Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. I delayed for too long reading this thrilling book. It was like getting a brain massage. So many wonderful lessons in rational thinking packed into a truly enjoyable and memorable story.
In response to some questions:
It's not a kids book. It's a fan-fiction inspired by the original books, but written with adults in mind.
I second this, it changed how I think in way other books have not. How I look at life, death and problems in general. It sounds dramatic but it really did change my life.
Note to new readers: it's written so well, it's actually very easy to underestimate. Quite a few things which seem to be weaknesses are very much on purpose (main character's personality is one of them). I could go on but it's not at all a spoiler-friendly book - suffices to say that at some point the author posted the equivalent of "are you daft?!" to the readers in the book notes.
You may also want to take a peek at the Contents. The plot will catch you too fast to notice, but most parts of the book are meant to teach a certain lesson. And yes, there exists the no-fiction version, but it's quite a bit longer and drier :)
Not at all. You'll miss a few jokes and some trolling about the original ("Canon" in fanfiction speak), but that's it.
Regarding Harry Potter, I advice reading the 6th book, as it really stands on its own. You will be able to understand the success of the serial while enjoying a nice novel. You won't be lost as the author keeps explaining what happened a few books ago.
No. The first book is targeted at that age maybe, but I wouldn't read book three to a twelve year old, and five or six get really nasty.
Stephen King put it this way in his review: Harry Potter books are meant to grow up with the child, while many other childrens' books series target a specific age range.
Today you can buy and read all Harry Potter books at once, but it's actually best to follow the release times and keep a year or so between books, if the child is younger.
It's a great book, however it creates one problem, when all of the advice is implemented. It makes you a perfect listener, but doesn't mention the imbalance it can cause.
There is a lot of debate as to the accuracy and provenance of Meditations. It wasn’t really directly mentioned until the 10th century and it is unknown how true to anything Marcus said our current edition is.
Lord of the Rings. Read it in 3 days (afternoons after school and evenings to late nights), felt... alive/awaken, during and after reading it. I was maybe 12 years old.
1984. First real sense of society at large, totalitarianism, and other "grown-up" stuff. I was maybe 12 or 13.
Brave New World. Same as 1984, except I was maybe 14 or 15.
1491 and 1493. Amazing way to deeply understand history, and completely new perspectives on America pre and post Columbus.
The Pillars of the Earth. First time a novel captured me so deeply, in terms of sense of history, and sense of other people's lives.
Then, various novels, mostly from Italian authors (I grew up in Italy).
I've read 1984 and Brave New World. In a lot of ways I think the warnings in A Brave New World are much more subtle in some ways. The "fixes" they come up with in the book for an ailing society are very similar to what people have waded into now. A Brave New World is probably a bigger warning to society than 1984 in many ways.
Bear with me on this. It was a bridge into politics, ecology, religion, and economics, as well as an amazing world-building narrative. It got me interested in philosophy and literature, and the roles they play in creating, describing, or influencing cultures. It is my keystone book.
I wouldn't say it's THAT influential. It's a very good SF book though. Too much SF and fantasy writing is dorks geeking out on space travel or witchcraft or whatever, with very little literary quality in the writing itself. Dune bucks that sad trend.
- "The Defining Decade: Why Your 20's Matter and How to Make The Most of Them Now": it motivated me to find a fulfilling a career in tech (among other things).
- "On the Shortness of Life" (Seneca) - Really made me take a hard look at my life, for the better.
- "Eat and Run" - Interesting read about an Ultramarathoner. Inspired me to find the motivation for doing "tough things" in general.
Defining your life and happiness by measuring professional success is a very likely way to be unhappy. I'd recommend ignoring the book and live your life in whatever way brings meaning to you.
Have read the book, took most of the advice, have gone trilingual, have gone fit and healthy, reached 6 digit salary, gone on most of the places I wanted to visit. Im almost done with 20s. Still feel lost as hell
Would the first book be valuable for someone in their late 20's? I'm fairly happy with what I've done this decade, but maybe I could apply the relevant stuff to my 30s...
I really enjoyed the book (although I read when I was well beyond the recommended age group). I wrote about it a while ago [1], and I think it can be still valuable for someone in their 30s (or, if you have kids, it will be valuable for them one day).
Short answer: yes, and even if you were in your 30s.
Long answer: the sooner you read it the better, but any time is better than never. There was a great metaphor early in the book, actually. I don't have a copy on hand so to paraphrase: your life is like a cross-continent flight. If you want to change your destination, earlier on is better--the plane need only make a slight adjustment at the beginning to alter its trajectory significantly. Closer to the end, and you gotta make a pretty sharp turn.
It's not the perfect metaphor but for me personally it really resonated.
Especially if you're fairly happy at your late 20's, any adjustments you might discover you want to make probably aren't that far off :)
Just don't try to implement the things outlined there. Graham, in the last published interview he gave (Financial Analysts Journal, 1976), said:
>> In selecting the common stock portfolio, do you advise careful study of and selectivity among different issues?
> In general, no. I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities. This was a rewarding activity, say, 40 years ago, when our textbook "Graham and Dodd" was first published; but the situation has changed a great deal since then. In the old days any well-trained security analyst could do a good professional job of selecting undervalued issues through detailed studies; but in the light of the enormous amount of research now being carried on, I doubt whether in most cases such extensive efforts will generate sufficiently superior selections to justify their cost. To that very limited extent I'm on the side of the "efficient market" school of thought now generally accepted by the professors.
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality.
By Max Tegmark
It changed my perspective of everything. It could be existential crisis fuel too, but ultimately it's trying to answer what's our reality. At the same time is an autobiographical book from a scientist and the history of Cosmology.
It's considered one of the founding books of the secular Buddhist movement. Not only did it open me up to the depths of the meditative path as a therapeutic practice (rather than religious practice), but it inspired me to complete a university degree in Religious Studies.
This is the first book that gave me a thorough insight into philosophy. Completely changed my worldview. I reread chapters from it everyday. It has become my bible.
The Incerto strictly focuses on the practical applications of stoic philosophy.
2. All books by Dan Brown
The Dan Brown books got me in to reading for fun. While some people may regard his books as thrillers, I consider them hard science fiction. I owe him my reading culture.
3. The age of intelligent machines.
4. The singularity is near.
5. The age of spiritual machines.
... all the above by Raymond Kurzweil
Moral Politics, by George Lakoff: this book offered a new perspective on not just the discussion and language of politics, but sent me down the rabbit hole of cognitive linguistics and "embedded mind" in books he authored or co-authored, such as "Metaphors We Live By", "Philosophy in the Flesh", and "Where Mathematics Comes From".
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond: Gave me a deeper insight into the geographic underpinnings of civilization and history, and how available resources and climate allowed some early settlements to grow into mighty empires, while others struggled to subsist. It also improved my Civilization 3 game playing. ;)
The Language of Mathematics by Keith Devlin: Sparked a renewed interest in mathematics through historical narratives of the development of our number systems, mathematicians and numerous mathematical topics.
The Code Book by Simon Singh: Kicked off my historical and professional interest in cryptography and keeping secrets.
Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi: Showed me how to make the best use of every minute, especially waiting at bus/train stops, and helped me recognize what I really like doing.
Notably, GGS is not held in especially high esteem by academic historians. If you are interested in a widely loved piece of geographic history, Braudel's The Mediterranean is considered a classic.
I started reading "Metaphors We Live By" after reading your comment because I thought it had a cool-sounding title. It's so interesting! I'll have to take a look at the others in your list too
I know people like to hate on it, but "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferris. It made starting a company feel accessible and prompted me to quit my first "real" job to try building something. I've since gone back to "real" jobs but the plausibility of starting a company has stuck with me.
This is going to be an unusual answer for this forum, but... the Harry Potter series
Firstly, I read it as a kid, in my formative years, when it was most likely to have an impression on me.
But I remember reading the books and feeling completely enraptured by this magical world. I also remember feeling a a bit annoyed at what I perceived as Harry's laziness and ingratitude! I would think "if I was him, I would spend all my days in the library, learning all the coolest spells, potions etc., and make the most of all this magical power"
As an adult, this has unintentionally become the frame through which I view my job as a programmer. You can call me a romantic, but I've been doing this for years and I still think it's wonderful. At any time I can open a book or a man page and learn some amazing new spells.
With our computers, we _all_ have access to magic, it's just about learning to use it.
This is how I've explained programming to friends and family. It's like I got my letter to Hogwarts and I've been learning magic ever since. I get to make something real out of nothing, just by spending time learning how things work and working on the craft of using that knowledge. That's magic to both 11 year old me and and 32 year old me.
The Histories by Herodotus was life changing for me (see my handle!). But, be aware that it has to be a good translation: the online free ones are not the ones you should read.
Why? Because until I read it my only other experience with writing of that era was the bible readings from when I attended synagogue (before I realized that there was no god). I always found the bible stuff strange, but I forgave it, because I thought that people were just like that at that time in human history. Well, Herodotus changed my mind. He is brilliant, skeptical, humorous, and inquisitive. Attributes that, until I read the book, I somehow thought belonged to we moderns. Now I know how wrong I was, and I think about things differently.
It is obvious in hindsight but it was a revelation for me that the ancients were not idiots/have something to teach us, and how little progress there is in a non-technological sphere since then (e.g., political social issues from many 100s years ago are still relatable or the stoics wisdom is still applicable at the personal level)
Well, we genuinely do have a far better understanding of the natural world than the ancients. Many practical problems they faced have been effectively solved by technology, like food scarcity, communication, transportation etc. To me it seems more surprising that there hasn't been similar progress in our understanding of society and the human condition. We're still struggling with most of the same issues they were.
That is mostly my point. What conclusion can you actually make about any other society, current or historical, on the basis of "our practical problems being mostly solved by technology"?
I think the danger in this focus on technology now is that it is so easy to dismiss anything at all that ancient Greeks or whomever said as not even simply wrong but even trivial and unworthy of being studied.
Of course I used to dismiss most earlier writings as well. What could they possibly teach me, after all everything is so advanced now? This kind of attitude being widespread and I think entailed in most modern science talk (as an unspoken and easy conclusion that mostly never becomes explicit) is part of the reason we struggle with the same issues as you say.
The logic why I thought so is simple: I'd read Aristotle views on physics initially (complete garbage) and assumed if one part (that I can easily verify) is garbage, then other parts (that are not so easily verifiable) are likely to be garbage too.
If I see something wrong published on the topic that I know well, I assume that the quality of the content from the same source is not any better for the topics I don't know.
It is a good general principle but the heuristics/shortcut doesn't work sometimes.
May I recommend reading them in their original languages?
It becomes impossible to truly appreciate a completely different culture, and way of thinking and seeing the world, when it's being tortuously twisted to fit into the "English" way.
It's like reading Bulgakov's The Master and the Margarita in anything but Russian; or Clauswitz's On War in anything but German; or Homer's Iliad in anything but Ancient Greek.
In the first, you lose the raw emotion of the Russian language. In the second, you lose the exacting precision of the German language. And in the last, you lose the sublime beauty of the Ancient Greek language.
Naval always comes off as pretentious/didactic, in my opinion. I respect his accomplishments and ideas but his ego is really off the charts. What makes it worse is his legion of fans that hang off his every word.
"I've never read anything that wasn't a bad regurgitation of ideas better presented elsewhere from this guy, and I have to wonder why he has amassed such a following."
I wrote this 2 months ago, my opinion hasn't changed. I guess there are worse charlatans out there (ribbonfarm springs to mind) but why should one waste his/her time reading chewed takes by someone who doesn't seem to have a single original thought-idea streak in him.
For the same reason why you shouldn’t listen to Tony Robbins. Second hand ideas are repackaged to induce emotions for reasons and causes potentially unrelated to the original.
Tony Robbins is a bullshiter. That's why I don't listen to him.
I listened to Naval with a critical eye, and read criticisms from HN. His ideas seems useful, but tilted towards selling Entrepreneurship as the only way to become wealthy, and creating the feeling that's his path is a safe bet.
I'm wary of most entrepreneurs, investors, and "thought leaders" offering advice as they tend to either be self-serving, productivity porn, or deep-seeming ideas that are easily said but impossible to implement. And, all too often, they only have a platform or "success" because of a huge head start from family wealth or from being an outright sociopath (or both).
I don't know, and the specific percent isn't the point. I'd encourage you to critically read bios of any Silicon Valley idols you might have, with an eye towards this.
My personal epiphany came about 10 years ago. I was in an incubator in SF, and some investor came to give a talk about fundraising. They heavily emphasized that many startups do a friends-and-family round to bridge them to a proper seed round-- nothing major, just get 20k from 5 family members and you should be good until you have something to show angel investors. My two co-founders and I (all from the Midwest) realized that we couldn't even come up with five people to ask for 20k because all of us came from pretty modest families.
These are the types of privileges that get glossed over in success stories. To be successful you, more likely than not, need to either have money or have connections to money. Everyone likes a good underdog story, but those founders are more like lottery winners than anything else.
So, coming from that lens, it's hard to take advice seriously from "successful" entrepreneurs. It's sort of our industry's equivalent of "just stop eating avocado toast and you'll become a millionaire."
Students get into Stuyvesant based on an exam. Those who score highest (regardless where they come from, race, ethnicity, or income level) are allowed in.
I wasn't arguing anything about any particular person, but rather commenting that a lot of the entrepreneurs and investors that get fetishized around here found their "success" from family wealth or by doing some sociopath-level things. There are obviously exceptions, and maybe Naval is one of them, but I've read enough Silicon Valley biographies to become pretty skeptical of this entire genre of business/self-help/productivity hack books/blogs/tweets.
I'm not sure if he has zero original ideas, but I think his ideas have very narrow scope. There is another thinker which I think is overrated - Balaji Srinivasan. At the same time I'm becomming a big fan of Jordan Peterson - his ideas are much closer to the real life and very relevant.
I was a follower for some time, several years ago. His biblical series are a highlight. I lost him at the “12 rules” book, came to see it as wrapping surface things in fancy confusing language, and I can’t unsee this smoke and mirrors since. He’s a knowledgeable professor and independent thinker, but he has become too big in my opinion.
There is no denying that Jordan Peterson is a troubled man, and he speaks from a position of a troubled man, you can hear it in his voice. This makes him, I think, authentic. Conversely Naval and the other modern thinkers talk from a position of privilege and success, which is not relevant for the majority of the people.
It is obvious that Jordan Peterson has seen and experienced misfortune. For most of us, it's much easier to relate to his ideas, than to those of the self-proclaimed modern gurus and egomaniacs from Silicon Valley.
His books are very verbose and boring, he covers too much stuff. I admit that I couldn't finish any of them. There are however excerpt from his lectures and interviews on Youtube which are spot on - very clear and direct.
The fact he's being actively discussed in a thread about books that changed one's life, and your only criticism of the man is an ad hominem, would suggest that he's still very relevant.
I don't care about Peterson. I don't have time to study every intellectual's work. The signals I continually get about Peterson are that he's a hypocritical conservative sexist. Hypocritical in the sense that he presumes to have the answers for life, while landing in a coma due to drug abuse.
Ad hominems are relevant when the person's work involves telling people how to be.
Do you consider having a new layer in your thinking process "life changing"? Then, I would say-
1. Deep Work and So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport. He goes against famous ideas such as "follow your passion" and provides you with alternative actionable advice.
2. Black Swan by N. Nicholas Taleb. It makes you aware of unhinged "platonistic thinking" where stuff are "explained" looking back. And people expect to use these explanations in future. I also learned about silent evidence which is, of course, a type of survivorship bias and sampling bias. Whenever, I see a straigh-forward "explanation", alarm goes off inside mind- 'this is too simplistic, and thus oversimplified, and not entirely correct'.
3. Made to Stick by Cheap Heath and Dan Heath: this book explains why some ideas stick and why some don't. From this book, you also learn how to make ideas stick. You start to see the world in a different way.
4. Godel, Escher, Bach: others have already mentioned it. It is life changing. I am still reading it.
5. Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen: Indian past is generally seen as a golden age heavily tied to religion and faith. Sen, in an articulated, smooth, and scholarly way provides evidence in contrary. The past of India is also an age of reason, athiesm, debate, faithlessness, unorthodoxy, and opposing of religions. Sanskrit is the first language to have athiestic text, maybe.
Bengali:
I used to feel very bad about my ethnic identity, and felt ashamed about it. (I was 14/15.)
Then I read the book "Those Times" by Sunil Ganguly. It is a novel based on history and historical figures, the Bengali renaissance, the feminist movements of Bengal.
This was the first time I ever felt confident about my ethnic identity, and fount a history I could take pride in. Totally changed me. It was like finally having soil under my feet for the first time in my life.
Bouddha Dharma by Haraprasad Shastri: This is a history of Buddhism in Bengal region.
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These are just some of many. I am in my early 20s and I have read 250 books till now, and all read in recent years were carefully chosen. Many had meaningful impact in my life.
How popular is the practice of keeping Ganesha idol temporarily during Ganesha festival before dissolving it compared to the rest of India. I heard the reason for starting the practice of Ganesha Idol temporarily is to counter the spread of Buddhism by inventing this festival as entertaining. I am trying to find the correlation b/w popularity of Buddhism and temporary Ganesha idol.
> How popular is the practice of keeping Ganesha idol temporarily during Ganesha festival before dissolving it
Very popular.
> compared to the rest of India.
But not compared to the rest of India. This is how majority of worship is done.
In West Bengal (state where Kolkata/Calcutta is), there is Durga Puja, in Maharashtra (Mumbai) there is Ganesh puja.
Idols are made out of clay, then worshipped for a day (4 in case of Durga), then they are dissolved in water, preferably in the Ganges.
But environment laws and enforcement are getting stringent, and so the bigger statue is often not worshipped according to rituals, and a much, much smaller one is worshipped, and that is dissolved.
And mind you, these statues are no jokes. They are very carefully created by sculptors, some are work of higher art, and gets awarded by the President.
Indians are known to have many festivals. But there are different dominant festivals in different parts of India.
Moreover, not only statues, but elaborate decorations are created where the statue resides. There are some committees that spend US$100k-$200k for 1-5 days of the festival. These are now often corporate sponsored.
The total GDP of 4 days of Durga Puja in Calcutta is assumed to be US$4.2bn [0]. Although many holistic estimates (including parlor visits, etc. from one month before) put it at as high as $25-$30bn.
You could look at pictures [1][2][3] of these events, and I highly encourage you to do so.
Just note, whatever you see in those, are temporary, and kept for 5-15 days only.
Although these are religious in paper, they are practically secular.
I am a total athiest, and I really like Tagore's poems.
See, Tagore not only wrote poetries and songs, he was a great essayist, as well.
Many of his essays would be highly appreciated by athiests and progressives (I mean the real progressives, not current US-style ones). Same goes for many of his novels and plays.
His romantic poems and love songs are top-notch.
I know because I have been immersed in Tagore culture from my childhood.
He was a thiest, but definitely not in the usual way. Many of his songs that belong to the "Worship" sect, can be, and is interpreted as romantic songs a lot.
Fun fact: that he was progressive and wrote romantic poems and songs irked Swami Vivekananda, and they did not talk with each other despite being from the same period.
I dont know much about Tagore, but I do know he was a progressive, champion of Indian independence, author of two national anthems (Bangladesh and India), friend of Ghandi and correspondent of Borges.
That sounds like I “know” a lot, but those are useless facts. All I really know of Tagore is the Gitanjali because its his only work I have read.
With my limited knowledge at hand, I cannot fathom how an atheist can appreciate the full depth of Tagore’s poetry. Im sure Bertrand Russel appreciated the Gitanjali as a great work of art when it was published but how could he have truly appreciated Tagore’s description of total surrender to God as a bride (representing Tagore, a heterosexual man) succumbing to her groom? An imagery we see in the Song of Songs, btw.
Perhaps instead of saying “how can an atheist appreciate Tagore”, I should written: “how can an atheist appreciate Tagore’s Gitanjali?” (Which I suspect Tagore himself would consider his greatest work?)
I feel the same way with religious art. Millions of tourists in Italy see Caravaggio’s “the denial of Peter”. Its easy for anyone who has grown out of youthful immaturity to appreciate the chiaroscuro, but how can a non-believer be moved in the way a believer is? The painting is more than the betrayal of a friend that anyone can understand - a believer (as a basic tenant of Christianity) holds that personal sin is recreating the betrayal of Peter. That is, a believer sees himself in Peter denying Jesus.
Not all “religious” art, mind you. Michaelangeo’s Il Davide is a good looking naked chap holding a slingshot.
EDIT: As a Catholic, I understand the Hindu Tagore, or muslim Sufis far better than atheists. Or, rather, we understand each other; we understand the difficulties of a faith journey.
Yes, Gitanjali can be appreciated better by theists. Although the art is of high class, and can be appreciated by athiests, too.
As I said, Tagore wrote a lot of novels, plays, songs, and essays. Tagore's body of creation is formidably vast. I would put the number of people awarded PhD each year for their work on Tagore and/or his work at 10-20.
> Which I suspect Tagore himself would consider his greatest work?
Haha, not really. We have an inside joke that more or less says that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for one of his weaker works.
And I concur. There are much better works by Tagore than Gitanjali. I have one bilingual Gitanjali sitting right on my shelf across the room where I am.
I grew up reciting poems of Tagore since I was literally 3 and a half. I still do it, but I'm special occasions.
As a literature lover, I also appreciate other forms of religious art.
I like reading poems called Vaishnava Padavalis. They are divine songs dedicated to Krishna or Chaitanya [0] with 2-3 meaning per each poem. These are among the best works of art I have ever seen.
Same goes for Charyas, poems written to propagate a special form of Buddhism, written in proto-Bengali, about 1000 years ago.
I also enjoy kirtanas.
These are all religious, and they don't stop me from enjoying them.
Many athiests enjoy religious art. But they have to be art. When it stops being art, and becomes too much about faith or devotion, I stop enjoying it.
> friend of Gandhi
They also disagreed a lot. If you read Gandhi's works, you would see that he is the king of luddites. Rabindranath was more forward-thinking.
Tagore wanted industry, education, uplifting of the masses, and admired science. He opposed Gandhi on the issue of boycotting British industries among others.
I have never really read Tagore in translation. I would not know what to suggest you. But I strongly suggest that you read other works of him.
> Hindu Tagore
Not really. He was a Brahmo [1]. They were the Protestants to Hinduism (this is oversimplified, ofc). They did not believe in statue-worshipping, caste, superstitions, etc. Brahmos were monotheistic and puritan among other things.
My study of Tagore is limited. But it is still non-trivial. I have visited his house (very well-preserved university and museum) multiple times and also Visva Bharati.
I am happy to answer if you have any other questions.
As a child I was inspired by its radiant optimism about engineering advances extracting men from peril and lifting them to the position of control of their lives and making the most of their circumstance.
I keep remembering Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most fondly. I suspect that is where I had come across the most-dense (in good advice) collection of approaches for talking about difficult things with people. I read it in my early 20s and feel like I've been using the recommendations ever since (I'm 36 now). It's written by people involved with the Harvard Negotiation Project after many years of practice with facilitating difficult conversations.
48 laws of power, influence, win friends, and to some degree rich dad, when put together in a list, could tell a story about someone. I’m curious in a non-attacking sort of way, do you consider yourself a sociopath, or to have more manipulative tendencies than those around you?
They're all books which explain social relations in a logical, mechanistic way. A lot of people lack intuition in this area, and this is the most effective way to understand "other people".
I know people who read these books purely to get some “cultural enrichment” out of them and to understand how other people might think and observe the world.
Personally - I would recommend some of the books as well because they are incredibly prevalent in the American psyche in some form or another.
That is not to say that I endorse their methodologies. After all - win friends is impossible for me because if its basic premise “you must be genuinely interested”. I’m rarely ever genuinely interested in anyone - as most people I meet are pretty terrible individuals. (Maybe that’s just a side effect of living in cutthroat SV)
The first two books are extremely useful for preventing people from taking advantage of you, if you are naive as to how manipulative people can be: that's what I got out of them when I read them early in life.
There are many reasons that even ordinary people should, in my opinion, read such material and take it in, but the most important one is that understanding how other people work is necessary to knowing if you are being manipulated and how to out-manipulate the manipulator if that's called for.
Of course, I think if I didn't include the 48 Laws of Power, attributions of sociopathy towards me (yours certainly not being the first) would be largely diminished. Cialdini's books, if you were to read them, certainly aren't written as guides on how to be a sociopath, but rather the contrary. The 48 Laws of Power is written the way it was to be the most entertaining and thematic, which I think is pretty clear.
Actually it's well established that psychopaths are well aware of their psychopathy and the easiest way to diagnose is to ask someone whether they think they are psychopathic (of course then you follow up to test that thesis..).
Yeah you're right but I would say the type of psychopath you're describing is very very rare. It's also a spectrum.
Most evil of the psychopathic nature are conducted by people nearer to the psychopathic end of the spectrum but they aren't quite totally psychopathic. They bridge that gap by justifying their actions with lies they tell themselves.
Hitler, for example was unlikely to be a psychopath, but the actions he committed makes it seem like he was one. He was also likely on the far end of the spectrum in terms of psychopathy and clearly he still had some story he used to justify his horrific actions.
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi(rip) and Psycho Cybernetics. I am battling a personal identity crisis(mid life existence) and these two books have guided me on what is important in life and how to lead a truly fulfilling life.
gave me a diff pov on the US/government, in particular. helped start shifting my perspective, break out of the 'indoctrination' of a standard US education, which already included college, gd.
i think it could matter because, if we're going to survive, americans will probably have to start looking at the world a bit differently -- since the US is still, for now, really the sole superpower in the world and effectively sets global policy, including and especially on climate collapse.
i imagine we'll maintain our 'sole superpower' status indefinitely, which doens't bode well for continued organized life on earth, unfortunately, but maybe we can still change our ways. maybe we'll be able to force the 1% to let us live, even in this much-diminished environment.
Perhaps I just never read that kind of book, but I don't believe that a single book can significantly change your life.
There's a few recommendations made here that I have read, for instance Nassim Talebs Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, both of which I honestly didn't find to be all that good. They're interesting, but not that useful and I don't feel that he's all that good at explaining his ideas.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius have some rather good parts, while others are just rambling and repetitive. It's not enough to be life changing. It can guide you in some specific situation, but that's about it.
Atomic Habits: Again interesting, very pratical, but long winded and by no means a guaranteed way to changing your life/habits.
Don't get me wrong, the books recommended, at least those I've read, are interesting, and worth a read, but they won't change your life.
Do you mind sharing which book, and how? I view it as you pick up parts of the books you read. Hopefully they makes you smart, more knowledgable, makes you think, view the world a little differently, but the person who puts the book down is still you.
By significant I mean would the people around you see a different person after you read the book.
Don't you bring up an example of how a book can change your life in your question.
If a book makes you view the world differently (even by a little) doesn't that change your outlook on life?
As a personal example a book/novel (how to live on 24 hours a day) made me change how I view my day, shifting from a work day focus (the day is finished when work is finished) to looking at the waking time outside of work as the focus for my day.
This is something noticeable both to me and my surrounding since it gave me a lot more time to do things for personal enjoyment or to help others every day.
And no it didn't change the world but it made a profound impact on my life by implementing a tiny change in how I view the world
This book changed my life. Throughout high-school I hated math because I thought it was just memory work. I ended up going into computer science and then higher maths because of reading this.
For me, systems thinking, incompleteness theorem, writing style, consciousness... Definitely helped set my path in building thinking tools as a career.
1. _The Question Concerning Technology_ by Martin Heidegger. Taught me how clean-room language reinvention can be a tool for clear thinking, and how you cannot add something without taking something away. Truth is "revealing and concealing" because it is, outside math and hard science, perspectival. Essential reading for UX engineers.
2. _Eichmann in Jerusalem_, Hannah Arendt. Made me wiser about how evil works. "Evil" is a fun word to throw around and lends itself to silly political slogans, but the real thing is no joke, is out there, and does not look like what you think.
3. _Eugene Onegin_, by Pushkin, as translated by Douglas Hofstadter (yes, that one). The man taught himself Russian by translating the Onegin to distract himself
after his wife died. The foreword-essay changed how I regard language and translation.
3. _Getting Unstuck_, by Pema Chodron. I still use this shit every time I get obsessive about some coding thing. Wise AF.
4. _Getting Things Done_ by David Allen. Everything is an interface and everything is algorithmic, your only choice is whether or not to consciously intend them. You can engineer better habits.
5. A biography of Malcolm X -- I forget which one, embarrassingly, and I am in a hurry so I will
not google. Whichever one came out closest to the year 2007 :)
These days tho I would grab _The Dead are Arising_ -- the most recent. It's aleady on my Kobo. Malcolm X showed me how to survive in hell and start a movement.
The _Autobiography of Malcom X_ was co-written by Alex Haley, the author of _Roots_. _Autobiography_ was required reading in a "Black Political Thought" course I took years ago. But it was inspirational for me too.
It's sort of like a mirror, a way to look at yourself. Also, reading it is a pleasure, very refreshing. This is in contrast with Daniel Kahneman's book which is quite depressing while being essentially on the same topic.
Full House - The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, by Stephen Jay Gould
Evolution of horses, disappearance of the .400 in baseball, where are all the modern Geniuses, and the most integral part- the dominance of bacteria- and how evolution and the progression of entropy/ the 2nd law, does not, against most intuition, generally _lead_ to the increase of complexity, but merely _allows_ for its existence.
I do disagree with him on the premise of "hot-hands," and the bit about joe dimaggio's performance being the most (statistically) outstanding in human history is also unintuitive.
The book does have such a general sense of applicability though, cannot recommend it enough.
The books which really affected my life, and which all-too few people have read:
- Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ --- a collection of short stories, these are still thought-provoking now, esp. "Raindrop" and "The Mechanic", w/ the former seeming esp. prescient. These are available in: _Music of Many Spheres_: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Sph...
- Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy --- early urban fantasy billed as a young adult series --- good insights on morality
- Steven Brust's _The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars_ --- art and life and love by a writer who always has something interesting to say --- other books in this series are quite good
- Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ and Warren Chappell's _The Living Alphabet_ and _A Short History of the Printed Word_ --- these books, which I read when I was quite young were why I studied graphic design and did book composition --- if you read and understand them, you'll know more about typography than most professional designers
- C. J. Cherryh's _Rimrunners_ and the balance of her Alliance-Union books --- her stuff is always worth reading.
One book which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, and which I need to read for myself is _Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics_ by Alfred Korzybski
A very provoking current book is "The Dawn of Everything - a new history of humanity" by Graeber & Wengrow. It is the first book I'm aware that takes the general intellectual public's conversation through history and compares that against now known facts from archeological data. It demonstrates, quite soundly, that the current narrative of human civilization is a comforting fiction and the truth is... the content of the book. Extremely engrossing and constantly relevant to the political conflicts dividing human civilization across the globe.
"Art of war", Sun Tzu -- only partially applies to modern wars, still a great reading. Many to the point maxims to understand life, history and the world.
"The Gallic Wars", Julius Caesar -- for the enjoyment of reading a 2k years old book by a major historical character. Probably more interesting if you are french, belgian or german. Truly epic ending with the battle of Alesia. The staging of this battle is almost unbelievable although to date, every archeological finding has only confirmed the description made by JC.
The power of now by Eckhart Tolle changed my life when I was young. It shifted me from being extremely outwards oriented, to re-discovering the joy of the little things. I had discovered that there is always space between feelings, thoughts and 'you', always available, which was a huge relief since I was living in a torrent of uncertainty and disappointment for years up until then.
The undeniable fact that there is only ever 'now' was also a bombshell of a realization. What a wonderful book that one, for those who have the disposition to grok it.
The Peaceful Warrior's Way, by Dan Millmann, is a very good first step. It's lightweight, easy to read, fun, but full of gems. It can also guide you towards the heavier stuff.
Ive read it 4 times in the past 30 years. Every time i get something totally new from it. It’s a story about a father and son, about the meaning of quality, its a travel book, and book about mental health. It introduced me to philosophy. An astonishing book.
I started reading this, while I enjoyed the aspects of the ride, I found the philosophical discussion is rather boring. I may be lack the philosophy background to really appreciate the discussion.
The Bible. I pretty much read it every day. I think it was C.S. Lewis who talked about chronological snobbery i.e. we think we are cleverer than those who went before us. It amazes me that many of the issues we have are the same as issues people had thousands of year ago.
Two days ago one of my children was caught out telling a lie. The next morning my daily bible reading for that day was from Proverbs about the importance of not telling lies. As I say, some things don't change :-)
Studying Positive Psychology feels like a good benefit-for-time-spent. A great book on it is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. It's a great overview of how error-prone our predictions about what will make us happy are; along with, if I remember right, good advice for how to maximize happiness (alternatively, read The How of Happiness for more-direct advice).
If I ever got to be dictator, I'd make this mandatory reading just so everyone realizes how stupid it is to have a dictator. Then they'll politely ask me to "leave my seat", to which I will happily agree. And on fridays, the new public leadership council will declare, hot dogs will be free for everyone.
Limitless: The Autobiography by Tim Peake. It's one of those books I wish existed when I was a teenager. He is someone who is so willing to push himself to excel at whatever takes his interest, and demonstrates that you don't need to be academic to be the best.
- How to live on 24 hours a day (Arnold Bennett)
A short and fairly simplistic view of daily life that really changed how I look on time.
- How to run a big ship (Cptn Rory O'Connor, RN)
Really made me think about how much of modern leadership and management theory is a rehash of old theory. But now we replacing the individuals responsibility with hired consultants that should "teach" us how to work.
- Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
Together with my Grandmother really showed me a way to live with focus on what matters.
Apart from this there is a lot of fiction that has added up to create the ideals I try to live by today and to be fair I think you can do worse than basing your ideals on classical fantasy and science fiction.
How to Be an Imperfectionist: The New Way to Self-Acceptance, Fearless Living, and Freedom from Perfectionism
I've listened to dozens of self help type books, and this one had an immediate and permanent effect on me. It changed my life. I don't think it will do the same for everyone, but it did for me. I think most time spent listening to these self help type books goes to waste, but there is the occasional book or insight that resonates with a person and makes it all worth it. This was one of those book for me.
Greg Egan's Permutation City had a major influence on my own thoughts on consciousness and AI, as did Hofstadter's G.E.B. The Dust Theory in Permutation City is fairly mindblowing, and in a sense takes the ideas behind a Boltzmann brain to even further extremes.
Epictetus' Enchiridion helped me massively with depression and anxiety over the past few years. I still read a few excerpts from it weekly. Much of it is self evident, but it's reassuring and reinforcing.
The works of Terry Pratchett shaped my sense of humor, and my outlook on life. I would definitely be a different person today if I hadn't encountered Discworld at such an early age. They've made me a optimistic cynic.
I'd highly recommend anybody interested in starting the Discworld books to start with Mort, and then the rest of the Death series in order (Hogfather in particular).
Outwitting the Devil is a work of fiction that was written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill, which was considered too controversial to be published in its era. The book is written as an interview between Hill (Mr. Earthbound) and the devil (our inner dark self), wherein Hill attempts to uncover the secrets to freedom and success by evaluating the greatest obstacles that humans face in order to attain their personal goals in life.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I recently learned that Napoleon Hill was quite the conman. At least he made outrageous claims of being an advisor to famous leaders he's likely never met.
I see more than a couple of books I've read in the comments, but I found them negative ROI on time invested in them, they should have been 20 pages not 300, and I didn't learn anything profound, often they could be summarized as a list of statements. In the end, I feel 99% stuff out there is just time wasting simple ideas rehashed into 300 page stories.
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - A garbage book about universe's energy
Never Split the Difference - too long never finished completely, didn't feel practical or anything beyond common sense
The Obstacle Is the Way - trash, not worth time, if you watch motivation videos then go ahead buy it.
Exactly What to Say - read the the table of contents and you get 90% of the value the book has to give
Indistractable - did you know if you could focus and work without motivation you could do great things..oh wow news of the century. Book has flawed premise and flawed solution. Saying control your internal triggers is a very round about way to say control your motivation. This book more of an academic book, on topic, that is under research.
How to Make Sh*t Happen: Make more money... - honestly liked the book, resonated with author's struggle .. but I don't recall getting much value. It was like watching a show that starts really strong and you have high hopes but just never delivers. I'd read the summary of it and not waste time reading the entire thing. i was kinda putt off by cringe over the top cursing to look unorthodox.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things - omg the self patting.. unless you're a ceo, of series A startup then maybe this book will have some value. HARD PASS.
Grit - here I'll save you time: people who keep at it on average win against talented people. There I saved you from 30 life stories of author and her daddy issues.
The case studies and even better textbooks that have case studies compiled into lessons are much better.
Cosmos by Carl Sagan, which I read I think in college. It changed the way I look at reality, giving me a much more materialistic perspective on life, meaning that I started to require material evidence as pre-requisite for any kind of certainty. Overnight it became impossible for me to believe in any religion.
Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett. Does just what the title says. It's like finally seeing the image in the Great Stereogram of life. I read it when it came out and have since always regarded my life as neatly divisible by before and after seeing it come into focus.
How buildings learn. Very quotable and read as a generic engineer. Teaches you about how different times share the same space. Skip the architecture stuff.
I found a copy of 'Commodify Your Dissent' by Thomas Frank in a pile of free books when I was 17 and it had a significant and lasting impact on the way I viewed the world.
No book is totally life-changing IMHO, but many are life-altering… life-shifting? But for a good shift in perspective, I would maybe try the following:
For fiction, best no reasons given, go into these blind:
- Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
- The City and the City, China Mieville
- Exhalation, Ted Chiang
- Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
For non-fiction:
- Any book that tells some of the history of the field you have a career in. You need it for perspective. For me it was the books Hackers by Stephen Levy (problematic as it may be) and Journey Through Genius by William Dunham. They led me into deeper dives and other books which rooted my knowledge in some chronological perspective.
- Surreal Numbers by Donald Knuth, a “fiction” book about Conway’s surreal numbers. Holy cow, this shifts your perspective on what a number can be.
- Godel Escher Bach by Hofstadter, recommended by others, as a mind bending book
- What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund. Really changed my perspective on the act of reading in general. Very easy and quick read.
- Debt, by David Graeber (sure to hear about this in the comments lol)
Biographical:
- Read at least one book from someone who has had a different life experience than you have had. For me, it was Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain which wasn’t totally a biography but told a lot of experiences in his life completely different than mine that offered some perspective.
- One anti-recommendation: any book that a CEO writes or has ghost-written about their life. None of that is applicable to your own life, even if you are a CEO.
Self-help: no recommendations.
Self help books only help the person selling the books IMHO. I’ve read my share, and it tells more about the person writing the book than it does give life tips about how to live one’s life.
> - One anti-recommendation: any book that a CEO writes or has ghost-written about their life. None of that is applicable to your own life, even if you are a CEO.
I disagree because Ben Horowitz's "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" is fairly autobiographical but is very helpful in guiding startup founders and CEO's and is widely lauded by them.
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, by Roger Lowenstein.
It ultimately led me down a path that changed a lot about how I approached investing, and how I perform value appraisal / how I view value in general across all aspects of life. The principles of value investing and value judging apply to most things, rather than being narrowly limited to eg stock investing. It introduced me to some of the basic foundations of value investing. It's not a super renowned book (ala Ben Graham's various treatises on value investing), however it's my favorite Buffett book regardless and the one I most often recommend to new investors.
Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Such a simple concept, so extraordinarily important as a distinction.
A lot of good books in this thread and I have read many of them, but in retrospect these 3 titles have had the greatest effect on me:
The End of Faith by Sam Harris: Crystallized a lot of things I have been thinking about over the years.
Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett: Really delved deep into what evolution is and the way it affects how everything in the world works.
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life by Jon Kabat Zinn: What is mindfulness? Why is it important and how can you apply it to your every day life (like the subtitle says). Bearded guru in a cave at top of mountain is optional.
I like to read what people tell me, obliquely or not, to not read. Here are some of the deeply uncomfortable, yet edifying reads:
Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber" -- A Harvard-educated mathematician terrorist presents a lucid neo-Luddite manifesto. It doesn't take a cool-headed logician to appreciate this work. Draws heavily from the works of Jacques Ellul, but presents Ellul's ideas in a quintessentially American manner, without the obfuscation required of French philosophy. Yes, he's a convicted murderer, yes, he was a subject of MKULTRA, but even so, the perspective of a Harvard-educated psychedelic terrorist should alone be worthy of a lookover (he doesn't receive any proceeds from sales). If you prefer French philosophy or a pacifistic author, replace this with The Technological Society and Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes, both by Jacques Ellul, tackling the same subjects (mostly).
Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Islamic Nation Will Pass by Abu Bakr Naji -- This is the playbook that was used for establishing the Islamic State. Its philosophy isn't unique to Wahhabist Islam, however. It's like the anti-Embrace-Extend-Extinguish philosophy. It's disruptive innovation for religion. In short, it has three stages: first, destroy the social contract and return to a Hobbesian state of nature. Second, reestablish the social contract with your team in control. Third, use this island of order to expand outwards until your goal is reached (in this case an Islamic Caliphate).
Suicide Note by Mitchell Heismann -- Mitchell Heisman shot himself on September 18, 2010 in Harvard Yard as ”Experimental Elimination of Self-Preservation,” according to this work that he published posthumously. Possibly, along with Kaczysnki, the best illustrator of G.K. Chesterton's assertion that "Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. [...] The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." This is his, nominally rational, defense of suicide against what Heismann terms viviocentrism. It is an experience, if nothing else.
Two picks that dovetail together exceptionally well and equally magisterial in their respective wheel-houses:
First, the Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist -- Why is the brain divided? What if modern consciousness as we know it only emerged during the Axial Age? The differing world views of the right and left brain (the "Master" and "Emissary" in the title, respectively) have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. The first half is pure neuroscience, the latter half teased-out implications of the former. It is a brilliant work.
Second, Debt: the First 5000 Years by the late David Graeber -- What is the historical relationship of debt with social institutions such as barter, marriage, friendship, slavery, law, religion, war and government? Why do we keep debts fuzzy with friends, but settle them immediately with strangers? What exactly is money?
I imagine that the processes noticed by both McGilchrist and Graeber are interrelated in profound ways (i.e. the dual advent of physical currencies and complex civilizations incentivized profound shifts in cognition, arguably in favor of disembodied abstraction and decontextualization, creating in its wake what is termed "mental illness").
And why not? A final choice: The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy -- "The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." When Jesus says to turn the other cheek, Tolstoy asserts that he meant to abolish violence, period. A favorite quote: "The attitude of the ruling classes to the laborers is that of a man who has felled his adversary to the earth and holds him down, not so much because he wants to hold him down, as because he knows that if he let him go, even for a second, he would himself be stabbed, for his adversary is infuriated and has a knife in his hand. And therefore, whether their conscience is tender or the reverse, our rich men cannot enjoy the wealth they have filched from the poor as the ancients did who believed in their right to it. Their whole life and all their enjoyments are embittered either by the stings of conscience or by terror."
Before reading it I felt like I had free will, but I didn’t know how to articulate why. A few hours later (it’s not a long read), it was clear to me that free will is an illusion.
To summarize, we can control what we do, but we can’t control what we want to do, which is a product of our genetics and our environment —- neither of which we have much control over.
This realization has eliminated all regret from my life, since it means that wishing I had made a different decision in the past is akin to wishing the laws of the universe were different.
Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond
Journey to the ants - Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Lewis
A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay (In addition to its inspiring message on overcoming adversity, it also taught me a powerful message on the difference between diversity and inclusion - the latter only happened afterwards when it was pointed out to me - another lesson...)
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (keep a highlighter ready for each episode of altruism)
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I was overly social, choosing others over myself. I thought it was the way, possibly due to my Christian upbringing. But I learned that to say “I love you”, one must first be able to say “I”. Rational self interest is a good ethical basis for a non-sociopathic human. If you’re a sociopath, it’s horrible, which brings me to my next recommendation: Humandkind by Rutger Bregman (in Dutch: “Most people are good”).
Haha, Mention Ayn Rand on HN, get some downvotes, sadly never any good questions or remarks. I wonder if the downvoters really read it. I feel like just like the Selfish Gene, you can misread Atlas Shrugged. I think a core point is that it makes you ponder if doing something for someone you love is selfishness. Or if true self-sacrifice is doing something you hate for something you don’t believe in. What’s good, what’s evil? It changed me, I believe for the better.
I don't dislike Atlas Shrugged because of its politics, although I would say The Road to Serfdom presents a far better case and does it more concisely.
I dislike Atlas Shrugged because it's a terrible novel with paper thin characters and cringeworthy dialogue. I'd argue that A Song of Ice and Fire, with its magic and dragons and undead armies still makes for a more realistic exploration of the human condition than the claptrap of Atlas Shrugged.
OP asked for novels that changed people. I give examples and support them. I knew I’d get downvotes because Ayn Rand on HN = downvotes. I’d say if a novel elicits so much consistent response it’s already worth reading.
I didn’t find it cringy I couldn’t put it down. Especially during John Galts speech. Just brilliant if you ask me. There are cetainly things I don’t agree with but OP asked for novels that changed me.
> knew I’d get downvotes because Ayn Rand on HN = downvotes.
There are comments on this very thread that recommend Atlas Shrugged that haven't been downvoted. The best way to get downvoted on HN is to complain about being downvoted.
> I’d say if a novel elicits so much consistent response it’s already worth reading.
That is a bizzare take. I'm pretty sure Mein Kapf would elicit a more consistently negative response.
> Were taking opinions here btw, keep that mind.
The people downvoting you are also expressing their opinion.
After being forced into evangelical Christianity at a young age, no 2 books were more eye-opening and life-changing for me than:
Letter To A Christian Nation - Sam Harris
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The moment you realize you've been lied to your whole life is horrific and liberating ... it's hard to describe. Took many years to "let go" but i don't think it would have been possible without these 2 books for me.
Not a book. But a game. Scratch that, it is meditation, a life lesson and an existential crisis packed into a computer program. But I'll call it a game since it's convenient.
Outer Wilds.
Mechanically, you play as a space archaeologist stuck in a time loop. The whole game is a giant knowledge puzzle, and you explore an entire solar system in search of clues about a long-gone civilization.
If this sounds even remotely interesting, stop reading and go play the game, because every bit of information is a spoiler, and below I'll talk about my experiences about it. Seriously, do not watch any gameplay, just make sure your computer meets the (rather tame) requirements, buy [0] and play it, then you can come back.
---
It is not a motivational game. It doesn't have a point to make. Instead, it confronts you with an entire way of existence and makes you ask of yourself what you make of it, and any takeaways will be incredibly personal. Heck, even if you don't discover any intuitions, it's still an intrinsically fun experience that perfectly exercises the "nerd curiosity" (or "The Knack" as it is put in Dilbert [1]).
The game starts out as this vaguely giddy space adventure, but as you come to understand the Nomai, it instills in you so much true awe: The perseverance of these people, to settle in the galactic backwoods in search of the answer to the Universe. The melancholy of a people who achieved the pinnacle of technology, sure of their destiny, only to be destroyed oh so early. The incredible anxiety of living at the end of the Universe, where the only way out is to deny yourself of existence.
After wandering space for who knows how long, piecing together this intangible society and their long-overdue plans, while the rest of your kind seems to be on the spacefaring equivalent of a holiday break, you come to appreciate every little interaction with the present. This feeling is more welcome as you unfold the story, but you know it is empty time, so like the Nomai before, you must persevere, and solve the Universe. The consequences will be dear, but inevitable. The Universe is waiting on you.
For me, having played this game this game gave me a perspective to truly appreciate what I have, and the moment I live in, even despite all that is going on and how things seem to be going sour. It also rekindled my interest for discovery for discovery's sake, and, in a way, gave me peace towards the idea of death. It also gave me many perspectives about myself which I don't need to share online, but were really appreciated.
And then...
They made an expansion [2], which resolves the only remaining plot point of the story beautifully, and while it is more traditionally "puzzle"-y than the base game, is a great excuse for a replay, and gives you a new friend to mourn.
Just like in the base game, we had the naively curious Hearthians, and the incredibly rational Nomai, here we see a third take on the events of the game: An entire race of heartbroken people, who unlike the Nomai, seek to deny everyone from the answers seeked in game.
I haven't really read any other books about habits. I've read a few different self-improvement ones though
I read it a while ago but I remember James Clear being a really great author in that he really explains in detail why something works and gives a lot of anecdotes.
It's also a really systematic approach to solving the problem of habits. His focus on systems really changed the way I think about managing my attention and my time.
IMO it's probably the best self-help book I've read so far but tbf I haven't read a whole lot of them.
This list of books may sum up my entire personhood, some I read at a young age.
Thinking Fast and Slow. After you read it take a course on statistics & probability.
The Art of Strategy
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance
Armor by John Steakley
Great book of fiction, helped me understand PTSD.
Read a lot of Asimov, robot series, foundation and short stories starting with The Last Question.
Jules Verne
Mark Twain, various stories but particularly the Diary of Adam & Eve
The Jungle Book by Kipling
Lost Horizon
Robinson Crusoe
Dune Series
Enders Game and sequels.
The Odyssey
The Count of Monte Cristo
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card because it helped me understand that a cultures internally consumed fiction tells you about its values.
The book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Job. Leviticus 25. Galatians 5:22-23. Romans 2:15. Luke 18:1-8. The minor prophets. Bible generally if you want to deep dive, I did once upon a time.
25th chapter of the First Epistle of Clement of Rome
Aristotle, Socrates.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Through Gates of Splendor
Peace Child
Let Freedom Ring. I was working illegally (as I recall) as a 15 year old teenager for Sean Hannity (as a w2 employee through a proxy) when this book came out and along with my personal interactions with him at the time it helped clarify that he is not a person whose opinion holds any weight or even much thought. I remember at the time thinking it was unbearably poor reading.
Farmer Giles of Ham. If you've already read the hobbit, LOTR, etc. it helped me understand the framing of Tolkien way better.
Then read Pride and Prejudice through the lens of Farmer Giles of Ham. Calling it a romance novel is a disservice.
A James Bond Novel. I can't remember the name but there is one in particular that describes why he always acts so overtly and not spy-ish at all. The explanation helped me understand why you should throw yourself fully into work projects and helped me get over fear of mistakes. It made me a far better consultant as well while I was doing that.
So good they can't ignore you & deep work.
How to win friends and influence people.
Run Silent, Run Deep.
The Communist Manifesto
The Christian Manifesto
From Dawn to Decadence.
Romance of the 7 kingdoms.
Life together.
There's a big yellow book about the 6 day war, it's very detailed and blow by blow, I can no longer remember its name but it impressed upon me the chance and vagaries of war.
The Free Will Defense. Alvin Plantinga (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations)
In Defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. William Lane Craig (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations)
No little people. Francis Schaeffer
The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich.
The Rails Way. 1st edition.
Javascript. The good parts.
Visual quick start guide to SQL.
^These three are probably the most important books I ever read, they probably changed the trajectory of my life more than any others on the list.
Midnight's Children. Rushdie
Roberts Rules of Order.
The four loves
Love languages
A once popular anti catholic tract called "The Trail of Blood".
Basically there is truth, falsehood, history, emotion and understanding in all these works, synthesizing these particular books made me who I am today. There are many others but these are the ones that come quickly to mind and whose titles I can still mostly recall.
In response to some questions:
It's not a kids book. It's a fan-fiction inspired by the original books, but written with adults in mind.
You can read it for free at http://www.hpmor.com/.