Ask HN: What are the books that changed the perspective of your life? - arjitkp
======
claar
The Bible.

No wait, don't go. I'm serious here.

Read Proverbs -- from a purely atheistic mindset if you must. Very practical
business and life advice if you're willing to hear it.

Read Ecclesiastes. Don't spend your life chasing after the wind -- you can't
take it with you.

Read Romans 12:9-21. Do what it says for a week.

Read about Jesus washing His servant's feet (John 13:1-17). Serve your
team/family, put them first.

It's confirmation bias, but I'm continually amazed how the "next new
business/life strategy" was already written ~2-5 thousand years ago.

(edit: Romans reference fixed, thanks)

~~~
bhayden
The issue is that good advice, surrounded by thousands of pages of irrelevant
advice, isn't a good source to be relying on.

------
grey-area
_Meditations_ by Marcus Aurelius - a wonderfully simple explanation of what is
truly important in life.

 _The Order of Things_ or _Madness and Civilisation_ by Michel Foucault - a
look at how our culture and time limit the horizons of our world view.

 _Anna Karenina_ by Tolstoy - a complicated set of love stories set in 19C
Russia - brilliantly observed.

 _Godel, Escher, Bach_ by Hofstadter - an exhilarating skip through the
wonderland of western maths, art, music and philosophy.

 _Founders at Work_ by Jessica Livingston - a great insight into the first
computer revolution - interviews with a lot of very interesting people.

~~~
cheriot
Meditations: Read this thinking about the power held by the hand writing it.
Absolute control of the Mediterranean world! Incredible!

~~~
bitshepherd
It's also good to think /why/ Marcus wrote the things he did, why they meant
so much to him that he felt it necessary to do so.

------
humanarity
Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) - incredibly clear ideas probably clear-up 80%
of issues you have with everyday life

The Bible (& The Gnostic Gospels) - I love the idea that Jesus was a real guy
who (literally) petrified his childhood playmates because they "vexed" him by
dispersing his anti-gravity water :)

Atlas Shrugged - no excuses

Self and Others - personal pyschology

Seth Speaks - a lady channels an interdimensional being

The Road Less Travelled - a psychoanalyst's memoirs

Letters to a Young Artist - encouragement for going your own way, a series of
letters

The Alchemist - help you read the signs from the heart of the World for your
own path

An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, et al (T. Suzuki) - really interesting, non-
duality, higher third unification of opposites

Hear the Wind Sing (Murakami) - really bizarre and pure, his first one written
late nights at kitchen table after working in a bar, before he became famous

Rich Dad Poor Dad - solid advice

Discrete Maths (Rosen) - interesting and very learnable, a great reference

An Imaginary Life (Malouf) - great clarity of writing

The Solid Mandala (Patrick White) - amazing observation of people

~~~
ghrifter
> Discrete Maths (Rosen)

This is a required textbook for my Discrete Mathematics course. I also
recommend it! Although I wish there was more visuals in the book, it is a
great textbook.

------
kabdib
"Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hopfstadter. I was in high school when it
came out, and it really opened my eyes up to the field of computability. The
philosophy was interesting, too.

"Holy the Firm" by Annie Dillard. Not really about religion, more about our
relationship to the world. A beautifully written little book.

"The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. This one works on me at
several levels: The physics (which are explained well), the sheer titanic
scope of the Manhattan project, and the meta-knowledge that someone was able
to write a book this good.

"The C Programming Language", by Kernighan and Ritchie. Probably the single
most influential book on programming that I've read.

------
Red_Tarsius
\- _Losing my Virginity_ , by Richard Branson and Edward Whitley. It made me
realize I've never _really_ hustled in my life. Reading it was a humbling
experience. When I finished the book I was on the verge of tears, an odd mix
of shame and wonder.

\- _Impro_ , by Keith Johnstone. It's about theatre, human flaws and taking
back your self-expression. I'd gift it to anyone I know, if I could.

    
    
      'What's for supper?' a bad improviser will desperately try to think up 
      something original. Whatever he says he'll be too slow. He'll finally 
      drag up some idea like 'fried mermaid'. If he'd just said 'fish' the 
      audience would have been delighted. No two people are exactly alike, 
      and the more obvious an improviser is, the more himself he appears. 
      If he wants to impress us with his originality, then he'll search out 
      ideas that are actually commoner and less interesting. [...]
      People trying to be original always arrive at the same boring old 
      answers. [...]
    
      An artist who is inspired is being obvious. He's not making any 
      decisions, he's not weighing one idea against another. He's accepting 
      his first thoughts. [...]
    
      Striving after originality takes you far away from your 
      true self, and makes your work mediocre.

~~~
thomk
What do you mean you realized you'd never "really hustled in your life"?
Explain.

~~~
Red_Tarsius
In the past I had ideas I didn't act on because of I was afraid of failure. I
told myself that it just couldn't be done because [insert bullshit].

In that regard, Richard Branson is like the fool of folklore culture: _" he
didn't know it was impossible, so he did it"_. He started a business before
turning 20 and made incredibly heavy decisions without much self-doubt. He was
a _Just-do-it machine_.

The book inspired me to stop making excuses and be more confident.

------
IanCal
Thinking, fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman

A stunningly good book about cognitive biases, with fairly understated claims
and backed up with studies. Excellent advice for life and it's changed how I
view decisions and interactions. [edit - if you want it and can't afford it,
get in touch and I might be able to buy you a copy]

The Evolution of Cooperation - Robert Axelrod

Rather hammers the prisoners dilemma a lot, but it does feel justified. It's
been maybe 9 years since I read this and it was the first thing that popped
into my mind when I saw this question. How does co-operation work? What
properties are required for co-operation? If I recall correctly it examines
these questions from the scale of bacteria to nation states.

~~~
gbersac
> Thinking, fast and slow

Definitely one of the most mind blowing book I ever read. Loved it.This could
be summarised in : "I know that I know nothing". It's incredible how our mind
is biased in so many way to the point of being untrustworthy.

~~~
IanCal
What I particularly love about it is that it makes quite reasonable claims,
and explains the data behind them. Often it comes from him doing an experiment
and finding something odd, then trying to eliminate the effect by reducing
more and more parts before being left with incredible results.

It is not a self help book, it's not a "10 crazy things your doctor won't tell
you!" book, it's a story about the more interesting findings of a Nobel Prize
winner (Nobel Memorial Prize apparently, after checking wikipedia) extremely
well explained.

I think the only book that's left me stopping every few pages and going
"huh... so that's why..." or prodding someone near to explain a cool new thing
is a Brief History of Time when I was younger (also a thoroughly good read if
you've not done so, having being reminded now).

------
jonawesomegreen
"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

A classic, but it has really helped change the way I deal with people.

------
ThomPete
"The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind"– Julian
Jaynes

[http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-
Bicamer...](http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-Bicameral-
Mind/dp/0618057072)

Either the theory is crazy or it's one of the most groundbreaking discoveries
in newer history.

------
gmu3
I like these posts as much as everyone else, but this is literally at least
the third one this week. Maybe it could become a recurring monthly thing like
the hiring posts.

Walden: "Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not
having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals
three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese
that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette
and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not
come to open war. We meet at the post-office, and at the sociable, and about
the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and
stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one
another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty
communications."

Part of the reason I'm off fb.

------
carsongross
"Orthodoxy" \- GK Chesterton

"The Abolition of Man" \- CS Lewis

"The Master and Margarita" \- Mikhail Bulgakov

"The Brothers Karamazov" \- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

~~~
dcsommer
The Abolition of Man is a great essay. It's short and still relevant.
Consideration of the "men without chests" is particularly interesting.

------
fatjoel
I find these threads are often very interesting, but can we please make sure
to include something about the book or about how it changed your perspective?
If I just see a title it doesn't add much value to the discussion. Thanks for
taking the time, y'all.

~~~
kristiandupont
Excellent idea! The minute I saw the thread I knew that it was going to pan
out this way: first, there will be three or four threads and I will be excited
about books I hadn't heard of before. But soon it will turn into 20 and then
100 lists of books, overwhelming me and ultimately leading me to do nothing.

However, if people could write (and some of you have) little excerpts and
details about what is significant about a book, I'd love it. More than "shows
you what is truly important" please, I believe that it might but I will also
assume that it concludes that love is more important than money, or some
variation of that idea. And I really don't want to read another book that
tells me that unless it will make me realize it on some new level through a
specific perspective.

------
probably_wrong
"You Can Negotiate Anything", by Herb Cohen.

By taking the point of view that "negotiation" is not "convincing morons to do
what I want" but "let's try and solve this together", the author introduces a
couple points about how to deal with all sorts of conflicts and difficult
situations. I read it several years ago, and yet there's not a month in which
I don't put at least one of its lessons in use.

I found it a lot more useful and honest than the famed "How to influence
friends and win people" but, somewhat ironically, I never used it in any
negotiation involving money.

~~~
steveeq1
Interesting. I hate books that teach you how to negotiate like a scumbag (ie
most trial attorneys and car salesmen) so this is a refreshing change of pace.
I will put this on my to-read list. A book in similar vein is "Getting to
Yes". which influenced me greatly in how to handle disputes. It was
recommended by Charlie Munger, in his book "Poor Charlie's Almanack" (antoher
great book).

Also, check out "Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger". Both that and Poor
Charlie's Almanack are two books that describe the Warren Buffett/Charlie
Munger way of thinking. In fact, I found out about "Getting to Yes" through
those two books. Read them, these three books changed my outlook on life in a
big way.

A summary of these books is here:
[http://sivers.org/book/SeekingWisdom](http://sivers.org/book/SeekingWisdom)

------
dghf
Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson, _Illuminatus!_

Carl Sagan, _The Demon-Haunted World_.

Daniel Dennett, _Consciousness Explained_.

T.H. White, _The Once and Future King_.

George Orwell, _Homage to Catalonia_.

------
serve_yay
"How to Win Friends and Influence People", Dale Carnegie

"The Black Swan", Taleb

"How To Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto", Tom Hodgkinson

"The Tao Is Not Silent", Raymond Smullyan

In that order.

------
ashark
Franny and Zooey -- Salinger

Mostly by introducing me to the Stoics (Aurelius especially) and a variety of
Eastern, especially Zen Buddhist, works.

Revolutionary Road -- Yates

Yay, mentioned that one in two threads today and it's not even noon yet!

A History of Western Philosophy -- Russell

Vonnegut in general. Bluebeard serves as a good overview of his major themes
and ideas, to pick just one book. The part about how people with small talents
who were once valued by their communities have been rendered eccentrics of no
special value to anyone by easy, cheap, global distribution of media is always
near the front of my mind.

How to Read a Book -- Adler

------
Denzel
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. I recommend it to everybody that asks for a life-
changing book. Truly a piece of art.

~~~
plongeur
"Ich kann denken. Ich kann warten. Ich kann fasten."

------
brudgers
_Foucault 's Pendulum_, Umberto Eco.

~~~
decasteve
Upon completion of the book I was left with the feeling that there was no book
in the universe too complex or erudite that I couldn't tackle.

It also gave everyone who read it a valid excuse not to read anything by Dan
Brown.

~~~
wankel
The only reason anyone needs to never read anything by Dan Brown is Dan
Brown's writing.

I'm terrible at random-access, on-demand list building like this, but I
strongly agree about a few of the other things mentioned here:

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter

Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton

The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis

Walden by Thoreau

A few of the better and more philosophical bits out of the bible (especially
in a good modern translation), including Ecclesiastes and 1 Corinthians 13

To this list, I would also add Ralph Waldo Emerson's classic essays, including
Self-Reliance and Experience

------
MichaelGG
This is embarrassing. I grew up with sorta fundie parents (they got better)
and dropped out of school early (religious schools...), so it might be
different for HNers that had a solid mental upbringing.

A Brief History of Time because it pretty much slapped any thoughts I had of a
supernatural universe/god right out of my mind. I know it's not highly
regarded, but for a rather ignorant guy, it woke me up.

The Selfish Gene (inc The Extended Phenotype). This is one I think is the most
powerful, even for people that had OK education. Showing how life could
possibly evolve, just with random mutations and non-random survival made it
real to me that we live in a natural world. And not just that, but that since
it's so obviously a natural world, it's up to us to decide what is right, what
our purpose is. The earth and nature aren't going to help us there - it's
_our_ call, full stop. That is huge, and many otherwise seemingly well
educated people don't seem to get it.

Heuristics and Biases. (Though Thinking Fast and Slow might be more
approachable.) This book opened me up to the fact that I'm running on busted
hardware. That I've got serious, unfixable, biases built into my brain. That a
lot of what I do is a fast but inaccurate parallel system at work.
(Interestingly, this is the essence of Taoism, wu wei).

Lately, LessWrong. (Available as a book called Rationality: From AI to
Zombies). These sequences have helped me, well, get less wrong, slowly, at
making decisions and general thinking. I try to be aware of when I'm being
biased and incorrect. I make better predictions and actively try to update my
priors, instead of just confirming my previous beliefs. As I get older (34) I
find I'm unwittingly acting close minded on occasion, and need to actively
work against it.

~~~
booruguru
> I know it's not highly regarded

Really? I've only heard good things about it. Would you mind elaborating?

~~~
MichaelGG
I just remember reading comments from other physicists along the lines of that
they didn't even know what Hawking was talking about because the descriptions
were so far off.

But now I cannot find the quote, so perhaps I imagined it or it was referring
to something else.

------
JSeymourATL
Man's Search for Meaning-- There is no finer book for perspective setting than
Viktor Frankl's classic work>
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Mea...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning)

~~~
shobu
This was the book that shook me to core. After this I realised no matter how
much problems you face, there is always hope. Excellent book.

~~~
JSeymourATL
Indeed - I pick up this book every few months for quick refresher. Always good
food for thought.

------
chrisBob
Atlas Shrugged.

I found out that the people who claim it changed their lives mostly think that
they are the smartest, most important people in the country. Beware of the
elite who think that the country is there to serve them and that it is
criminal how the government demands taxes to help those who were not born into
wealth and privilege.

------
endlessvoid94
Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

~~~
probably_wrong
I use the book's definition of "quality" (or one of them) as my to-go
mechanism whenever I have to explain why I think something is bad art.

It's a shame that not even the author seems to like the definition.

------
galfarragem
IMHO to really change your whole life perspective, you must experience a
traumatic event, not reading a book.

Anyway I would say that a book can trigger a change of perspective on a
_particular_ aspect of your life:

 _' 4-hour workweek' \- Tim Ferriss_ (on lifestyle)

 _' Get Things Done' \- David Allen_ (on organization and productivity)

 _' The Way of the Superior Man' \- David Deida_ (on relationships)

 _' The prince' \- Machiavelli'_ (on business and strategy)

 _' The little prince' \- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry_ (on meaning of life)

 _' The Feynman Lectures on Physics' \- Richard Feynman'_ (to remember you to
be humble)

A lot of other books had _broaden_ my perspective of life even if they weren't
enough to trigger a change. That list would be immense.

------
georgiev
"Zorba the Greek" by Nikos Kazantzakis

It's a novel which makes you think about how you want to spend your everyday
life. It's a book about appreciating what you have, about friendship, about
love. It's very pure.

I'd recommend it.

~~~
twobits
It's on my reading list. Have read "Report to Greco" by Nikos Kazantzakis, and
it's my favorite book of all time. Very deep, very touching, very thought
provoking, and at the same time very simple, easy, and accessible.

------
goodgoblin
Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" has always stuck with me. I read it during
my lunch break for about 6 months. The book animates the ideas that brought
about the modern world.

------
cessor
"On becoming a person" by Carl R. Rogers.

He defines Psychotherapy as merely a special case of any relationship, where
the relationship will help you grow by allowing you to overcome built up
incongruence. Many technical books made me change my perspective, but few were
as valuable as this. Although it is easy to read, it can be quite hard to
understand. It comes along as non-scientific, but many of his ideas and
findings have been substantiated by empirical studies in the past.

------
rayalez
"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky - the most
brilliant book I've read this year. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago.

And Atlas Shrugged - controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for
some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for
entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I
am aware of.

If I could send 2 books back in time to the 14-year-old me - these would be
it.

------
andrea_sdl
Tiny beautiful things by Cheryl Strayed. Out of the overcrowded self-help
world this book will challenge you and get to your heart. There's something to
learn in every story.

Another one is "The power of vulnerability" by Brene Brown, actually it's an
audiobook, I think the book has no equivalent written version but it might be
something on the line of "Daring greatly" (same author).

These books will challenge you in many ways.

------
ArekDymalski
In order of appearance:

"Fables for Robots" by Stanislaw Lem - it shaped my love for SF for the rest
of my life

"Mindwatching: Why We Behave the Way We Do" by Hans and Michael Eysenck - it
influenced my choice of studies

"The social animal" by Elliot Aronson - it helped me to understand people a
bit better :)

"Rich dad, poor dad" by Robert Kiyosaki - it really helped me in the
transition from the corporate world to own business

------
schrodinger
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts.

Talks about minimalistic long term travel.

------
ph4
Alan Watts - The Wisdom of Insecurity

An exploration of man's quest for psychological security and spiritual
certainty in religion and philosophy.

~~~
wordbank
"Out of your mind" audio lectures by Alan Watts completely changed my
perception of world and myself.

------
deskamess
The Prophet - By Kahlil Gibran.

Beautifully written prose. A co-worker lend it to me and I kept it in my desk
until I was clearing up before leaving the company. Decided to read it before
giving it back to him... it had an impact on me (more compassionate and
considerate).

Sounds silly, but I still look back fondly at my decision to read it before
giving it back - it meant that much to me!!

------
suncanon
The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property (1983) by Lewis Hyde.

It is not only a powerful deconstruction of the creative process, but it
details the history of relationships between gift/craft and
acquisition/capital. A valuable read for anyone who has ever wanted to put
more into their projects than what is asked or required.

------
pariya
"The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield (good read if you want to learn how to
quit procrastinating!)

"The Greatest Salesman on Earth" by Og Mandino

"The Zahir" by Paolo Coelho is about challenging tradition, highly recommend.

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

When I was in high school- "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho

------
pdiddy
Guy Davenport is the writer who resonates with me the most. If I had to choose
one work it would be "Wo es war, soll ich werden."

Kenneth Goldsmith's work, probably epitomized in the book _Day_ , is what
challenged me the most. It shook my ideas about what it means to be original
and create art in the world today.

------
shahocean
Bhagavad Gita. Mahatma Gandhi once said that he reads Gita whenever he can't
find the solution of any problem.

------
habosa
There are many, but the one off the top of my head is "The Alchemist".

I have read it at least ten times (it only takes about two hours). It's
something like meditation in a book for me, it allows me to reset my mind and
gain perspective whenever I am overly stressed or anxious.

Edit: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

~~~
chrisbuchholz
By whom?

Google gives me numerous books with that title.

~~~
habosa
Paulo Coelho, edited the post to include that.

------
pramalin
From Sex to Superconsciousness - Osho A great stress reliever for an Indian
who was feeling guilty all the time waking or sleeping.

Many articles by rationalist and reformer Periyar E.V.Ramasamy
[http://Periyar.org](http://Periyar.org)

------
bobcostas55
Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Quine - Two Dogmas of Empiricism

Stirner - The Ego and its Own

Nietzche - All of them, really

Metzinger - The Ego Tunnel

------
moron4hire
A lot of good suggestions. To try to avoid repeating what others have said too
much, here are some from a different perspective.

# "JPod" by Douglas Coupland helped me realize that it was corporatism, not
me, that was broken.

# Benjamin Franklin's autobiography showed me a history that was made of
people, a people no different than me and mine, and that success comes from
standing up and going your own way.

# "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlein taught me that, while culture is
arbitrary and we should be free to try to make it what we wish, that doesn't
make it fake or ignorable.

# "Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, re-read as an adult, taught me
the importance of formula in consistency and how much a market of fans love
predictability.

# "Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin taught me that the movie can be a
lot better than the book and that there is a problem with modern generations
making an affectation out of book reading.

------
delibes
Maverick:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_%28book%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_%28book%29)

Read it when I was 17 and it shaped what I expected from work in the future.

------
edw519
"The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want" by Mike
Hernacki

The title sounds hokey, but it's one of the few self-help books that ever made
much difference for me.

The secret is simple but for most people, elusive. We talk about it all the
time here on HN.

[http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Secret-Getting-Absolutely-
Eve...](http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Secret-Getting-Absolutely-
Everything/dp/1589804864/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428593698&sr=8-1&keywords=mike+hernacki)

SPOILER below

    
    
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"I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want."

(My spoiler doesn't do it justice. Take an hour and read the book.

~~~
blatherard
One of my favorite articles on this topic is
[http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-youre-sabotaging-your-
own...](http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-youre-sabotaging-your-own-life-
without-knowing-it/)

The money quote to me is near the end of page 2:

'And I'm starting to think that the world really is divided between those who
have a clear idea of what it means to want something -- including the total
cost and sacrifices it will take to get it -- and those who are just content
to leave it as an airy "wouldn't it be nice" fantasy. The former group hones
in on what they want and goes zooming after it like a shark. The latter looks
at them, shakes their head and says, "How do they do it?" As if they have a
cheat code, or a secret technique.'

------
pakled_engineer
Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralston Saul and SICP (Structural Interpretation
Of Computer Programs) because at the time I had no idea wizardry could be
performed and was banging out boring scripts for a living.

------
galephico
_Altruism_ \- Mathieu Ricard

 _Search Inside Yourself_ \- Chade-Meng Tan

 _Bible_ \- several authors

 _Siddhartha_ \- Hermann Hesse

 _Fight Club_ \- Chuck Palahniuk

 _Eléments de Philosophie Angélique_ \- Denis Marquet (french)

 _Au coeur de l 'instant_ \- Jean Bouchart d'Orval (french)

~~~
epsylon
The one book that I first thought of when I read the OP's original question
was Mathieu Ricard's _L 'Art de la Méditation_ (an English translation aptly
named _The Art of Meditation_ is available).

At some point in my life, while I was going through severe depression, I got
interested (by the folks on HN) into looking more into Buddhist philosophy and
meditation. This little book, quick to read, made me realize that our selves
are not what we think they are, and that our emotions are impermanent, that we
can deal with them by simply acknowledging them instead of letting them
overthrow us. It's a brilliant simple idea, though it is harder to put into
practice. (I am still not quite managing to be a regular meditator to this
day)

This little book changed my life, and I've now bought it or lent it to several
people from my friends or family in the hope that it may have the same impact
on them as it had on me.

~~~
galephico
I forgot to list this book but it is changing at the moment my way of managing
thoughts and feelings, especially strong ones. Thanks !

------
herghost
"Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson.

It's only a short tale, but it changed my approach to more or less everything.
I am eternally grateful to my good friend who showed it to me in about
2000/2001 ish.

------
chimmychonga
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I had to read it back in high as part of my AP
Lit course. It's not a very long book but it is very well written and teaches
you to enjoy life and live out your dreams.

~~~
wpqq
I got the impression from reviews on Amazon that it might have to do with "the
law of attraction" (which I dislike), because a lesson in the book is about
the universe conspiring to help you when you want something badly enough. Is
"the law of attraction" a major theme?

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blackle
Permutation City by Greg Egan really changed my personal cosmology

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MrMiracle
L'etranger - Albert Camus Le mythe de sisyphe - Albert Camus

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mgarfias
Heinlein: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert Coram: Boyd Mark Donohue (w/Paul
Van Valkenburgh): The Unfair Advantage Carroll Smith: XXX To Win (its a series
of books)

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sqyttles
_Outliers_ by Malcolm Gladwell helped me understand why some people are
successful and while others are not (despite superior intelligence).

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enkiv2
The Masks of the Illuminati, by Robert Anton Wilson

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alfiedotwtf
Say what you want about ESR, but if I had never read "The Art of Unix
Programming", my life would be unrecognisable and sad.

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beachstartup
the hard thing about hard things, horowitz.

it gave me a significant confidence boost about the startup i'm doing.

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2color
"Letting Go: The Pathway To Surrender" by David R. Hawkins

A well written pragmatic guide to spirituality.

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ianamartin
Naked Lunch -- William S. Borroughs

~~~
plongeur
How did it change the perspective on your life?

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jilted
Nick Cave - And the Ass Saw the Angel Gary Jennings - Aztec Gary Jennings -
The Journeyor

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fmstephe
The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse

Read when I was about 14. I just remember the way it excited my mind.

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geldedus
"The 4-Hour Workweek", no doubt

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dome82
The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

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aqme28
Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman

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samora
Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki

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rasz_pl
Das Kapital

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mkadlec
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

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jlhenry
be here now by ram dass

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blumkvist
Good suggestions already ITT, so I'm not gonna repeat.

All of Enderverse by Orson Scot Card is simply excellent. Ender's game is a
nice peak into what goes on in the whole series. A mash between true strategy,
relationships, personal development, philosophy and is very engaging.

However the rest of the Ender series deal mainly with philosophy. Plenty of
nuggets there. Additionally Shadow's saga is situated on Earth and is about
strategy and competing. Highly recommended too.

~~~
moron4hire
I'm sorry, this isn't meant as an attack on you, but I thought Ender's Game
was a rather terrible piece of over-indulgent nerd fantasy with a heaping
helping of apologia for "preemptive" warfare. My wife also loved the book and
I just don't see it. Well, I sort of see it, it's appealing to anyone who felt
like an outsider in school. But its treatment of that feeling all seems very
dangerous. It resorts to a weird sort of ego-stroking to explain away why the
reader cum Ender was an outcast, then justifies all of the hyperviolence
against all offenders under the age-old abuser's excuse "I didn't know my own
strength." I don't think people read enough into the book and treat it too
much as light, throw-away fiction.

~~~
grandalf
The best one is Speaker for the Dead. Also, Ender's Shadow attempts to address
some of the flaws you mention.

I don't think the book justifies pre-emptive war at all:

The problem of a potential alien attack is relevant (in an ironic way) b/c
many human political decisions are framed by leaders as a choice between
action and annihilation. In the original short, that framing is intended to
get the reader on board with the rest of the story without extensive
justification.

In subsequent books, the fictitious society comes to view the decision made to
kill the aliens as having been a terrible atrocity.

~~~
moron4hire
I tend to think of that more as Orson Scott Card backpedalling after the
various backlashes against his personal values. Books are reflections of the
people who write them. Every violent encounter in the book is "it's really too
bad how everything turned out, but nobody knew, so that makes it okay!" On
several occasions, Ender commits what amounts to manslaughter at best, 2nd
degree murder at worst, and it's all just washed away as "well, but they hate
him because he's _so freaking good_." It's absurd.

~~~
grandalf
So assume that Ender's response was proportional considering the bullying he
underwent. His fear of being attacked at first sounds like a child's paranoia,
but when he kills his tormentors the reader sees that this scared little kid
is quite lethal.

We're left to wonder why he's lethal and soon we realize that he's innately
good at executing force in a strategic way. We question his judgment a bit --
should he have avoided killing the bullies at all cost? But we realize that
his judgment is no worse than that of any other kid, only his execution (no
pun intended) is far, far better. He would have been devastated if he'd known
the bullies died.

I think this aspect of Ender was conceived as a great short story angle, but
as the plot develops it gets a bit two dimensional. Card counters this by
framing Ender as the embodiment of human ability -- justice, self-awareness,
compassion.

Further into the book we find that Ender's ability is a function of his
empathy -- much like someone who empathizes with us may find just the right
words to hurt us, Ender empathizes with his enemy allowing him to vanquish it.
Though because of his kind, compassionate disposition, he must be deceived
into fighting an actual war.

I will admit that revelations about Card's homophobia are a bit concerning,
but I try hard to separate the creator from the product of creation in all
areas...

~~~
moron4hire
I not sure I see any point in separating them. Wagner's operas can't be
separated from the notion of German exceptionalism that laid the groundwork
for Nazi ideology. Ender's Game does not exist other than as an expression of
Card's worldview. And he had expressed, through it (at least at the time that
he wrote it. I am at least willing to grant the rare occurrence of change in
people), that ignorance of the consequences excuses such violence, even
violence that was executed under incorrect assumptions.

In the real world, Ender not knowing that the kids are being killed _would not
excuse his behavior_. It merely changes 2nd degree murder into manslaughter.
With the number of times he repeats this behavior, we'd maybe even try him as
an adult, discarding even the basic notion within our culture that children
are generally not yet to be held responsible for all of their actions. When we
try children as children, we are not saying the crime was not their fault, we
are saying they are not going to be punished for the crime in the same way as
an adult. We still punish them.

But according to Card, nothing is ever Ender's fault. Ender doesn't kill them
because he is so good. Ender is so good _so that he can kill them_. The
causality in fiction is reversed from reality because there is a distinct
narrative to portray, but reality doesn't have a narrative, it emerges. He
wrote Ender to have misapplied violence on several occasions, so that he can
then be excused for it. The aliens aren't destroyed because they invaded, the
aliens invade so that they can be destroyed. They are aliens so that they
immediately have the inhuman status that all genocidal maniacs need to assert
before trying to cleans the universe of them.

To me, not only the revelation of Card's homophobia, but the vociferous manner
in which he defended it, is just a corroboration of what Ender's Game tells us
about who he is: an extremely rabid right-wing ideologue. We see in Card the
beginnings of the Neoconservative movement with all of its contradictions
nearly fully formed: the claimed reverence for both God and war, the clashing
support for small government and large military.

And for the life of me, I just can't read it as 8 to 10 year old children. I
have several nephews spread from 2 through 10 years old and there is an
extremely distinct difference in basic maturity level between them all. Ender
portrays qualities more like a late teenager and he yet is on the young end of
the book's spectrum. I just don't see 10-year-olds having the capacity to
_hate_ someone else "because they are the best". Mostly because the concept
itself is alien to me. I know of it only through its portrayal in the media.

It's one of the more dangerous ideas we teach kids. It tells them, "if you
could just change, it will get better." And either the kid _can_ change and
tries, which is awful, or the kid _can 't_ and is stuck thinking life will
always be like this, which is also awful. Real bullies are just jockeying for
acceptance within their peer group and it has little to nothing to do with the
victim. Bullying _only_ ends when it's made to no longer be entertaining for
the bully, a shockingly easy thing to achieve, if you just know that that is
what needs to happen.

But also because that sort of hate takes fear. That's why we use the "phobia"
ending on homophobia. Children don't know that kind of fear yet. You have to
start to become aware of your own limitations, and the accompanying fear that
someone else's success could have a detrimental impact on your own. Kids that
age are only a few years into realizing the ball doesn't just dematerialize
when you hide it behind your back, say nothing that there are limits on what
they will be able to achieve.

These fights are fantasies in Card's head, projections of what he thinks makes
for righteous cleansing of that which he sees as besetting him from all sides.
It's the ol' "'Merica is going to hell in a handbasket". He feels like
everyone is out to get him, his way of life, and he is surrounded, so escape
isn't an option. And if someone dies in the process, it's not his fault, he
was "just" defending himself. Because in his head, he's fighting for survival,
and might makes right.

Classic fundamentalism.

~~~
grandalf
> I not sure I see any point in separating them.

Suppose we found out that Gödel or Newton or Maxwell had held abhorrent social
views, would that tarnish their obvious achievements? We'd still make just as
effective use of their work. Similarly, the short order chef cooking my
breakfast might have been an ex-con who did unspeakable things, but I can
enjoy the omelette without thinking twice about its full origin story.

> expression of Card's worldview

Is the omelette an expression of the chef's worldview? Where is the line
between creation and the so-called "world view" of the creator? A grad student
in one of my math classes used to laugh with wicked amusement when a set was
proven to be empty, as if its members had been physically and violently
eradicated. Who knows what is going through the mind of the creator.

I'd argue that even if you view the Ender series as works of political
rhetoric and Card as a card-carrying member of some worldview "team" (which
you or I may agree or disagree with), the books may still be harmlessly
enjoyed as works of fiction. The same could be said about the fiction of C.S.
Lewis, Ayn Rand, Lewis Carroll, etc. It's also possible that authors of books
that are indisputably measured and reasonable turn out to have personal quirks
that some would find abhorrent.

Disclaimers aside, I'll focus on the gist of your comment. Have you ever seen
a kid around junior high age get treated so cruelly you think it's a miracle
he doesn't go Columbine on his tormentors and those who allowed it? I've seen
that kind of thing and known some friends who were horribly mistreated...
worse than Abu Ghraib kinds of acts. They lived in constant fear of the
tormentors. Such scenarios are quite common, at least in the US.

That kid who is getting picked on in schools all across the US may have a pet
that is diabetic and may fully know that if he were to inject the bully with a
syringe full of veterinary insulin the tables would turn and depending on
where the injection took place, he might not ever be caught. Perhaps that kid
also contemplates arson or other tactics that are every bit as physically
brutal. But due to his small size the victim is forced to suffer humiliation
and physical pain, or (if he's aware of the ramifications) contemplate the
jail time he'd receive.

Card addresses this reader, the person who knows well the day-to-day injustice
of the real world, and indulges him/her in a fantasy about a world where the
strong really do win -- sadly in our world the kid is likely too sensible to
dispense justice with his syringe of veterinary insulin, and the schools too
understaffed and teachers too cynical to lift a finger to stop horrible
bullying.

So the framing is just as much about a arriving at a definition of strength
and justice as it is about turning traditional notions of power on their head.
These themes get stronger through the book as Ender beats and earns the
respect of the older kids at Battle School and then eventually turns out to be
the individual upon whom the future of humanity is gambled, a decision made by
older, "stronger" individuals.

Is there a way to connect the notion of Ender's military skill and his ascent
to command as a political narrative? Certainly. But consider that when the
book was written the US was in the midst of a massive, cold war full of
bureaucracy, and the population was subject to tremendous jingoism and fear-
mongering. In light of this, the kind of video game, kids battle school that
Card invents is utterly sci-fi and imaginable only in the mind of a kid or an
adult who empathizes with kids in a unique way.

I think this empathy is why the book has sold so well, and really why the
series has sold so well and inspired so many people. Card's expressed views
are in my opinion wholly incongruous, almost to the point where I wonder if
the Mormon elders have dirt on him and forced him to make those claims...
either that or perhaps he's early in the throes of demential.

