Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What book has been most influential in your life?

14 pointsricberw29 comments

Could also be any written content, like a blog post or an essay.

Here are a few of mine:

Flatland by Edwin Abbott - if it doesn't break your brain thinking about seeing in shadows of reality, and never being able to all of anything at once, you need to read it again

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - read it a couple years ago on vacation as my "beach read". Thought a bunch of what he wrote was pretty interesting/entertaining (though I disagree with some of his presuppositions and/or conclusions). Also made watching Tenet more enjoyable. And gave me an idea for a story (that I do not know how to write) wherein there is a class of people who only "remember the future" - they know what is going to happen before it happens, but as soon as it happens, they forget ... iow, they experience time half-backwards (they live it forward, but can not recall anything once it's occurred - it's all a "prediction" or "guess" to them...just like the future is to everyone else)

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy - contemplating a 100% 'conventional' WWIII, Clancy does a couple interesting things in the story that I have often wondered why they have not been talked about elsewhere (maybe they have in classified circles, but certainly not anywhere I have run across them) ... notably, using a A-10 Thunderbolts flying close to the deck over the ocean to strafe thin-hulled warships

Learning Basic for Tandy Computers by David A Lien - first programming book I ever had/used (it's even available on Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/LearningBasicForTandyComputers/) ... got me into programming/scripting when I was about 10

An A-10 has limited range and no radar to hunt for warships. The scenario you described would perhaps work best against a mass amphibian assault with hundreds of landing craft approaching, such as something Taiwan would face.

That was pretty much the scenario in which Clancy used them in the story - strafing enemy vessels when they got within a couple-few hundred miles of land

You may not like it, but the bible is still the most influential book today.

Even if you’re not spiritual or never read it yourself - all the story archetypes used in modern fiction are there. Not to mention ethical standards.

Literally there is very little fundamentally new in literature that isn’t there already in the bible in one way or another.

Does anyone really read it, though? I'm a catholic and never read it in full... Someone said it on X "if christians really believe that that is the word of God, they should be reading it much more than they actually do". Applies to me..

Ive read it. It’s quite intense and exciting if you put some focus and imagination into it. The original “tora” part in particular.

I'm reading it line by line, some parts are really difficult to ingest and other parts go very easily. Once I finish reading it first time I plan to read it again, this time I hope to get more from difficult parts based on the context I already have.

Somewhat related, several months ago I read Karen Armstrong's "A History of God" based on a recommendation in a similar thread. While not the most influential book I've read (I'm not even sure what that would be), it provided a nice perspective on the history and evolution of Judaism/Christianity/Islam and changed a lot of my opinions on the matter. Would recommend a read for anyone interested in the matter.

I know it's a bit fraught to share on a public forum, but would you be willing to share how it changed your opinions on the matter?

I also really enjoyed "A History of God', but found the author's conclusions a bit odd. She seemed to still be devout, and yet her book destroyed what little faith and hope I still had in organized religion. It really laid bare how so much religious change was due, not to some sort of new understanding of the world, but either attempts to acquire political power or abstract debates over semantics.

The problem with her book is that it presents a fairly Eurocentric view of “God.” It also uses a historical/ anthropological approach, so there’s no claim of higher truth being made.

Obligatory disclaimer that influential does not, with it, come a positive connotation.

I wonder how you decide if the influence is positive or not

Probably One, Two, Three, Infinity by George Gamow. Got me started, as well as a few others.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Two_Three..._Infinity

Name drops Neil deGrasse Tyson (Is he that old?)

Internet Archive has a 1961 copy.

https://ia801305.us.archive.org/19/items/OneTwoThreeInfinity...

The Nature of the Universe, by Fred Hoyle, as well.

Getting Things Done by D. Allen: I don't really follow the methodology, but it taught me the importance of always having a clear task list for your days and projects you may have.

Value-based fees by A. Weiss: I was a freelancer and it taught me the importance of building a relationship that's more than just providing a service.

So Good They Can't ignore you by C. Newport: Got my head of the sand and makes me realize that no one really thinks that you're special. You can only get ahead with your project by being valuable (Not sure this is the exact message, but that's what I learned)

Atomic Habits by J. Clear: Helped me realize that big changes comes from small actions. So I always try to frame what I want to achieve in that way.

When I was around 14 or so I read an blogpost that we would now describe as being incel-like. It had a really profound and negative effect on my relationships with women for almost a decade unfortunately.

It's hard to name just one, but off the top of my head, a few obvious possibilities include:

The Selfish Gene (Dawkins) - helped nudge me over the line in terms of really identifying as an atheist, by satisfactorily refuting any lingering hints of the "irreducible complexity" argument that were lodged in my brain.

The Fountainhead (Rand) - I actually saw the movie before reading the book, but the Howard Roark character is a real role model character to me.

The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Blank) - As far as I'm concerned, this is THE book for startup founders / entrepreneurs. Very detailed, very logical, iterative process for building a company, defining a product, finding customer base, etc.

Nineteen Eighty-four (Orwell) - Read this one my senior year in High School and it left a profound mark on my psyche. I was already leaning towards a very individualistic / libertarian worldview, but 1984 really enflamed my hatred for big, heavy-handed, oppressive government(s).

Difficult Conversations. So much stress and anxiety comes from anticipating, avoiding, or not knowing how to have difficult conversations.

Interesting question.

The book that popped into my head from my subconscious when I read the question was 'Catch-22'. I was a teenager when I read that. It taught me to be less naive, more cynical. It was also very, very funny. And it tickled my offbeat Sense of Humor.

bible was the first book - weirdly enough, what I took from it was that women are worthless, and so I never wanted to be one... so I behaved like the boys did, screaming, biting, fighting a lot... feels like a lot has gone wrong after this, and hopefully I took enough pain, so someone else didn't have to suffer like this.

Then I was pretty much raised by the Perry Rhodan scifi books - they were a bit like star trek, lots of physics in there, that lasted from 6-16 or so, I guess I missed puberty a bit.

byron katie's - the work, turned around a lot of beliefs I held, I've been suffering less lately.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Tao Te Ching, or Meditations.

As for stories, Greek or Norse mythology. Many of the concepts in the book above come from these myths.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Left around at home to indoctrinate me into "stuff" at age 8. Ended up being the first sparkle of my rebellion against "stuff".

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that the book was "so banal that it had to be sold to adults; kids would have seen through it."

You might have fared better with Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child .. it's a cracking search for the secret of being self-winding.

http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/mouse.html

Failing that, Kleinzeit

http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/kleinz.html

I don't care what film critic Roger Ebert wrote.

The book is a masterpiece every person should read, several times, at different ages.

I have read it several times at ~12, ~25, and again in my late 40s.

It has the illusion of depth and will certainly strike a chord with some, but its not altogether that great a book in the opinion of many, but exactly the kind of book that others will swear by.

That's because most focus on what I was supposed to be indoctrinated by: Jonathan's journey and ascension.

Nobody expected I would fall in love with Fletcher, read the book as a long prologue to Fletcher's part, and make his words the hymn to my liberation: "No limits, Jonathan?".

Probably Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

The message of choosing the better story is at the heart of the book, and I apply it in so many areas of my life.

Quran

Rich Dad Poor Dad - financially

Foundation and Empire

Reply on news.ycombinator.com