Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

208 pointsmucle6179 comments

I find myself rereading Antifragile, Black Swan, Lean Startup, and $100M Offers

All of them have significantly shaped my worldview, and I'd love to know HN's favorite nonfiction books

Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols 2nd Edition - Radia Perlman

Every 2-3 years, particularly in the periods when I'm not actively in network engineering, I re-read this book from start-finish - and it just completely centers my mindset with regards to pretty much every fundamental topic in Network Engineering. There almost didn't need to be a 2nd Edition - most of the major topics were covered in 1st edition - the only major difference is the use of lots of protocol examples. The core material itself is timeless.

Here is just one gem from Chapter 5 - "Hubs, Switches, Virtual Lans and Fast Ethernet"

"I originally resisted adopting the term switch. Unlike thing, switch sounds like a word you'd apply to a well-defined concept, so it makes people assume that there is a crisp definition that everyone else knows. I thought the world was already confusing enough with the terms bridge and router. Unfortunately, people coined the word switch assuming they were inventing a new concept, somehow different from a bridge or a router. And there were various independent product concepts named switch. As "switch" vendors expanded the capabilities of their products, the products wound up being functionally the same as bridges and routers, usually a hybrid or superset. One cynical (and ungrammatical) definition I use for switch is "a marketing term that means fast." Almost all products these days are some hybrid or superset of bridges and routers. So maybe it's right for the industry to settle on a new word, switch, as a more generic term for a box that moves data."

I don’t know if my understanding is correct but I always thought of a switch in contrast to a network hub. A hub broadcasts incoming packets to all its ports while a switch keeps a table and broadcasts only to the port that MAC is plugged into. That table is likely called a “routing table”, which probably drives some confusion. I always thought of a router as an internet connected switch. In addition, I always thought of a modem as something that can speak the language of the line (phone lines originally) instead of just the network protocol.

I’m not a network pro and these concepts could be totally wrong in my mind. Not sure why I’m spewing them out, other than to give myself something to solidify in the future.

You're mostly there - your hub definition is spot on - it's basically an electrical repeater and doesn't inspect the packet in any way* and operates at half-duplex.

Switches (specifically Layer 2 switches) will send broadcast frames to all ports*, but traffic that is unicast to a specific MAC address will only be sent to the port where that MAC address was learnt. To keep track of the MAC address to port mappings, a switch will have one or more "forwarding" or "MAC-address" tables.

Routers (and Layer 3 switches) are not necessarily Internet connected, but will mostly be seen in larger networks. Being mostly Ethernet-based these days, they maintain two tables - an ARP table (mapping IP Addresses to MAC Addresses) and a routing table (mapping IP prefixes/routes to destination IP addresses). When an IP packet comes into a port, the router will consult it's routing table and find the most specific route that matches the destination of the packet. From the destination IP of the route, it will then determine the egress interface that it should send the packet towards, then use the ARP table to work out the destination Ethernet MAC address for the Ethernet frame it will construct to transport the IP packet in on it's way to the next-hop router.

* During the early 00s there were "Dual-Speed Hubs", which were basically two hubs (one 10Mbps, one 100Mbps) joined together internally via a two-port Ethernet switch. Fortunately the price of 100Mbps Ethernet switches kept falling and they weren't around too long.

* Provided those ports are all members of the same broadcast domain/VLAN

My copy had a blurb from tptacek on the cover. I don't know which edition that was.

After reading your comment I'm sorry I didn't keep the book!

It's the 2nd edition. I can't tell you how weird it was to be asked for that blurb. I was 22!

It is a great book, though.

i always thought switch came from the old telephone "switchboards", which were usually handled inside of large buildings.

you'd call the operator to route (e.g. a router) your call to the right location, and then the switchboard operator inside said location. routing itself came from postal routing, IIRC

"Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager". Many knowledge workers manage projects on a daily or weekly basis, yet most, including myself, don't have formal training in it and will profusely reject the title "Project Manager". The book gives a no-bullshit guide to manage things—deliverables, deadlines, schedules, and scope—and how to lead people—team members, customers, etc.

"The Emperor of All Maladies". A haunting, personal, and intimate biography of cancer. Having been on the peripherals of several cancer patients, I find the book an incredible overview of the disease, and how to deal with its physical, mental, and societal consequences.

I'm re-reading Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" at the moment. It's about Data General and the development of a new minicomputer. I read it at the dawn of my IT career in the 1990s and found much of was still relevant then. (the book was written in 1981) Thirty years later, I'm mostly just nodding as I follow along; yep, yep, yep. "Engineering" is a distant second to corporate politics and office pecking order.

Reading Brian Shul's "Sled Driver" autobiography on the tablet. Shul was an SR-71 pilot, and the book is about 10% Shul and 90% SR-71. It reads fast and it's interesting, with unexpected bits of information.

Just finished David Goggins' "Can't Hurt Me." It's supposed to be a "motivational" autobiography. I can't say I felt motivated. Most of his problems were self-inflicted, and he treated his family and children like dirt.

I looked up Sled Driver and the cheapest I can find is $350 on eBay (with $475 being the next best price). Where did you find the book?

annas-archive org :)

As for David Goggins, I mostly agree, his level of drive is impressive at some level, but also just insane- he pushes himself to do things likely to cause permanent lasting injuries just because he can. It seems like he couldn't even get along with other Navy Seals, because they weren't disciplined and motivated enough for him, and wouldn't accept ideas like training to the point of serious injury or disability. But it makes zero sense- how can you be ready for a mission when you're injured? Ultimately, it seems like he's addicted to self harming to escape emotional trauma/pain, not because he's disciplined.

Jocko Willink is a similar "Navy seal teaching you the secrets to becoming a badass" but his approach seems a lot more sane and useful, and has been more effective in his own life.

Another vote for The Soul of a New Machine. It's one of my favorite books.

I just hope there is something more serious but less than serious about building a computer such as the Nova. I went through Nand to Tetris and it was pretty fun.

If you haven't read it, I also enjoyed his book, 'House'. It has a similar theme to TSoaNM: multiple parties with the same ultimate goal, but conflicting approaches born out of self-interest.

I read it shortly after buying the house that would be (and is) our 'family home', of a very similar vintage (early 80s, East Coast.) Certainly not every home from the past was artfully constructed (or even well-built), but something just feels different with the modern, Fortune-500 homebuilders that rush an army of interchangeable subcontractors through cookie-cutter plans to maximize interior square-footage and stack as many units as possible on a tract of land.

The Abolition of Man - C. S. Lewis

All Things Considered - G. K. Chesterton

Some others I daren't mention.

Category Theory for Programmers - Bartosz Milewski

The Design of Relational Databases - Heikki Mannila, Kari-Jouko Raiha

C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton are great authors. I rather enjoy them along with Tolkien from that period and part of the world.

If you like history you should check out 19th Century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt's collection of essays Force and Freedom - I read it every 2 years or so. It's great summary of the different sources of power in society and how they interact during different periods. Highly recommended.

"In Force and Freedom, Burckhardt reduced the main elements of history to the state, religion, and culture, discussing the hypothetical and actual supremacy of each over the other two. “Culture” comes out best, religion worst in his value system, but the state has its dangers too..."

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-europ...

Glenn Gould Reader, a collection of writings by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould

Eye, Brain, Vision by David Hubel, IMO an excellent introduction to visual neuroscience for the layperson and a really, really nice example of good scientific writing

Huygens and Barrow, Newton and Hooke by VI Arnold, for the density of ideas

Perceptrons by Minsky and Papert, mainly as an example of clear mathematical exposition

Escape from Freedom[1]! the meat of Fromm's thesis is that modern societies have attained a lot of "negative freedom" (i.e. freedom from necessities and/or authorities), but the corresponding growth in "positive freedom" (freedom to express oneself authentically and genuinely) has been lackluster. the result is that we become "burdened" by the responsibilities of freedom, unable to handle it without feeling overwhelmed. instead, we resort to escape mechanisms: e.g. by seeking refuge in authoritarian leaders, or by conforming to societal standards and expectations. both are detrimental, Fromm says, as they undermine individual freedom. Fromm urges that we should pay more attention to our thoughts and actions, and to be more wary of them, as they may or may not be genuine expressions of our inner selves.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom

This seems quite apt for how I'm feeling the last few years. Thank you for this, I will look into it

Positive rights don’t exist because they are simply claims on other people’s labor.

The Bible. Even if you don't care for it's spiritual implications, there is a rich history that is used by archaeologists, and many face-value lessons of cause and effect, and even recommendations on how to manage a business and employees. The beautiful non-spiritual message is that humans don't change, but we can still learn from histories mistakes.

I feel like I've got to read it eventually just so I can be up to speed on all the millions of references to it in other works of art. In a college class recently, we read beowulf, and I was confused what was meant when grendel was described as being from "cain's clan" - I was raised non-religiously by parents who had both been burned pretty bad by institutional religion, so it was pretty much only me and an asian immigrant in that class who needed the reference explained. (Granted, I was one of the few non english majors in that class, which also probably affected my lack of understanding.)

Going through life without having read through at least some of the KJV Bible and Shakespeare would be like watching The Wizard of Oz in black and white – sure, you'd be able to follow the plot, but you'd be missing out on the color experience. Similarly, without having some foundation in those two foundational works of English language, you'd be missing idiom, metaphor, and allegory that you might not even realize is there. Imagine trying to read President Lincoln's speeches without getting his references to scripture. Imagine trying to read Faulkner's Sound and the Fury without getting the titular reference to Shakespeare and the structural reference to the Gospels (the same story told by four different authors).

The main cultural touchstones are disproportionately concentrated in a few books too, you can get a lot of them with just a dozen or two hours of reading.

Genesis specifically is packed with common references, can be read in a few hours, and is fairly engaging and accessible as a coherent piece of literature in its own right.

Ecclesiastes is like five pages and possibly the most quoted thing across european cultures. So many literary references and even common idioms come from there.

After that any one synoptic gospel + john + acts will set you up to catch a lot of christianity-specific cultural references. And then revelation imagery comes up a ton in pop culture, music, film & tv.

All of what I mentioned is about the length of a medium-short novel and would set you up to catch probably the majority of allusions to the bible. You'd be missing some major stuff like moses, david & solomon, plus a bunch of misc but influential stories like jonah & the whale, samson etc. But for bang for your buck it would get you pretty far.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible

If one is looking for a much more readable Bible, versus those low quality, thin paper, small typed copies, I'd recommend checking out Bibliotheca. Also has one of the best videos I've seen done for a Kickstarter campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adamlewisgreene/bibliot...

It says "nonfiction"

Haha, was going to post this exact comment

You can tell that to all the ancient human history archaeologists that use the Bible to find ancient cities.

Yes, I'm sure those archeological findings can confirm all those virgin births and guys living in whales.

The single most significant fact supported by the Bible is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. History agrees that Jesus was a real man. History agrees that He was significant in the region. The eye witness testimonies support (but don't prove) the resurrection, but consider this - many men and women were executed in the first century because they would not recant that they were eye witnesses to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. If it were a lie, why would so many take that to the point of their own death?

> If it were a lie, why would so many take that to the point of their own death?

Consider a weaker question: if it weren't a lie, why would so many take that to the point of their own death? While most people are usually opposed to lying, if they felt their reason for lying was important enough - and if they're willing to die for it then it must be - they could easily overcome that.

I would argue that the average person would lie to preserve their life. Not all, of course, that's a pretty wide stroke to paint many people with.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a dividing point to all humanity, and there are many willing to die on either side of the fence. While it has been contested many times, there is no definitive proof that Jesus was not resurrected, and there is pretty solid evidence that Jesus did die on the cross (as opposed to old age or some other natural cause). We also know that the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus were furious at Christianity, and had a serious campaign to destroy and discredit it, yet it survived. You'd think that with their financial and people resources, they could have recovered a body or exposed Jesus as a fraud.

Trade Wars are Class Wars by Klein and Pettis

I was originally pointed to this book as an answer to my persistent question "I love manufacturing, but it seems like the US economy hates manufacturing, why?" and while it did give me a satisfactory grasp of the macroeconomics involved, it also became my reference for a handful of trade policy / macroeconomic points that are, shall we say, less frequently bubbled up by The Submarine (in reference to the Paul Graham essay).

- Zero to One, Peter Thiel

Always makes me feel that I’m not ambitious enough. And that too many smart people are in the wrong industry (finance).

- The Dip, Seth Godin

Don’t give up. Unless you’re in a cul-de-sac.

- Obviously Awesome, April Dunford

Your competitor is often not who you think it is.

Same here - Zero to one - really inspiring book!

And Lean startup - far too ambitious for me at the moment, but I learned a lot from it.

4 hour work week - I would say it’s more like a fiction book, but still fun to read.

7 habits of highly effective people - it’s saved my life in high school, I knew some parts of it by heart.

I share your taste in books. 7 Habits in particular absolutely changed my life. I’ve always thought that its title doesn’t really do it justice. There is a lot more depth to that book than you’d think based on the title alone. It has helped set my moral compass.

Lean startup is a recent discovery for me - and boy do I wish I’d read it sooner!

Edit: also I highly recommend Stephen Covey’s audiobooks of 7 Habits and First Things First (read by him)

yep, funny how I wanted to post these exact 3 books (should grab the 4th one soon), I've bought them all at once, perhaps we've read the same blog post that recommended them?

The Soul Of A New Machine, by Tracy Kidder - The history of computing fascinates me, and this is one of my favorite books on the topic.

Hackers, by Steven Levy - Again, computing history, and especially relevant to me because I started personal computing in the mid-80s and like reading about the stuff I missed. Levy is always fun to read. There are a lot of good books on the microcomputer revolution, this one is just my favorite.

Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott - It's not just a book about writing, but a book about living. Lamott is a born storyteller, and every one of her non-fiction books is inspiring and highly readable.

On Writing, by Stephen King - I am not a King fan. The only fiction piece he's written I come back to is The Stand. But the story of how he became a writer, and his life as a writer, gives me hope for my own writing. And his advice is valuable; even if I don't like his books, I can't argue with his success.

> The history of computing fascinates me

Have you watched "Halt and Catch Fire?"

Nice selection. Also along computer history lines, I'd recommend Bob Cringely's Accidental Empires.

And/or the 3-part PBS series Triumph of the Nerds, which was based on it and has tons of great interviews with the personal computer pantheon - not just Jobs and Gates and Allen, etc., but MITS people, Intel, the behind-the-scenes people who made the IBM PC, so on. Good stuff even today (the documentary is from ~1995 ish, I think). It's on YT.

Also: On Writing Well by Zinsser. Re-skimming the first few chapters always pulls me in and my writing immediately improves.

Why are most of you just listing books? At least explain why you reread those particular books, that's what's actually valuable here.

I agree that it'd be much more useful if people did that.

Without that information, I assume that the books that are mentioned more than once are the ones that I should look into.

The Foxfire books ever since I was little. It's a series of books documenting traditional skills like crop growing, fiddle making, blacksmithing, plumbing, foraging, cooking, etc. as done by rural people in Appalachia. They contain all kinds of valuable information in them as well as a good source of life skills & fun hobbies. I recommend them to everyone.

Such a great series, and so well-done. I grew up in the heart of Appalachia and am forever grateful to the authors and editors for capturing/preserving so much content and knowledge that would otherwise be lost over generations.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It - Chris Voss

Clear actionable direction on how to negotiate.

It's a good book, but I've read it a few years ago and already forgot most of it. I gather you need to refresh this knowledge just before you negotiate.

I have gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars of value with “would it be ridiculous if”

The ROI on this book is incredible. To be fair, it's easy to get ROI on a $10 book, but I ended up with an extra $40k-ish on a salary negotiations over the years because of some of the details in there. You just need one or two to hit. The hyper specific number idea surprisingly worked for being a pretty goofy concept to me at first.

Not only did these techniques save me money, but they also saved me a considerable amount of time. I've employed these same strategies at work and private to navigate away from requests and projects in which I have no interest.

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch. Has an exceptionally high density of good ideas.

The first time I read it, I didn't love it and only engaged with it superficially. But gradually I began thinking about it more and came back to it, and I read it with more attention. After re-reading it several times I think it is one of the deepest and most important books I have ever read. It has changed how I see the world.

It is probably the most hopeful thing I've ever read and more or less believed. Internalizing parts of it has made almost everything easier to think about. I love the idea that flowers are objectively beautifully.

I read that book and didn't take away anything from it. It left no impression. Maybe it should give it another try. Can you explain why you think it is so good?

Here are some things that I think about often from that book.

* Problems are inevitable, but problems are soluble

* All evils are the result of insufficient knowledge

* Knowledge being the result of trial and error, and there being no such thing as certain knowledge.

* The idea of 'wealth' being the set of all physical transformations you can bring about.

* The thing that distinguishes people from non-general intelligences is the ability to create an endless stream of explanatory knowledge; that is, to have unbounded creativity.

* People are universal explainers; anything that can be understood, we can understand

* If something is permitted by the laws of physics, then the only thing that can prevent it from being technologically possible is not knowing how

* How commitment to knowledge growth entails a commitment to particular moral values (tolerance, openness to being wrong, valuing the truth); objective morality

I love how the ideas support each other and have such tremendous reach (morality, politics, epistemolgy, computing). And it is written very cleanly and lucidly, which perhaps makes it easy to read quickly and miss how dense and deep the ideas actually are.

The War of Art by Pressfield, Natural Meditation by Dean Sluyter, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián are books I often come back to ever couple of years.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián really is a hidden gem

When I reread these, I always pick up some details that I missed in the earlier reads:

- On the shortness of life - Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Growth - Show your work and Steal like an artist - Domain modeling made functional

+1 for Seneca

Wow, this is interesting, very few books I've read more than once! Even fewer are non fiction, but they sure do explain a lot about me:

- Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker helped me process a number of assaults that happened to me as a child

- Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann helped me understand intuitively how databases work and how to use eventual consistency to handle workloads

- The Highly Sensitive Person: How To Thrive when the World Overwhelms You by Elaine Aron this helped me process my and my families neurodivergence.

- Structure And Interpretation of Computer Programs by Ableson and Sussman. Great book, it's how I learned to love Lisp. I felt like I grew 10x in skill from completing all the homework.

- Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe. This is the book that got me into powerlifting as a regular part of my fitness. I used this to heal my back, neck, and wrist pain. Changed my life.

- Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney. The GOAT of plein air painting himself teaches so much about how light works on complex forms. I've dog-eared this book.

- Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux. A great look into how to build and run a self organizing team. Very insightful for when I was leading several teams and needed inspiration for something other than the typical chain of command.

- The Classroom Management Book by Harry Wong. This book taught me so much about how humans work. I still apply lessons from this book 20 years later.

- Real World Haskell by O'Sullivan, Goerzen, Stewart. This taught me a lot about Haskell, and got me into all the neat effects needed to make a function pure but still handle IO/async, etc.

- Peopleware by DeMarco, Lister. My go to book for people management and a philosophy of project management

- Science of Trust: Emotional Attunement for Couples by Gottman. I love this book for teaching me how to be a better spouse and friend.

- The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by Larimore, Lindauer. A great guide to building a permanent portfolio that will return consistent gains with the market. Simple in hindsight, thanks to this book. Best book on investing I've ever read.

- How to Take Smart Notes by Ahrens. Introduces the zettlekasten system for thinking and creativity. Very inspiring, got me to start a personal file that I keep going to this day, five years later.

- Twenty Small Sailboats to Take you Anywhere by Vigor. I read this book over and over, dreaming of buying a small boat and sailing around the world. Maybe this year...

I've heard so many good things about lisp, but unfortunately I've never had a chance to learn it.

Can you share a bit on why you love it

I just get into flow state when working in lisp, more than any other language family.

Running and writing code blended together with a connected REPL is like being jacked into the machine. Imaging how much of an improvement a connected debugger is over reading through logs. This is that much of an improvement over a connected debugger. The code is live running right in the editor all the time. More like magic than debugging.

And then macros, both anaphoric and hygenic, that let you write your own language inside the lisp itself. They should be used extremely sparingly, but when used at the right time it can literally change the language itself to better suit your need.

And then the code itself being a data structure, it all feels so connected, integrated, and unified.

I have never had as much fun as I do when working in Lisps. I haven't done it for money in a while, but maybe one day again.

Let Over Lambda and SICP are what really got me turned into a lifetime lisp lover. By the end of LoL you make a version of Forth inside of lisp! https://letoverlambda.com/

I'm about to reread Nixon Agonistes. It's always relevant, but in a year that has come eerily to resemble 1968, it's especially so.

More about the book here: https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/11/gary_willss_nix.html

Walden, in which the author, Henry David Thoreau, builds a cabin in the woods and lives there for two years, two months, and two days. He gives up many of modern life’s luxuries and makes some incredibly profound observations on how much unnecessary bloat we have in modern life. It was published in 1854 yet remains relevant.

Henry David Thoreau was part of the Transcendentalist movement, so the book reflects a lot of that philosophy. I am revisiting it after first reading it a decade ago and am finding it really fascinating now that I’m older and have spent a bit of time in the workforce and in society.

You may also enjoy a modern-ish take on this from Zoro's Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.

I've re-read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie so many times. It is now my comfort book. I’m on a quest to have a list of less than 10 of the best books I can re-read, recommend to others - https://brajeshwar.com/books/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influen...

"Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. About Adams and Carwardine travelling the world to document several animals on the brink of extinction (by then 1988). Very entertaining and raising questions about the responsibility of human globalization. An all-time favourite.

"Never In Anger" by Jean Briggs. About her living 17 months among Inuit in the 1970ies, documenting how the Inuit see emotions and raise their children without any shouting or violence.

"Shots in the Dark - Japan, Zen, and the West" by Shōji Yamada. About the culture exchange between Japan and the West in the early 20th century and how several perceptions of Zen got constructed in the process.

"Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstaedter. About core ideas in logic, music and art, and their connections. I always find something new there.

"In Praise of Mastery" / "芸談" by Tanizaki Jun’ichirō. An essay about the japanese pursuit of mastery. It's a fascinating window into the arts perception in late 19th century Japan.

Webster's Dictionary of 1913. A great resource for looking up original meanings of words. I find it very useful for naming stuff in programming.

"Woe Is I" by Patricia O'Conner. A witty grammar book. O'Conner's entertaining style makes it easy to grasp the grammar topics and come back for more.

The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times - Rene Guenon (1945).

An esoteric book that summarises everything as a direction which moves away from quality and towards quantity. Here is an excerpt that uses this system to analyse modern workplace anonymity:

"[...] tendency to uniformity demands that individuals shall be treated as mere numerical 'units', thus realizing equality by a leveling down, for that is the only direction in which equality can be reached 'in the limit' [...] Anyone who wonders what happens to the individual in such conditions will find that [...] he is so to speak reduced to his substantial aspect, and this amounts to saying that he becomes scarcely more than [...] 'a body without a soul'. From such an individual the qualitative or essential aspect has indeed almost disappeared ('almost', because the limit can never actually be reached); and [...] the individual really no longer has any 'name' that belongs to him, because he is emptied of the qualities which that name should express; he is thus really 'anonymous', but in the inferior sense of the word. This is the anonymity of the 'masses' of which the individual is part and in which he loses himself, those 'masses' that are no more than a collection of similar individuals, regarded purely and simply as so many arithmetical 'units'. 'Units' of that sort can be counted, and the collectivity they make up can thus be numerically evaluated, the result being by definition only a quantity; but in no way can each one of them be given a denomination indicating that he is distinguished from the others by some qualitative difference."

"The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work" by Gottman. It's not the best writing in the world yet it's based on 50 years of actual research.

"Peopleware" by Tom DeMarco. It's a book every manager should read about how, maybe, you can create a team that jells.

"The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker. Examines the necessities of knowledge work. What every manager and employee should read.

Thinking Forth. It's one of the few nonfiction books I've actually read completely, let alone revisited.

I used to look at dictionaries and a few reference books fairly often, but these days I use dictd and chop up the electronic versions of the reference books and pull up the page I'm looking for from the command line when I can.

Systemantics by John Gall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics

Amazing book

Yeah, I re-read it every once in a while to feel like "it's not just me; everything really is messed up".

Every year, I come back to "On The Shortness of Life" by Seneca to ground myself to the fact that life keeps on happening and I have to remind myself that life is long enough if I think about it...

The historical context behind why that was written is also quite interesting (supposedly to let his father-in-law save face when retiring early).

Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez is a personal favorite. I re-read every year or so to make sure I'm thinking about my real personal goals. It also makes me trim the fat from my personal budget again each time I read.

I used it to prepare for retirement. The investment in T-bills is not the sole strategy they proposed but the basic ideas are solid.

> The investment in T-bills is not the sole strategy they proposed but the basic ideas are solid.

Agreed. They actually updated their stance in their second edition that was published in 2017 since Vicki acknowledges that their advice was only relevant when it was originally published. They lean more towards index funds now.

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman. It’s a great read about early scribe practices and known problems with different manuscript translations in the New Testament.

I've not personally read "Misquoting Jesus", but I've listened to Ehrman on YT a bit. Based on that, and having spoken with a few biblical scholars who have read Ehrman, the general impression I get is that he has a "select is broken"[0] attitude toward the reliability of the Bible.

Much like GCC, and the Linux kernel, and the PostgreSQL query planner, the Bible is a battle-tested historical artifact. There may be a slew of yet-to-be-discovered "edge cases" in its interpretation (and perhaps Ehrman is the man to discover them). But in the main, it's an incredibly reliable witness to history.

So, while I wouldn't want to discourage people from starting their study of Biblical textual criticism with Bart Ehrman, I would definitely discourage them from concluding it with him.

    The one who states his case first seems right,
      until the other comes and examines him.
    Prov. 18:17

[0]: https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-first-rule-of-programming-...

I think you are making the opposite error that you're accusing Ehrman of making, specifically that you seem to be taking (what survived of) the Bible at it's word, putting the benefit of the doubt on everyone/everything else to disprove it, rather than giving it the burden of proof on its claims. You seem to be giving it more credibilty because it is old, but there are plenty of similar aged or older books that are clearly not accurate/true just because they are old and can't be disproven. If that's your standard, then you must also accept the existence of a lot of Pagan gods as well. Even if we just limit it to "the Bible" then you have to accept that Asherah and other early Hebrew gods really existed, and had priests and prophets capable of doing miracles and curses/blessings, etc.

Of course there is historically accurate stuff in the Bible, but there's also a ton of supernatural claims that can't be proven or disproven (aka they are non-falsifiable). For that matter The Odyssey has survived a long time and has some accurate historical things in it, but we don't take the Odyssey's stories about supernatural things at face value.

It's also not hard to show that The Bible is not historically reliable just by comparing different sections of it that contradict each other.

For example, what were Jesus' last words on the cross? Mark, Luke, and John all disagree on this and have different words. They can't all be his last words.

What day did he actually die? Was it the day after passover as in Mark, or the day before as in John?[1]

We absolutely agree though on reading lots of perspectives on it. There is no shortage of PhDs who debate these things, so at the end of the day you'll have to either choose the stay agnostic on it, or go with what seems "most likely" to you.

[1]: https://ehrmanblog.org/why-have-i-stopped-explaining-how-i-l...

> But in the main, it's an incredibly reliable witness to history.

Crazy that historians don't seem to believe that right?

For the last several years, I've kicked off my annual book list by re-reading Ben Franklin's _Autobiography_. I just love the conversational tone and how wide-ranging it is, and there's a surprising amount of still-practical day-to-day advice in there.

Honorable mention to _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ (I agree with other comments that earlier editions are better) and _Getting Things Done_.

Thanks for starting this thread! Lots of good recommendations here.

Offhand I can think of a few that I've read at least 2-3 times. And in a couple of cases, maybe as many as 4 or 5 times. There are probably some others that just aren't jumping to mind, but suffice it to say that these are all books I've found very valuable.

The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank

The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky

Mastering the Complex Sale - Jeff Thull

How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

> The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

I read this book a long time ago ... 2006, I think? I should re-read it. And read the author's sequel books to it.

Out of curiosity, would you say your understanding changed or deepened upon re-reading it?

> Out of curiosity, would you say your understanding changed or deepened upon re-reading it?

It's hard to do justice to that in a few words. I think I had a different reason for reading it the second time, as opposed to the first time.

The first time around, I think I was more reading it because I like to think of myself as an educated, scientific-minded person, and it was one of "those books" that any self-respecting "educated, scientific-minded person" was sort of "supposed to" have read. That and I was mentally already in a place somewhere in the nether regions between "agnostic" and "atheist" and I knew of Dawkins as a strong advocate for atheist thinking, and I guess I was looking for something that might convince me one way or the other. Or maybe that's just post-hoc rationalization on my part, but that's what I felt like I found. I felt much better about just calling myself an atheist after reading the book.

Anyway... one thing I was struck by though, was his discussion of things like kin altruism and reciprocal altruism and some of the game theoretical stuff, including mentions of Robert Axelrod and his research. So the second time I read the book, I was really looking to focus more on those sections, and take notes and do some further research. And all of that was really driven by my interest in evolutionary computing / genetic algorithms / etc. and a thought that I might find something there that I could apply to those areas. I wound up buying Axelrod's book The Evolution of Cooperation, but I sadly have not quite gotten around to reading it yet.

> And read the author's sequel books to it.

I've also read The Blind Watchmaker twice, although that was sort of by accident. I forgot I'd already read it, and I was moderately deep into the second read before I realized I'd read it before. It was worth it though.

I still have Climbing Mount Improbable, The God Delusion, The Ancestor's Tale, and a couple of other Dawkins books queued up to read as well.

For me is

the psychology of money

getting things done, first edition

How to Win Friends and Influence People (Unfortunate title for one of the best books on plain common sense when it comes to interacting with people)

  getting things done, first edition

Is the first edition better than the newer ones?

"The one book we encourage startup founders to read is Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's critically important for anyone in business. Try to get a used copy printed before the 1960s; after Carnegie died, the book continued to be "updated" by a committee, and the changes were not for the better."

https://paulgraham.com/startupfaq.html

Yes, the second edition is much longer and adds nothing of value.

This

>>> Unfortunate title for one of the best books on plain common sense when it comes to interacting with people)

Many say the same of the infamous “the art of the deal” from Donald J Trump” in 1989.

He, (pretty much), defines a base framework he still follows himself vehemently, today.

The way he executes today becomes a little less exciting, imo, each time he takes over headlines.

He didn't actually write it.

"Who Am I?" by Ramana Maharshi

This has been in my audible wish list forever but I haven't pulled the trigger. Thanks for the nudge, will try it!

Happy by Derren Brown - not a self help book, more an introduction to classical Greek and Roman philosophy framed around stoicism and a dash of Epicureanism. While it does include mental exercises you can do to aid in a stoic sense of self, I've never found the need to do them, but have definitely become more stoic, and by extension happier, as a result of reading it.

"The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America", by Daniel Boorstin

Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum. It's a true classic.

Weizenbaum wrote the first AI chat program, Eliza, sixty years ago. I read his book shortly after it came out in 1976, and several times since, most recently last year after ChatGPT etc. arrived. I was impressed again how pertinent and prescient it is.

A fifty year old book about AI is still relevant because it is mostly about peoples' motivations for building and using AI, their expectations for it, and their responses to it. These haven't changed in fifty years and don't depend on the technology in the AI, or what it can actually do.

Weizenbaum recognizes that making and using computer technology has moral and ethical consequences and isn't afraid to say so. He argues that computers should not be used for some purposes, whether or not they can be made to work.

Atomic Habits.

It's a simple book that can be summarized in an essay, but listening to it repeatedly while driving helps me keep my life on track.

I highly recommend James Clear's first appearance on the Rich Roll podcast. Him speaking about the book is a lift.

Seems like a great idea/book, but I've never managed to make any of the advice work, despite trying pretty hard. I suspect this has something to do with having ADHD. In general there are a ton of productivity books out there that seem to be great advice, but are missing some steps that make it possible to implement for some people with ADHD.

In the same category, I also love the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, but also haven't gotten much real world traction from it.

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg might be a better book for you. The key to building habits is to start with a habit that is ridiculously small and once you feel like you've got that locked in, you can add another ridiculously small habit on top of it.

e.g. To build a flossing habit, floss just one tooth a day. Once you've got into the habit of pulling out floss and flossing just one tooth, you can move onto flossing two teeth and so on.

If at any point you feel resistance to doing the bigger habit you're trying to build up, you can always revert back to doing the initial tiny habit of flossing just one tooth.

I think there needs to be some feedback that the goal is sustainable, one tooth a day to an adhd mind is just as bad as not doing anything as it's still a very tall staircase to climb. Too granular a step

There is a reward at the end. That is an important requirement for this method.

It’s easy to try this out in a little more structured way and with assistance. Tiny habits [1] has a free five day program where you can try it and seek assistance from a person trained in this method. I tried it and it didn’t really stick for me, but I wouldn’t say that it was a total waste of my time. I could relate to the advice and I plan to read the book sometime.

[1]: https://tinyhabits.com

I'll take a look at it, but after years of basically trying every productivity hack and book on the planet with no success, I've decided to mostly limit myself to productivity tools written by and for people with ADHD. Is there a specific reason you think this version is more effective with ADHD?

A small habit isn't easier for me, because the difficulty of the task isn't the obstacle: I simply don't seem to have the part of the brain other people have, where they can choose what they are going to be doing.

It feels sort of like people are trying to tell me I could just walk through a doorway if I exercised a tiny bit to get in good enough shape to just walk a few feet like they do... but actually I have a brick wall where everyone else has a doorway, and I'm already 10 times stronger than they are from trying to push against a solid brick wall for years, but still can't walk through a brick wall.

Has someone properly summarized Atomic Habits in an essay or perhaps a podcast episode? I'd rather just read an essay or listen to an episode repeatedly.

Funny you'd mention it; I write summaries of most non-fiction books I read and Atomic Habits stood out in particular in that its summary runs only about a single page. I reproduce it here, though you may want to copy it into something that can render markdown. (On a side note, I every so often mourn the fact that there seems to be no market for concise books. I think the publishers are right about this, padding really does increase their profit and makes it easier to justify the price of a book to the average buyer. Still, many books would just be way better books if they were one fifth as long.):

# Identity

There are only two possible foundations for long-term behavioural change: 1. a re-prioritisation of personal values 2. a substitution of an existing behavior $X$, which is based on a personal value $V$, with a different behavior $Y$, which is also based on $V$.

# Dealing with Existing Habits

Before we can effectively build new habits, we need to get a handle on our current ones. All habits serve you in some way—even the bad ones—which is why you repeat them.

# Implementation Intentions

Implementation intentions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementation_intention) have been empirically shown to be effective. The idea behind implementation intentions is to eliminate ambiguity. Explicitly write down WHEN and WHERE you will do WHAT.

Write down a list of implementation intentions for all habits you wish to develop.

# Three Layers of Behavior Change

1. Identity 2. Process 3. Outcome

Identity is what you believe, process is what you do, outcome is what you get. Systems lead to outcomes.

# Four Steps of Habit Formation

1. Cue (triggers behavior) 2. Craving (desired change of state) 3. Response (behavior performed to achieve change of state) 4. Reward (outcome delivered by response)

Of these four, only cues can reliably be manipulated. Design your environment around the habits you wish to develop. The two most common cues are time and location.

## Breaking Habits

1. Remove the cues from the environment. 2. Expose how the bad habit inadequately addresses the underlying motive that caused its formation. Clearly describe the negative consequences of the habit in writing. 3. Replace the bad habit with a good one that more effectively addresses the underlying motive.

# Habit Scorecard

You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them. To create your scorecard, write down everything you do for an entire day. At the end of the day, mark each behavior as either bad, neutral, or good.

# Underlying Motives

* *Reducing uncertainty* * Conserve energy * Social bonding * Social approval

Cravings are arbitrary manifestations of underlying motives. Evolution hasn't set up our brain to reward e.g. playing video games in particular. But it did set up our brain to reward a reduction in uncertainty. Products and services don't create fundamentally new motives, they latch on to existing ones.

# Miscellaneous

Without good health habits, you will always seem to be short on energy.

It is easier to associate a new habit with a new context, than to build a new habit in the face of competing cues.

You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it. This means that trying to resist temptation is an ineffective strategy. In the short-run, you can choose to overpower temptation. In the long-run, environmental cues overpower you.

Every day has multiple decisive moments, where split-second decisions decide how you will spend the next one to three hours. It's easier to continue what you are doing than to start it.

In deliberate thoughts, as well as in speech, always use formulations of the form "I go for a run", not "I have to go for a run", regardless of how you feel about it.

Every habit is about overcoming obstacles to get what you want. You don't want the habit itself, you want what it delivers.

Thank you for taking the time to leave this comment. Saved this and it's so good!

I know you're anon, but I'd love to read the rest of your summaries.

complete summary here - great stuff: https://www.chrisbehan.ca/posts/atomic-habits

Energy Systems: A Very Short Introduction by Nick Jenkins (2019) Oxford University Press.

I am very interested in figuring out how to reduce the cost of energy and given my background is only in CS and Economics, I frequently have to reference texts like this until I have a better understanding to move beyond

"Range: How generalists triumph in a specialized world" "How to win friends and influence people" "The History of Western Philosophy" Russell...though the Anthony Kenny series is at least as good. "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" open at any page and there is an interesting story.

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

Letting Go - David R Hawkins

Both books provide amazing reminders for the best ways to approach life and handle stress.

Atomic Habits by James Clear - The art of showing up has been effective and it worked for me.

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy - You get what you've put your soul into

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - I love the storytelling by the author, you can hear Phil telling this story himself.

The Discourses of Epictetus - This is useful to re-read frequently while thinking about any new challenges in my life, as these are powerful tools for managing hardship and generally living well.

When I say no, I feel guilty by Manuel J. Smith - a book on assertive and non-manipulative communication. This has been incredibly valuable for improving my personal relationships and work. It's also allowed me to recognize and defend myself against emotional manipulation, which is more common than I realized. For many people that is the main way they communicate- by trying to control others with guilt through manipulation.. and I used to be both unaware and extremely vulnerable to it. It is useful to re-read and practice frequently, as these are skills that require practice.

Zero to one

The lean startup

The 4-hour workweek

The subtle art of not giving a f*ck

What I've found out, biographies are the best thing for me because I always want to know what happens next, but I also learn invaluable lessons from the biographee (just googled this term now and it exists!), so it's a nice mix of story and self-help

- Antifragile

- Masters of Doom

- Atomic Habits

- How to Read a Book

- Books by Austin Kleon

I'm sure i'll remember more, but these were the ones that popped into my head. I'm trying to switch it up a little and start reading older books and get hooked so that I'm can reread those.

Sorry for the offtopicness:

I can't reply to the emails you've been sending because the replies keep bouncing. Can you try emailing hn@ycombinator.com from a different address?

Profiles in Courage by JFK (probably ghost written)

I go back to the section on Daniel Webster and the compromise of 1850 a lot. It always stuck with me how much courage it took to advocate for compromise and peace rather than head into a civil war.

The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday

Holiday, in most of his books, makes stoic philosophy relatable and gives examples of we'd be familiar with in modern day. It's a fairly easy read, and I gift it the most as well.

As a software engineer, I found his less popular book Perennial Seller to also be very good. It describes his writing style, which honestly is very similar to coding, but also talks about his approach to marketing his books, which drives the content.

Play Bigger by Al Ramadan (and a few others) which talks about category design. I haven't tried their newer books, but I'm somewhat tempted.

In no particular order...

0. Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony, by Akio Morita, Edwin M. Reingold, Mitsuko Shimomura

1. The Practice of Programming (TPOP) , by Brian W. Kernighan, Rob Pike

2. Wings of Fire, by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari

I think Xenophon's Anabasis is an excellent treatise on leadership and crisis management, and his Hellenica is also a great look at the sources of and risks to moral authority.

Black Swan by Nassim Taleb

* On Liberty - John Stuart Mills

* 6 Meditations - Rene Descartes

I find it strange when people recommend censorship and somehow equate that to advancing democratic norms. Most recently I saw such perverted absurdities here on HN when Israelis users were justifying the expulsion of unfriendly news media. I cannot help but go back to Mills.

The Bhagavad Gita

Likewise![1] I apply it to all aspects of life and also whatever book[2] I read, I end up seeing something from the Gita in there. (or a movie or song).

[1] https://krishna2.com/bg [2] https://krishna2.com/books

To offer a counter opinion, the post did say "Non-Fictional". I jest.

One of the best. So much wisdom. I try to read a chapter a day. Amazing.

Bible is one of few obvious choices of foundational books.

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti: a good introduction to radical pessimism. If you get into it, it's a good idea to move on to Eugene Thacker, whose writing is deeper and less polemical.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972 by Hunter S. Thompson: gives a better understanding of the political contexts that led to our current politics. Somehow, we keep re-living this election over and over again.

I've read and adored a lot of Thomas Ligotti's fictional works—I think this comment will finally push me to read The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Thanks for sharing some additional reading to consider too.

At least from what I've read from Ligotti, he has such a hauntingly poetic way to touch on the horrors of the mundane.

Thanks for sharing :)

The Myth of Sisyphus By Albert Camus. A great philosophy book, not that hard to read, about the absurdity of life. Camus talks about suicide in this context, and why life still has meaning despite its absurdity. The Art of Not Giving A Fuck by Mark Manson. As the title implies, it talks about caring less about what other think (while not being a narcissist). And how it can make you more happy and more likeable.

I feel like those are related.

The Structure of World History, Karatani

Jacques Barzun - From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present (2001)

The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1864)

Intellectuals By Paul Johnson

Daniel J. Boorstin - The Discoverers

The Great Courses - The Industrial Revolution (audiobook/lectures)

Decline of the West - Spengler

Statistical Mechanics by Pathria. Every read teaches me something new and reminds me how little I know.

I am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj. Recorded discourses with him, in q&a format.

This is the most powerful spiritual text I’ve encountered to date. Instantly places me in a state of deep understanding. I open it on a weekly basis.

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William Irvine is great. I read it a couple of years ago and just recently listened to the audiobook. It definitely gives you a different perspective on how to approach life.

Most gave been mentioned, but as they probably won't be I'll include these:

- The Extended Circle - an Anthology of Humane Thought by Jon Wynne Tyson

- Letters from the Desert by Carlo Carretto

1. The Wellness Sense - Om Swami

2. The subtle art of not giving a f*ck - Mark Manson

There are a few more but these are the actual killers.

"A History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

The Mental Game of Poker

Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation by Jonathan Kozol

Growing up in a sheltered middle-class home, it was my first awakening to 'the real world'

How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie. Influence - Robert Cialdini.

Like it or not, we enter into "adversarial" situations every day.

The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

That’s fiction.

Wait, WAS IT ALL LIES??????

Isaacson's Steve Jobs. It's incredibly well executed in terms of writing and structure. A piece of art.

As an incredible addition to that, I would strongly recommend listening to the two-part (he couldn't get it done in one) hypercritical podcast with John Siracusa. I definitely enjoyed the book - but it's useful to get the insight from those who are, shall we say, very deep in the weeds just to center our understanding.

https://medium.com/hyperlinked/john-siracusa-tells-us-what-i...

I can usually pick up any Michael Lewis book and be entertained even if it's the 5th timing reading it.

Garner's Modern American Usage.

The Incerto by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

I don't generally read nonfiction related to or targeted at start ups/tech/silicon valley/self help kinda stuff.

James Rhodes' (pianist) books 'Instrumental' and 'Fire on All Sides' (both memoirs) are, well, I hesitate to call them 'comfort reads' because they are harrowing. They're comforting in the sense that he brings to light some extremely confronting things (take the content warnings seriously!) and does it with earnestness, a deep desire to educate, a brilliant sense of humour, and despite never having gone through any of the things he has, the books are somehow extremely relatable. His passion for music is contagious as well.

As for general things I keep coming back to? Pretty much everything Bertrand Russell wrote. Mark Fisher, Judith Butler, too. Lots of Ancient Greek chaps, of course. Lots of philosophy.

I do sometimes read 'idiomatic <programming language>' type books for languages I'll probably never use. It's not all that impactful when not actually trying to program in the language but they're usually well written, interesting, and the ideas/philosophies/approaches to programming for the language can be valuable.

I don't tend to reread many books in general. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien's fictional series are probably the only exceptions. However, I do frequently reread books from the Bible, typically the English Standard Version. And yes, I would make the claim that all of these are non-fictional books/letters.

- Jonah: for its description of God's desire to have compassion on a group of people who don't know him, by leaving Jonah with no other option than telling those people about Him.

- Ecclesiastes: For "The Teacher's" many vignettes about how life is a quickly-dissipating vapor, and his pointing to ways to find satisfaction in it.

- Mark: Mark tells the story of Jesus' life and ministry in a no-nonsense, get-to-the-point kind of way.

- Romans: Paul gives a treatise on: the main problem of mankind, the inability of men to live up to any standard of behavior, the source of any confidence that anyone can have that God might be pleased with them, the way the Christian church relates to the people of Israel, and how to live in unity with people with whom you have disagreements.

- 1 John: John never got over the fact that he was loved by Jesus, and this letter is his recapitulation of that same love toward others.

[Jonah]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah%201&versi...

[Ecclesiastes]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+1&...

[Mark]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1&version=...

[Romans]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1&versio...

[1 John]: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1&versio...

Ah, an ESV brother. Great selection of books!

My Life, by Isadora Duncan

I have meditations, letters from a stoic and discourses on rotation.

Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

Timeless advice on money and life management

1984 by George Orwell

PeopleWare. I read it and then re-read it every year.

folklore.org - Anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh, and the people who made it (123 stories), A. Hertzfeld

The Conquest of Bread - Kropotkin

seneca's letters from a stoic, marcus aurelius' meditations, the pragmatic programmer by david thomas & andrew hunt

Look up other writings by Seneca, e.g. On Peace of Mind. They are great too!

Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant.

If you know you know.

The Bastiat Collection. Emerson's essays.

Joe Studwell - How Asia works, and all Nick Lane.

The first is, despite its name, a manual for countries on how to win at capitalism. A must read to understand what works and what doesn't in macroeconomics.

About Nick Lane, he's an English biochemist working on cutting-edge investigation regarding the cell and origin of life. His work is very deep and leaves me with a sense of awe, of what nature and natural selection has 'built' and why life is the way it is.

The Culture Code - Daniel Coyle

"Chanakya Niti"- best for Leadership/Business/DecisionMaking/Life overall

The Rama Charit Manasa

Bhagavatam

Bhagavad Gita

Chaitanya Caritamrta

Mahabharata

The Alignment Problem

"White Line Fever"

    If the stars fall down on me
    And the sun refused to shine
    Then may the shackles be undone
    May all the old words cease to rhyme
    If the sky turned into stone
    It will matter not at all
    For there is no Heaven in the sky
    Hell does not wait for our downfall

Honestly? Probably some kind of user manual, technical reference or cookbook.

Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer"

Cicero's "How to Grow Old"

John Derbyshire's "Prime Obsession"

The Coming of Neo-Feudalism - Joel Kotkin (its a brainful)

Algorithns to live by - Brian Christian

Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel khaneman

The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom - James Burnham

> Algorithms to live by - Brian Christian [and Tom Griffiths]

I think it would have been very difficult for Brian Christian alone to produce Algorithms to Live by: Tom Griffiths must have had a very strong presence in it.

It was Tom to give the "appetizer" presentation at TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/tom_griffiths_3_ways_to_make_bette...

By the way, I see that Brian Christian has published a The Alignment Problem - Machine Learning and Human Values, https://brianchristian.org/the-alignment-problem/

Has anyone read it?

Could you provide a summary of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism?

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