Ask HN: Great books you read in 2018?
Curious to know which books you read in 2018. What made a true impact? What made the best learning experience?
Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing!
Breaking Negative Thinking Patterns - a Schema Therapy Self-help and Support Book
Short and effective (although it's no substitute for a proper therapist). Well, provided that you can take a step back to get over yourself and be brutally honest about your flaws, and do the exercises even when some may feel silly.
Helped me identify the causes of a number of problems of the "why do I keep doing this to myself?" kind. Arguably that is the most important step, since that it is required finally start properly dealing with them. I'm in a much better place thanks to that.
It's about the major extinction events of the past and their relevance to our current situation. There is so much history of life on earth before humans appeared, it's mind-boggling.
It’s an honest look at the life of a startup founder, but without all that self-congratulatory stuff and bragging you often find in these books. I would say it is a definite read for anyone thinking about joining the crazy world of startups.
'Beyond Weird' by Philip Ball https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Weird-Philip-Ball/dp/184792458...
There's some overlap between these two books about the quantum world, of course, but I think they're much better than any pop physics books about this subject from a generation ago.
The book that made the most impact on me is Tara Westwood’s Educated: it is insane how different people’s worldview is.
My absolute favorite story so far is "A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" by Yoon Ha Lee: https://www.tor.com/2011/08/10/a-vector-alphabet-of-interste...
Hard Sci-Fi, the 8th book coming out next March 2019.
2. The modern architecture of New Delhi
3. Train to Pakistan
4. Maximum City: Bombay Lost & Found
5. City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
6. Bauhaus
7. Making of the Atomic Bomb
Circe, Madeline Miller - Entertaining and memorable tale with many characters from Greek mythology.
1. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey, et al
An Everyone Culture profiles three high-performing companies that look very different, but all share the assumption that developing the company's people is not a contrary goal to developing the business, and is in fact a great path to getting you there. I read it with a group of my partners in my company, and we came out of it with an actionable pilot program that has gone incredibly well so far and has begun to expand. I read this one twice.
2. The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson
I avoided Sanderson because of the hype and book length despite years of recommendations from people who know what I find interesting in books. That was a mistake, and this year I fixed it, reading about twenty of his books. They're all in my top half for the year (and I consider the top 85-90% to have been worth reading), but The Stormlight Archive (beginning with The Way of Kings) comes out on top. Fantastic magic system, complex plot, and lucid writing. Check it out!
3. The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan
Think of this as a giant Less Wrong post by an economist on the value of education. Caplan explains his theory of the value of education (which he doesn't discount), and shows convincingly that much of the system as it currently stands is wasteful for society. I came in skeptical (having benefitted personally and professionally from my nineteen years of school), but I came out convinced. Highly recommended for anyone who reads SSC or Less Wrong and says "I'd love a book that argued a premise that carefully."
4. The Three-Body trilogy by Cixin Liu
Masterpiece of SF lit. For fans of hard SF only. The prose is not wonderful (as the author himself will tell you), but it's truly wonderful, and deserves all the considerable praise it's gotten over the years. I found the style fascinatingly different and refreshing, having never read much Eastern lit.
5. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
There's a reason this gets recommended so often, and I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to get to it. After reading I immediately worked toward implementing OKRs in part of my company, and will work towards pushing it throughout. It's a messy process at the beginning, but after a few months we're already seeing some improvements (and the process has revealed some weaknesses we could work on as well).
6. Letters to Lucilius by Seneca
I reread this periodically, and it always ends up in my top books of the year. Seneca's Stoicism bears none of the toxic asceticism attributed by its critics, and instead simply demonstrates how to live as better people.
7. The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff
The authors took a careful look at the volatile nature of our public discourse, and set out to figure out how big of a problem it is and what might be contributing to it. I came in skeptical of the problem, but was thoroughly convinced to take it seriously. Haidt is, of course, amazing as usual.
Those seven (actually eleven) are the biggest standouts of the year. Looking forward to others' suggestions!