> How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Great book. The advice is rather obvious but it really gets you thinking about how you interact with people. For example I've learnt to be vastly better at people's names now, it still take conscious effort but it is fairly habituated now.
Subjectively yes, I feel more confident. I've re-listened to the book every couple of years as it helps me focus on continuously improving what I see as an important skill set.
This extended my boundaries of what a 'big problem' encompasses by several orders of magnitude. It also paints a terrifying picture of society, one which is entirely alien to my culture. Specifically the narrative of 'if we can't live everyone should die' / anti-escapism was both shocking and bizarre. My christian cultural tradition dictates that the proper reaction to near-extinction is to build an Ark. My sci-fi experience has numerous examples of this trope, and to find it so rigorously and repeatedly rejected was disturbing to say the least.
My linear algebra was rusty so I bought "Linear Algebra and Its Applications" by David C. Lay. from a college student.
The book is amazing, I highly recommend it.
Pretty much changed a lot of things about how I view my motivation and self discipline. You'd think it's just another "Navy SEAL" book, but it's actually very philosophical and motivates you in different ways.
Of the books I finished in 2016, I'd nominate a couple as contenders for "best of 2016":
1. Mastering the Compex Sale, by Jeff Thull. If you're interested in B2B selling, I highly recommend this book. Thull's approach is dramatically different from the old-school "Alec Baldwin rant in Glengarry Glen-Ross" stuff you may have been exposed to. He encourages a model where you act more like a doctor, or a detective, and practice "Always Be Leaving" instead of "Always Be Closing".
2. It's Not The Big That Eat The Small, It's The Fast That Eat The Slow by Jason Jennings. The title is a good summary. Jennings makes an argument for the importance of "speed" as the primary driver of competitive advantage. There's more too it that that, so just read the book.
3. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. If you didn't take, or have forgotten, classes like Computer Architecture or Digital Logic, this is a great book for getting your head around the low level details of what's happening in side a digital computer. Petzold starts from VERY basic examples (using a flaslight to morse code messages to your friend across the street) and slowly builds up to a full-fledged (if somewhat minimalistic) CPU.
Edit: some unlucky soul commented Atlas Shrugged and got downvoted / flagged / whatever to death. I didn't read AS in 2016, but I have read it, and I do recommend it to everyone. It has its issues, but it's absolutely a book everyone should read, whether you agree with Rand's ideology or not. And if you aren't familiar enough to Rand's ideology to know if you agree or not,that's all the more reason to read Atlas Shrugged (or The Fountainhead).
I'd love to see The Righteous Mind as required reading for HN! I picked it up originally for its subtitle: aptly subtitled Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Probably had the most impact on me of any book I've read in the past few years.
I didn't read many things packaged as books in 2016, but I did read Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters which was interesting.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 146 ms ] threadhttps://www.amazon.com/Mastery-Robert-Greene/dp/014312417X
Thanks Andrey
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure - Grant Cardone
Hack Upwork: How to Make Real Money as a Freelancer - Danny Flood
What are your favorite books of 2016 Andrey?
Great book. The advice is rather obvious but it really gets you thinking about how you interact with people. For example I've learnt to be vastly better at people's names now, it still take conscious effort but it is fairly habituated now.
Great book that explains the major concepts concisely.
Pretty much changed a lot of things about how I view my motivation and self discipline. You'd think it's just another "Navy SEAL" book, but it's actually very philosophical and motivates you in different ways.
https://www.amazon.com/Resilience-Hard-Won-Wisdom-Living-Bet...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13235767
1. Mastering the Compex Sale, by Jeff Thull. If you're interested in B2B selling, I highly recommend this book. Thull's approach is dramatically different from the old-school "Alec Baldwin rant in Glengarry Glen-Ross" stuff you may have been exposed to. He encourages a model where you act more like a doctor, or a detective, and practice "Always Be Leaving" instead of "Always Be Closing".
2. It's Not The Big That Eat The Small, It's The Fast That Eat The Slow by Jason Jennings. The title is a good summary. Jennings makes an argument for the importance of "speed" as the primary driver of competitive advantage. There's more too it that that, so just read the book.
3. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. If you didn't take, or have forgotten, classes like Computer Architecture or Digital Logic, this is a great book for getting your head around the low level details of what's happening in side a digital computer. Petzold starts from VERY basic examples (using a flaslight to morse code messages to your friend across the street) and slowly builds up to a full-fledged (if somewhat minimalistic) CPU.
Edit: some unlucky soul commented Atlas Shrugged and got downvoted / flagged / whatever to death. I didn't read AS in 2016, but I have read it, and I do recommend it to everyone. It has its issues, but it's absolutely a book everyone should read, whether you agree with Rand's ideology or not. And if you aren't familiar enough to Rand's ideology to know if you agree or not,that's all the more reason to read Atlas Shrugged (or The Fountainhead).
If you're interested in the complex history of LBJ, the Senate, or America during that time, I'd recommend this (or really, any) Robert Caro book.
And...
A History of Warfare, by John Keegan. Great analysis of various cultures and how they have approached war across history.
Fundamentally altered my worldview and the way I perceive stuff.