Comment by throwawaybbq1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwawaybbq1 | Hacker News Reader

"Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" - sort of like an autobiography of Richard Feynman but from recordings of some conversations. I'm a scientist and this resonated with me a lot.

"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.

"Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman" is so good. I read it, or listen to the audio book through my library via Libby, at least once a year. It portrays Feynman as so “normal” relative to his achievements and then makes his ideas much more accessible, such as the Feynman lectures. Sort of the sense of, if he can do it so can I.

"The Game" is certainly juvenile, but it's also a funny look at a very odd world at a point in time that also changed the industry it described massively by making people aware of the tactics and forcing the companies involved to massively reinvent themselves. It seems half of them doubled down on getting worse and creepier, and the other half tried - with varying success - to move to more mainstream self-help.

Glad to see "the game" in here.

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.

My main takeaway from Feynman’s book was that it’s probably good to be more adventurous. He wasn’t just committed to a specific thing. He just generally followed his curiosity and great things came out of it.

The Game is a fantastic book, and Neil is a real stand-up guy. He's responsible for my first marriage.

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