Ask HN: Life Changing Books?
Hey fellow HN people,
What are some life changing books have you encountered?
You can state the why as well and how it mattered.
For e.g. Almanack of Naval Ramakant is a good starting point.
Thanks.
For e.g. Almanack of Naval Ramakant is a good starting point.
Thanks.
233 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 123 ms ] threadFor me I would say The Lean Startup, On Writing Well, and Atlas Shrugged for very different reasons.
2. Never split the difference - ditto . IMO, "start with no" is a sub set of this but it is worth separately anyway
3. Fooled by randomness
4. The black swan
5. Books on intermittent fasting by Dr Jason Fung
6. All books by Noah Harari but start with Sapiens
7. Security Analysis by Ben Graham
Just don't try to implement the things outlined there. Graham, in the last published interview he gave (Financial Analysts Journal, 1976), said:
>> In selecting the common stock portfolio, do you advise careful study of and selectivity among different issues?
> In general, no. I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 years ago, when our textbook "Graham and Dodd" was first published; but the situation has changed a great deal since then. In the old days any well-trained security analyst could do a good professional job of selecting undervalued issues through detailed studies; but in the light of the enormous amount of research now being carried on, I doubt whether in most cases such extensive efforts will generate sufficiently superior selections to justify their cost. To that very limited extent I'm on the side of the "efficient market" school of thought now generally accepted by the professors.
* http://www.grahamanddoddsville.net/wordpress/Files/Gurus/Ben...
Why? Because until I read it my only other experience with writing of that era was the bible readings from when I attended synagogue (before I realized that there was no god). I always found the bible stuff strange, but I forgave it, because I thought that people were just like that at that time in human history. Well, Herodotus changed my mind. He is brilliant, skeptical, humorous, and inquisitive. Attributes that, until I read the book, I somehow thought belonged to we moderns. Now I know how wrong I was, and I think about things differently.
There is a newer translation by Tom Holland which I own but have not read yet: https://www.amazon.ca/Histories-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0...
The indices, maps, and other additional information was a great aid in understanding the text.
I think the danger in this focus on technology now is that it is so easy to dismiss anything at all that ancient Greeks or whomever said as not even simply wrong but even trivial and unworthy of being studied.
Of course I used to dismiss most earlier writings as well. What could they possibly teach me, after all everything is so advanced now? This kind of attitude being widespread and I think entailed in most modern science talk (as an unspoken and easy conclusion that mostly never becomes explicit) is part of the reason we struggle with the same issues as you say.
If I see something wrong published on the topic that I know well, I assume that the quality of the content from the same source is not any better for the topics I don't know.
It is a good general principle but the heuristics/shortcut doesn't work sometimes.
(See my handle too!)
Nice to find a kindred spirit.
Might I recommend giving Iliad and Odyssey a go - if you haven’t already.
Less history, more poetry. But enthralling all the same.
I particularly enjoyed the Alexander Pope translations.
It becomes impossible to truly appreciate a completely different culture, and way of thinking and seeing the world, when it's being tortuously twisted to fit into the "English" way.
It's like reading Bulgakov's The Master and the Margarita in anything but Russian; or Clauswitz's On War in anything but German; or Homer's Iliad in anything but Ancient Greek.
In the first, you lose the raw emotion of the Russian language. In the second, you lose the exacting precision of the German language. And in the last, you lose the sublime beauty of the Ancient Greek language.
If you have to learn another language in order to read a book, you're probably not going to read the book.
If you already happen to know Russian, German and Ancient Greek, then yeah, go ahead and read them in the original languages :)
The undeniable fact that there is only ever 'now' was also a bombshell of a realization. What a wonderful book that one, for those who have the disposition to grok it.
- How to win friends and influence people. Helped me understand the dynamics of relationships in a unon manipulative and empathetic way.
- Sapiens. Changed my view on human organizations and religion
- the monk who sold his Ferrari
- meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- the screwtape letters. Letter 15 specifically changed me
It's a great book, however it creates one problem, when all of the advice is implemented. It makes you a perfect listener, but doesn't mention the imbalance it can cause.
I've listened to dozens of self help type books, and this one had an immediate and permanent effect on me. It changed my life. I don't think it will do the same for everyone, but it did for me. I think most time spent listening to these self help type books goes to waste, but there is the occasional book or insight that resonates with a person and makes it all worth it. This was one of those book for me.
Near magical in how it can teach you to connect better with others in a real, lasting way.
Outwitting the Devil is a work of fiction that was written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill, which was considered too controversial to be published in its era. The book is written as an interview between Hill (Mr. Earthbound) and the devil (our inner dark self), wherein Hill attempts to uncover the secrets to freedom and success by evaluating the greatest obstacles that humans face in order to attain their personal goals in life. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It changed my perspective of everything. It could be existential crisis fuel too, but ultimately it's trying to answer what's our reality. At the same time is an autobiographical book from a scientist and the history of Cosmology.
Would help in understanding context.
- "The Defining Decade: Why Your 20's Matter and How to Make The Most of Them Now": it motivated me to find a fulfilling a career in tech (among other things).
- "On the Shortness of Life" (Seneca) - Really made me take a hard look at my life, for the better.
- "Eat and Run" - Interesting read about an Ultramarathoner. Inspired me to find the motivation for doing "tough things" in general.
So if you felt fairly happy chances are good you’ve made good choices. It may be worth a read for anything you’d like to tweak
[1] https://www.quora.com/I-am-in-my-late-20s-and-feel-I-have-wa...
Long answer: the sooner you read it the better, but any time is better than never. There was a great metaphor early in the book, actually. I don't have a copy on hand so to paraphrase: your life is like a cross-continent flight. If you want to change your destination, earlier on is better--the plane need only make a slight adjustment at the beginning to alter its trajectory significantly. Closer to the end, and you gotta make a pretty sharp turn.
It's not the perfect metaphor but for me personally it really resonated.
Especially if you're fairly happy at your late 20's, any adjustments you might discover you want to make probably aren't that far off :)
Being 31, still feeling lost, this title stresses me out
Another book that's definitely worth a read, or two, is "The Goal", which teaches you how to think goal-oriented while not being a bore to read.
Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli
How to make friends and influence people
Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
This is the first book that gave me a thorough insight into philosophy. Completely changed my worldview. I reread chapters from it everyday. It has become my bible. The Incerto strictly focuses on the practical applications of stoic philosophy.
2. All books by Dan Brown
The Dan Brown books got me in to reading for fun. While some people may regard his books as thrillers, I consider them hard science fiction. I owe him my reading culture.
3. The age of intelligent machines. 4. The singularity is near. 5. The age of spiritual machines. ... all the above by Raymond Kurzweil
These books introduced me to computer science.
2. _Eichmann in Jerusalem_, Hannah Arendt. Made me wiser about how evil works. "Evil" is a fun word to throw around and lends itself to silly political slogans, but the real thing is no joke, is out there, and does not look like what you think.
3. _Eugene Onegin_, by Pushkin, as translated by Douglas Hofstadter (yes, that one). The man taught himself Russian by translating the Onegin to distract himself after his wife died. The foreword-essay changed how I regard language and translation.
3. _Getting Unstuck_, by Pema Chodron. I still use this shit every time I get obsessive about some coding thing. Wise AF.
4. _Getting Things Done_ by David Allen. Everything is an interface and everything is algorithmic, your only choice is whether or not to consciously intend them. You can engineer better habits.
5. A biography of Malcolm X -- I forget which one, embarrassingly, and I am in a hurry so I will not google. Whichever one came out closest to the year 2007 :)
These days tho I would grab _The Dead are Arising_ -- the most recent. It's aleady on my Kobo. Malcolm X showed me how to survive in hell and start a movement.
- The Black Swan
- Antifragile
- Crucial Conversations
- Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
It ultimately led me down a path that changed a lot about how I approached investing, and how I perform value appraisal / how I view value in general across all aspects of life. The principles of value investing and value judging apply to most things, rather than being narrowly limited to eg stock investing. It introduced me to some of the basic foundations of value investing. It's not a super renowned book (ala Ben Graham's various treatises on value investing), however it's my favorite Buffett book regardless and the one I most often recommend to new investors.
Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Such a simple concept, so extraordinarily important as a distinction.
Epictetus' Enchiridion helped me massively with depression and anxiety over the past few years. I still read a few excerpts from it weekly. Much of it is self evident, but it's reassuring and reinforcing.
The works of Terry Pratchett shaped my sense of humor, and my outlook on life. I would definitely be a different person today if I hadn't encountered Discworld at such an early age. They've made me a optimistic cynic.
I'd highly recommend anybody interested in starting the Discworld books to start with Mort, and then the rest of the Death series in order (Hogfather in particular).
https://bookshop.org/books/deterring-democracy/9780374523497
gave me a diff pov on the US/government, in particular. helped start shifting my perspective, break out of the 'indoctrination' of a standard US education, which already included college, gd.
i think it could matter because, if we're going to survive, americans will probably have to start looking at the world a bit differently -- since the US is still, for now, really the sole superpower in the world and effectively sets global policy, including and especially on climate collapse.
i imagine we'll maintain our 'sole superpower' status indefinitely, which doens't bode well for continued organized life on earth, unfortunately, but maybe we can still change our ways. maybe we'll be able to force the 1% to let us live, even in this much-diminished environment.
Evolution of horses, disappearance of the .400 in baseball, where are all the modern Geniuses, and the most integral part- the dominance of bacteria- and how evolution and the progression of entropy/ the 2nd law, does not, against most intuition, generally _lead_ to the increase of complexity, but merely _allows_ for its existence.
I do disagree with him on the premise of "hot-hands," and the bit about joe dimaggio's performance being the most (statistically) outstanding in human history is also unintuitive.
The book does have such a general sense of applicability though, cannot recommend it enough.
It fairly accessible and yet opened me up to a much more complex world of inner experience than I was able to perceive before reading the book.
- "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William B. Irvine
- "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton G. Malkiel
- "The Real Happy Pill" by Anders Hansen
- "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss & Tahl Raz
- "Drug Use for Grown-ups" by Dr. Carl L. Hart
- "Soft City" by David Sim