
Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift? - notoriousarun
What book have you found so amazing that you have given it as a gift? This could be a tech book, biz, self-help, or other books. Also, you can help me too https:&#x2F;&#x2F;read.gift&#x2F;u&#x2F;notoriousarun
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kingkongjaffa
I swapped a copy of start with why by Simon Sinek

for

Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman

Both great books.

Start with why is good to understand how marketing and branding works, and how
to do it better.

Thinking Fast and Slow is a great take on being conscious of your own
cognition. It explains how to know whether we are making decisions with the
correct thinking mode.

A lot of the time we rely on past experience and gut feel - the fast thinking
mode. We do this in situations where actually the slow thinking mode might be
better.

It's important to understand and be self aware of which one you are relying
on, and strike the right balance.

Also a great book on how to get things right is the Checklist manifesto by
Atul Gawande.

It's a fantastic story, of how the humble checklist can improve workflow
quality tremendously. From pilots running pre-flight checks to avoid plane
failures. To surgeons performing pre-surgery checks, vastly improving patient
outcome and surgery success statistics.

We use checklists in our company to ensure we are building high quality
products, and our customer support is to a high standard and uniform.

I would recommend all three.

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notoriousarun
Thanks, your recommendations are great.

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exanimo_sai
The books I always fall back on giving as a gift:

Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom A superintelligence is a hypothetical agent
that possesses intelligence far surpassing that of the brightest and most
gifted human minds.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman A modern classic, Einstein’s Dreams is a
fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he
worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young
genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he
imagines many possible worlds.

Remembrance of Earth's Past by Cixin Liu It is hard to explain how deep my
love for this series is. My all time favorite science fiction but what it is
is just page after page of ideas that get more and more fantastical. Can't
recommend this enough

The Three Body Problem (PartI) The Dark Forest (Part II) Death's End (Part
III)

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notoriousarun
I would surely read Einstein's Dreams and SuperIntelligence.

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DanBC
"This is not my hat": [https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Not-Hat-Jon-
Klassen/dp/1406353...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Not-Hat-Jon-
Klassen/dp/1406353434/)

The humour is subversive, the illustration is lovely, and these ("This is not
my hat" is another) are great books for younger children. My child loved it,
and the people I've given this to have gone on to buy other books by the
writer or illustrator.

"Mr Birdsnest and the House Next Door": [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birdsnest-
House-Next-Door-Little/dp...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birdsnest-House-Next-
Door-Little/dp/1781125759/)

Little Gems are a set of books printed on reduced contrast paper, with a large
clear font. They're short, simple, but fun. They're good for younger readers
or for slightly older reluctant readers. My child enjoyed reading this book,
and loved the illustration. The other child I gave this to took out other
books in the Little Gems series from the library, and bought other Julia
Donaldson books with her pocket money.

"Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software"
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Sof...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Software/dp/0735611319) I had a friend who knew a lot about the software, and
knew a lot about hardware but their hardware knowledge was a bit patchy. Code
helped solidify their knowledge. If I could have afforded it I would have
given them The Art of Electronics and the companion Student Manual. (This was
in the 1990s. I haven't read the new version and I don't know how well it
works today.)

"Bomber Command" [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Command-Pan-Military-
Classic...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Command-Pan-Military-
Classics/dp/0330513613/) I liked this book because it describes how we (the
UK) went into world war 2 with ethical notions around not bombing civilian
populations and ended up fire-bombing several heavily populated German cities.
It's also eye-opening about the scale of this part of the war, and the cost in
lives of aircrew.

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notoriousarun
I would surely read "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and
Software"

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notoriousarun
Clickable Link:
[https://read.gift/u/notoriousarun](https://read.gift/u/notoriousarun)

