Ask HN: What book changed your life?
What book (or books) changed your life? I'm looking for inspiration and would love to hear what and how you were impacted.
- 2011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2147034
- 2013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6975638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6413600
- 2015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10914079
- 2018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17168136
- 2019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22011867
- 2020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24361132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25356908
The series is incredibly inspirational since despite being a high fantasy novel. In fear of spoiling the plot, I'm being vague: it tracks the stories of (multiple) people who go through difficult life situations and learn to heal from depressive moments while having incredibly, intricate worldbuilding (which is excellent for taking your mind off of reality) and a twisty plot. If you go on the subreddit for this series, r/stormlight_archive, you'll see people talking about how this book (literally) saved their lives. I can tell you that in the most off-putting moments of life reading inspirational scenes from the Stormlight Archive has helped me stand up again. The messages and themes about life are simple, but also on-point. Overall, an excellent series. I recommend it.
I very much agree with your thoughtful sentiment. I've been wondering if the story of Joseph from the Bible had influence on Kaladin's character (Sanderson is a Christian). And Dalinar's character has me thinking about re-reading texts such as Meditations by Marcus Aurelius & Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. These early assessments might be very wrong as I'm still early in the series, but the book definitely has me feeling inspired and motivated thus far.
I'm not Christian and as such am not familiar with Biblical stores, but I would be inclined to agree that the messages Sanderson conveys in Stormlight could perhaps be derived from those stories. However, something that strikes me is that Sanderson mentions faith and religious conflict in all his novels, but seems to transcend a singular true faith (eg. in portraying Jasnah's atheism, I've seen people mention her reasons for rejecting God are surprisingly accurate to what real people believe, and Sanderson attributed that to spending time on atheist forums to understand their beliefs better).
> the book definitely has me feeling inspired and motivated thus far.
I found Rhythm of War to be the most (read: exceptionally) inspirational and motivational of the four novels (followed by Words of Radiance) , so I would wager that there will be much more in terms of inspiration in the following novels. And good luck with your reading journey! The Stormlight Archive was truly a wonderful experience to read (and I've re-read it since then) and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
"Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination."
To be more specific and accurate he’s a Mormon. I’m told that the Cosmere owes a lot to Mormon theology, like the henotheism, embodiment of God and non-trinitarianism.
I hope the above came across as positive, it was meant that way
While not completed, I've also read the Gentleman Bastard series and the Kingkiller Chronicle which were also suggested to me since I read Stormlight and I really enjoyed them as well (although, well, not as much as the Stormlight Archive).
Secondarily, this book saved my life in the sense that it helped me understand my depression, a clinical depression so deep that my psychologist had never seen such a thing previously:
Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - Stephen C. Hayes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054M063A/
Its scientific approach to understanding our own thought patterns gave me control- coping mechanisms- for dealing with my own feelings instead of ignoring ("Burying") them and letting them slowly destroy me from the inside out.
I don't understand what that means. But I do think Misquoting Jesus is one of the better biblical criticism books I've read, and can recommend it for interested folks. Your recommendation reminded me of that.
Can you expand? Did you create this approach yourself or just read the Bible directly?
The Hebrew alphabet initially didn't have vowels, so the name was written as YHWH. When vowels were introduced they decided to write the vowels for Adonai above YHWH, to remind readers not to say his name, as it was too holy. Eventually people forgot this logic and assumed it was the normal spelling of his name.
The funny thing about it is that we also don't know how Jesus' name would have been pronounced for the same reasons, but nobody ever has an issue using "Jesus", but people say "Jehovah" and it causes a stir. ¯\(º_o)/¯
To be fair, the mistranslation predates them. I see they acknowledge the issue and think it doesn't matter.
I guess it's a bit of a coordination/communication issue with other JWs and with the world at large. The fact that they stick with this mistake doesn't mean that individual Witnesses, or the group as a whole, are stupid, or don't understand their own religion.
In recent years teaching from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament taught me how to understand my work. There is such a lot of nonsense on HN and the net about success. So many are pursuing a pipe dream. Below helped me to work hard, enjoy what I have, and not be concerned about what others have. See below, written in Ecclesiastes 5, thousands of years ago.
10 Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! 11 The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
12 People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.
13 There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver. 14 Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children. 15 We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us.
16 And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing—like working for the wind. 17 Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry.
18 Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. 19 And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. 20 God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.
What I'm really trying to say is: The Bible isn't a book that HAS to be read in order. It's not presented in chronological order and every book has individual value. Once you develop a love for the Bible, then the harder reads will be that much easier :)
Am I missing the "proper" way of reading it? But if there is, that would eventually just leave to cherry picking...
https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/study-bible/books/
It's also available in the JW Library app. Both are 100% free, no signups or membership, and makes reading so much easier and more enjoyable.
I personally find myself comparing the KJV with the original Greek as well as the pre-Challoner version of the Douay-Rheims when I want more insight into certain passages.
Commentaries also provide interesting insights. They typically cite the translations that were used as well so you can see how their conclusions were drawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD_r3_aCvsw
Another book similar to Riplinger's is "Corruptions in the New King James Bible" by Jack Mundey. The writing style is a little enthusiastic, but the author compares several editions of various bibles, showing where and how they changed over time. Both Mundey and Riplinger draw the conclusion that the NKJV and NIV are deliberately changed to mislead people, and therefore are Satanic, though neither one makes any point about the KJV's edits themselves, such as the name of God or translations of "Hell" as I've mentioned earlier.
It's actually reasonably readable but there are differences in meanings due to the decisions of the translators. This is true with all translations, so not a direct criticism, but the NWT tends to differ on areas where the JW belief system itself differs from the mainstream. So personally I'd suggest avoiding it as it will give the new reader a very exclusive perspective on the faith.
There are lots of answers to this question floating around the thread. Maybe mine will be helpful:
First of all, so much of the Bible references and builds on itself that it's a battle to establish the initial framework of knowledge so you can try to fill everything in.
The most important question of Christianity is, as Jesus put it, "who do you say that I am?" Start working on this with a Gospel (either Mark, more focused on a clear message; of Luke, more of a detailed narrative). (Matthew was written for a Jewish audience, so the perspective isn't as helpful, and John is just different in ways that make it better saved for later.) After this, read Acts, which finishes the story begun by the gospels. If you pick Luke, then you have the advantage that Luke and Acts have the same author.
Read Genesis. There's so much to unpack in this huge book. Jordan Peterson released lectures on many stories of Genesis as early podcasts of his; they do a good job of presenting the stories in the modern day, and are probably his best work, far better than recent work.)
Exodus. It is narrative and explains God's relationship with the Jewish people.
If you want to keep digging into that story, you could go next to Joshua and Judges. But I recommend next reading 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. They're the story of David, who is the archetype of a God-fearing, yet only human, Jew.
As to a "proper" way: slowly, carefully, repeatedly, with humility, and with help.
If you put it in that context, then it's not that much sillier than stuff like "Owning a pet lobster in Maine is illegal when that lobster is pregnant" kind of laws. (true law btw)
A good place to start is Language of Creation by Mattieu Pageau and Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser. Nothing in the Bible is there by accident. It all has meaning and connects with the rest of what's there. And the "contradictions" are there on purpose, to draw you in. Think of them like Zen koans that are inviting you into contemplation of what is meant, rather than "oh those ancient people must have missed this one".
I'm saying that when a hollywood actor in a film makes fun of christians and says something like "oh go sacrifice a goat like it says in your bible", they are willfully misrepresenting those verses as "cherry-picking your beliefs and conveniently leaving out the goat stuff", when in fact typically they're quoting verses of legal/historical significance, rather than of a dogmatic/theological nature.
This distinction dos not make sense. The laws in the Bible is literally given by God.
I agree about the old testament, but this is only silly when taken out of context. Long before I got into network security I worked in the Maine Lobster industry shoveling bait (which is half-rotten fish mixed with salt, lobsters love it!) into buckets and weighing/storing lobsters at a fisherman's co-op.
An important part of conservation revolves around people putting fertile female lobsters back in the ocean when they are inadvertently caught. Maine puts a lot more effort into conserving them than the surrounding states/countries do (who frequently get caught poaching in Maine waters and keeping lobsters that would be illegal to keep even if they were allowed to fish in Maine.
Yes, this is kinda the point. It's the Chesterton's Fence argument. Before mocking something which appears silly, try to find out the reason it was created in the first place. Maybe there was good reason, maybe that reason still holds, maybe it doesn't.
If you just start from the beginning, expecting to read it as one book, you will probably lose interest when it gets into the mosaic law.
If you are totally new to the Bible the important thing is probably to try and get enough from it at the start that you'll be interested enough to continue. I've read it through many times and some/much of it is pretty impenetrable, obscure, and even dull.
So from this perspective, and note that this isn't a great sequence theologically, I'd go with the book of Acts, the gospel of John, the books of Proverbs and Psalms, and then the letters of John.
As for which versions of the Bible, avoid older ones like the King James (KJV, NKJV) or Revised Standard (RSV, ASV, NRSV); the archaic language and structure will be off-putting. I'd perhaps go with the Contemporary English Version (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts+1&version=...) but the linked page will let you see the various translations of the same text using a drop-down.
There is no one ideal version of the Bible but personally I'd avoid any translation used by a single denomination or sect such as the NWT - which is produced by the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I'm meaning this not as a judgement regarding the organisation but as an example of a group whose translation has alternative readings at various doctrinal points (eg the trinity) and it is not worth getting sidetracked by theological disagreements at this stage.
Whatever route you choose be prepared for a hard slog as a casual reader.
1) As gp said, the historical grammatical hermeneutic is the way to go for interpretation.
And
2) the book of Ecclesiastes is definitely a beautiful way to stay grounded. Just the mere fact that Solomon, the author, had access to everything his age could offer and still ended up writing Ecclesiastes Ch 11 is mind blowing. Everything passes away. This world, your legacy, your wealth, memories of you, things you care for, everything. The only thing that doesn’t is God, his word, and your spirit. It puts this world and it’s fleeting pleasures in perspective.
Of course, the natural reaction to this is “so what? Nihilism then?”. The Bible unabashedly says “yes, if you don’t have God”
People search for the meaning of life in a variety of ways. The Bible answers this clearly:
“To love God and worship him forever.”
What do Christian’s do in this world? Ecclesiastes would say “to enjoy your lot with the one you love, to worship God and to accept what comes your way.”
I am not trying to argue theology here, just giving another perspective.
I was raised an an observant Catholic household, and I went every week from ages 5-19 and missed only a few times due to illness. But I never believed, I just don't have a spiritual bone in my body. None of what you quoted from Solomon about the impermanence of our material acquisitions sounds profound -- it seems obvious.
But the main reason I'm commenting is this idea that non-believers must be nihilists [1]. I want to assure you that I find meaning and purpose in life, but it isn't dictated by some holy person. Pain and suffering and happiness are real and even though we are all reduced back to molecules when we die, what we do and how we act during out lives matters to the people (and wider world) around us during out lives and for a while after we die. I get the same impression from other non-believers. It is a colossal failure of imagination to think that without God people must believe nothing matters.
[1] This footnote is to acknowledge that different people have their own interpretations of what "nihilism" means, and so any statement I make about nihilism will result in some group of people saying "you don't even know what it means!"
The idea that a deity is not needed to find meaning and derive morality.
I had a similar upbringing. I attended Catholic schools until college. And the whole time it all just struck me as pageantry. I perceived that it was very real for many of the others, but to me it was as you imply.
Thank God the scales fell from my eyes. Interestingly it was not preaching, but my meditations on the three normative sciences that convinced me of the necessity of God. I realized that culturally Christian atheists conception of ethics is just a more or less attenuated Christian one that will continue to wither as any plant cut from its roots will. I further concluded that the same holds for the other two normative sciences. This was so unsatisfactory to me that I had an epiphany.
Of course, the answer is always obvious when you've been provided it beforehand.
You state that as-if you somehow shipped from the womb knowing wisdom, when in fact that implicit knowledge you take for granted has been lived and transferred by your ancestors and most certainly derived from your own social and spiritual milieu.
More importantly, whatever contributions Solomon's wisdom has had on our culture, there are thousands of other competing (and often contradicting) ideas in the milieu. Even if Solomon was the author of the wisdom ascribed to him, it isn't obvious to me that those ideas are at the center of our culture or at the forefront of everyone's thoughts, and so it isn't "obvious [that it has] been provided beforehand."
I can pinpoint when I had my own epiphany. Probably like many people on HN, I did quite well in school. I took standardized tests every year starting in grade 1 and a few weeks later I'd receive a breakdown of what percentile I scored in math, vocabulary, reading, etc, and a combined score. I wouldn't say I had an ego about it, but it was planted in my mind that I was smart and would grow up and do great things: maybe I'd invent something amazing, or discover some deep scientific principle.
Early in high school I had the thought: no matter what I do, it is unlikely that I'll ever be as famous as, say, US President John Tyler, and nobody gives a damn about him. In fact, very few people achieve lasting fame, eg Jesus or Buddha or Isaac Newton. Heck, I don't give a moment's thought about my great grandparents. Each of us is just a ripple in a pond, and as the diameter of our ripple gets larger, its amplitude shrinks. Conceptually, the effects last forever, but only in the most diffuse, indirect manner. Thus my goal became not to do something great that would impress everyone, but to focus on making a positive difference to the people nearest me in space and time; everything else that ripples out of that is gravy.
Why tell this story? Because culturally I had been programmed, and I still see it in full force, that fame and influence are desirable goals. Look at how many people try to become influencers on social media, or do the dumbest things on youtube or tiktok to get eyes to look at them. Yet despite that programming, that thought really changed my life philosophy. Just a realization to a sheltered 14 or 15 year old, so I'm sure there are many people who have had similar thoughts.
I haven't ever talked to an unbeliever who believes nothing matters, though I've heard of nihilist philosophers. I suspect non-philosophers who believe in nihilism usually have something from which they're trying to escape; they're not being honest with themselves. Of course each moment matters - it's a time of lived experience for billions of people.
On the other hand, as a Christian, I'm accustomed to thinking a lot about eternal destiny and how things will end up in an ultimate sense. For me, the idea of no God existing opens up a yawning chasm of eternal emptiness I find frightening to imagine -- it would mean when I die, there's nothing more for me; and when we all die and no humans are left, that'll be it for all of us. At that point, will anything that transpired previously matter at all?
I suppose for those who consciously or subconsciously know they're guilty of sin, the idea of annihilation is far preferable to facing judgment for their sins in the past, so I can see how atheism would be an attractive option, ultimate meaninglessness notwithstanding. But Christianity is primarily about what to do with that guilt -- that God's son Jesus paid the price for your sin and mine, and he offers forgiveness to those who will trust him and call on his name. (And I'm sure you've heard that before.)
So while I agree stuff matters right now even without belief in a God, for me the meaning of the past and present pale compared to what matters (if anything) in the eternity of time that lies ahead.
> when we all die and no humans are left, that'll be it for all of us. At that point,
Yup, just like the universe existed for 14B years before humans came along.
> will anything that transpired previously matter at all?
Here is a thought experiment I've heard before. Say I'm really rich and have a tropical paradise, and I invite you to spend a month there. "It'll be great!" I promise, so you come. When you arrive you find I'm actually a twisted genius. I have developed a pill which will completely reset your memory back exactly like it was 30 days prior. In front of you is a spinner which alternates between: "party" and "torture".
I tell you, go ahead and spin. If it comes up on "party," you'll have the most amazing time for the month. You'll have private snorkling trips with Jacques Cousteau's grandson; you'll eat the finest food cooked by 5 star Michelin chef's I have flown in. Name your favorite bands and I'll arrange for them to fly in and perform for you. No expense will be spared to entertain you. But if you spin "torture", oh boy, it will be bad. Nothing that will leave a physical scar, mind you, thinks like waterboarding, being shocked by high voltages, capsacin injected into your urethra, etc. But at the end of 30 days, I'll give you a pill that will wipe any trace of memory from the previous 30 days, no PTSD or future nightmares.
So the question is: does it matter if you spin "party" or "torture"? After all, in 30 days, there will be no memories nor after effects. I'm sure that just about everyone would pick party. Why does the choice matter? Even though the memory of the torture will be wiped out, while you are actually experiencing it it is very real suffering (or joy in the other case).
To someone who doesn't believe in the afterlife, the fact that all of our memories dissolve when we die (in the case of dementia, even before we die) and nothing outlives our body, the joy and suffering we experience in life matter.
> ... sin ...
Look up the definition of sin: transgression of God's moral law. As someone who doesn't believe in God, I also don't believe in sin. I believe some events are good and some are bad, but I don't believe in sin. I am consciously or unconsciously worried about upsetting God by transgression His laws to the exact same degree you are consciously or unconsciously worried about upsetting Odin for transgressing his wishes.
I said originally I don't want to argue theology. I was just pointing out that non-believers are not nihilists, contrary to the claim of the person I was responding to. I have lots of thoughts about the other things you've written, but this doesn't seem like the right forum for them.
But that’s the thing, you’re completely failing to understand how a non-believer (speaking for myself) feels about there not being an afterlife. What you’ve said is not in any way how I feel - I die, but the actions and efforts and (hopefully) descendants I put out there go in to hopefully contribute positively, in this magical thing we call life; and even in still there, the bits of me continuing to be recycled in the universe. As someone who has had many psychedelic experiences my non-believer side still has a spiritual axis to it; I can’t believe we all get to walk into a place where everyone who’s ever died is cutting around alive again; and Jesus and some older dude who created the universe sit at the head of the table, but that doesn’t have to be true in order for a life to have meaning, and it’s a failure of imagination (and really, and I don’t mean this to belittle your faith, but ultimately an indoctrinated fear - you use the word yourself - that is- ‘frightening yawning chasm of emptiness’) to believe that unless that is the way it pans out then everything is pointless and people are subconsciously compensating or blocking out that fear because they’re sinners.
This kind of quite literally holier-than-thou pretension is a large reason why, despite being raised religious, I want nothing to do with it today. Especially Christianity.
Could you elaborate? I certainly didn't mean to imply I'm any better than someone in the position I described. I'm as much guilty of sin as anyone else.
I don't think it's pretentious either to say that all have sinned in some way or another. As Solzhenitsyn writes, the line between good and evil runs right through every human heart -- all are capable of great good and great evil.
Plenty of other reasons why someone would turn to atheism. Eg the massive occurrence/support/obfuscation of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
It's just that from my own frame of reference, that's the most attractive aspect of atheism.
Your comment and a lot of others seem to presuppose that atheists don't genuinely not believe in God, there must be some sort of rejection of a God that exists or some conscious/unconscious attempt to avoid taking responsibility for something.
My not being a Christian is really simple. It has nothing to do with my ideas on the bible or morality in general. nothing to do with whether or not I'm a sinner (I agree with you and Christianity that everyone falls very short of moral perfection), it has nothing to do with my personal happiness or making it easier for me to sleep at night.
I simply don't believe that supernatural events exist. Nothing I have heard, discussed, read, watched or experienced in my life has convinced me that supernatural things happen in a general sense or that the specific supernatural things that are essential to believing in Christianity have happened.> If there is no afterlife, then eventually there will be nobody left in the world,
Whether or not there is an afterlife, it is inevitable that the earth will become uninhabitable. It seems far more likely that humans will die off before that becomes a problem.
> in which case nothing that anyone had ever done or said would have really mattered
Like the old joke about fish not being aware of water, I think people who have spent their entire lives in a Christian mindset forget that the novel thing Jesus was offering was an afterlife. Many cultures and religions believe a person simply stops existing when they die (including Judaism), yet the people without a belief in the afterlife still seem to care if they are happy or miserable.
Let me try another tack along the lines of the thought experiment I stated elsewhere in the thread. Christians believe in a personal soul that outlives the body it is tied to. I'm sure some Christians might think that some animals have souls as well, but I'll go out on a limb and say most don't believe, say, a beetle, has a soul. If you came across me torturing beetles with salt, or fire, or pulling their legs off, you'd rightfully think I'm a horrible person. Why would it matter? After all, the beetle has no soul and will be dead in a few months anyway. It is because even though the pain is temporary, it is very real while the beetle lives through it.
Also, all animals have souls according to Catholicism, and so do plants. The distinct thing about humans is that we have rational souls. But the soul is the form of any living thing.
Torturing an animal is wrong because it does harm to God's creation for no legitimate purpose. A theist doesn't have any problem explaining this - it's the atheist/materialist who does.
When people think they knew. They actually don't know. Not even close.
They have great commentary, beautiful artwork and are high quality overall. Leaving the link here for anyone interested: https://www.wordonfire.org/bible/#volumeii
Word of caution: if you are an Atheist, please remember that the Bible is a religious text, many verses are in parables and should not be taken literally. It is not a scientific textbook or a historical one either. It is also a _collection_ of books called the Canon. You must read it with an open heart and mind to get the most out of it!
From the perspective of Wisdom you're probably right.
From the perspective of the modern Christian Faith I'd include the complete New Testament. From the perspective of historical reference (I know archaeological opinions vary) include the Old Testament too.
Can you elaborate on this? I'd be interested to hear more about your approach.
Before this book I generally did not read, unless it was a Star Trek branded airport novel. I had just got an iPad and was rummaging around the Project Gutenberg texts they’d dumped into iBooks. I chose it impulsively.
This book set my brain and heart on fire and opened the world of literature for me. It’s very specific, though, and I can’t -recommend- it to anyone.
There is little spackle in this book, as if every sentence and scene is cropped a bit beyond the point of readability. But reading aloud it flows well. There is effectively no plot and a great deal of its merit is at the sentence level. Furthermore, this book in particular resonated with me emotionally.
I was thirsty for more and read other classics. My favorites; To the Lighthouse, Picture of Dorian Grey and Thus Spake Zarathustra (the translation they have on Gutenberg).
This hobby dominated my attention for years. What displaced it was I had to learn Polish. At first I tried to combine these; I read Charlotte’s Web, the Little Prince and Pulp (bukowski) in Polish. But it really wasn’t an effective way to continue and Polish was the priority. All other hobbies had to go.
[1] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/virginia-woolf/jacobs-room
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Showed all of the archaeological evidence for vast time periods where alternate governance models were put into practice, and how the history of progress that we are given is not the whole story. Useful for seeing that we are in a local minim, and can evolve into something better.
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe. Goes through the diaries and historical evidence of the early interactions with Australia's Aboriginals. Shows how over time their agricultural practices, towns and living environments were destroyed and replaced with a narrative that they were backwards and not using the land. Good example of how sustainable practices can look like unused natural spaces, and thus dismissed as poor uses of space.
Will give The Listening Society a try, thanks.
All for not, the author really is going somewhere. And it felt worth it to me.
Man's Search For Meaning. Again, overcoming the worst situations and finding joy anywhere.
How to Practice. Understanding what you are feeling and why you are feeling it.
Emotional Intelligence. How the amygdala sends signals to the brain, why it does that, and how to recognize your negative reactions.
And all the Discworld books, to find joy and humour in everything. GNU Terry Pratchett.
How to Practice is by the Dalai Lama: https://smile.amazon.com/How-Practise-Way-Meaningful-Life-dp...
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman: https://smile.amazon.com/Emotional-Intelligence-Matter-More-...
Is there an agreed on book to start with and an order to follow?
His son's books aren't as good and in the opinion of many aren't worth the trouble of reading.
Jesus Principle / Lazarus Effect / Ascension Factor (trilogy) are very good and very thought provoking.
Devoured it all though!
No, so I'll get shot for this but ... read the first (Dune) then stop.
"The Game" - very immature and sophomoric book. I was given this book by an acquaintance who was also geeky like me. I was painfully shy of girls until grad school, and this book gave me much needed confidence to talk to the opposite gender. A lot of the content is garbage but this book was definitely a life changer.
"Hobbit" - Great story that got me into the LOTR. Shorter than LOTR and hence why I put that on this list. Also about being brave I suppose. I'm seeing a pattern here.
"Good Omens" - Not sure why but when I read this book, I was convinced it was the best book ever written (and I used to read a lot of books in youth). Just witty writing and the occult I suppose.
Not the most profound but definitely one of the most empowering for young men. In a society that constantly weakens men, receiving the message you can go out there and get what you want is powerful.
The book is very easy to read and quite enjoyable with everything that it includes. I definitely recommend to check it out.
[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenme...
And now I am able to briefly enter a state of complete acceptance and feel pure love flowing through me, like the perfect hug from a perfect being that understands me in every way. The first time I actually teared up a bit, the feeling of being accepted the way I was with no judgement.
It could be God, it could be "collective consciousness", it could be me just tricking my brain into releasing endorphins (and I'm leaning towards that explanation). But the result is amazing, it has seriously helped me with anxiety, fear, self hatred, etc.
Note I'm not a Sam Harris acolyte, but I do appreciate his logic-first approach to understanding the world, the mind, current events, and life generally.
It is a way to kind of 'separate' your consciousness from your 'thinking'. I don't really have the right words, but you then just observe your own analytical mind. You can observe without judgement, and at that point you're not thinking about the future or the past, but only the present moment exists.
In those moments I can then use thinking as a tool, but in the same way I use my hand to grab something, I'm not always using my hand, and in that state I'm not always using my analytical mind, only when needed.
It's in that state that I feel 'love' or something like it throughout my entire body. I feel like a huge weight is taken off me and I can just relax. And with hints of that love extending outwards and through everything. Something I've never believed in, it could be all internal to my brain still, but I understand how people can feel like there is something else out there.
Random 'thinking' thoughts come and go in that state, you just observe them, acknowledge them, and let them go. And I've heard that's very similar to what most people say about meditation.
He goes on to say that state of mind can become permanent. You live in the moment and only choose when to think about the future and planning, only use that part of you when needed. Worrying about the future all the time is not good, but there are times when you do need to think and plan. You don't always have to analyze everything, but choose to do so when it's needed.
I am nowhere near that point, not sure I could get there. But it does sound appealing, constantly enjoying the present moment, but also deciding when you should learn from the past or think about the future. But not be obsessed with it.
As a side note, I find right when I hit that state, most of the time, I yawn. Yawning is still kind of a mystery, but some current research shows it could be extra excitement of the brain, or even extra brain cooling. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3678674/ Maybe I'm just using a lot more brain power and energy to focus on my consciousness or just to focus on all my senses? All just random guesses, I know barely anything about it.
Though it's infinitely more likely it's all still inside my fleshy brain. :)
"You used the word Being. Can you explain what you mean by that?
Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of “feeling- realization” is enlightenment." Ch. 1 The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment
There it is. That's what he considers to be God. Mind you, those are just the words he chose. He mentions that words are merely signposts. Think of pointers in programming languages.
"If you are unable to look beyond such interpretations and so cannot recognize the reality to which the word points, then don't use it. Don't get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end. It's an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself. The word honey isn't honey. You can study and talk about honey for as long as you like, but you won't really know it until you taste it. After you have tasted it, the word becomes less important to you. You won't be attached to it anymore. Similarly, you can talk or think about God continuously for the rest of your life, but does that mean you know or have even glimpsed the reality to which the word points? It really is no more than an obsessive attachment to a signpost, a mental idol." Ch 6 Look beyond the Words
Coincidentally I just finished the audiobook again today. I couldn't count how many times that makes. With all other things that seemed significant to me, they mostly fell by the wayside of my changing experiences or perspectives. The Power of Now is the only book that has seemed _more true_ every time I've read it, and at every stage of my life.
It's lucky that Eckhart is alive to narrate the audiobooks, as his voice almost in and of itself conveys the meaning of his writing.
I am glad it helped you. Truly it is the most life-changing book I've read.
If this book seems too woo-woo for some, or the term God triggers you, you should check out a book called Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Here are other meditations that leads me into the present moment:
- Am I alive?
- Do nothing for 30-60 mins
- Who am I?
- What do I know for certain?Those who enjoy Eckhart will probably also enjoy Osho. His talks had a similar effect on me. With Osho, it is helpful that he is no longer around. So it’s easier to look past the cultish aspects of his person.
Introduced me to the beauty of logic and its limits. Also gave me solid mathematical thinking foundations.
Pro tip: Try listening to Bach while you read about Bach.
I spent three years of my life reading this book from cover to back three times and it was a different experience every time.
That was in 1985 and in Germany, during my education as a typesetter. I was 20, into computers (ZX81, C64), the Internet was still years away and this book just mesmerized my brain.
The German version of GEB is also a typographical marvel (printed by Klett-Cotta, fonts Syntax and Weidemann) - much nicer than the US version.
Read the whole thing pretty quickly after that, I couldn't put it down.
I quite like your description of what you got out of it, it's been a pretty fuzzy concept to me for a long time but "the beauty of logic and its limits" is a great way to put it. :)
I need to re-read it.
The sheer breadth and depth of understanding from the author blew my mind away. I suspect my attitude towards cross-disciplinary learning was probably reinforced by reading the book.
Ultimately, the ideas I formulated while reading this book set the foundation for my understanding of the universe in general. It gave me a mental model that has served me well for over 20 years and freed my mind to wonder about other things.
More recently - I hesitate to recommend it because the trilogy is unfinished, but still - Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle books have redefined what is possible with fantasy fiction, with incredible depth and subtlety and literary flourishes. It has flaws for sure, but I can't think of anything that remotely compares to it, and I've read an enormous pile of genre fiction. A real eye opener if you're doing any kind of creative writing.
I'll check out Kingkiller chronicles.
Every word is a joy to read. I haven't read anything else that brings as big a smile on my face. Kingkiller's literary qualities are head and shoulders above anything in fantasy fiction. Every word, every metaphor and every description is chosen with care, so as to convey the exact emotion that the author wants you to feel. I hope the final book comes out soon.
Kingkiller is eternally compared to Sanderson's books. But, to me they are completely different writers. Sanderson's books are written competently, but the fun is in the story and interweaving pieces. Sanderson embodies the ultimate refinement of fantasy fiction tropes to produce something that's faultless, yet traditional.
On the other hand, Rothfuss is crafting something that does not lend itself well to comparison. It is perfect, because it is what it is meant to be. In some ways, Kingkiller feels closer to Shakespeare than any contemporary fantasy fiction work.
I am inclined to refer to Rothfuss as the Einstein to Sanderson's Von Neumann. A more-apt but weeb-esque comparison would be Rothfuss's Berserk to Sanderson's FMAB.
Not that Sanderson is much better.
I'll echo the posts you replied to and say that the current 2 books in the KKC series are by far the best fiction I've ever read. I've listened to them at least 3x each on audio (a combined ~71 hours per pass through the series), and I enjoy them in a new way each time.
I'd be curious to hear which fiction series/authors appeal to you and why.
These are all attributes that your average mass-market fantasy (Sanderson, Abercrombie) lacks, maybe delibaretely so in order to chase popular appeal.
In KKC, the reader is an observer, where the main character unreliably narrates their journey in 1st person to someone else as the young MC would have perceived it. The POV is central how you perceive the story. KKC never clicks if taken at face value. Kvothe is portrayed as a clumsy prodigy every step of the way. From the way he projects his insecurities onto his female counterpart to the chasm between how he perceives himself and how others perceive him. Young Kvothe is a mess, and old Kvothe knows it.
I can't imagine any serious reader who'd put themselves in Kvothe's shoes. KKC is not a hero story. The reader is actively discouraged against taking Kvothe's self-image as truth. His life is a disaster. Kvothe is closer to Forrest Gump or Icarus, than a Mary Sue.
IMO, it is unfair to criticize it from outside of the context that it exists in. "KKC is not grimdark enough for my liking", is stylistic preference. It isn't a shortcoming of the book that same way that "Queen's lyrics are too simple" is not a shortcoming of Queen.
* The other kids don't like Kvothe because he's so much smarter than them.
* The girl Kvothe crushes on has friend-zoned him...
* Because, of course, this girl only dates Chads.
* Though all the other girls fawn over him, Kvothe is too gentlemanly to take advantage of them.
* Kvothe uses "my lady" unironically and, even in a fantasy novel, makes it sound cringe-worthy.
Think and grow rich - Napoleon Hill
That last one made something click in my head but I find it hard to describe what it is exactly. The key concepts that I learned from this book are in my thoughts and actions every single day.
Some may consider the book and its ideologies excessively materialistic, but I personally find that outlook refreshing especially considering the subject matter: making money; furthermore I think that take is a little baseless as the viewpoint on willpower etc. that Napoleon Hill provides can apply to far more than just accumulating wealth if utilized correctly.
All in all though, it was easily one of the most life-changing books I've ever read and I'm glad to see it's affected others positively too, cheers!
The simple lesson of trying to look at things from other people's perspective is absolutely invaluable.
Also, Cryptonomicon was an unexpected eye-opener on how every privacy-oriented tech will be instantly abused by people you'd never want to have it in the first place. Cypherpunk has a flip side and it's pretty damn dark.
Apparently he was a bit of a fraud. Or generously put... a fake it till you make it guy. I don't think this is an ad hominem attack, as credibility matters in this case.
The Untold Truth of Napoleon Hill - History's Most Beloved Con-Man
I probably read it in fourth or fifth grade, not too many years after it was published. It was definitely the first science fiction novel I ever read. It wasn't until many years later that I saw how foundational to my worldview it was that my first SF book had a female protagonist.
I was going to give a few other examples of truly life-changing works (LOTR, Dune, Neuromancer), but I'm not sure how I would have found them if A Wrinkle In Time hadn't opened by pre-adolescent eyes.
Introduced me to the world of fantasy and science fiction, which has been a source of enjoyment since then. I don't know if it pushed me towards my current occupation as a SWE, but it sure didn't hurt.
I read it while living in California, during a trying time after deciding to move far away from my parents, and it helped me see all of life in a calm new light.
While I certainly agree that there is no place in the world for calling yourself a Hindu, muslim, christian etc, it's hard to isolate yourself from your nation and say we're all humans and I'm not a ukranian or russian or indian.
Same for stuff like 'I don't mind what happens.' Little stuff bothers me (like my tenant not paying rent, or say hacker news banning my account, and stuff which may not be of any significance on the cosmic scale). To say it doesn't bother me makes me even more anxious and feel like an impostor instead.
It's a bunch of very straightforward advice that I would never have gotten to on my own and which is _really_ hard to put into practice, but so worth it when you do.
Non-violent Communication helped me to understand there is a shared underpinning to the experience of being human--that emotions are fundamental, and that there are some universal human needs. From that foundation, I could see how important it is to observe the context of any conversation with someone, and to react based on an empathic curiosity of their feelings & needs. This freed me from a more narrow reaction space that was based on my interpretation/story of the content of their communication.
Someone can be screaming "I hate you!" and be feeling hurt, alone, and scared. I think we recognize this most in connection with people we are close to and love, but don't know how for people we don't know or don't yet "love." Reacting to the content of someone's words vs. attempting to understand the contextual emotion & human needs almost always diverges into vastly different potential outcomes.
There’s one chapter about misunderstood words. The word “mother” was highly regarded by one character. They loved their mother, so to call someone a mother was a deep and powerful complement. The other character hated their mother, the word had a hypocritical meaning to her.
So when the first character complemented the second with the deepest most heart felt honor they could muster, the second character left them without a word.
I think the key is that you have to read it when you are trying to collaborate with someone and you can't seem to communicate. In that moment, the guidance is a serious level up. If read outside of that context you'll say "well, yeah, sure, duh." In situ, it will help you better communicate (speaking and listening).
Trite indeed, but it's not a bad phrase to have bouncing around in your head before you have to deliver critical feedback or resolve an interpersonal conflict. Never forget you're talking to a fellow human.
Among lot of books i've read this was the one that pushed me towards questioning my beliefs. Although i can't say this book made me irreligious it certainly was a gateway to a whole new world.
* Calvin and Hobbes.
this is one of those things that completely changed my perspective on creativity, oh and not to mention all the things about life and philosophy in there, its in good spirit.
* Animal Farm
This is arguably the best piece of satire I've read that is also fun and easy on the brain. It flows like water.
* The Little Schemer.
I hold this book dear. I've tried reading SICP twice and given up. And thought LISP was not for me. The environment was horrible, all those parens it was just confusing. This book changed that, what it encouraged me to do is grab a pen and paper and try to work everything out myself[1]. It was such a fun read and i owe most of my understanding of functional programming to this book. Few days after finishing this book, i introduced this book to my friend and we spent all our days discussing life listening to sufjan stevens and working through this book, it was a sweet time.
====
[1] I wrote my actual scheme programs on computer long after i had worked through the book(i don't recall exactly but it was after 5th or 6th chapter). An online friend of mine recommended that i try DrRacket as i could execute scheme there. It was a much friendlier environment.
Published April 1987 by MIT Press. ISBN: 9780262200608.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cellular-automata-machines
http://books.google.com/books?id=HBlJzrBKUTEC&printsec=front...
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/44522568_Cellular_au...
https://github.com/SimHacker/CAM6/blob/master/javascript/CAM...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14468834
Rudy Rucker writes about his CAM-6 in the CelLab manual:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cellab/manual/chap5.html
Computer science is still so new that many of the people at the cutting edge have come from other fields. Though Toffoli holds degrees in physics and computer science, Bennett's Ph.D. is in physical chemistry. And twenty-nine year old Margolus is still a graduate student in physics, his dissertation delayed by the work of inventing, with Toffoli, the CAM-6 Cellular Automaton Machine.
After watching the CAM in operation at Margolus's office, I am sure the thing will be a hit. Just as the Moog synthesizer changed the sound of music, cellular automata will change the look of video.
I tell this to Toffoli and Margolus, and they look unconcerned. What they care most deeply about is science, about Edward Fredkin's vision of explaining the world in terms of cellular automata and information mechanics. Margolus talks about computer hackers, and how a successful program is called “a good hack.” As the unbelievably bizarre cellular automata images flash by on his screen, Margolus leans back in his chair and smiles slyly. And then he tells me his conception of the world we live in.
“The universe is a good hack.”
[...]
Margolus and Toffoli's CAM-6 board was finally coming into production around then, and I got the Department to order one. The company making the boards was Systems Concepts of San Francisco; I think they cost $1500. We put our order in, and I started phoning Systems Concepts up and asking them when I was going to get my board. By then I'd gotten a copy of Margolus and Toffoli's book, Cellular Automata Machines, and I was itching to start playing with the board. And still it didn't come. Finally I told System Concepts that SJSU was going to have to cancel the purchase order. The next week they sent the board. By now it was August, 1987.
The packaging of the board was kind of incredible. It came naked, all by itself, in a plastic bag in a small box of styrofoam peanuts. No cables, no software, no documentation. Just a three inch by twelve inch rectangle of plastic—actually two rectangles one on top of the other—completely covered with computer chips. There were two sockets at one end. I called Systems Concepts again, and they sent me a few pages of documentation. You were supposed to put a cable running your graphics card's output into the CAM-6 board, and then plug your monitor cable into the CAM-6's other socket. No, Systems Concepts didn't have any cables, they were waiting for a special kind of cable from Asia. So Steve Ware, one of the SJSU Math&CS Department techs, made me a cable. All I needed then was the software to drive the board, and as soon as I phoned Toffoli he sent me a copy.
Starting to write programs for the CAM-6 took a little bit of time because the language it uses is Forth. This is an offbeat computer language that uses reverse Polish notation. Once you get used to it, Forth is very clean and nice, but it makes you worry about things you shouldn't really have to worry about. But, hey, if I needed to know Forth to see cellular automata, then by God I'd know Forth. I picked it up fast and spent the next four or five months hacking the CAM-6.
The big turning point came in October, when I was invited to Hackers 3.0, the 1987 edition of the great annual Hackers' conference held at a camp near Saratoga, CA. I got invited thanks to James Blinn, a graphics wizard who also happens to be a fan of my science fiction books. As a relative novice to computing, I felt a little diffident showing up at Hackers, but everyone there was really nice. It was like, “Come on in! The more the merrier! We're having fun, yeeeeee-haw!”
I brought my AT along with the CAM-6 in it, and did demos all night long. People were blown away by the images, though not too many of them sounded like they were ready to a) cough up $1500, b) beg Systems Concepts for delivery, and c) learn Forth in order to use a CAM-6 themselves. A bunch of the hackers made me take the board out of my computer and let them look at it. Not knowing too much about hardware, I'd imagined all along that the CAM-6 had some special processors on it. But the hackers informed me that all it really had was a few latches and a lot of fast RAM memory chips.
But by "life" I don't mean just the cellular automata rule "life"! Not to be all depressing like Marvin the Paranoid Android, but I happen to think "life" is overrated. ;) There are so many billions of other extremely interesting cellular automata rules besides "life" too, so don't stop once you get bored with life! ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAA67a2-Klk
For example, it's kind of like how the world wide web works: "Link Globally, Interact Locally":
https://donhopkins.medium.com/scriptx-and-the-world-wide-web...
It's also very useful for understanding other massively distributed locally interacting parallel systems, epidemiology, economics, morphogenesis (reaction-diffusion systems, like how a fertilized egg divides and specializes into an organism), GPU programming and optimization, neural networks and machine learning, information and chaos theory, and physics itself.
I've discussed the book and the code I wrote based on it with Norm Margolus, one of the authors, and he mentioned that he really likes rules that are based on simulating physics, and also thinks reversible cellular automata rules are extremely important (and energy efficient in a big way, in how they relate to physics and thermodynamics).
The book has interesting sections about physical simulations like spin glasses (Ising Spin model of the magnetic state of atoms of solid matter), and reversible billiard ball simulations (like deterministic reversible "smoke and mirrors" with clouds of moving particles bouncing off of pinball bumpers and each other).
Spin Glass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_glass
>In condensed matter physics, a spin glass is a magnetic state characterized by randomness, besides cooperative behavior in freezing of spins at a temperature called 'freezing temperature' Tf. Magnetic spins are, roughly speaking, the orientation of the north and south magnetic poles in three-dimensional space. In ferromagnetic solids, component atoms' magnetic spins all align in the same direction. Spin glass when contrasted with a ferromagnet is defined as "disordered" magnetic state in which spins are aligned randomly or not with a regular pattern and the couplings too are random.
Billiard Ball Computer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard-ball_computer
>A billiard-ball computer, a type of conservative logic circuit, is an idealized model of a reversible mechanical computer based on Newtonian dynamics, proposed in 1982 by Edward Fredkin and Tommaso Toffoli. Instead of using electronic signals like a conventional computer, it relies on the motion of spherical billiard balls in a friction-free environment made of buffers against which the balls bounce perfectly. It was devised to investigate the relation between computation and reversible processes in physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversible_cellular_automaton
>A reversible cellular automaton is a cellular automaton in which every configuration has a unique predecessor. That is, it is a regular grid of cells, each containing a state drawn from a finite set of states, with a rule for updating all cells simultaneously based on the states of their neighbors, such that the previous state of any cell before an update can be determined uniquely from the updated states of all the cells. The time-reversed dynamics of a reversible cellular automaton can always be described by another cellular automaton rule, possibly on a much larger neighborhood.
>[...] Reversible cellular automata form a natural model of reversible computing, a technology that could lead to ultra-low-power computing devices. Quantum cellular automata, one way of performing computations using the principles of quantum mechanics, are often required to be reversible. Additionally, many problems in physical modeling, such as the motion of particles in an ideal gas or the Ising model of alignment of magnetic charges, are naturally reversible and can be simulated by reversible cellular automata.
Also I've frequently written on HN about Dave Ackley's great work on Robust-First Computing and the Moveable Feast Machine, which I think is brilliant, and quite important in the extremely long term (which is coming sooner than we think).
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22304110
His non-fiction books are easy to read and full of lots of wonderful turns-of-phrase. A lot of what he wrote back in the day sounds like it could be written today. There is a fair amount of his books that was very of-the-moment, making references to people from the time that I suppose were well known then that you need to read around.
I've only read two of his fiction books (Napoleon of Notting Hill and The Man who was Thursday), both of which are really funny.
When I was a kid I wanted to make an IRC chatbot. I didn't know much, but I read online you could use regular expressions to match text commands. I felt like I needed a book, saved up money, and got my mom to drive me to the next town. Our little library didn't have any computer books. I remember her paging through and asking if I really wanted this "technical manual".
Mastering Regular Expressions was the start to my programming career as well. Having references to a bunch of other languages spurred my curiosity to learn them. I eventually bought some of the O'Reilly Perl books as well.
Yet, I read only one chapter and following the advice and instruction to the letter for almost a month.
I am feeling the deep joy from meditating just ten minutes. I know I am not supposed to get attached to this deep bliss feeling, but it validates my efforts.
I read the first chapter a few months back, but did not really start following it until I started reading W. Rahula's What the Buddha Taught and Bhante Gunaratana's Mindfulness in Plain English.
I am deeply attracted to the Theravada Buddhism philosophy. And there is no place of blind faith in it.
So, my serious attempt to meditation started after I learned more about Buddha and his way. I had to try it.
I much more calm and composed. With better concentration and more self-control. Procrastination has left me. And I have insights much easier than before. I am an overally better thinker, now. And I give the credit to meditation.
Good meditation teaching is equipping the practitioner with a toolset with the right tool applied for the appropriate stage of practice.
TMI and Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha are necessarily complex because they are treating the entire path toward nibbana as a segmented map of attainment. I can think of virtually no technique which can be applied from the beginning to the end except for very difficult-to-approach techniques such as shikantaza ("just sitting") or the ekayana ("one vehicle") techniques of the Quanzhen ("complete reality") Chinese Buddhism schools. If you think TMI is obtuse try and approach the Shurangama Sutra which is really a mindfuck. But here's the thing: unconditioned existence is a mindfuck so we often need "lesser" graduated techniques to approach the paradoxical nature of reality.
Personally I'm depressingly cynical when it comes to Pinker's views, looking at, e.g., https://twitter.com/robinhanson/status/1496685550241292293 and then thinking about how now, given modern weaponry one man's decision could basically destroy all life on earth. A few billion dead in a single conflict would be all it'd take to really mess up Pinker's trend line.
Update more info:
I'm a really fun at party guy and used to read adventurous fictions (text and audio), lots of entertaining, individual-help, business-help kind of books, they are all just opinions, not even statistical useful because you manually collect just one data point per book. Use science based knowledge and can get stuff done and be able to make money, that will make much more impact to life and family!
So the book that actually probably changed life quite significantly is my friend's robotic book that I didn't read.
On the other hand, books that change the way to think about life can have a more profound long lasting impact, even if they are just opinions.
'The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck' by Mark Manson
The book is full of examples and while reading, you go "hey, that's a bit like my friend X", or "hey, that sounds like my Uncle Y". And then, when Mark describes certain personality traits, you think, "hole smoke, that's ME!"
I found The Subtle Magic of Not Giving a Fuck to be a lot better. The sample is enough to get the point: you can apply Marie Kondo’s method to obligations that don’t spark joy.
I've been a follower of Eastern Philosophy for 20+ years and have also read most major religious and philosophical works, but during my reading of this book I experienced Satori, Englightenment, Awakening, Nirvana, 'Receiving The Gospel', whatever you want to call it.
Oddly enough, it happened to a friend after their reading it, too.
I haven't been the same, in the best way possible, ever since.
Anthony was well-read and traveled and his background as an Indian, Jesuit Priest and practicing psychologist put him at the perfect intersection of experience to deliver such a life-changing work that encompasses religion, science, relationships, your psyche, career, money, philosophy, spirituality, etc.
It's telling and (to me) validating of his mastery of life that, after his death, he was excommunicated from the church due to his 'blasphemous' works.
The ebook and audiobook are available for free here: https://archive.org/details/Awareness-AnthonyDeMello
Ecology? Check.
Emotional intelligence? Check.
Logical intelligence? Check.
Leadership? Check.
Power? Check.
Family? Check.
Love? Check.
Politics? Check.
Badass desert world and technology? Check.
> ... there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Gilgamesh--Stephen Mitchell's translation
Dear Author, you need to quit by Becca Syme-- a book for fiction writers, it opened my eyes to the fact that I dont need to follow the advice of "experts", thats its okay to write what I love and keep my writing a fun hobby. I only recently read this, and it allowed me to restart writing after a 2-3 year gap.
If you want a balanced, philosophical, explanatory, and a direct version, go with the translation by Servapalli Radhakrishnan. SR was an educator, philosopher, and the first Vice President of free India. He later became the President of India.
As far as I know Hacker News and the people that dwell on it, this translation [0] will be an ideal fit.
I had an extremely abusive childhood environment and mostly blocked it out through my adult years but had many obvious self-descructive, anti-social, self-sabotaging and socially untenable behaviour patterns that I couldn't understand or shake.
That book gave me the understanding of my own development and, furthermore, an idea of the tools that I could use to finally stand tall as a member of the human race.
Once I read that book, I could never look at a door the same way. Just this morning, I encountered a "Norman Door."
[0] https://jnd.org/the-design-of-everyday-things-revised-and-ex...
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
And
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
though honestly I was more influenced by movies than books, I guess strongest influence on hour I vote the world around me had Fight Club, Falling Down and American Beauty plus the car speech in Se7en and Collateral as well, Taxi Driver as well
"Computer Lib/Dream Machines" Theodor Nelson - a vision of a better computing future that sticks with me.
"Courtship Rite", "The Moon Goddess and the Son", "Psychohistorical Crisis" Donald Kingsbury - sociologicaly based SF that forced me to think way outside of my cultural assumptions. TMGATS is particularly relevant given the events in Ukraine.
That was the seed for a slow but radical change of perspective on life.
The most pivotal that springs to mind is The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, read as an early teen. I think this is what fully opened my eyes to the world of nerdishness out of which I have built a career and which has shaped my interests.
Tuchman often points out the critical mistake or mistakes that lead to the collapse of a crucial offensive that basically ends a country’s ability to succeed at war.
And an NPR podcast, "Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?", which explains why human are religious.
Those two changed my religious belief, so I can say that they changed my life.
It’s difficult for me to put in words the influence the book had and continues to have on me.
QED by Richard Feynman is a close second. It pulled a veil off from my eyes, made me really understand what science is all about.
Austin, who at the time he wrote this was an executive with Ford Motors Europe, was working on his Ph.D. in Organizational Research at (I dimly recall) Carnegie Mellon. He writes about "measurement dysfunction", when human resources etc. policies drive organizations sideways, based on his application of Agency Theory (an offshoot of Game Theory) to incentive programs. This book is based on his dissertation. Very short. Extremely readable. Completely changed my worldview.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucial_Conversations%3A_Tools...
I read this as part of course but it really stuck with me.
The part about "Gumption Traps" is very true and valid, however, and following Pirsig's advice on that front has saved me countless hours of fruitless troubleshooting.
Mrityunjay is a story of a great warrior who by sheer chance of luck ends up being a lower-caste charioteer.
The book showed me that life is not black and white, talent is not all that’s needed to succeed and how luck and pragmatism plays a huge part in your life. It also helped me understand what Krishna stands for and what Dharma is. Fascinating theme that is still relevant today.
1. The power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Helped me stay present. Helped me overcome past regrets and future stresses
2. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns
Helped me understand how my thought process was impacting my mood and fueling anxiety
3. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
Saved my failing relationship
4. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Helped me overcome some of my compulsive behaviors
wow!!
downloaded, thank!
About 75 pp. ca. 1850.
- Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony. I'm not sure I can put into words how it has impacted me, though, but it has. I guess it's more of a visceral reaction? I can't honestly say I can relate to the protagonist, since I've never been in his shoes (and I hope to never be; having every one in your family---save for one of your sisters---murdered, raped, or raped-then-murdered by pirates isn't exactly something to ascribe to). I love how Hope (the protagonist) can empathize with pretty much anyone, though---at least eventually; and I guess I relate to how deeply he feels things.
- Pretty much everything by Heinlein. It has once again become fashionable (I think it goes on in cycles) to shit on Heinlein's works, and I get where naysayers are coming from. Heinlein himself always maintained he wrote primarily to entertain, even though he can get kind of preachy at times.
The very first Heinlein I got my hands on was The Number of the Beast--, while I was a teenager. Flying cars, non-benevolent Other Beings, multiverses possibly made manifest through the sheer act of imagining it... For a kid who dreamt of one day becoming a nuclear physicist after having watched ST:TOS (Scotty is mah boy), that book was revelatory. Every Heinlein I've read after that has just gone on and contributed to who I am as person today: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land (both editions), To Sail Beyond the Sunset, et al.
It's almost literally impossible for me to overstate how much Heinlein's works has shaped who I am as a person, regardless of whatever flaws others might ascribe to his work.
Although, even I, fanatic that I am, would have a really hard time trying to explain his Sixth Column.
But I'd like to imagine that he would have continued to become more socially progressive over the years, and would probably be loudly advocating for even more progressive ideals today, if he were alive today.
And not a book, but a documentary – The War by Ken Burns.
Pretty much the sole reason I've been told over and over again for the past decade that ours was "the best sex [they've] ever had".
If you have sex with women, you need to read it.
Cosmos was such a departure from anything else I read for school or for pleasure. It transformed my love of reading into a love of learning.
On the Road gave me wanderlust and made me want to move beyond my bubble and see the world.
Not perfect today by any means but far, far better. And no, I'm not a "practicing" zen buddhist or anything close - the book just sort of reset my mind and outlook on life and dealings with others.
It's not overly spiritual, but there's a relaxing, reassuring, thoughtful, and un-judging sense of peace that permeates this books. Brought me out of a really dark place when I was looking for reasons to keep existing.
It limits itself only to direct teachings of Buddha, and it explains the core concepts and teachings of Buddhism by explaining everything simply.
The author is a revered scholar and his style of writing is excellent.
Found it in an airbnb I rented during a lockdown and made me buy a kindle and restart reading books.
https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936
The Economic History of the Jewish People
more devastating than inspirational.
at least, at first.
I picked it up as I was becoming interested in Buddhism and felt it would give me insight into from a “western convert” perspective (it did).
But it also opened my mind to environmentalism—not that I had been closed to it as such, just less interested.
More unexpectedly, it opened my mind to unconventional romantic relationships. I remain, in principle if not actively in practice, polyamorous to this day. Even since, I’ve realized that I’m demisexual (which is on the asexuality spectrum), and the same part of the book which helped me embrace poly also helped me embrace demi and reconcile the two.
Imagines Galileo Galilei dealing with the fact that he recanted his theory that the Earth moved around the Sun.
A wonderful meditation on truth and love.
https://www.amazon.com/Galileos-Defence-Octavian-Paler/dp/97...
Made me go on a life-long quest to understand what I am leaving, and how I want to be remembered after I'm gone. I've never met him and read his books after he passed away, but he still makes his presence aware through his words.
It wasn't the book itself that changed my life, it was the exposure to all of the underlying ideas & philosophies that then significantly changed my life. I know many people can't stand the guy, but his book was really powerful for me at one point in my life. I got my shit together and started to understand the origins of many of the messages he promotes.
I like to think that there's a paradox of book reading in general in that you never remember what you read, but you change because of it.
Yes, us olds would, and did, enjoy it. I Was in my early 30's when I read them.
Now I'm getting nostalgic and need to go back and read them. Tsundoku is such a bad/good/fun addiction...
I've nothing practical to say that the book taught me but the consequences in real life of what dostoevsky has taught me are innumerable and at the same time too subtle to talk about them. I learnt the meaning of love (a romantic and deep one) but also the meaning of hate, self destruction. What nihilism is and what are its consequences. Human spirit is complex and I feel that today's society tend to simplify it in a very rough way.
Time and time again I made up my mind to focus, but it wasn't until I read this book that I actually did it.
Phenomenology of Perception (Merleau-Ponty) -- groundbreaking analysis of "the thickness of things" implicit within perception
Labyrinths (Borges) -- masterful explorations of time, thought, infinity... certain passages of this collection surface in my mind on a weekly basis
Civilization and Capitalism (Braudel) -- telescopes seamlessly from the microscale to the macroscale, granting a synoptic view of the modern world
This book helped me handle introductions, small talk, and getting to know people better at a deeper level with so much less anxiety than I ever had before.
The biggest lesson I learned was to try and give the “spotlight” of who’s talking and what the subject is back to others frequently. It’s a simple concept, but the book is helpful in clarifying why it’s important and how to do it.
I’ve never even been an “executive” but have found that nuggets from this book have helped me navigate the working world for 25 years.
The Fountainhead is far from a perfect novel and certainly the "great man" theory is flawed. But the exposition of the inherent failure of collectivism to improve society is probably its greatest strength, and rings more true today than ever.
My comment about rejecting authority was more about my relationship with my teacher, not internal relationships within the book. Perhaps the paradox was my teacher then, no? Personally, I don't believe in Rand's philosophy. I think Roark is an unbelieveable archetype. If my teacher idolizes Rand and says she agrees with the philosophy, it's _her_ paradox for telling me "no, that's wrong" if I, for example, say that I agree that Roark is Rand's ideal man, but that I believe Gail Wynand is the antithesis of Rand's ideal man because he _has the power_ (and money) to reject the status quo but still refuses to do so (whereas Keating, whom most of the class and the teacher selected as the antithesis, is just a social climber and is working for that power).
It's a great realization for a young person to have, that something can be published and also be total garbage and a complete waste of time.
Not only are her writings this way, she was nearly a wacko.
I will recommend to you a documentary where you can get to know the person better. The documentary is very nice, though.
The docu is "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace".
I read most things Ayn Rand wrote and I really enjoyed it. Somehow, HN does not like Ayn Rand. I don't understand it really. I also read Rutger Bregman's Human kind, some people say it is the opposite of Atlas Shrugged, but I disagree strongly. I like both books and I think they can be part of unifying philosophy. Perhaps Paul Graham's "What you can't say" [0] is an explanation. I believe Ayn says some things that you can't really say anymore, but perhaps they are true.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2fue-FqIIP-C26vR2uAxV-J0...
But Taleb, despite what at times seems to me nearly unbearable self-serving pomposity, gets at some real truths in both of the books mentioned. Oddly they are the only two Taleb books I've read. Of the two, I found Antifragile the better. I read it fairly carefully despite my inclination to skim at times. I'm glad I did. A careful reading makes it clear that he carefully qualifies the limits of antifragile strategies. And it took some repeated explication from Taleb to see that the idea he was poking at was subtle, important, and nowhere near as obvious as my initial reaction would have indicated.
Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman. It inspired me to be curious for the sake of curiosity, and not just in my field. It made me a little more adventurous. What gripped me wasn’t the science, it was the ants and the bongos.
Grapes of wrath. It’s poverty explained to those who never experienced it. This book just sticks with me. I can see why they make students read it. It’s also a damn good book.
No more Mr Nice Guy. Plot twist: you’re not nice, you’re insincere and manipulative. Don’t shame people into giving back. If you want your needs met, ask for things. Be nice when you mean it, not as a tool to earn approval.
Wages of Destruction. This book doesn’t explain what happened from 1933 to 1945, but why. It added contextual clarity to a topic I’ve been reading about for years. It changed how I perceive other historical events too. It’s not a casual read though.
The first half of the first book is about the political causes of hunger in the world and advocates for vegetarianism as an antidote to such. The intro to the followup book states that protein complementarity is easier than she made it out to be and she regretted making it sound harder than it is.
It's one of the reasons I eat a semi vegetarian diet. Changing my diet has had a big impact on my health and feeling like how I live makes a difference helps protect me from the sense of doom about climate change and what not that many people seem to have.
It also made me feel like there is no need for this to be such a polarizing us-vs-them topic. She talks about how "eating one less (grain fed) hamburger " makes a difference , so we can change the world with relatively small changes to our own behavior. It doesn't require extremist positions.
Although I didn't settle on Taoism, like you, it introduced and opened my mind to what I saw as an alternatives to religion.
Gave me a new perspective.
It made me want to become a biologist, and a computer programmer, and it confirmed childhood suspicions about religious belief.
While technically many people will consider this as a child's book, the lessons and teachings on this book will be timeless and be relevant in whatever stage you are in your life. This has profoundly impacted my life in more ways than I can imagine and I am going to pass this book to my kids as they up.
This book probably launched my career in programming. When the book wore out, I carefully cut off the spine, hole punched it, and moved it into a 3-ring binder. I still have it.
It’s a complete reference to the language I cut my teeth on as a teenager. The appendix was particularly useful.
https://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Conversations-Discuss-What-...
Anyway, my top candidate. Surely has been mentioned already:
- Peter Thiel, Zero to One. Has been worth literally millions to me. I wish I had read it sooner. Then again, “The student is ready, the teacher appears”. When you read something might be just as important as what you read.
Thanks for the thread.
[0] https://www.worldcat.org/title/parable-of-the-sower/oclc/125...
But in the interest of variety in this thread, I’ll throw out Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It inspired me to go deeper in my beloved cooking practice towards growing food and hunting, and through all that I’ve found much gratitude for and understanding of life and what humanity has gone through to get us to this point.
Over a decade later and I’m still working towards a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle.
The Upanishads - Eknath Easwaran translation
Season in Hell - Arthur Rimbaud
Modern Man in Search of a Soul - Carl Jung
Abandoned Fragments - Franz Kafka
Philosophical Grammar - Ludwig Wittgenstein
The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche
Hapworth 16, 1924 - JD Salinger
The Dream Machine - M. Mitchell Waldrop
And I would add Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
It's an amazing non programming related book that teaches a working concept of swarm intelligence and their communication algorithms and behaviours. In the networked computers world this has so many potential applications, especially when you have to think outside the box to be able to scale and analyze network traffic patterns.
It's written in the same concise format as The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and it's just as dense with insights. I would encourage anyone to spend just 5 min reading the first few pages of Book Two here: https://aimeeknight.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/the-war-of-a...
- The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
- Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
- Crime and Punishment
- The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
- The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
- Franny and Zooey
- Master of the Senate
- Atlas Shrugged
- Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
- Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
- The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
- Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
- Ethics in the Real World: 86 Brief Essays on Things that Matter
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
- Humankind: A Hopeful History
- The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
If you're gonna ask what's my current religion well I've been asking myself that ever since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_Atomic_Bomb
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@maxharris9).
Never Split the Difference - Chriss Voss
Three Laws of Performance - Steve Zaffron
Peak - Anders Ericsson
All of these books fall into the category of rounding out my world view. I’m an engineer, and spent nearly 100% of 10-12 years of my life (school plus early career) focused solely on engineering topics. These books have made me drastically more effective at achieving personal and professional goals, especially ones that require cooperation of other people.
- A Conferedancy of Dunces, Peter O'Toole: tragic, hilarious and absurd
- Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Taleb: this was my first exposure to a lot of biases and other interesting phenomena
- The Design of Everything Things: eye-opener!
Harry Potter, Tolkien, Dune and a lot of other sci-fi has also affected me, although I find it hard to point out one in particular. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein stands out a bit.
* A confession and other religious stories by Leo Tolstoy * Happiness by Matthieu Ricard (a counter argument against French philosophers who believe happiness doesn't exist) * The Diary of Anne Frank * A Life Interrupted by Etty Hillesum (the most beautiful book I will ever read)
As someone who got caught up in a lot of "spiritual materialism" in dharma practice, over-fixation on techniques and theory, this book reached me in a way that nothing else did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can_Heal_Your_Life
"by 2008, over 35 million copies worldwide had been sold in over 30 languages, becoming the best-selling non-fiction book of all time"
Shows that they weren't always perfect, some of them were assholes, but others (notably Marcus Aurelius and Catho) lived the live they preached, and fought many battles (including literal ones) in ways that were different from their time.
Also, I don't think there's such a thing as a "stoic blind adherent", as self criticism is a big part of it. Examples would be Cicero, highly regarded by later Stoics as an egocentric asshole, or the early cinics, that molded stoicism for the future by criticizing it.
You can listen to some quotes from the book here: https://web.archive.org/web/2oe_/http://wayback-fakeurl.arch...
You should listen to the linked video for a better introduction.
Atomic Habits by James Clear: Read a lot about habits before but this really kickstarted my focus on living healthy and staying consistent.
This book explained me concepts of - material - time - and quality
in chess and business life.
"The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size" by Tor Norretranders
from Victor Frankl, Auschwitz survivor and founder of Logotherapy.
Helped me reduce bad habits, get useful things done, and have more fun.
Opening the Heart of Compassion
Both very high in the calling me out on my bullshit metric
There is no innate talent - it takes practice and repetition to build those capabilities
Scary
I would also suggest going through the references that they use in Peak and understanding the samples they use to extrapolate from.
talent == nature + nurture
Toffler, Future Shock - the danger to societal cohesion and human wellness caused by constant, rapid, paradigm-breaking change.
Kaczynski, Industrial Society and its Future - like the two above, but more modern, frighteningly prescient, and with some unfortunate baggage attached. Still, it's short, and worth a read.
While not originally books, solar.lowtechmagazine.com now offers POD versions of their essays. They routinely introduce dead-end technologies to the reader that are often simpler and easier for a person to create and maintain at home, and which often confer a greater degree of independence than their mass-market analogues.
I don't necessarily recommend wading through countless pages of psuedomythical waffling, but Crowley's Thelemic concept of True Will - that is, the real goal you want to achieve, rather than whatever pure hedonism happens to have caught your brain-corvid's attention at the moment - is a useful framework for prioritizing. Does it further the goal directly, or indirectly, or does it hinder the goal? In this way, you can avoid wasting time and effort.
I found good stuff in Heidegger, but I don't think it's worth your time to grind through it. Just look up the Cliff's Notes for 'Sein und Zeit.'
So what did I get out of all that?
-I started to question what it was I really wanted to get out of life.
-I decided I wanted more independence and liberty.
-I decided I didn't like the direction tech was going, and wanted out.
-I stopped being quite as materialistic. I'm still extremely materialistic, but I'm working on it.
-I refocused my effort on amassing something like "F-U money" (for about ten years).
-I spent a lot of time flailing for what to do next, but eventually became obsessed with small-scale, high-intensity regenerative agriculture, and decided that was it.
-I spent a bunch of the saved money to buy myself a farm in Ireland, and will eventually pivot to full-time farming and part-time anti-materialism-- and away from tech. (At the moment, I'm still milking my Swiss job to fund startup costs and avoid the need to bootstrap or raid my nest egg, but the pivot day is in sight.)
-I have something to look forward to that isn't just constant obsolecence of skills and an ever-accelerating race to the bottom.
It isn't just medieval fantasy, there is a lot to take from his views on politics, human interaction and freedom.
Very good at putting into words my introspection efforts and try to devise action plans for both personal and professional growth.
"Play" with the purpose of continuing play rather than ending by winning.
The Design of Everyday Things – by Don Norman
See the details of the ways we interact with the world around.
Initially this came across as shallow truths masquerading as profundity, especially with his unwillingness/inability to explain himself during discussions. Finally I read enough that some things just 'clicked' into place and my perspectives shifted along with my outlook on life.
- Letters from the Desert by Carlo Carretto (first half).
I was brought up a protestant so was never really exposed to catholic thought in my formative years. When I finally started exploring the classics for myself I found them often overly wordy and mystical, so I moved on to more modern (relatively speaking) works like this and the Way of the Pilgrim too. The simplicity of the writing and the clarity of the thoughts in the first few chapters of Letters from the Desert hit me hard.
- The Quran
A wonderfully phrased book that captures its times very well. Ideally to be read alongside something like Islam: A Short History or Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, both by Karen Armstrong, to provide the context.
As an aside the Qu'ran is available for free online in audio format both as interlinear English/Arabic but also as Arabic only, and as a non-speaker of Arabic I often find listening to it being chanted a very calming and uplifting experience despite having no clue what is being said.
- Getting Real by 37 Signals.
As a programmer/developer/engineer since the late 1980s this was a revelation, bringing a clarity to my own thoughts and feelings about much of the world of enterprise software development. Very obvious points in retrospect that nobody ever (including me) seemed to have realised during my entire career before then.
- Web Copy that Sells by Maria Veloso.
A strange choice, given that there is nothing 'profound' in here. What it is, though, is a very well written book on persuasion which finally got me to see that I'd spent years avoiding 'sales' as something that wasn't for me whereas in reality it's for everyone and we do it all the time.
- The Body by Charles Colson.
Colson was jailed for his part in the Nixon stuff, then became a Christian. It's an incredibly moving book which is not his autobiography but an analysis of what is going wrong with the church. The impact comes from the stories he relates at the start of the chapters (especially the opening ones about 9/11). Those tales gave me an understanding of the potential 'greatness' in people.
Murder in the Cathedral - T. S. Eliot
Our Town - Thornton Wilder
All Quiet really shows the suffering of war.
Mind-bending explanations of modern physics and how our Newtonian intuition is far from reality.
I looked up my name, as one is wont to do as a child, and saw next to “Don,” an entry which read “Don Quixote, see Quixote, Don.” Wow! There was something with my name in it and it had a Q and an X! I, of course, turned to the Qs, read the entry, not only for “Quixote, Don” but also for “quixotic” and “quixotism” and thought, “I like the idea of being quixotic.”
I then, read the bowdlerized children's version of Don Quixote that they had in the children's section and returned to the book many times over the years that followed.
One day in high school, a friend who had graduated came by to visit the band teacher and had a book in his hand that he was reading, Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene. He described it as “Don Quixote is a Catholic priest and Sancho Panza is the communist ex-mayor of El Toboso.” I went to the library the next day and checked out their copy of the book and loved it. I proceeded to read every book that the library had by Graham Greene and became imbued with his world view (it probably helped that I was inclined in that direction already) and it gradually led to my becoming Catholic 7 years later. My love of Greene also influenced me in becoming a writer (something to which I was already inclined) and he and J. D. Salinger are the two most obvious influences in my writing to this day.
Meditations - Aurelius
Simply existing can be exhilarating.
It got me into reading about history and taught me to be more critical of media.
I read it in my mid 20s and it helped me stop worrying.
2. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. Written by someone who might an atheist, but it also demonstrates both theoretically and empirically how humble we and our planet are. He uses genius analogies to simplify complex concepts. Reading the book is very mind-expanding.
The power of your subconscious mind.
1. "Sei Somoy" (Those Times) by Sunil Ganguly. It is a novel about the past of Bengalis. The Bengali Reneissance, its central characters, progress, the conflict- all are beautifully depicted. I had no collective identity as a person before. And disliked whatever I had. This book made me feel really good about my identity. Suddenly, I was more confident in a conscious way, and did things better.
2. "Maitreya Jatak" by Bani Basu. Buddha is a human character in this novel. And so is the time and place of India. The pre-big-Empire India is beautifully depicted. I got deeply interested in Buddha and that opened a new path of life for me, which transformed my life.
3. "Godel, Escher, Bach"- learned deeply about logic and its limitations. How human constructs such as mathematical symbols and human languages- all are so limited. Completely changed me as a person and gave me a new outlook.
There are other books that did not change my life completely, but added layers to my perception and thinking.
1. "The Black Swan" by N. Nicholas Taleb. It has added a filter to my entire thought process. I call it the Nicholas filter.
2. "Innovators" by Walter Isaacson. Learned about computer history, collaboration. The idea of " collaboration through time" got really etched into me.
3. "The Little Schemer", 4e and Graham Hutton's Haskell book made me a better programmer in ways I did not expect.
4. Strangly, Neal Stephenson's " Cryptonomicon" has taught me to never waste my time on entertainment or learning that is not fully ideal. The idea that something so profoundly good can exist for people like us, convinced me to read only very high quality literature of all kinds and sci-fi of only the highest kind. Also made me give up watching TV/web series to a large degree. I don’t compromise with the quality of entertainment that I consume anymore. I consume only the best and most desired things.
5. "Mastery" by Leonard Gordon has, above all, taught me that a boring life should be desired where the brain's desire for novelty is not awarded, and instead, time is spent on honing much fewer number of skills.
6. "Deep Work" by Cal Newport has really helped me with my productivity and happiness, and made me give up social media. Same goes for "Pragmatic Thinking and Learning" by Andy Hunt.
7. "Atomic Habits" by James Clear has been effective in many ways of my life.
8. "Mindfulness in Plain English", "The Mind Illuminated", and " What the Buddha Taught" have made me a better human- in all aspects. As if my character's level has been upped in the video game of the world.
9. "Fundamentals of Physics" by Halliday, Resnick, and Walker and my whole familiarity with Feynman through Feynman Lactures and recorded lectures made me intolerant towards dry learning materials. Now, I use learning material that are not marely useful, but also overly entertaining.
I have a hard time with this. Earlier i used stuff like imdb and goodreads to determine and then i realized i don't like more than half of what i consume. Later i started asking what my friends liked, and consumed as per their recommendations, had a similar experience but this time around whenever i didn't like something, i complained to my friend and we had long discussions about it sometimes spanning multiple days. i found this approach better even if it sometimes meant consuming the trend of the week. After doing that for an year or two i started doing to consume/save-for-later anything that remotely looked interesting. These days I'm still following that approach. i still come across a lot of cheap makes but i think these help me to judge what's good and what's not. I mostly bring up this argument as i strongly believe "best" is subjective And going by all time classics or other people's recommendations you may miss out a chance to discover for yourself what is truly best for you. This was a straw man argument. Ignore it if it doesn't apply to you. But i'm curious on how you determine what makes "highest kind" and "best" before consuming it.
> "Mastery" by Leonard Gordon
I couldn't find this book.
"Best", and "most desired" mean- I am not going to compromise with my choices for what is considered by others as worthy.
I will only consume what I want- what things best fit me- choice wise, genre wise, level wise, and so on.
I plan to read the recommendations folks made here, but due to the proselyting culture and the mystical emphasis Brighamite Mormonism puts on the Book of Mormon I want to offer a more substantial and impactful recommendation. In its place, I recommend Sagan's Demon-Haunted World.
It show me there is another world if you go outside socialism and that socialism has a lot of bad consequence that are never talked about
This conflation of a welfare state with democratic socialism is Bernie Bro level nonsense: https://www.thelocal.dk/20151101/danish-pm-in-us-denmark-is-...
I don't think I've seen these words used together. I've always understood the difference to be that an atheist is as sure in his beliefs as the religious zealot, each with the same amount of proof backing their opinions up. An agnostic realizing this lack of proof simply says "I don't know".
Agnostics believe that in some way, metaphysical intelligences are involved in the creation or fabric of the universe, but the very nature and depth of this involvement is in varying degrees indecipherable, unknown, and not-yet-known. Agnosticism doesn't require either the acceptance or rejection of theism.
Put together it technically means the person doesn't believe in a theistic god but holds agnostic views about broader metaphysical concepts.
More colloquially I've noticed a lot of people use the atheist agnostic / agnostic label interchangeably to indicate they haven't made their mind up one way or the other, but it's possible to be either atheist agnostic or theist agnostic.
I would take it a bit further and say it is impossible to ever know. Even if a powerful being were to appear and perform miracles, I would claim that the evidence is still not sufficient. As Arthur C. Clarke says: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
It’s surprisingly insightful/original/authentic.