
Ask HN: What single book has had the greatest impact on you? - jtmarmon
I&#x27;m always interested in hearing book recommendations, but sometimes you hear one and it&#x27;s clear the book totally changed the recommender&#x27;s perspective on something and made them wish more people would read it. A lot of us have a singular book like that.<p>An example (and the inspiration for this post) is this comment https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14922949<p>Mine would probably be Deep Work by Cal Newport
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veli_joza
"The Mind Illuminated" by John Yates proved to be exactly what I needed to
start practicing meditation.

A lot of us consider our work a craft and spend lifetime perfecting tools.
Unfortunately, we neglect the most important tool we have - our mind. It turns
out we can improve our focus by consistent practice (and that's only one of
many benefits of meditation).

Opening chapters of this book provide a basic model of awareness & focus,
which demonstrates that we are rarely in control of our thoughts. I found it
fascinating. The rest of book provides a well defined path to train and
improve working of mind through introspection.

Although I could find no actual credentials for author (he claims to be
neuroscientist), his observations and explanations are so far very consistent
and consistent with my own. Also, religion and mysticism are absent from the
book, except when referencing traditional practices.

BTW I've also recently read Deep Work. It's a fantastic book and it made me
change some habits, but the style turned me off. I did not enjoy cherry-picked
anecdotal 'proofs' and persistent convincing.

