On: Ask HN: Which non-fiction books had the biggest im...

[LeonB]

I’d like to say

- Factfulness or

- Sapiens or

- Richard Feynman’s various writings

…but the most measurable impact was probably from something like

- “Strunk and white The Elements of Style” or

- “How to win friends and influence people” or

- “Oh! Pascal!” Or

- “the dictionary” or

- some specific bus timetable that enabled a pivotal moment in my life

[tiffanyg → LeonB]

Ah, a literalist.

I see your literality, and raise:

enabled a pivotal moment in my life

Like that time you beat Archimedes to the punch and moved the world with a cantilever?

To not just 'standup philosopher'-post: Gödel, Escher, Bach (already mentioned by another I see); Euclid's Elements; Polya's How To Solve It; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - clearly non-fiction, if you know cats. :)

[pjmorris → LeonB]

“Oh! Pascal!” is on my short list and I can see the influence of 'Elements', and Feynman as well.

[gnat → LeonB]

Oh! Pascal! was magnificent. The other influential Pascal text for me was “Elementary Pascal”, where Holmes writes Pascal for Babbage’s engine to solve mysteries. Books these days don’t seem to have the same whimsy.

[D13Fd → LeonB]

Seconded on Strunk and White, although you also need to know not to follow some of its outdated advice.

[curious_soul → LeonB]

> some specific bus timetable that enabled a pivotal moment in my life

Story time? Don't leave us hanging :)

[LeonB → curious_soul]

I don’t know which specific incidents were pivotal, but surely some moment was?