Ask HN: Which book had the biggest impact on your personality? - lainon
======
cableshaft
I really started to take life and society a lot less seriously after I read
_The Illuminatus! Trilogy_ when I was a young teenager. It seemed to break
through my mental barriers a lot better than any other book. It reads kind of
like an acid trip, wandering around from the headspace of one character to
another character throughout time and space, sometimes mid-sentence, but over
the course of the book it tells an entertaining romp chock full of
conspiracies.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy)

More recently I've been reading through _Antifragile: Things that Gain From
Disorder_ by Nassim Taleb, and while I'm not completely on board with
everything he said (his assertions that academia contributed virtually nothing
to the development of the computer rang particularly false to me, so some of
his other assertions are similarly suspect), it is forcing me to think of how
I can live my life in a way that is less susceptible to things outside of my
control.

For example, I've been following cryptocurrencies quite a bit and have some
'skin in the game' there, and that field does seem to require some
'antifragile' thinking in order to weather its volatility.

The book seems to be particularly good if you want to get more into the
entrepreneurial or creative mindset.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile)

------
JPLeRouzic
For 55 years at least it was "Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner [0].

Now I am really impressed by the Culture serie [1]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series)

~~~
nxsynonym
I'm finishing consider phlebas now, it's awesome. Can't wait to dive into
others in the series. Any suggestion on what to read next?

------
Chickenosaurus
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD) helped me to
keep going in tough times and to be a happier person.

------
jotjotzzz
"7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Even just the first chapter on "Be
Proactive" by taking responsibility of your life was a wake-up call. Here's a
good summary of all the 7 habits:
[https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-
habit1.php](https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit1.php) Well
worth the read or listen if you haven't already.

------
AlexAMEEE
Everything that Arthur Schopenhauer wrote.

It's a lot about finding purpose in life.

I started reading his stuff and then I became angry at him and at me.

At him because he showed me that I'm a slave of nature and at me because I
started questioning life and humanity.

Then I started to disprove his thesis and found my own purpose in life, not
only that, it also gave me a much better understanding of human nature, which
can be used in marketing or product design.

~~~
noam87
> Everything that Arthur Schopenhauer wrote.

Though you're probably good just skimming over anything he had to say about
women or non-white people :p

Even my 19th-century edition of his essays comes with a prefatory warning.

~~~
AlexAMEEE
I agree, it's recommended to read a summary of all his texts.

------
AnitoKid
1\. The Flight of the Doves by Walter Macken - read it when I was about 9-10
years old. 2\. Master of the Game by Sydney Sheldon - read it when I was in
high school.

------
suramya_tomar
'How to Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People)

------
JSeymourATL
_Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns_ >
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46674.Feeling_Good](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46674.Feeling_Good)

------
FullMtlAlcoholc
The Hero with A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Fac...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces?wprov=sfla1)

------
cromd
Letters from a Stoic (a Seneca collection). A lot of the ideas were completely
foreign to me, having grown up with a little too much television, politics,
food, etc.

------
rwieruch
Maybe Give and Take? [0]

\- [0] [https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-give-and-
take/](https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-give-and-take/)

------
SirLJ
The Asian Saga by James Clavell

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga)

------
computerwizard
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kybalion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kybalion)

------
mkrishnan
"The monk who sold his Ferrari".

It helped me quit smoking and run 2 marathons.

------
2_listerine_pls
"Are you Bill Gates?" by William Gates.

------
r0brodz
Bhagavad-gita 1972 edition by Prabhupada

------
crispytx
The Texas Penal Code ;)

------
Powerofmene
Man's Search for Meaning

------
andrei_says_
I am that

