keep coming back to this when I feel like I need a morale boost. There isn't an audible version for this book, but there is a summary-type version on Audible "Screw it, Let's do it"- does a good job curating the exciting parts.
- The Everything Store (Brad Stone) -AMAZON and the man leading the massive team behind it. Jeff Bezos is quite easily one of the most important and influential people in the world. His relentless pursuit to build Amazon (& it's various products) amid constant setbacks, losses and naysayers... I personally use Amazon and their products every day. It's a really interesting view of how things are run backstage.
- Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
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One of the most popular books in the Valley. Almost all startup founders I have met has read this. They usually have a very polarized view of Jobs after reading this. Take the good stuff and leave out the bad/crazy. Jobs was a very polarizing person and so is his biography...This is a very long book. "The second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman is another really good book and a much shorter read and not super-polarizing (leaves out some of the crazy stuff from early life). Other notable Steve Jobs books I have read & highly recommend: Becoming Steve Jobs & The Steve Jobs Way. 4. Elon Musk (Ashlee Vance) -Another polarizing book. I am a Spacex & Tesla Fan-boy. I picked this up in 2015 the day it was launched! I have read this at least half a dozen times by now. Hard-work, perseverance and creativity to the max. A must read for every entrepreneur. 5. iWoz (Steve Wozniak) -If you are a technical-founder, this is a must read! Gives a very interesting view of- behind the scenes at Apple during its inception and early years. I was really moved by how humble Woz was/is and I am inspired by his problem solving approach. 6. How Google Works (Eric Schmidt, Alan Eagle & Jonathan Rosenberg)
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A very good book to read after/before this: "In the Plex" by Steven Levy. Hands down the two most important / influential books while you are starting something new. I read these while I was contemplating conceiving my startup and giving up the "safety" (illusion of safety) of a "normal-job". A must read for anyone planing to start a company and want to take it to the stratosphere (or higher)! 7. Dreams from My Father (Barack Obama)
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Another polarizing personality. A short but powerful memoir by Obama. This gives a unique insight into Obama's thought processes. Most people can relate to this and every "Leader" must read this. It really helps clear some of the fog on- what makes an effective leader. !Business & Management:!
- The Upstarts (Brad Stone) -An amazing story about AirBnB and Uber. Culture is key and culture is defined by the Founders and the first few hires. The two companies are extremely similar in many ways (timing, shared economy, disruptive) but radically different in the way they are run. This came out earlier this year and is probably one of the best "startup-books" of 2017!
- Zero to One (Peter Thiel) -A very short book, a must read for every entrepreneur. Dives into "first principal" thinking & execution. A very good read after/before "Elon Musk" the biography by Ashlee Vance.
- The power of Habit (Charles Duhigg) -I have always wondered how successful people get so much done. They have the same amount of time as everyone else, but they are able to get so much more done...how? This book answered that question. Ever since, I have been using "Habits" as my ultimate personal tool. Day & night difference when you figure out how habits are formed how they are broken and how you can influence the process. A good companion book (from the same author) "Smarter Faster Better".
- How to win friends & Influence people (Dale Carnegi)
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I bought this book freshman year in college. I tried reading it then and gave up / got bored after the first few pages. I really wish I had actually made an effort to read the whole thing. It sat on my shelf collecting dust. Luckily I picked up the book again and gave it another shot. I read this during a particularly "rough-patch" at our startup- really helped me cope with the "situation". What was once a boring book is now scribbled with notes, bookmarks and highlights. A very useful life-guide. 5. How to win at the Sport of Business (Mark Cuban)
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A very entertaining yet eye-opening book. It is very short, finished it in a couple hours. A must read for every entrepreneur. I keep coming back to this when I feel like things are going dreadfully slow and I need a boost. If you follow Mark Cuban's blog, skip this. It is mostly a summary of his blog posts. 6. Finding the next Steve Jobs (Nolan Bushnell)
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Finding good talent and retaining it is probably the single most important thing you will do as startup founders (especially if you are the CEO). Many things in this book seem obvious (if you are familiar with the Silicon-valley culture). A good read before you set out to hire your dream team of "rockstars". A good companion book: "Outliers" By Malcom Gladwell. 7. The hard thing about hard things (Ben Horowitz) -Are you in a startup? If the answer is YES, then read this NOW. Ties well with "Finding the next Steve Jobs". I wish I had read this before I started my company. I have lost track of how many times I have listened to this audio-book. 8. Start with the Why (Simon Sinek)
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Mid-late 2013 I came across Simon Sinek's ted talks on the golden-circle and my mind was blown. I bought the book the very next day and I keep coming back to my notes whenever we are starting a new project. Get the "Why?" right and the product will define itself. This is true for building companies as it is for building great products. A must read for every entrepreneur. 9. Art of the Start (Guy Kawasaki) -Getting ready to pitch? read this! Also watch Guy's many presentations/talks on YouTube. A good companion book- "Pitch Anything" By Oren Klaff !Escaping Reality! 1. Hatching Twitter (Nick Bilton) -Sooooo much drama! Definitely learnt what not to do! Very interesting read.
- The accidental Billionaires (Ben Mezrcih) -I have heard that not everything in this book is "completely-true" (more distorted than others...) but still a great read!
- The Martian (Andy Weir)
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Hands down the best science fiction book I have read. I have lost count how many times I have listened to the audio-book (probably >15). I want to go to MARS! 4. Harry Potter Series. -My go-to "background noise". I read the books as a kid. I use the audio-books to tune out the world when working on stuff that does not require my full attention (Listening Goblet of Fire as I type this)... 5. Jurassic Park || The Lost world (Michael Crichton)
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Read the books as a kid. I usually listen to it while I am traveling. Still gets me as excited as it did when I first read the book. (The movies are nothing compared to the book...) 6. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
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I am looking forward to reading the entire series. Read it once, listened to it many times (lost count). I love Space! 7. Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) -I picked this book up while I was working on a VR project back in 2014. An excellent book for re-reads and a nice place to get some inspiration. !Other honorable mentions:! Actionable Gamification (Yu-Kai Chou) I invented the Modern Age (Richard Snow) Inside the tornado (Geoffrey Moore) Jony Ive (Leander Kahney) Sprint (Jake Knapp) The lean startup (Eric Ries) The selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins) Titan (Ron Chernow) The inevitable (Kevin Kelly) The Innovators (Walter Isaacson) Scrum (Jeff Sutherland)
!Most if not all have an audio-book version!
If you are in a startup or plan to start one soon, reading/listening to books should become a routine. I try to get through at least one book a week, sometimes two.
Good luck!
zeroer on June 4, 2017 [-]
Don't bother with the rest of the Ender Quartet. While they're not terrible, they don't hold a candle to Ender's Game. There's just better uses of your time (like any other book on this page).
treestompz on June 4, 2017 [-]
Thank you for this awesome comment :-) I'm gonna pick up some of these!
thr0waway1239 on June 4, 2017 [-]
Thanks! Your summaries are really helpful.
deepnet on June 4, 2017 [-]
"From Bacteria to Bach the evolution of minds" by Daniel Dennet. Should be called How Minds Evolve as Heirarchies of Darwinian Turing Machines ( analagously to Deep Neural Nets (Dennet cites Geoff Hinton and Edinburgh's Andy Clarke).
"working computer models have been developed that can do a good job identifying handwritten—scribbled, really—digits, involving a cascade of layers in which the higher layers make Bayesian predictions about what the next layer down in the system will “see” next; when the predictions prove false, they then generate error signals in response that lead to Bayesian revisions, which are then fed back down toward the input again and again, until the system settles on an identification (Hinton 2007). Practice makes perfect, and over time these systems get better and better at the job, the same way we do—only better" p.178 1
"Hierarchical, Bayesian predictive coding is a method for generating affordances galore: we expect solid objects to have backs that will come into view as we walk around them; we expect doors to open, stairs to afford climbing, and cups to hold liquid. These and all manner of other anticipations fall out of a network that doesn’t sit passively waiting to be informed but constantly makes probabilistic guesses about what it is about to receive in the way of input from the level below it, based on what it has just received, and then treating feedback about the errors in its guesses as the chief source of new information, as a way to adjust its prior expectations for the next round of guessing."
Which echoes Richard Gregory's concept of vision (or perception) as a hypothesis continually tested against input.
This is Paradigm shifting; weltanschauung shattering stuff. Dennet very clearly lays out a methodology for how all aspects of minds can evolve using heirarchical compositions of wetware robots or :
"Si, abbiamo un anima. Ma é fatta di tanti piccoli robot! (Yes, we have a soul, but it’s made of lots of tiny robots!)" p.24 1
1 https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253900/from-bacteria-to-bach...
vecter on June 3, 2017 [-]
How To Be A 3% Man by Corey Wayne [0] I'm 30 now. I wish I had read this when I was 20. It would've made dating in my 20s so much easier. I came across it last year and it's probably the single most important book I'll ever read in my entire life, for the sole reason that understanding women will allow me to have a successful marriage one day. I cannot recommend this enough.
[0] Free online: https://www.scribd.com/doc/33421576/How-To-Be-A-3-Man
balladeer on June 4, 2017 [-]
Anna Karenina, A Suitable Boy, and the like. Excellent books but after college it's been difficult to start and keep at them in a acceptable period of time given the time (or lack of it) is an issue now. I also wanted to read Ulysses. I am stuck around the ~20% of Dostoyevsky's Idiot since a long time. Off late I've had better success with shortner ones. For me the reason is simple - it's just the daunting number of pages and it is a shame that I have not read/finished these books.
ankitank on June 3, 2017 [-]
A wild sheep chase by Haruki Murakami
mindcrime on June 4, 2017 [-]
You can never go wrong with Murakami. I haven't read that one but it's on my list for Real Soon Now.
aisofteng on June 4, 2017 [-]
Murakami never manages to keep my interest and halfway through I just want it to be over. I've always attributed it to losses in translation.
mindcrime on June 4, 2017 [-]
Interesting. I had exactly the opposite experience with my first Murakami. I was at Barnes & Noble one Sunday evening, grabbed one of his titles (After Dark) off the shelf, intending to flip through a few pages; and next thing you know the store is about to close and I'm halfway through the book. I bought the copy, drove home and finished reading it that night. I was hooked pretty much from the get-go.
Lordarminius on June 4, 2017 [-]
A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
arjmandi on June 5, 2017 [-]
the hard thing about hard things(Ben Horowitz): This book is mostly recommended for managers but I found it very useful to adjust my estimations about life. Also, you will learn about silicon valley history and it's dynamics. The fifth discipline (Peter Senge): This book is one of the systems thinking references and it helped me to learn more about hidden dynamics in the world around me. I truly wish I've read this when I was junior in college.
vldx on June 7, 2017 [-]
Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline is great. Related, I would also recommend "Thinking in Systems" by Donella Meadows and "An Introduction to General Systems Thinking" by Jerry Weinberg.
feignix on June 4, 2017 [-]
Fiction:
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Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes because it's so beautifully written and made me experience a flood of emotions.
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The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Again, a very touching, charming book about a little kid's world(universe?) view, told through his adventures.
Non-fiction:
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The subtle art of not giving a F*ck - Mark Manson Opened my eyes to what I was possibly doing wrong with my life.
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Radical Acceptance - Tara Brach Still currently reading it, but I wish I'd found it earlier.
rachkovsky on June 4, 2017 [-]
No Excuses!: The Power of Self-Discipline by Brian Tracy. It's so good. I keep rereading it. Does wonders to my motivation and productivity.
novalis78 on June 4, 2017 [-]
"How to get what you want", by Raymond Hull. Everything else follows, like a bootstrapping process. Wish I had found it 10 years earlier. Changed my life forever. I could recommend dozens other books, my walls are lined with shelves of books, but you and me are different and all you'd need is this one book to find everything else you'd need to read or do.
pmoriarty on June 3, 2017 [-]
I wish I'd read some good books on fitness and nutrition when I was younger. It could have saved me a whole host of health issues.
joshschreuder on June 4, 2017 [-]
Starting Strength is an excellent book for getting started with lifting. https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-Basic-Barbell-Train...
shivrajrath on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late This book is a detailed research on what's wrong with the world and what can be still done. The chapter II brings inputs from various culture on approaches that could improve from ground up. Must read book for us and future generations.
Can someone suggest something similar to this book?
imsodrunklol on June 5, 2017 [-]
A little late to the game but this book changed my perception of reality. Saving the Appearances: A study in Idoltary by Owen Barfields
You won't regret it.
architek1 on June 7, 2017 [-]
Nature of Order Volumes 1-4, Christoper Alexander. <30 yrs old, as I believe I would be able to understand the organization of life and how to make better art. Even though I'm only on volume 1, as soon as I started it I wish I would've read this sooner. I would add more but I think these volumes will keep you busy for awhile ;)
wowsig on June 4, 2017 [-]
Discovered a lot of fresh books and reasons for reading them. I've collated the ones with interesting reasons for reading them here --> http://shelfjoy.com/sia_steel/books-hn-wished-they-had-read-...
peternicky on June 4, 2017 [-]
In no particular order:
- So Good They Can't Ignore You - Deep Work - Hackers by Steven Levy (perhaps my favorite book) - Learning How To Learn - The Person and the Situation - The Art of Money Getting - Make It Stick - The Algorithm Design Manual - Moonwalking With Einstein - Extreme Ownership
pombrand on June 5, 2017 [-]
"Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" because I've been learning ineffectively my whole life not knowing that I was. Should be required reading for every 15 year old. The best, most science based book I've ever read about learning effectively.
ThomPete on June 4, 2017 [-]
"The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes It was the first time I read someone who was thinking about the mind like I am and was able to put into words some of my own more vague thoughts.
It's definitely going to leave you thinking.
Entangled on June 4, 2017 [-]
"Anatomy of the State" by Murray Rothbard. We live in a world of thieves masqueraded as leaders.
BJanecke on June 4, 2017 [-]
Software The Mythical Man Month && Design Of Design by Fred Brooks
Everything else
Hitchhikers Guide (Existentialism does not have to be edgy) The Foundation Series (Bureaucracy and Institutionalization will never undermine Ingenuity) Dune Series (Plans within plans)
mattbettinson on June 5, 2017 [-]
The power of now changed my life. Hard to describe without sounding hokey
ctdavies on June 4, 2017 [-]
Das Kapital. You know why.
makeset on June 3, 2017 [-]
Code Complete by Steve McConnell https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735619670
Safety1stClyde on June 4, 2017 [-]
I bought this book based on the endless internet recommendations. After reading it, I was mystified, completely mystified, why people recommended it so strongly.
travmatt on June 4, 2017 [-]
How experienced were you? It was really the first thing I read after beginner type tutorials, and helped me a great deal.
CamTin on June 4, 2017 [-]
/Cannery Row/ by Steinbeck. It's a short read, but it packs in a lot of insight about the human condition. I re-read it every year or so, and still learn new things.
du_bing on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Art of Computer Programming series, by Donald Knuth. They are so well written and full of humor, I can not think of any technical book(or any kind?) written as good as these.
egonschiele on June 4, 2017 [-]
Evicted. Showed me how racism is still alive today, how bad it actually is to live in poverty even in a wealthy country in the USA. Tore down a lot of assumptions I had made.
wdr1 on June 4, 2017 [-]
A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Helped me understand investing.
Anand_S on June 5, 2017 [-]
- The One Thing. ~ Gary Keller 2. Mini Habits. ~ Stephen Guise 3. Learned Optimism. ~ Martin Seligman 4. Spark. ~ John Ratey 5. Miracle of Mindfulness. ~ Thich nhat hanh
razzaj on June 4, 2017 [-]
The upside of irrationality. Ariely Germs guns and steel. Jared Diamond
Influence, the psychology of persuasion. Cialdini
Justice: what's the right thing to do. Sandel
QED. Fyenman
All of Feynman lectures on physics
The hard thing about hard things. Horowitz
Al muqqadimah. Ibn khaldun
febin on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Holy Bible Start With Why
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Think Like a Freak
SmartCuts
innocentoldguy on June 4, 2017 [-]
I really liked The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck as well. I realized, while reading, that I give far too many, and working on not doing that has made me happy. Edited for fat-finger syndrome.
CodyReichert on June 3, 2017 [-]
I'm about 75% of the way through SmartCuts and I love it! I really enjoy this type of format, but the people and stories Shane chose are just great. +1 recommendation.
mbrodersen on June 5, 2017 [-]
"How Not To Die" by Dr Michael Greger, Gene Stone. It really changed my mind about how to achieve long term mental and physical health.
akulbe on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Personal MBA. Deep Work.
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Think and Grow Rich.
The E-Myth Revisited.
The Science of Selling.
(stuff about stoicism)
akulbe on June 5, 2017 [-]
Why the downvote???
palerdot on June 5, 2017 [-]
The slight edge This is a very interesting book that emphasises how small persistent things matter in life. Changed my worldview for good.
cmmn_nighthawk on June 3, 2017 [-]
Metaprogramming Ruby by Paolo Perrotta
gtirloni on June 4, 2017 [-]
The Denial of Death (Ernest Becker)
jinxedID on June 3, 2017 [-]
The Effective Executive. My company did not prepare me very well for being a team lead.
K0SM0S on June 5, 2017 [-]
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism is by far the best philosophy I've ever encountered. Some people call it "the best operating system for the mind", and I very much agree with that statement.
It changed my life more than any other corpus of ideas. I can't overstate how much better I feel now that my brain is running on a 'Stoic OS', especially on an emotional level --which was the hardest to deal with as I'm rather hyper-sensitive; now my emotions have truly become an almost entirely positive force in my experience of life, regardless of their nature, good or bad, of said emotions; in fact I no longer even qualify emotions on this scale; and the same goes true for an overwhelming majority of my thinking.
This book is the personal journal of one of the greatest roman emperors, leader of the (western) world at the time. A rare enough occurrence in the history of leaders, he was deemed 'worthy of his position' on a human and philosophical level by most people who knew him.
A couple remarks: "philosophy" as seen by ancient authors and thinkers is not a strictly intellectual or abstract endeavor, not a scholarly matter, at least not at its core. Philosophy is the closest equivalent they had to what we'd call "self-development" today. It's very down to earth, 'life recipes' of sorts, simply to educate and help people deal with this elusive brain of ours. Seneca's and Epictetus writings are also excellent food for thought, food for one's mind. Imho, philosophy, litterally the "love of wisdom", is something we should deeply reappropriate, both as individuals and whole societies.
Relatingly, Stoicism used to be taught from childhood throughout most of human history in the western world (and it could be argued that Asia has its own equivalent philosophies). For some reason, we ceased teaching philosophy to children around the turn of of the 20th century, which leaves most people with a lack of means to deal with their emotional circumstances. I'm one of those who consider this to be a dire pity, especially in our day and age. I think it sorely shows in public discourse and interpersonal relationships, and the end result is too much suffering that is entirely preventable.
Meditations is easy enough to read, but if you want something more modern, I found The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday to be a very good introduction to Stoicism.
As A Man Thinketh by James Allen. It's as short as it is good for the mind, the building/making of one's persona. Well worth a read at least once in your life, there are many 20th and 21st century self-development books (e.g. How to Win Friends and Influence People) that I believe drew some of their teachings from this 1903 classic.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Regardless of where you find the information contained in this book (there are many works on the topic, both modern and throughout history), this book helps understanding that living in the present moment is critically important, and a key to happiness. Notwithstanding the 'wu-wu' aspects of Tolle's particular take, it just works. If you find yourself constantly dwelling on the past, or being a 'nostalgic of the future' (as I both used to do), knowing the value of living 'in the now' may be the difference between chronic depression and a fulfilling experience of life. It certainly is for me.
zedshaw on June 4, 2017 [-]
How to See Color and Paint It -- It taught me how to see color and paint it. Also how to use a palette knife which makes my paintings very different and fun. Remembrance of Things Past -- I'm still reading this, as it's a massive stream of consciousness book, but I wish I'd started it when I was younger so that I'd be done with it by now. It's just so weird to read it and experience the writing that I enjoy it for simply being different. As you read it just remember that every ; is really a . and every . is really \n\n.
Van Gogh: The Life -- I absolutely hate the authors. They're great at research, but I feel they had a vendetta against Van Gogh of some kind. Throughout the book, at times when Van Gogh should be praised for an invention, they make him seem like a clueless dork. Ironically, their attempt to portray him as a dork who deserves his treatment ends up demonstrating more concretely how terrible his life was because he was different. I think if this book were around when I was younger I might have become an artist instead of a programmer.
A Confederacy of Dunces -- Absolutely brilliant book, and probably one of the greatest examples of comedic writing there is. It's also nearly impossible to explain to people except to say it's the greatest example of "and then hilarity ensues".
Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar -- After a terrible guitar teacher damaged my left thumb I thought I'd never play guitar again. I found this book and was able to use it to learn to retrain how my left hand works and finally get back to playing. Mickey Baker's album also brought me to the Bass VI, which got me thinking I could build one, and then I did and now I've built 6 guitars. I play really weird because of this book and I love it. This book also inspired how I wrote my own books teaching programming and without it I'd still be a cube drone writing Python code for assholes. If I'd found this book when I was younger it most likely would have changed my life then too.
Reflections on A Pond -- It's just a book of this guy painting the same scene 365 times, one for each "day of the year" even though it took him many years to do it. All tiny little 6x8 impressions of the same scene. I learned so much about how little paint you need to do so much, and it's also impressive he was able to do it. I can't really think about anything I've done repetitively for every day of a year. I've attempted the same idea with self-portraits but the best I could do was about 3 month's worth before I went insane and started hating my own face.
Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting -- Instructionally this book isn't as good as How To See Color, but as a reference guide it is about the most thorough book on painting there is. It's so huge it's almost impossible to absorb all of it in one reading, so I've read it maybe 5 times over the years.
knopkop on June 8, 2017 [-]
How to See Color and Paint It Ordered a copy, thanks!
ms-rm on June 4, 2017 [-]
Thanks for sharing! These all look very interesting.
zabana on June 4, 2017 [-]
Pretty much everything ever written by William Gibson should do.
BevanR on June 3, 2017 [-]
The lean startup. How to win friends and influence people.
edpichler on June 3, 2017 [-]
This book changed my life.
gjstein on June 3, 2017 [-]
Which one of these, out of curiosity? The post above references two books :)
edpichler on June 3, 2017 [-]
Lean Startup.
hdhzy on June 3, 2017 [-]
Both of them are really good :)
booleandilemma on June 4, 2017 [-]
"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.