I occasionally revisit this book every few years as a refresher. Every time I do, I end up making close, life-long friends by applying the techniques in this book.
I'd say this is a must read for just about anyone.
I must admit, I've always found the title off-putting as it sounds very much like it is a manual written by Machiavelli.
OTOH, both my kids are on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum and there are several auties that recommend it as really useful in helping them with inter-personal interaction. So there you go.
Some of it - John D. Rockefeller throwing dimes to kids for the good PR, for example, is Machiavellian in the bad sense. But much of it is trying to persuade people that even if they were purely selfish, they'd still benefit from being less utterly self-absorbed, and demonstrating that.
Seconded. After reading this my poor B- social skills, immediately jumped to a B+. Not a pancea, but a great book to help you think about/observe how others think/feel and how that will in turn affect you.
I read Catch 22 when I was about 14 or so - it was literally the first "grown up" novel that I read that wasn't dry science fiction and it completely enthralled me.
What did I learn from it? Possibly this:
"The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on"
I could never get past the first chapter, The Soldier in White. Somehow I took it too personally, or realistically, or something, and I didn't want to continue this journey.
A favourite of mine as well. I read it when I was about 20 and it blew my mind. I later read other books by Joseph Heller but I really shouldn't have bothered. Catch 22 was really his main opus.
Think Like a Freak by Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner (authors of Freakonomics) was a recent read that I liked a lot. It distills much of their economic thinking into a collection of meaningful practices. You could read it in a day.
He puts into words concepts of life so close to us yet so foreign sounding that makes us rethink everything in our lives.
When you ask people "What is the opposite of fragile", they usually answer robust, which Taleb proves to be incorrect by introducing a new concept, the Antifragilty. It entangles so many things in economic, academic, science, finances and other systems with several tales from the past revisited with a new lens.
Fooled by Randomness,first; and The Black Swan (2nd edition) second. These are books about statistics and decision theory. They might not meet some people's expectations about "non-technology" which usually means no equations and no mathematical reasoning. While not written by Taleb, How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff makes a good introduction for Taleb's books.
Fooled by Randomness, IMHO. Black Swan is an expansion of Fooled. Aphorisms is a vanity project. Haven't read Anti Frangile. Fooled by Randomness has lots of good analysis of survivorship bias, trend following and other mistaken pattern matching strategies that are hard wired into us, and blind us to the true nature of events.
Read Fooled by Randomness. The other books are expansions on these ideas, and IMHO, not as good, mostly as Taleb seems to have become angry at his critics.
There were many other books that influenced me, but the concept of a "Fair Witness" stuck with me - specifically, the idea that one should be aware of what is known versus what is inferred.
> Fair Witnesses are prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. As a demonstration, Harshaw asks Anne to describe the color of a house in the distance. She responds, "It's white on this side". Harshaw explains that she would not assume knowledge of the color of the other sides of the house without being able to see them. Furthermore, after observing another side of the house would not then assume that any previously seen side was still the same color as last reported, even if only minutes before.
Hume actually goes farther than this list, and Heinlein is riffing on David Hume, and an old sheep joke. As for 5 I'm old enough to know that's actually a problem.
The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, a professor at MIT.
Some might call it a business book. It focuses primarily on teaching readers to use "systems thinking" to turn companies into learning organizations that respond and adapt to change. That's useful advice to those in management positions, but I have to be honest and confess that the chapter on personal mastery changed my life in a big way. It put into words something that I had been thinking and feeling for a long time: namely, that we have the power to change the systems that influence us.
This is a great and worthwhile read. His exposure of positive and negative cycles and methods of interrupting the negative was eye opening. I've used his words on many an occasion to "wake up" the audience and break a negatively reinforced conversation.
I can't immediately find it right now, but if memory serves, the last time this came up, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Stranger in a Strange Land" seemed to be the strongest answers.
I have since read, enjoyed, and been influenced by both.
Neither are properly regarded as "non-technology," but I think from your point 2 it's clear that you are just looking to exclude training manual type texts.
Hitchhiker's in particular imparts a lot of great advice for creativity in technical fields, and software in particular, but does it using a fictionalized world with comedic logical oddities.
Another book I'll add, which has some of these properties, is "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins (although take note that this book is highly erotic and explicit).
Easily my favorite childhood book that I read for the helluvit every few years: The Ellimist.
I was a huge fan of Animorphs, but one of my favorite characters was the omniscient being.
spoilers (Book is now 17 years old as of this post)
Just a brief summary if memory serves me correctly: They were a bird-like race called the Ketran, and although the planet surface was inhabitable, the atmosphere was, so they spent time keeping up a perch. To deal with their boredom, they created a game-like system of virtual reality. This gaming system allowed them to play things like chess or play characters or entire species in virtual simulations.
They had learned to broadcast their network gaming system across the planet to other Ketran and expanded their networks. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, they accidentally broadcast this virtual simulation across the galaxy to a war-like species, who thought they were being threatened.
The species came to their planet and wiped out nearly all the Ketran. The survivors were able to use one of their ships to escape and spent millenia searching for a planet like their own, but were unable to do so.
They eventually found a planet they thought they could inhabit, but the entire planet was like a sponge (known as father): absorbing anything on it and within it. So Father would basically capture and absorb the memories of anything that landed on the planet. Father could look into the memories of the creatures it absorbed. The last of the surviving Ketran were no exception. However, Father kept one of the Ketran alive, named Toomin, realizing he was a gamer and companion adversary, and did not want to be alone. Toomin and Father spent centuries playing "virtual video simulated games" with each other, but Toomin would always lose, because Father ALWAYS knew what Toomin would do, having his memories and thoughts. There was absolutely no way to win.
Fortunately and eventually, Toomin figured out a way to defeat Father. With his victory came the knowledge of every being that Father ever knew, so Toomin was able to create and know of technologies beyond what he could have ever known, and in a way, he was able to eventually figure out and understand immortality, which he may have achieved by accident.
Why does this book continue to influence me? Even in the moment that Toomin lost hope, losing everything he ever loved, being the last of an extinct species, and seeing no reason to go on living, he knew he had to keep going, for the sake of his own species, and he would eventually become one of the greatest beings to ever exist. In a way, I do seek to be like the Ellimist.
It's a history of macro trends in violence - wars, homicide, rape, etc. The burden of violence in the modern world is much, much lower than it was historically, even fairly recently.
The book catches a lot of flak from people who reject the claim that the future will automatically be more peaceful than the past. I think this is poor criticism because that's not what the book says; it is explicitly a descriptive history and not predictive.
I love this book because it presents remarkable evidence from multiple fields that the world has gotten profoundly better (at least, regarding violence). The realization that the world can improve and has improved is...liberating? Surprisingly many people don't believe this, though I expect on HN belief in progress is not uncommon.
Having such evidence that the world has improved so much is powerful motivation to try to continue - you know it's possible. It's the antidote to incorrect zero-sum thinking, which is not just damaging but also wrong. And perhaps it's a moral call to action: our grandparents' and parents' generations left us a world which is much more peaceful than the one they were born into. Do we not owe future generations the same gift?
His ideas are fabulous, but that aside reading it is a joy. He truly has a love for his fellow man that transcends all the usual pity-via-charity and sees real value in all.
A forgotten favourite of many great thinkers. Forgotten for a reason!
Yes they are. Many famous economists have said they agree with George. I think he is most useful as a way of informing ourselves of the utter mess we have now. Read it and you will see the entire world in a new light. You just cannot "unsee" afterwards. Rentiers abound and it's truer now than ever.
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck. There are probably better novels that I liked more, although this one is good and I liked it and it's kind of silly to pair off great works of literature Highlander-style, but I think this one has the most to say about a person's own approach to American capitalism and morality, and therefore has had more of an impact on me day-to-day.
This book ruined my life. I highly recommend it. Every engineer, manager and designer should read this. Maybe every human. I think of this book every time I try to pull a push door, every time I reach the bottom floor of a stairwell and notice the design that might save my life one day, and every time I try to struggle to operate a television or a microwave.
2) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
by Robert Cialdini
This book helped me understand myself and everyone else. For example, I now understand why I double down on dumb ideas. I also catch a lot more marketing and sales tricks.
Edit: Sorry, just now realized that I broke the 1-book rule, but it's probably too late to correct this and it's really hard to choose between these two anyway.
> Influence helps me a lot to deal with my 3 year old.
I'd been teetering on the fence with this book for about a year, but I think you just sold me on it (haha!)
Any idea whether it's worth an extra ~$7 for the (I gather) textbookified version of Influence subtitled "Science and Practice", 5th edition, versus the Revised Edition of the more mass-market "The Psychology of Persuasion"?
Me too. Fascinating read. I still remember the part where one of them compares their work to the pinball game - where the reward for winning is that you get to play again.
A palpable sense of mystery is maintained from start to finish, but it arguably does better than any other book in the Bible at giving a deep look into the person of Jesus as he was seen and believed in by the early church. Additionally, there is a subtle sense of humor as the gospel author clearly enjoyed language and word plays and describes multiple misunderstandings that occur because of the ambiguity of language.
Probably more than any other book, this book has shaped me on a personal level.
(If you're going to read it, I highly recommend a modern translation such as the ESV, NKJV, or HCSB.)
It's also notable for Jesus's consistent affirmation of his own divinity. Not that the synoptics don't, but John is much more explicit about it. For me, that does much to validate CS Lewis's liar, lunatic, or Lord argument.
Two follow ups that would appeal to the HN crowd: Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About [1] and 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated [2], both by Donald Knuth.
Logos! "In the beginning was the word" can be understood information theoretically. It's almost as though John is telling us that information or knowledge is ontologically primary, rather than matter. And it is "the word", not "the DWORD" ;)
The Four Agreements by Don Ruiz. It's a short and simple book about four rules of life which you can use anywhere.
1. Be impeccable with your word. You can read this as "don't swear", but it's not about that. It is about the constant and continuing things we say to ourselves that make us feel bad. We don't even know we do this. And it's not about big things, it's about the thousands of small reprimands we give ourselves that hold us back living our life.
2. Don't take anything personally. When someone else says something to you, good or bad, it shows how they feel. What they say is about them, what they think is important, what is relevant for them. It's not about you. This doesn't mean that you can ignore it, but it shines another light on things other people say about you, or about others to you. This applies to "good things" as well. If someone gives you a compliment, it tells something about them. And of course it works as well for the things you say or do - they tell something about you.
3. Don't make assumptions. Don't think you know what other people think, or that you know why they do the things they do.
4. Do your best. You can't always live your life following rules. Do your best, and if you break a rule, bad luck, next time better! That means that you can forgive yourself. And it means that you should not give up after a big fuck up. Or a small fuck up, or many fuck ups. You can start over again at any moment.
The book is much better at explaining. It's about 60 pages, worth the effort.
I've only read it in a hurry but it had some rather odd bits
For example, re 1. :
> Every human is a magician, and we can either put a spell on someone with our word or we can release someone from a spell. We cast spells all the time with our opinions. An example: I see a friend and give him an opinion that just popped into my mind. I say, "Hmmm! I see that kind of color in your face in people who are going to get cancer." If he listens to the word, and if he agrees, he will have cancer in less than one year. That is the power of the word.
The Four Agreements is one of my favorite books, so I was glad to see it already listed, but yeah it does have some nonsense mixed into it as you have pointed out. With that said, the fundamentals are very sound, and for some reason the way the book talks about it makes it all click nicely in my mind even though the fundamental advice is all "common sense".
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. While it's also a tale of travel and self-exploration (the rediscovery of identity after a nervous breakdown and shock therapy), mostly the book is about thinking. I was a different person after identifying with the narrator who also lived in the mind, and asked questions about basic concepts like 'quality', or qualia of events, objects, roles, and the subjective/objective values they embody or we impart on them. A watershed book for me.
Yeah, I read the book years ago but wasn't mature enough to appreciate the its value. But as I've gained in years and as my children have grown older I've thought a lot about quality and its significance. I'll be revisiting the book in the near future.
I wonder if The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander would be similarly interesting. It's not trying to be a novel, but explores similar concepts.
Design Patterns (in software) are supposed to be derived or inspired (not the actual patterns, but the idea of patterns) by that book, BTW, or by Alexanders other thoughts or writings.
This book blew my mind when I first read it in highschool. I've had a few pivotal experiences in my life which have shaped who I am and how I think. Reading this book was one of them.
I thought the first third of the book was absolutely fantastic. But then it quickly decayed into philosophical drivel, IMO. Perhaps I'm not wise enough to understand the end of the book but I truly thought it was garbage and believe this is one of the most overrated books of all time. Anybody else feel this way?
Read it 20 years ago, and again this winter. Like you the first part of the book had me thinking, this is genius, but then the rest of the way it seemed to devolve into meaningless drivel.
Maybe in 20 years I'll give it another shot and finally see why the book is considered a classic.
I agree with you, I started the book and I thought, "Why do people hate this? This is a joy." But, then it decayed into drivel, as you said. A shame. I think they could cut 100 pages and it would be a bit better.
Interesting suggestion! I really cannot stand this book, but I appreciate all of the things you've gleaned from it and I'm glad it's had a positive impact on people.
I actually really like Pirsig's ideas about quality and balancing analytical and emotional worldviews, but the writing style drives me nuts and feels like I'm grading a weak Philosophy 101 essay.
I completely agree. There was a fair amount of arrogance in his arguments and I found him constructing straw arguments fairly often. The part where I lost complete interest in the book was when he was discussing whether the 0s and 1s in computers exist -- there was no attempt to see binary as a symbol of a certain state.
Psychology: Themes and Variations (textbook for my Psych 101 class in college). That class and book completely changed the way I think because it made me so much more aware of things happening around me everyday.
There were a lot of things but learning about Diffusion of Responsibility was huge. Knowing about it has made me feel almost like it's my responsibility to take action in a crowd.
There are many, but one is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I read it as a child, and it was the first time I thought about logical thinking.
Here is the section:
“Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth. ”
Lewis was instrumental in helping me understand that faith can be based on a foundation of logic and reason versus pure emotion and my guess is he helped many others struggling in that same area.
Lewis' argument isn't sound; if Jesus indeed claimed divinity, that sole conviction could be a delusion, without rendering all of his other statements delusional.
This kind of reasoning is typical of apologists in my experience; it sounds right, but it doesn't hold up to scrunity.
Lewis and Tolkien both spend a lot of time exploring the internal moral and ethical struggles of their protagonists, the development of courage, and the importance of doing the right thing even when no one is looking or in the face of opposition. This was hugely important to me as a kid, and recently I've been going back to The Lord of the Rings to read up on courage in the face of looming evil.
This looks kind of like logic if you squint, but is actually a logical fallacy.
This issues is of course there are of course more than 3 options. If she had been deceived intentionally than none of the given three examples apply. Further, it assumes you can verify that she was 'telling lies' or 'insane' as an abstract property of her which is another mistake.
That said, I can see why someone might find it a useful introduction to logic.
Eh? If she was deceived (intentional or not) she is in fact telling the truth, since to her it is real.
There aren't more than three option present, but you're more correct that you may not have enough information to deduct which option is a proper representation of the true fact.
There's no real issue with the logic, outside of arguing that making a conclusive decision here is perhaps premature. That's situational though.
If a kid says the magician cut their assistant in half they are not lying, insane, or telling the truth.
What someone observes, what someone thinks they observed, what they remember, what they say happened, and what actually happened are generally all different things.
I've taken much from Dune (see the name) but also Clark's books. Comics and the bible have also helped me understand much of US pop culture in a way that i wouldn't without. Realizing the religious overtones in the marvel movies, or the STD metaphor in HarryPotter, is great fun.
You've Only Got Three Seconds by Camille Lavington
The book taught me the importance of making a good impression, how to improve my situation, to focus on being effective, and not hang on to things that are holding me back.
It's a deep dive in understanding and empathizing with another human being, and reflecting and finding the things one is grateful for in their own life.
Years ago I was going on a cross country road trip (solo), and needed something to listen to. I decided to download all of his speeches, sort them in chronological order, and listen to all of them.
His continual evolution was nothing short of amazing. While the book is awesome, I appreciated him more when I listened to him directly.
1984. I read this when I was around 13. It profoundly changed how I view the government and technology. It gave me a strong respect for what a government can do, and how our reality is not just our naked perception, but it is what others want us to perceive.
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I have to keep reminded myself to apply the rules, but very sound advice.
I'd say this is a must read for just about anyone.
OTOH, both my kids are on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum and there are several auties that recommend it as really useful in helping them with inter-personal interaction. So there you go.
What did I learn from it? Possibly this:
"The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on"
He puts into words concepts of life so close to us yet so foreign sounding that makes us rethink everything in our lives.
When you ask people "What is the opposite of fragile", they usually answer robust, which Taleb proves to be incorrect by introducing a new concept, the Antifragilty. It entangles so many things in economic, academic, science, finances and other systems with several tales from the past revisited with a new lens.
There were many other books that influenced me, but the concept of a "Fair Witness" stuck with me - specifically, the idea that one should be aware of what is known versus what is inferred.
> Fair Witnesses are prohibited from drawing conclusions about what they observe. As a demonstration, Harshaw asks Anne to describe the color of a house in the distance. She responds, "It's white on this side". Harshaw explains that she would not assume knowledge of the color of the other sides of the house without being able to see them. Furthermore, after observing another side of the house would not then assume that any previously seen side was still the same color as last reported, even if only minutes before.
1. Why assume it is a house at all and not a facade?
2. Why assume that your eyes are not defective as to color?
3. Why assume your memory of the word "color" and "white" are correct?
4. Why assume that you heard the question properly?
5. How do you know the meanings of words haven't changed since you learned them many years ago?
In real life, this is neatly addressed by Ayn Rand:
"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong."
Body and mindset hacking from leading thinkers and experimenters, in a concise format
Some might call it a business book. It focuses primarily on teaching readers to use "systems thinking" to turn companies into learning organizations that respond and adapt to change. That's useful advice to those in management positions, but I have to be honest and confess that the chapter on personal mastery changed my life in a big way. It put into words something that I had been thinking and feeling for a long time: namely, that we have the power to change the systems that influence us.
I have since read, enjoyed, and been influenced by both.
Neither are properly regarded as "non-technology," but I think from your point 2 it's clear that you are just looking to exclude training manual type texts.
Hitchhiker's in particular imparts a lot of great advice for creativity in technical fields, and software in particular, but does it using a fictionalized world with comedic logical oddities.
Another book I'll add, which has some of these properties, is "Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins (although take note that this book is highly erotic and explicit).
I was a huge fan of Animorphs, but one of my favorite characters was the omniscient being.
spoilers (Book is now 17 years old as of this post)
Just a brief summary if memory serves me correctly: They were a bird-like race called the Ketran, and although the planet surface was inhabitable, the atmosphere was, so they spent time keeping up a perch. To deal with their boredom, they created a game-like system of virtual reality. This gaming system allowed them to play things like chess or play characters or entire species in virtual simulations.
They had learned to broadcast their network gaming system across the planet to other Ketran and expanded their networks. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, they accidentally broadcast this virtual simulation across the galaxy to a war-like species, who thought they were being threatened.
The species came to their planet and wiped out nearly all the Ketran. The survivors were able to use one of their ships to escape and spent millenia searching for a planet like their own, but were unable to do so.
They eventually found a planet they thought they could inhabit, but the entire planet was like a sponge (known as father): absorbing anything on it and within it. So Father would basically capture and absorb the memories of anything that landed on the planet. Father could look into the memories of the creatures it absorbed. The last of the surviving Ketran were no exception. However, Father kept one of the Ketran alive, named Toomin, realizing he was a gamer and companion adversary, and did not want to be alone. Toomin and Father spent centuries playing "virtual video simulated games" with each other, but Toomin would always lose, because Father ALWAYS knew what Toomin would do, having his memories and thoughts. There was absolutely no way to win.
Fortunately and eventually, Toomin figured out a way to defeat Father. With his victory came the knowledge of every being that Father ever knew, so Toomin was able to create and know of technologies beyond what he could have ever known, and in a way, he was able to eventually figure out and understand immortality, which he may have achieved by accident.
With immortality comes a lot of purpose and lack of it, and that is what I will leave you with. Great read and only 25 cents on Amazon Kindle ( https://www.amazon.com/Ellimist-Chronicles-Animorphs-K-Apple... ).
Why does this book continue to influence me? Even in the moment that Toomin lost hope, losing everything he ever loved, being the last of an extinct species, and seeing no reason to go on living, he knew he had to keep going, for the sake of his own species, and he would eventually become one of the greatest beings to ever exist. In a way, I do seek to be like the Ellimist.
It's a history of macro trends in violence - wars, homicide, rape, etc. The burden of violence in the modern world is much, much lower than it was historically, even fairly recently.
The book catches a lot of flak from people who reject the claim that the future will automatically be more peaceful than the past. I think this is poor criticism because that's not what the book says; it is explicitly a descriptive history and not predictive.
I love this book because it presents remarkable evidence from multiple fields that the world has gotten profoundly better (at least, regarding violence). The realization that the world can improve and has improved is...liberating? Surprisingly many people don't believe this, though I expect on HN belief in progress is not uncommon.
Having such evidence that the world has improved so much is powerful motivation to try to continue - you know it's possible. It's the antidote to incorrect zero-sum thinking, which is not just damaging but also wrong. And perhaps it's a moral call to action: our grandparents' and parents' generations left us a world which is much more peaceful than the one they were born into. Do we not owe future generations the same gift?
Just see and be humbled by the staggering, staggering losses of Soviet Russia in relation to other allies or Nazi Germany during ww2.
http://www.henrygeorge.org/pdfs/PandP_Drake.pdf
His ideas are fabulous, but that aside reading it is a joy. He truly has a love for his fellow man that transcends all the usual pity-via-charity and sees real value in all.
A forgotten favourite of many great thinkers. Forgotten for a reason!
Are his ideas taken seriously by mainstream economists?
The why is because it's extremely enlightening.
1) Design of Everyday Things by Dan Norman
This book ruined my life. I highly recommend it. Every engineer, manager and designer should read this. Maybe every human. I think of this book every time I try to pull a push door, every time I reach the bottom floor of a stairwell and notice the design that might save my life one day, and every time I try to struggle to operate a television or a microwave.
2) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
This book helped me understand myself and everyone else. For example, I now understand why I double down on dumb ideas. I also catch a lot more marketing and sales tricks.
Edit: Sorry, just now realized that I broke the 1-book rule, but it's probably too late to correct this and it's really hard to choose between these two anyway.
I also like The Soul of a New Machine, The Prince, The Art of War and On Human Nature.
I'd been teetering on the fence with this book for about a year, but I think you just sold me on it (haha!)
Any idea whether it's worth an extra ~$7 for the (I gather) textbookified version of Influence subtitled "Science and Practice", 5th edition, versus the Revised Edition of the more mass-market "The Psychology of Persuasion"?
Me too. Fascinating read. I still remember the part where one of them compares their work to the pinball game - where the reward for winning is that you get to play again.
A palpable sense of mystery is maintained from start to finish, but it arguably does better than any other book in the Bible at giving a deep look into the person of Jesus as he was seen and believed in by the early church. Additionally, there is a subtle sense of humor as the gospel author clearly enjoyed language and word plays and describes multiple misunderstandings that occur because of the ambiguity of language.
Probably more than any other book, this book has shaped me on a personal level.
(If you're going to read it, I highly recommend a modern translation such as the ESV, NKJV, or HCSB.)
[1] https://cs.stanford.edu/~uno/things.html
[2] https://cs.stanford.edu/~uno/316.html
1. Be impeccable with your word. You can read this as "don't swear", but it's not about that. It is about the constant and continuing things we say to ourselves that make us feel bad. We don't even know we do this. And it's not about big things, it's about the thousands of small reprimands we give ourselves that hold us back living our life.
2. Don't take anything personally. When someone else says something to you, good or bad, it shows how they feel. What they say is about them, what they think is important, what is relevant for them. It's not about you. This doesn't mean that you can ignore it, but it shines another light on things other people say about you, or about others to you. This applies to "good things" as well. If someone gives you a compliment, it tells something about them. And of course it works as well for the things you say or do - they tell something about you.
3. Don't make assumptions. Don't think you know what other people think, or that you know why they do the things they do.
4. Do your best. You can't always live your life following rules. Do your best, and if you break a rule, bad luck, next time better! That means that you can forgive yourself. And it means that you should not give up after a big fuck up. Or a small fuck up, or many fuck ups. You can start over again at any moment.
The book is much better at explaining. It's about 60 pages, worth the effort.
For example, re 1. :
> Every human is a magician, and we can either put a spell on someone with our word or we can release someone from a spell. We cast spells all the time with our opinions. An example: I see a friend and give him an opinion that just popped into my mind. I say, "Hmmm! I see that kind of color in your face in people who are going to get cancer." If he listens to the word, and if he agrees, he will have cancer in less than one year. That is the power of the word.
The example he gives here is very simple and direct with cause and effect. It's too simple, but shows the principle. That's what this is about.
Maybe in 20 years I'll give it another shot and finally see why the book is considered a classic.
I actually really like Pirsig's ideas about quality and balancing analytical and emotional worldviews, but the writing style drives me nuts and feels like I'm grading a weak Philosophy 101 essay.
Terrible philosophical reasoning, yet plenty of relevance, and an interesting person, no question.
There were a lot of things but learning about Diffusion of Responsibility was huge. Knowing about it has made me feel almost like it's my responsibility to take action in a crowd.
Here is the section:
“Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth. ”
What I didn't realize at the time was that Lewis was pushing his theistic argument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%27s_trilemma
I don't think that detracts from it, however.
This kind of reasoning is typical of apologists in my experience; it sounds right, but it doesn't hold up to scrunity.
This issues is of course there are of course more than 3 options. If she had been deceived intentionally than none of the given three examples apply. Further, it assumes you can verify that she was 'telling lies' or 'insane' as an abstract property of her which is another mistake.
That said, I can see why someone might find it a useful introduction to logic.
There aren't more than three option present, but you're more correct that you may not have enough information to deduct which option is a proper representation of the true fact.
There's no real issue with the logic, outside of arguing that making a conclusive decision here is perhaps premature. That's situational though.
What someone observes, what someone thinks they observed, what they remember, what they say happened, and what actually happened are generally all different things.
I've taken much from Dune (see the name) but also Clark's books. Comics and the bible have also helped me understand much of US pop culture in a way that i wouldn't without. Realizing the religious overtones in the marvel movies, or the STD metaphor in HarryPotter, is great fun.
The book taught me the importance of making a good impression, how to improve my situation, to focus on being effective, and not hang on to things that are holding me back.
It's a deep dive in understanding and empathizing with another human being, and reflecting and finding the things one is grateful for in their own life.
His continual evolution was nothing short of amazing. While the book is awesome, I appreciated him more when I listened to him directly.
This is also a great book: https://www.amazon.com/Malcolm-X-Reinvention-Manning-Marable...
It essentially makes him more human, exposing his flaws which you rarely hear about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World
Sagan at his most passionate awesome best.