For e.g. Almanack of Naval Ramakant is a good starting point.
Thanks.
In response to some questions:
It's not a kids book. It's a fan-fiction inspired by the original books, but written with adults in mind.
You can read it for free at http://www.hpmor.com/.
- How to win friends and influence people. Helped me understand the dynamics of relationships in a unon manipulative and empathetic way.
- Sapiens. Changed my view on human organizations and religion
- the monk who sold his Ferrari
- meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- the screwtape letters. Letter 15 specifically changed me
1984. First real sense of society at large, totalitarianism, and other "grown-up" stuff. I was maybe 12 or 13.
Brave New World. Same as 1984, except I was maybe 14 or 15.
1491 and 1493. Amazing way to deeply understand history, and completely new perspectives on America pre and post Columbus.
The Pillars of the Earth. First time a novel captured me so deeply, in terms of sense of history, and sense of other people's lives.
Then, various novels, mostly from Italian authors (I grew up in Italy).
Bear with me on this. It was a bridge into politics, ecology, religion, and economics, as well as an amazing world-building narrative. It got me interested in philosophy and literature, and the roles they play in creating, describing, or influencing cultures. It is my keystone book.
- "The Defining Decade: Why Your 20's Matter and How to Make The Most of Them Now": it motivated me to find a fulfilling a career in tech (among other things).
- "On the Shortness of Life" (Seneca) - Really made me take a hard look at my life, for the better.
- "Eat and Run" - Interesting read about an Ultramarathoner. Inspired me to find the motivation for doing "tough things" in general.
2. Never split the difference - ditto . IMO, "start with no" is a sub set of this but it is worth separately anyway
3. Fooled by randomness
4. The black swan
5. Books on intermittent fasting by Dr Jason Fung
6. All books by Noah Harari but start with Sapiens
7. Security Analysis by Ben Graham
It changed my perspective of everything. It could be existential crisis fuel too, but ultimately it's trying to answer what's our reality. At the same time is an autobiographical book from a scientist and the history of Cosmology.
It's considered one of the founding books of the secular Buddhist movement. Not only did it open me up to the depths of the meditative path as a therapeutic practice (rather than religious practice), but it inspired me to complete a university degree in Religious Studies.
This is the first book that gave me a thorough insight into philosophy. Completely changed my worldview. I reread chapters from it everyday. It has become my bible. The Incerto strictly focuses on the practical applications of stoic philosophy.
2. All books by Dan Brown
The Dan Brown books got me in to reading for fun. While some people may regard his books as thrillers, I consider them hard science fiction. I owe him my reading culture.
3. The age of intelligent machines. 4. The singularity is near. 5. The age of spiritual machines. ... all the above by Raymond Kurzweil
These books introduced me to computer science.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond: Gave me a deeper insight into the geographic underpinnings of civilization and history, and how available resources and climate allowed some early settlements to grow into mighty empires, while others struggled to subsist. It also improved my Civilization 3 game playing. ;)
The Language of Mathematics by Keith Devlin: Sparked a renewed interest in mathematics through historical narratives of the development of our number systems, mathematicians and numerous mathematical topics.
The Code Book by Simon Singh: Kicked off my historical and professional interest in cryptography and keeping secrets.
Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi: Showed me how to make the best use of every minute, especially waiting at bus/train stops, and helped me recognize what I really like doing.
Firstly, I read it as a kid, in my formative years, when it was most likely to have an impression on me.
But I remember reading the books and feeling completely enraptured by this magical world. I also remember feeling a a bit annoyed at what I perceived as Harry's laziness and ingratitude! I would think "if I was him, I would spend all my days in the library, learning all the coolest spells, potions etc., and make the most of all this magical power"
As an adult, this has unintentionally become the frame through which I view my job as a programmer. You can call me a romantic, but I've been doing this for years and I still think it's wonderful. At any time I can open a book or a man page and learn some amazing new spells.
With our computers, we _all_ have access to magic, it's just about learning to use it.
Why? Because until I read it my only other experience with writing of that era was the bible readings from when I attended synagogue (before I realized that there was no god). I always found the bible stuff strange, but I forgave it, because I thought that people were just like that at that time in human history. Well, Herodotus changed my mind. He is brilliant, skeptical, humorous, and inquisitive. Attributes that, until I read the book, I somehow thought belonged to we moderns. Now I know how wrong I was, and I think about things differently.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735211299/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness
https://www.amazon.com/Almanack-Naval-Ravikant-Wealth-Happin...
Do you consider having a new layer in your thinking process "life changing"? Then, I would say-
1. Deep Work and So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport. He goes against famous ideas such as "follow your passion" and provides you with alternative actionable advice.
2. Black Swan by N. Nicholas Taleb. It makes you aware of unhinged "platonistic thinking" where stuff are "explained" looking back. And people expect to use these explanations in future. I also learned about silent evidence which is, of course, a type of survivorship bias and sampling bias. Whenever, I see a straigh-forward "explanation", alarm goes off inside mind- 'this is too simplistic, and thus oversimplified, and not entirely correct'.
3. Made to Stick by Cheap Heath and Dan Heath: this book explains why some ideas stick and why some don't. From this book, you also learn how to make ideas stick. You start to see the world in a different way.
4. Godel, Escher, Bach: others have already mentioned it. It is life changing. I am still reading it.
5. Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen: Indian past is generally seen as a golden age heavily tied to religion and faith. Sen, in an articulated, smooth, and scholarly way provides evidence in contrary. The past of India is also an age of reason, athiesm, debate, faithlessness, unorthodoxy, and opposing of religions. Sanskrit is the first language to have athiestic text, maybe.
Bengali:
I used to feel very bad about my ethnic identity, and felt ashamed about it. (I was 14/15.)
Then I read the book "Those Times" by Sunil Ganguly. It is a novel based on history and historical figures, the Bengali renaissance, the feminist movements of Bengal.
This was the first time I ever felt confident about my ethnic identity, and fount a history I could take pride in. Totally changed me. It was like finally having soil under my feet for the first time in my life.
Bouddha Dharma by Haraprasad Shastri: This is a history of Buddhism in Bengal region.
--------
These are just some of many. I am in my early 20s and I have read 250 books till now, and all read in recent years were carefully chosen. Many had meaningful impact in my life.
As a child I was inspired by its radiant optimism about engineering advances extracting men from peril and lifting them to the position of control of their lives and making the most of their circumstance.
The Martian had the same vibes for me.
- Alexander the Great by Philip Freeman
- Debt by David Graeber
- Extreme Ownership by Jocko Wilink
- Genesis and the Big Bang by Gerald Schroeder
- The Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila
Meditations - Aurelius
Taught me that simply existing peacefully can be exhilarating.
The Prince - Machiavelli
Shrewd and cunning. I don't find myself applying his ideas but I definitely encounter them.
Edit:
Healing Back Pain - Sarno
Self explanatory. No longer experience back pain, wrist pain, or other minor aches and pains.
https://www.amazon.com/Difficult-Conversations-Discuss-What-...
It's short and easy to read, yet gives you a really valuable addition to your mental toolkit for understanding the world
- "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene
- "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker
- "Left of Bang" by Patrick van Horne and Jason Riley
- "Influence" and its follow-up "Pre-suasion" by Robert Cialdini
- "Courage is Calling" by Ryan Holiday (yes it was published this year but I found it helpful)
- "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
- "No One Ever Told Us That" by John D. Spooner
- "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki (Not something I'd read today but there was some good things in their for my naive 20 year old self)
https://bookshop.org/books/deterring-democracy/9780374523497
gave me a diff pov on the US/government, in particular. helped start shifting my perspective, break out of the 'indoctrination' of a standard US education, which already included college, gd.
i think it could matter because, if we're going to survive, americans will probably have to start looking at the world a bit differently -- since the US is still, for now, really the sole superpower in the world and effectively sets global policy, including and especially on climate collapse.
i imagine we'll maintain our 'sole superpower' status indefinitely, which doens't bode well for continued organized life on earth, unfortunately, but maybe we can still change our ways. maybe we'll be able to force the 1% to let us live, even in this much-diminished environment.
There's a few recommendations made here that I have read, for instance Nassim Talebs Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, both of which I honestly didn't find to be all that good. They're interesting, but not that useful and I don't feel that he's all that good at explaining his ideas.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius have some rather good parts, while others are just rambling and repetitive. It's not enough to be life changing. It can guide you in some specific situation, but that's about it.
Atomic Habits: Again interesting, very pratical, but long winded and by no means a guaranteed way to changing your life/habits.
Don't get me wrong, the books recommended, at least those I've read, are interesting, and worth a read, but they won't change your life.
Then I read "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley which really push me towards psyche exploitation. And last big one was:
"Freedom From the Known" by Jiddu Krishnamurti and it was a buddhist mind-bomb.
2. _Eichmann in Jerusalem_, Hannah Arendt. Made me wiser about how evil works. "Evil" is a fun word to throw around and lends itself to silly political slogans, but the real thing is no joke, is out there, and does not look like what you think.
3. _Eugene Onegin_, by Pushkin, as translated by Douglas Hofstadter (yes, that one). The man taught himself Russian by translating the Onegin to distract himself after his wife died. The foreword-essay changed how I regard language and translation.
3. _Getting Unstuck_, by Pema Chodron. I still use this shit every time I get obsessive about some coding thing. Wise AF.
4. _Getting Things Done_ by David Allen. Everything is an interface and everything is algorithmic, your only choice is whether or not to consciously intend them. You can engineer better habits.
5. A biography of Malcolm X -- I forget which one, embarrassingly, and I am in a hurry so I will not google. Whichever one came out closest to the year 2007 :)
These days tho I would grab _The Dead are Arising_ -- the most recent. It's aleady on my Kobo. Malcolm X showed me how to survive in hell and start a movement.
It's sort of like a mirror, a way to look at yourself. Also, reading it is a pleasure, very refreshing. This is in contrast with Daniel Kahneman's book which is quite depressing while being essentially on the same topic.
Evolution of horses, disappearance of the .400 in baseball, where are all the modern Geniuses, and the most integral part- the dominance of bacteria- and how evolution and the progression of entropy/ the 2nd law, does not, against most intuition, generally _lead_ to the increase of complexity, but merely _allows_ for its existence.
I do disagree with him on the premise of "hot-hands," and the bit about joe dimaggio's performance being the most (statistically) outstanding in human history is also unintuitive.
The book does have such a general sense of applicability though, cannot recommend it enough.
- Hal Clement's _Space Lash_ --- a collection of short stories, these are still thought-provoking now, esp. "Raindrop" and "The Mechanic", w/ the former seeming esp. prescient. These are available in: _Music of Many Spheres_: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/939760.Music_of_Many_Sph...
- Hal Gordon's _Divers Down! Adventure Under Hawaiian Seas_ which is available as a podcast: https://www.sffaudio.com/uvula-audio-divers-down-adventure-u... --- where I got my work ethic
- Susan Cooper's _The Dark is Rising_ pentalogy --- early urban fantasy billed as a young adult series --- good insights on morality
- Steven Brust's _The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars_ --- art and life and love by a writer who always has something interesting to say --- other books in this series are quite good
- Oscar Ogg's _The 26 Letters_ and Warren Chappell's _The Living Alphabet_ and _A Short History of the Printed Word_ --- these books, which I read when I was quite young were why I studied graphic design and did book composition --- if you read and understand them, you'll know more about typography than most professional designers
- H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ --- a delightful book, which is beautifully read by tabithat on Librivox: https://librivox.org/little-fuzzy-by-h-beam-piper/
- C. J. Cherryh's _Rimrunners_ and the balance of her Alliance-Union books --- her stuff is always worth reading.
One book which I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned, and which I need to read for myself is _Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics_ by Alfred Korzybski
"The Gallic Wars", Julius Caesar -- for the enjoyment of reading a 2k years old book by a major historical character. Probably more interesting if you are french, belgian or german. Truly epic ending with the battle of Alesia. The staging of this battle is almost unbelievable although to date, every archeological finding has only confirmed the description made by JC.
Both are short, direct, self contained books.
The undeniable fact that there is only ever 'now' was also a bombshell of a realization. What a wonderful book that one, for those who have the disposition to grok it.
The Peaceful Warrior's Way, by Dan Millmann, is a very good first step. It's lightweight, easy to read, fun, but full of gems. It can also guide you towards the heavier stuff.
[1]https://25iq.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/the_global_negot...
Two days ago one of my children was caught out telling a lie. The next morning my daily bible reading for that day was from Proverbs about the importance of not telling lies. As I say, some things don't change :-)
It fairly accessible and yet opened me up to a much more complex world of inner experience than I was able to perceive before reading the book.
"The Once and Future King", T.H. White -- best novelization of the problem of power
"Don Quixote", Miguel de Cervantes -- why stories matter
"Essence of Decision", Graham Allison -- how views of a historic episode vary with the theory you apply
"Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings", Basler/Sandburg -- The application of reason to the problems of law, morality and politics
- "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" by William B. Irvine
- "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton G. Malkiel
- "The Real Happy Pill" by Anders Hansen
- "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss & Tahl Raz
- "Drug Use for Grown-ups" by Dr. Carl L. Hart
- "Soft City" by David Sim
https://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp...
https://www.amazon.com/How-Happiness-Approach-Getting-Life/d...
Another book that's definitely worth a read, or two, is "The Goal", which teaches you how to think goal-oriented while not being a bore to read.
on transforming core motivational schemas that we were conditioned with since a young age and no longer serve us
Opening the Heart of Compassion by Lar Short and Martin Lowenthal (available free on dli.org)
on understanding deep patterns of behavior in yourself
- How to run a big ship (Cptn Rory O'Connor, RN) Really made me think about how much of modern leadership and management theory is a rehash of old theory. But now we replacing the individuals responsibility with hired consultants that should "teach" us how to work.
- Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) Together with my Grandmother really showed me a way to live with focus on what matters.
Apart from this there is a lot of fiction that has added up to create the ideals I try to live by today and to be fair I think you can do worse than basing your ideals on classical fantasy and science fiction.
"The Dream Machine" by M Mitchel Waldrop - Biography of JCR Licklider and history of computing.
I've listened to dozens of self help type books, and this one had an immediate and permanent effect on me. It changed my life. I don't think it will do the same for everyone, but it did for me. I think most time spent listening to these self help type books goes to waste, but there is the occasional book or insight that resonates with a person and makes it all worth it. This was one of those book for me.
Epictetus' Enchiridion helped me massively with depression and anxiety over the past few years. I still read a few excerpts from it weekly. Much of it is self evident, but it's reassuring and reinforcing.
The works of Terry Pratchett shaped my sense of humor, and my outlook on life. I would definitely be a different person today if I hadn't encountered Discworld at such an early age. They've made me a optimistic cynic.
I'd highly recommend anybody interested in starting the Discworld books to start with Mort, and then the rest of the Death series in order (Hogfather in particular).
Outwitting the Devil is a work of fiction that was written in 1938 by Napoleon Hill, which was considered too controversial to be published in its era. The book is written as an interview between Hill (Mr. Earthbound) and the devil (our inner dark self), wherein Hill attempts to uncover the secrets to freedom and success by evaluating the greatest obstacles that humans face in order to attain their personal goals in life. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It's remarkable how universal this book is, despite being written long ago. It changed my perspective on the West-centric world.
Truly a life-changing book that completely changed the way I think about the world and about people
- N.N. Taleb "Black Swan", as great intro to his thought system which may well be called the "mediterranean soul".
Later books by him can be safely ignored, more worth in his Medium articles, especially the one on work and employment.
- Spitznagel "Dao of Capital", pound for pound one of the smartest books I've ever read.
For me I would say The Lean Startup, On Writing Well, and Atlas Shrugged for very different reasons.
My comment there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15157724
Come as you Are - Emily Nagosky
The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk
The ministry of the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson
- Sovereign Individual, Davidson
- Origins of Money, Carl Menger
- Operating Systems, Tanenbaum
Ted Chiangs tower of Babylon. Short story.
How to make friends and influence people
Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
No book is totally life-changing IMHO, but many are life-altering… life-shifting? But for a good shift in perspective, I would maybe try the following:
For fiction, best no reasons given, go into these blind:
- Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
- The City and the City, China Mieville
- Exhalation, Ted Chiang
- Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
For non-fiction:
- Any book that tells some of the history of the field you have a career in. You need it for perspective. For me it was the books Hackers by Stephen Levy (problematic as it may be) and Journey Through Genius by William Dunham. They led me into deeper dives and other books which rooted my knowledge in some chronological perspective.
- Surreal Numbers by Donald Knuth, a “fiction” book about Conway’s surreal numbers. Holy cow, this shifts your perspective on what a number can be.
- Godel Escher Bach by Hofstadter, recommended by others, as a mind bending book
- What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund. Really changed my perspective on the act of reading in general. Very easy and quick read.
- Debt, by David Graeber (sure to hear about this in the comments lol)
Biographical:
- Read at least one book from someone who has had a different life experience than you have had. For me, it was Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain which wasn’t totally a biography but told a lot of experiences in his life completely different than mine that offered some perspective.
- One anti-recommendation: any book that a CEO writes or has ghost-written about their life. None of that is applicable to your own life, even if you are a CEO.
Self-help: no recommendations.
Self help books only help the person selling the books IMHO. I’ve read my share, and it tells more about the person writing the book than it does give life tips about how to live one’s life.
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson by George Guerdjieff
It ultimately led me down a path that changed a lot about how I approached investing, and how I perform value appraisal / how I view value in general across all aspects of life. The principles of value investing and value judging apply to most things, rather than being narrowly limited to eg stock investing. It introduced me to some of the basic foundations of value investing. It's not a super renowned book (ala Ben Graham's various treatises on value investing), however it's my favorite Buffett book regardless and the one I most often recommend to new investors.
Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Such a simple concept, so extraordinarily important as a distinction.
Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber" -- A Harvard-educated mathematician terrorist presents a lucid neo-Luddite manifesto. It doesn't take a cool-headed logician to appreciate this work. Draws heavily from the works of Jacques Ellul, but presents Ellul's ideas in a quintessentially American manner, without the obfuscation required of French philosophy. Yes, he's a convicted murderer, yes, he was a subject of MKULTRA, but even so, the perspective of a Harvard-educated psychedelic terrorist should alone be worthy of a lookover (he doesn't receive any proceeds from sales). If you prefer French philosophy or a pacifistic author, replace this with The Technological Society and Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes, both by Jacques Ellul, tackling the same subjects (mostly).
Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Islamic Nation Will Pass by Abu Bakr Naji -- This is the playbook that was used for establishing the Islamic State. Its philosophy isn't unique to Wahhabist Islam, however. It's like the anti-Embrace-Extend-Extinguish philosophy. It's disruptive innovation for religion. In short, it has three stages: first, destroy the social contract and return to a Hobbesian state of nature. Second, reestablish the social contract with your team in control. Third, use this island of order to expand outwards until your goal is reached (in this case an Islamic Caliphate).
Suicide Note by Mitchell Heismann -- Mitchell Heisman shot himself on September 18, 2010 in Harvard Yard as ”Experimental Elimination of Self-Preservation,” according to this work that he published posthumously. Possibly, along with Kaczysnki, the best illustrator of G.K. Chesterton's assertion that "Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. [...] The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason." This is his, nominally rational, defense of suicide against what Heismann terms viviocentrism. It is an experience, if nothing else.
Two picks that dovetail together exceptionally well and equally magisterial in their respective wheel-houses:
First, the Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist -- Why is the brain divided? What if modern consciousness as we know it only emerged during the Axial Age? The differing world views of the right and left brain (the "Master" and "Emissary" in the title, respectively) have, according to the author, shaped Western culture since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the growing conflict between these views has implications for the way the modern world is changing. The first half is pure neuroscience, the latter half teased-out implications of the former. It is a brilliant work.
Second, Debt: the First 5000 Years by the late David Graeber -- What is the historical relationship of debt with social institutions such as barter, marriage, friendship, slavery, law, religion, war and government? Why do we keep debts fuzzy with friends, but settle them immediately with strangers? What exactly is money?
I imagine that the processes noticed by both McGilchrist and Graeber are interrelated in profound ways (i.e. the dual advent of physical currencies and complex civilizations incentivized profound shifts in cognition, arguably in favor of disembodied abstraction and decontextualization, creating in its wake what is termed "mental illness").
And why not? A final choice: The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy -- "The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." When Jesus says to turn the other cheek, Tolstoy asserts that he meant to abolish violence, period. A favorite quote: "The attitude of the ruling classes to the laborers is that of a man who has felled his adversary to the earth and holds him down, not so much because he wants to hold him down, as because he knows that if he let him go, even for a second, he would himself be stabbed, for his adversary is infuriated and has a knife in his hand. And therefore, whether their conscience is tender or the reverse, our rich men cannot enjoy the wealth they have filched from the poor as the ancients did who believed in their right to it. Their whole life and all their enjoyments are embittered either by the stings of conscience or by terror."
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre.
The Prince by Machiavelli.
Categories by Aristotle.
- The Black Swan
- Antifragile
- Crucial Conversations
- Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby
The Holy Bible by God.
Near magical in how it can teach you to connect better with others in a real, lasting way.
Before reading it I felt like I had free will, but I didn’t know how to articulate why. A few hours later (it’s not a long read), it was clear to me that free will is an illusion.
To summarize, we can control what we do, but we can’t control what we want to do, which is a product of our genetics and our environment —- neither of which we have much control over.
This realization has eliminated all regret from my life, since it means that wishing I had made a different decision in the past is akin to wishing the laws of the universe were different.
By: James Nestor
Letter To A Christian Nation - Sam Harris The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The moment you realize you've been lied to your whole life is horrific and liberating ... it's hard to describe. Took many years to "let go" but i don't think it would have been possible without these 2 books for me.
Outer Wilds.
Mechanically, you play as a space archaeologist stuck in a time loop. The whole game is a giant knowledge puzzle, and you explore an entire solar system in search of clues about a long-gone civilization.
If this sounds even remotely interesting, stop reading and go play the game, because every bit of information is a spoiler, and below I'll talk about my experiences about it. Seriously, do not watch any gameplay, just make sure your computer meets the (rather tame) requirements, buy [0] and play it, then you can come back.
---
It is not a motivational game. It doesn't have a point to make. Instead, it confronts you with an entire way of existence and makes you ask of yourself what you make of it, and any takeaways will be incredibly personal. Heck, even if you don't discover any intuitions, it's still an intrinsically fun experience that perfectly exercises the "nerd curiosity" (or "The Knack" as it is put in Dilbert [1]).
The game starts out as this vaguely giddy space adventure, but as you come to understand the Nomai, it instills in you so much true awe: The perseverance of these people, to settle in the galactic backwoods in search of the answer to the Universe. The melancholy of a people who achieved the pinnacle of technology, sure of their destiny, only to be destroyed oh so early. The incredible anxiety of living at the end of the Universe, where the only way out is to deny yourself of existence.
After wandering space for who knows how long, piecing together this intangible society and their long-overdue plans, while the rest of your kind seems to be on the spacefaring equivalent of a holiday break, you come to appreciate every little interaction with the present. This feeling is more welcome as you unfold the story, but you know it is empty time, so like the Nomai before, you must persevere, and solve the Universe. The consequences will be dear, but inevitable. The Universe is waiting on you.
For me, having played this game this game gave me a perspective to truly appreciate what I have, and the moment I live in, even despite all that is going on and how things seem to be going sour. It also rekindled my interest for discovery for discovery's sake, and, in a way, gave me peace towards the idea of death. It also gave me many perspectives about myself which I don't need to share online, but were really appreciated.
And then...
They made an expansion [2], which resolves the only remaining plot point of the story beautifully, and while it is more traditionally "puzzle"-y than the base game, is a great excuse for a replay, and gives you a new friend to mourn.
Just like in the base game, we had the naively curious Hearthians, and the incredibly rational Nomai, here we see a third take on the events of the game: An entire race of heartbroken people, who unlike the Nomai, seek to deny everyone from the answers seeked in game.
---
[0]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/ also available for consoles.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8vHhgh6oM0
[2]: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622100/Outer_Wilds__Echo...
Book of the New Sun
First Things First https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00V1XGKJK/ref=tmm_kin_swat...
The Now Habit https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001QNVP7M/ref=tmm_kin_swat...
Chaos https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0143113453/ref=tmm_pap_swat...
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B1FG8RW/ref=tmm_kin_swat...
My side of the mountain https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0525463461/ref=tmm_hrd_swat...
The Histories https://smile.amazon.com/Histories-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe-e...
The History of the Peloponnesian War https://smile.amazon.com/History-Peloponnesian-War-Thucydide...
The Social Contract https://smile.amazon.com/Social-Contract-Other-Political-Wri...
The Blank Slate - Stephen Pinker
Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher
Straw Dogs - John Gray
Godel Esher Bach - Douglas Hoffstader
The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
Path with a Heart - Jack Kornfield
Thinking Fast and Slow. After you read it take a course on statistics & probability.
The Art of Strategy
The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance
Armor by John Steakley Great book of fiction, helped me understand PTSD.
Read a lot of Asimov, robot series, foundation and short stories starting with The Last Question.
Jules Verne
Mark Twain, various stories but particularly the Diary of Adam & Eve
The Jungle Book by Kipling
Lost Horizon
Robinson Crusoe
Dune Series
Enders Game and sequels.
The Odyssey
The Count of Monte Cristo
Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card because it helped me understand that a cultures internally consumed fiction tells you about its values.
The book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Job. Leviticus 25. Galatians 5:22-23. Romans 2:15. Luke 18:1-8. The minor prophets. Bible generally if you want to deep dive, I did once upon a time.
25th chapter of the First Epistle of Clement of Rome
Aristotle, Socrates.
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Through Gates of Splendor Peace Child
Let Freedom Ring. I was working illegally (as I recall) as a 15 year old teenager for Sean Hannity (as a w2 employee through a proxy) when this book came out and along with my personal interactions with him at the time it helped clarify that he is not a person whose opinion holds any weight or even much thought. I remember at the time thinking it was unbearably poor reading.
Farmer Giles of Ham. If you've already read the hobbit, LOTR, etc. it helped me understand the framing of Tolkien way better.
Then read Pride and Prejudice through the lens of Farmer Giles of Ham. Calling it a romance novel is a disservice.
A James Bond Novel. I can't remember the name but there is one in particular that describes why he always acts so overtly and not spy-ish at all. The explanation helped me understand why you should throw yourself fully into work projects and helped me get over fear of mistakes. It made me a far better consultant as well while I was doing that.
So good they can't ignore you & deep work.
How to win friends and influence people.
Run Silent, Run Deep.
The Communist Manifesto
The Christian Manifesto
From Dawn to Decadence.
Romance of the 7 kingdoms.
Life together.
There's a big yellow book about the 6 day war, it's very detailed and blow by blow, I can no longer remember its name but it impressed upon me the chance and vagaries of war.
The Free Will Defense. Alvin Plantinga (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations)
In Defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. William Lane Craig (and the various philosophic revuttals/conversations)
No little people. Francis Schaeffer
The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich.
The Rails Way. 1st edition.
Javascript. The good parts.
Visual quick start guide to SQL.
^These three are probably the most important books I ever read, they probably changed the trajectory of my life more than any others on the list.
Midnight's Children. Rushdie
Roberts Rules of Order.
The four loves
Love languages
A once popular anti catholic tract called "The Trail of Blood".
Basically there is truth, falsehood, history, emotion and understanding in all these works, synthesizing these particular books made me who I am today. There are many others but these are the ones that come quickly to mind and whose titles I can still mostly recall.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
It's not even my favourite Stephenson book (that would be Seveneves) but it's the one that made me reflect the most on philosophy and meaning.