
Books that have affected you and your life the most - resab
I would love to hear what are some of the books that have significantly affected your life and why.<p>For me they are<p>Thinking fast and slow: This book helped me realize how to make sense of statistics that are usually cited in media and how to think critically about them and how to think about probability.<p>The power of habit: this book has helped me understand the habit framework and helped me curb some unwanted habits and helped establish some useful ones.
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keiferski
Fiction and philosophical nonfiction has far more potential to affect one's
life than a pop-science book, at least in my experience.

Some of my favorites:

\- Moby Dick. Probably the single greatest work of American literature, in my
opinion of course.

\- Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche. An excellent primer to his thought. Any of
his books are worth reading, though.

\- The Ego and Its Own, Stirner. An under-appreciated philosopher who can
really shake up your foundations.

\- Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, Borges. His favorite short story of mine. It
serves as a very effective metaphor for the power of fiction.

\- Anything by Joseph Conrad, although I particularly recommend _The Secret
Sharer._

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macando
The Immortal and The Aleph by Borges are pretty awesome too.

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stasbar
Man search for meaning - I think that most people, at some point in their life
face with the big question "What is the purpose of life ?". Author of this
book is the one who can handle this huge question because he survived death
camps, and noticed what give people will to live. Highly recommended.

Flow: Psychology of optimal experience - If you want do double down the
concept of Flow (situations where you are so involved that you forgot to eat
for the whole day (programming in my case)), how to achieve these situations,
and how they work.

The lessions of history - This book is just a mine of great golden nugget
thoughts.

Slight Edge - Stop looking for easy paths, for quantum leaps. Yes, this is
hard, this is a slow path. But you need to follow it to achieve what you want
from life. But do it wisely.

Thinking fast and slow and The power of habbit are also great :) Here you can
find more of my favorite books: [https://stasbar.com/](https://stasbar.com/)

~~~
yesenadam
I read Frankl ( _Man 's Search for Meaning_) decades ago and was impressed
too. But a year or two ago I learnt more about his story. A reader of that
book, which sold millions, would be surprised to learn, for example, that
Frankl only spent a few days at Auschwitz, himself performed medical
experiments on Jews, or that "in 1978 when attempting to give a lecture at the
institute of Adult Jewish Studies in New York, Frankl was confronted with an
outburst of boos from the audience and was called a _nazi pig_ ". Frankl's
biographer wrote "...we know the reality of Auschwitz is that attitude
mattered little for survival."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Controversy)

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thaniri
The Art of Learning by Waitzkin.

The book details the lessons over time that the author (an American chess
prodigy) learned about how to improve at chess. It gets interesting when he
applies these same lessons to become a world champion at combat Tai Chi.

The impact this had on me is how I apply myself to any competitive discipline
to maximize learning. Not necessarily success, but the amount of knowledge
gained from practice. This has the happy side effect of often leading to
success.

But also I liked the stories of a child growing up in a competitive world, the
amount of love and support he receives from his mentors, friends, and family.
The ability to share this love with other students of chess and to produce
profound insight into how people in general learn and react to
hypercompetitive situations.

What is also great about the book is that it written in very accessible
language. The reader does not need to be a scholar to understand the concepts
Waitzkin is trying to express in his book.

~~~
resab
This one sounds very interesting, I will definitely check it out. I especially
like books that teach a framework that can be applied in multiple domains.
Thanks for sharing :)

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physicsyogi
Language in Thought and Action, by S.I. Hayakawa. I read it in grad school and
it opened my mind to how much of human language is subjective and made me
think about the problems that arise because of that.

~~~
resab
That sounds very interesting, I will definitely check it out!

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croo
"Never Split the Difference" and "How to Win Friends and Influence People".
Before reading those I thought talking just happens between people with some
of them being more resourceful. It never occurred to me before that simple
tricks can be so useful in everyday conversations.

Why we sleep - changed my perception of sleep. I used to sleep the least I
could get away with. Not anymore, I stand corrected by science.

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srijanshetty
\- The essay "Complicating the Narrative" which lists out ways in which we can
address the growing divide between humans on different sides of a debate.
Vital for journalism to regain it's trust and also vital in everyday life.

\- JCIP "Java Concurrency In Practice" changed my mental model of programming.

\- Practical Vim, this was my Eureka moment with vim

\- Wait But Why, gave me a diverse perspective on a wide range of things

~~~
stasbar
Practical Vim seems amazing, pushed it on top of my to-read stack :D By "Wait
But Why" you mean this one ? The Elon Musk Blog Series: Wait But Why by Tim
Urban

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macando
(Speculative) Fiction: "The City and The Stars" by Arthur C. Clarke

Nonfiction: "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip
Heath and Dan Heath. The best book on how to communicate. The best part: the
book is written in a way that its content sticks to your memory for a very
long time thus proving what it preaches.

~~~
rabidonrails
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die sounds really cool...off
to order it!

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rman666
I, Robot. I read the stories as a kid and I believed I could be a part of
making them come true in the real world. We don’t have sentient robots (yet)
but following the vision/dream has led me on an interesting career in
technology!

~~~
resab
Thanks for sharing, you are truly following your childhood dreams! :)

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anthony_barker
\- Man search for meaning

\- Letters of a Businessman to His Son Paperback - G. Kingsley Ward (Author)

\- The Design of the UNIX Operating System

\- Horse Sense

\- Hemingway farewell to arms

\- Save your marriage

\- The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America

\- On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors: John Z. DeLorean's - made me
never want to work for big company

1000s of books... no time to read or list them all.

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thaveedu
Contact by Carl Sagan - A good novel that deals with the politics of Science
and religion. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse , A philosophical take on life ,
reality and belief system. The Code Book by Simon Singh - A book that explains
the history of cryptography in a very interesting way

~~~
resab
I like works of fiction that can make you question aspects of our world.
Contact sounds like a book in this category. I watched the movie few years
ago, but will check out the book as well. Thanks for sharing your books! :)

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thedevindevops
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, why I can't really say, it 'gelled'
with me(?)

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kannanmr
Assembly language programming for the IBM PC (John Socha & Peter Norton)
Advanced MSDOS programming (Ray Duncan) All books by Michael Abrash (esp
Graphics Programming black book) ‐---------- With out these books, 13yr old me
would have gone down a non-computer route!

~~~
resab
Thanks for sharing!! These definitely has a big impact on your life! :)

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wbsun
How to stop worrying and start living -- this helps every day.

How to become a hacker -- not actually a book, but helped build my belief.

The mythical man-month -- this tells me to never take software project time
planning seriously because it won't be accurate no matter how confident people
are.

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resab
Thanks for sharing these, I will check them out! :)

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2snakes
Vasistha’s Yoga - highly useful for understanding and transcending
psychological conditioning, using mind to master mind.

Early books: Arrow to the Sun and Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Hans Christian
Andersen and The Hobbit - all very stimulating to imagination.

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resab
Thanks for sharing, I was looking for a good yoga book, will definitely check
it out! :)

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rramadass
Just a PSA;

"Yoga Vasistha" has nothing to do with the physical aspects of Yoga i.e.
Asanas (though some passages do talk about them) but deals purely with the
internal/intellectual aspects of the mind. It is a very long book with lots of
Allegories/Similes/Stories/Repetition and so you have to read it slowly and
with patience.

I recommend reading "The Concise Yoga Vasistha" (an abridged version) before
reading the unabridged "Vasistha's Yoga" both translated by Swami
Venkatesananda.

~~~
resab
Sounds good? Thanks for a heads up! :)

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JasonKidwell
Tom Hopkins master the art of selling. It changed my life and it was
absolutely for the better and it was absolutely a book I shared with most all
of my future sales pros. I would not be where I am today whatsoever.

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ElijahLynn
Eat to Live (you will know more than your doctor about nutrition, 900 studies
referenced, written by an M.D.)

Peak: Secrets of the New Science of Learning (changed the way I approach all
learning, big compounding effect)

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throwaway1954
Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.

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resab
Thanks for sharing, this sounds like an interesting read!

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2life9
Why you worry?

