What clicked and made you have a different mindset? How long did it take to start changing and how long was the transformation? Did it last or is it an ongoing back and forth between your old self? I want to know your transformation and success.
Any kind of change, big or small. Anything from weight loss, world view, personality shift, major life change, single change like stopped smoking or drinking soda to starting exercising or going back to school. I want to hear how people's life were a bit or a lot better through reading and your progress.
Two Vonnegut novels—God Bless you Mr. Rosewater and Player Piano—fundamentally shifted the way I view the world.
The novels primarily discuss the economy, automation, and human wellfare. When I was young I defaulted to a laissez-faire economic mindset, and basically assumed automation and technology would always make our quality of lives improve. I was very much in the Ayn Rand club on economic and moral issues. These books were ultimately what made me reflect and consider the other "spiritual" (in the sense Vonnegut uses the term) aspects of human wellfare. Vonnegut was my introduction to humanist thought, and I owe the vast majority of my personal moral development to the influence of these two books.
I hated every particle of Playor Piano when I read it and still do today. Granted my field is automation and I am an engineer.
I am making the world a better place. Freeing humans from degrading filthy boring work. You know what really irked me the most about that novel? The population lived in a freaken utopia and couldn't say one good thing about it.
I would love to have the lives of those "workers". Think of what you could do with a life where your job required nothing out of you. Go have 8 kids, learn conversational French, become the world champion at the knife game. They start life on near the top of Maslow's hierarchy and the author had the gall to heavily handed compare them to chattle slaves. Yeah I am sure people getting sold for sex or getting whipped to harvest cotton all day are really comparable in lifestyle to people who are bored at work.
I spent several years working on manufacturing and logistics automation, and I urge you to reconsider your interpretation of it.
Just from your comment, you totally missed the point of the book. It's not anti-automation. Your analysis is the exact false binary Vonnegut is interrogating. The book is actually a response to the exact attitude expressed in on your comment.
I'm happy to go into it, but Vonnegut is the master; no one will say it like he does, but you have to be open to it. If you react defensively, you'll come away thinking he's just anti technology, and that he must be wrong because technology is good. If you reread it with an open mind, or even reflect upon it again, you might find particularly important insights for the likes of you and me.
Discworld - Hogfather. In particular the speech of death about the little and big lies and how justice and mercy are simple human constructs and that in return we are basically responsible for our own happiness/misery. Since they made a movie, here exactly what I meant: Deaths speech
I was actually going to respond with the Discworld series in general, but Death's dialogue there puts it in a nutshell. We're not creatures of reason, but of narrative, fiction. I might not have come to that view if not for reading Terry Pratchett.
I'd been a software engineer for 15 years. In that time, in all the jobs I've had, I'd never once worked on anything that actually made people's lives better, nor did I ever hear anyone else in tech ever really dive into any sort of meaningful philosophical interrogation of what digital technology is for and how we should use it. I made a few cool websites or whatever, but surely there's more we can do with code. Digital technology is so obviously useful, yet we use it mostly to surveil everyone to better serve them ads.
Then i found cybernetics, though the work of Beer and others. It's that ontological grounding that tech is missing. It's the path we didn't take, choosing instead to follow the California ideology of startups and venture capital and so on that's now hegemonic and indistinguishable from the digital technology itself.
Even beers harshest critic is surely forced to admit that he had a hell of a vision, whereas most modern tech is completely rudderless
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was the first dystopia that I ever read. I'd gotten so enamored with all of the various utopias in sci-fi, especially Star Trek, that the idea that the opposite might exist hadn't previously occurred to me. While it didn't change me in a day-to-day kind of way, it helped me make sense of the world around me. I have always loved Star Trek, but it never seemed like humanity was truly headed in that direction.
BNW, 1984, and others helped me understand the world around me, which I think made me a better person in the end. Am I going to be a party to the creation of these kinds of worlds, or am I going to try to help move humanity in the other direction?
Illuminatus is the most potent and interesting paradigm-shifting book I've ever read. It's like an epistemological shotgun blast, guerilla ontology indeed. Anything by R. A. Wilson is advisable, but this one really shakes you loose of your preconceptions and opens the door to new perspectives.
Illuminatus! is the political weirdness of the post-JFK-assassination period; extrapolated into a psychedelic occult fantasy; as interpreted by two white male porno writers; who were on some combination of weed, acid, plastic nude martinis, and coke for most of it.
It is very much a product of a specific time period and social situation.
I've probably re-read it more than any other book.
Wilson went on to write some good stuff, and some utter bullshit, and he's very clear on the fact that he's not telling you which part is the good stuff and which part is the utter bullshit.
It's dated, but it's still essential in connecting math & CS with art & literature. Hofstadter was in a great place to connect disparate fields that touch on related patterns.
His AI theories seem to have come out mostly as dead ends, but that might still change.
'Thich Nhat Hanh - Heart of the Buddah's Teachings'. I didn't become a Buddhist, but it gave me some really useful mental tools to be happier.
I had a bit of a fucked up childhood, left home at 15, was really angry & bitter for a while. I was already many years into a general attempt to let go and be happier, I believe the knowledge from that book has made me happier and more resilient.
"Animal Liberation" by Peter Singer, which argues against speciesism and the ethical treatment of animals, as well as "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Foer, which delves into the moral complexities of eating animals and factory farming. Both these books have convinced me to go vegan. I've been vegan for a decade now and don't regret it one bit.
As a side effect, I've also become more health conscious, because a strict vegan diet doesn't provide everything, so I did a lot of research into what I'm eating, what my body needs (and doesn't need) etc. As a result I feel like my health has improved a lot - my hairloss has mostly stopped, my complexion has improved, also I used to have a skin condition which is now under control, no depression episodes, and I rarely fall sick.
It's been an ongoing process of learning though. Most recently I've found out about Choline, which has a critical role in neurotransmitter function and affects your mood, and thankfully I found that my diet already has enough Choline in it, so it wasn't a worry or anything. But it's always interesting knowing what's in what your eating, things your body needs etc.
The Stranger by Albert Camus had a big impact on me as an adolescent, expressing feelings of absurdism that I previously had no words for. Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari changed the course of my life by drawing me to Japan.
Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive - By. Kevin Horsley
This single book has affected my life and improved my day to day life. Although not all useful, it has some very useful tactics.
I don't forget stuff as easily, I can recall better for work, notes are minimal and if I do take notes its one or two word per item. Truly life changing especially while I was a student.
The seven habits of highly effective people. Sounds like a get rich quick book but it’s actually a very profound book about what it means to be authentic to yourself and in your interactions with others. This book completely changed my life.
Thinking fast and slow. This book will give you insights into your own mind that are science based and actually explain so much of what we observe in the behaviour of ourselves and others.
Thinking Fast and Slow has a lot of really good info but man does it go on.
You might also like Behave by neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky if you haven't already read it. It's another book which explains a lot of why we are the way we are. Very interesting read; lengthy but still compelling.
This Is Vegan Propaganda: (And Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You) by Ed Winters. I think it's tough to read this book and not be vegan before it's finished, it's an extremely well considered and compelling book for for anyone who likes having their views challenged.
It changed my life profoundly in both outlook and actions, as it did everybody in my life who I suggested read it.
The Enders Game series had a pretty profound effect on my worldview, and also provided a big lesson on separating art from the artist because holy shit do some of the lessons I took away from that series seem to run totally opposite to Orson Scott Card's personal views and politics.
It's hard to say exactly what clicked where and what it changed for me because I read them in about middle school which is kind of when people are really starting to form real opinions of the world anyway.
Major takeaways for me include
A general dislike of war, even when it's justified you're going to end up doing absolutely terrible things and in retrospect there often really aren't good guys.
Politics are in their own way just as terrifying as war.
Respect for life, cultures, and viewpoints different from my own, and willingness to examine the world through those different perspectives. That doesn't mean I agree with them, or find them acceptable, or worthy of being tolerated, but I do think it's important to at least try to see why they think the way they do.
A whole lot of awe at the potential of genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, etc. tempered by distrust of my fellow man to use them responsibly.
I didn't enjoy the Enders Game series, but I did enjoy the Alvin Maker series, and it blows me away with how far that man's personal beliefs are from that of his books. Years ago I used to work with a girl who's family was close friends with his (same Mormon community and all that). She saw one of his books in my back pocket and went on a tirade about how people are unfair to him (because of the horrible things he said about his beliefs) and I immediately lost interest in hooking up with her like we'd been flirting towards.
If you really want to hate him read Treason. It is, well let me put it this way: they are not going to make a movie out of it anytime soon.
On the plus side we get to see him put a 19 year old boy in a dress, have him/her hide who they are, and get flirted with. Which explains a lot about Card's outspoken homophobic views. Yep nothing to see here. Just a perfectly normal story about a boy in drag written by a 100% straight guy.
Toward a Psychology of Being by Abraham Maslow - Made me believe people are fundamentally good.
The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware by Andrew "Bunnie" Huang - Really changed the way I look at the human-made world around me.
Dune by Frank Herbert - Because since I read Dune, I've now read 13 other Dune books and plan to read more.
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Persig
I love this book, warts and all. The rereads get harder as I see more flaws in both the text and Persig himself.
Regardless, I can't deny the huge impact it had on my worldview. It helped me refine and improve the analytical mindset I take to the world around me and made me think routinely and deeply about what I value in my life and why.
I could see myself easily being obsessed with money and status at the point in my life where I am, and I'm grateful, in no short part to this book, that I'm not.
What is good? and what is bad? And who can tell us these things?
Persig does his best with these questions and gives you enough to put you on the same journey even if truly answering these questions is ultimately unachievable
Whoops, based on that prompt I was expecting the topic to be self help books. I will say The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Teens (based on the adult version) changed my life when I was 13. "Begin with the end in mind" is such a simple little phrase, but it applies to EVERYTHING in life.
Should I buy this shirt at the mall? Well, what esthetic do I want my wardrobe to be?
should I eat this ice cream? Will the satisfaction outweigh the extra exercise I'll have to do later?
where should I move to? Does the neighborhood have the activities I imagine myself doing?
Basically, picture yourself at the end of the process and figure out the steps you need to take to get there. Work backwards until you get to the beginning, and that's where you start. I feel like I have more direction in life because I'm working to be the person I see myself as 5 years in the future.
My kids school has really pushed this. One time I drove my eldest to an activity and when we got there I noticed that we had forgotten our bag that has everything needed for the activity. Sigh. Long drive home and she announces "I should have checked to make sure the bag was in the car, beginning with the end in mind".
The Godfather. Not that I'm in organized crime or anything, but the idea of not telegraphing what you're going to do before you do it I think resonated with me after I read that book however many decades ago. "Threatening" to do something just gives other people time to prepare for it. If you're going to do it, just do it.
When I read Infinite Jest the first time I was in college I was dealing with a lot of "life's crossroads" type issues, some of which I didn't even know about until I looked back on them. The book helped me understand that I needed to stop relying on my "innate" talents and privileges and actually start putting in work for the things I wanted if I was ever going to have a hope of a good life. It also put into perspective a lot of substance use/abuse stuff in a really subtle way that ended up being very beneficial to me.
Now, on my second reading, there is none of the profound and personal wisdom present in the text. It is an enjoyable read, but for completely different reasons. I guess that first read was kind of just a "right place, right time" scenario for me.
2 years ago I read Divergent Mind by Jennara Nerenberg and it completely changed my perspective on the mental care industry and revealed, with studies and statistics, how women are systematically underserved when it comes to medical issues (both physical and mental). After reading that book it was like a big empathy door was kicked open in my brain that had been shut my whole life, and I suddenly started understanding some of the deep context behind the experiences of women in my life that I was previously never aware of.
Ok, so I have since passionately disavowed her ideas, but I did read the ENTIRE works of Ayn Rand at one point when I was right wing for a couple of years.
I list it as most influential because, one, it allowed me to understand what right wing philosophy was heavily influenced by during the late 20th century (and why), and two, when those philosophies proved to be egregiously wrong, it forced me to reevaluate my entire identity and belief structure which turned me into the particularly left leaning/socialist I am today.
In terms of books I'm still a big fan of, I love Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, BUT only when read alongside his "sequel" Island, which was his last book. It briefly articulates what Huxley believed a utopian society would look like (before said society is tragically ended by Nuclear Armageddon at the end of a hypothetical World War 3).
Even when I find something me and her agree on she words it in a way that I sorta don't want to.
Maybe integrity, that was the only thing that me and her sorta but not really shared. I try my best to show integrity in my work, to put thought and effort into stuff, but at the end of the day customers are going to demand stupid things sometimes.
Two texts by Seneca: "On the shortness of life" and "On Providence". The first one made me rethink the idea of "productivity" and the second one made me better at handling bad situations. But at the time I still felt crushed below the weight of a meaningless world, and then I read "The myth of Sisyphus" by Camus and my mind was blown. It was such an inovative way to deal with a world that doesn't answer back.
Also "Discourses" of Epictetus. If there ever was a book that was simple, elegant, and usable right away for a better life, this is it. I'd recommend this to everyone.
It's hard to single out specific works of Plato to stand on their own, I find the most value to be gained by having an overview of his whole philosophy, but "Protagoras" is my favourite dialogue, as it introduces some essential questions as to why are we so careless when taking care of our minds, and how nobody does bad things willingly (which is often repeated by Epictetus). Also the "Apology" is essential because it shows the basic thoughts that guided the greatest philosopher in the west.
"Lying" by Sam Harris made me commit to not ever lying again
I have told one lie ever since and even that was a slip-up; a person came to me on the street asking for money and instead of saying no I said I didn't have any cash which was untrue. I still keep secrets and I will lie if refusing to answer reveals the truth. I will still not tell the whole truth and sometimes I simply omit things I don't want to reveal but what I don't do is say things that are untrue and this applies to while lies aswell.
Only after I started paying attention to this mysef I realized how often we lie unecessarily and how damaging it can be to our relationships even when your intentions may be good. You're basically treating people as if they're so vunerable that they can't handle the truth so you lie.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X during middle school: it grew in popularity during the 90s when Public Enemy, BDP, X-Clan and other conscious rap was en vogue, but Malcolm's story inspired a lot of us during that era in learning more about Islam, Afrocentricity/Pan Africanist, and critically thinking about American politics and other socio historical issues through a different lens.
We Are the Weather: both made me reevaluate how diet & ethical eating impacts the environment both now and for future generations
Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. The whole series really. The overall theme is change/growth. The books are chonky, and that gives him the room to do what he does best: character work. There's a range of characters with a broad spectrum of personality types and issues, so it's easy to find something that you relate to. Main characters with depression, PTSD, complicated pasts. And while they do grow and improve, it's definitely more realistic than a lot of books I've read. It's not easy or a straight path to getting better, and sometimes they stumble. But the books do a great job of showing that those things are completely normal and part of personal growth. The people around them give them the support we all wish we had, giving a good model for how we can support those in our lives.
Just a couple quotes that have stuck with me for years:
From Words of Radiance:
"Keep cutting away at those thorns, strong one, and make a path for the light."
From Oathbringer:
"It’s terrible,” Wit said, stepping up beside her, “to have been hurt. It’s unfair, and awful, and horrid. But Shallan . . . it’s okay to live on."
...
"Wit?” she asked. “I . . . I can’t do it.
He smiled. “There are certain things I know, Shallan. This is one of them. You can. Find the balance. Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it.”
There's a book I read as a teenager that changed my life in that it feels like a weird fever dream, and I've never been able to find it again. I had to wait for a manager at a furniture store for half an hour, picked up a display book from a shelf and as started reading. It's about a girl who has become orphaned, goes to live with her friend (who everyone calls her sister because they have the same birthday), and then the two of them run off together, end up getting adopted by possibly the literal devil, and are rescued by the friends maid, Olympia. French book translated to English, pretty sure. Loved that book, had a pretty big impact on me, and I've searched ever since. :(
The pig that wants to be eaten - Julian Baggini.
It's a book full of fun philosophical thought experiments. Enriched my worldview, and sparked my interest for philosophy.
Two books that helped me understand the world better particularly when it comes to human behaviour. Both are terrific reads although can be difficult at times for different reasons, but strongly recommend both of them;
Another one I have on my shelf, seems like a tough one to get through. Actually thinking I’ll start his “philosophical investigations” before trying the tractatus again
The basic idea behind it blew my mind when I heard about it at school the first time, but my god did I struggle to read it. I went statement by statement and only moved to the next if I felt comfortable with the previous one, and gave up eventually. Now that I think about it, it might be helpful to just read through the whole thing and then read it again in chunks, and then again in statements.
This was the book that got me to stop hating books.
I didn't like reading as a child or teenager until I was forced to read this one for a mandatory book report in high school and really, really liked it. I don't know why, I don't even remember that much about the book, but it got me interested in science fiction and reading in general.
The Xenogenesis trilogy (Liliths Brood) by Octavia Butler. It examines what it means to be human and how much of us can be changed before we're no longer humans anymore. It also made me examine how we treat other cultures/species through the lens of how the aliens treat the humans and how they are so convinced that their way is the right way that they don't even question it until it's forcibly shoved in their faces. It shows the ugly side to the violent human agitators while also eposing the ugliness of the peaceful alien "saviors".
There's also a side thread of connections are chemicals in our brain and we can get trapped by them and circumstance into a situation where we're not always sure we're happy/on the right side/have any agency.
They aren't long books and even years later I still think about them sometimes.
Answered once already but I'll do it 99+ times if it exposes more people to understanding themselves.
How to Read by Mortimer J. Adler. Thought it'd be prudent to read it before trying to read though science journals. My mother was drinking dandelion tea blindly because she's body-concious and The View fed her detox woo-hoo magic.
That was likely the first instance I was aware, of my own volition, that I didn't know despite having had known 'how to read'. An introduction to the Dunning Kruger effect before I was aware of it.
The following 4 years was a spiritual speed-run that likely wouldn't have happened if I didn't read this one book. Not even the skills, but the connection to powerful ideas like philosophy, sociology, theological discussion, morals and purpose... And I'm still not done the back!
Special mention to video game Noita. Trying to resolve the lore and all the outside reading I undertook to do so unironically helped my awakening as it's deeply tied into the journey we all must endure.
It’s a look at Adlerian psychology through the format of a conversation. I’ve looked deeper into Adler and don’t agree with some but the book changed the way I think about a lot of things.
The Magician's nephew was probably my first taste of the multiple-worlds idea. It was mind-expanding. A big step towards the larger reality that I enjoy today, if only in theory.
Here's the edition of Patanjali that I like :
Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali: Containing His Yoga Aphorisms with Vyasa's Commentary in Sanskrit and a Translation with Annotations Including Many Suggestions for the Practice of Yoga https://a.co/d/fEBSAbA
As you can see, it's a nice fat yellow book.
Also, Permutation City (by Greg Egan) is nothing to shake a stick at. (Well it does stretch a bit in the second half, but still). The central concepts. Dust theory. Dreams in dreams. It's heavy.
Honestly reading nietzsche in college was mind blowing for me. Started with “the gay science” and read like 3 more of his books in a row. Will probably reread his “genealogy of morals” again soon.
For the worse: I, Lucifer by Glenn Duncan. The eventual thesis stuck with me and changed the way I think about the world and my own relationship with the divine: That the only true way to show that you are an independent, free-willed entity is through perversity, intentionally making mistakes, doing things on purpose which you know are wrong. It's stuck with me, an invasive meme that I can't shake. I can't say it's made me a better person, but it's certainly made me more of one.
There's a great/stupid thriller by the same title. The heroine is Modesty Blaise, an international smuggler/crime boss turned free lance secret agent. Peter O'Donnell is the author.
I grew up an intellectual in a family of people far less concerned with matters of the mind. Not bad people, just otherwise engaged.
A voracious reader since a young age, I had begun by my early teens to see connections between things that felt somehow strange, perhaps even wrong or oddly blasphemous. I felt like I didn’t understand things very well and that these connections were somehow a product of my ignorance. That I was perhaps guessing at something and getting it very wrong. I felt I had oversimplified a complex thing and although exploring those connections was always fun to do, I’d never speak of them.
The glass bead game thought me that my intuition was right, or at least shared by a number of people. That there is a fabric of from which reality is spun. These connections I was tracing are the product of the pattern recognition propensities of the human mind and as such they are a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
Is there a connection between The Art of Fuge and certain architecture? Yes there is, not due to some mystical thing I am ignorant of but because architecture is influenced by many things including nature, classical music, mathematics, art and music.
As a young person this image of human exploit and how it ties in with nature eventually weaving the two together into a harmonious whole was deeply satisfying and provided me with a feeling of sanctuary and belonging that lingers a still in my own work and in my art. It is a blueprint for my life.
Babel 17 from Samuel Delany. It introduces me to language sciences, human sciences, and then humanism. It switched my point of view on all sciences, and on people too. But for people it also come from one or two other shorter novels from the same author. It was in the same book though. It somehow came during the holidays between high school and university, so like a coming of age thing. I will always remember it.
Another one is not from a book but a video game. Kotor2. At some point, you are asked by a ghost to take position. If you don't, you are answered "apathy is death", and all ghosts, friends and foe, attack you. It was almost traumatic : I learned with this that sometimes you cannot be neutral, you must make a choice that will have consequences, and you will still have to endure the consequences. I will always remember this : apathy is death.
Oh, also, that I almost forgot: le livre du courtisan (El cortegiano) from Baldassar Castiglione. It's a how to behave book from the XVth century. It's surprisingly well adapted to our own. It's surprisingly modern too, even regarding women (that surprised me the most). It's very positive, and very different from what we would have today, yet you see a bit of everything you could ask for today. It's been some kind of humanist compass since I've read it.
Two books that I read in high school definitely changed my life: first was Big Sur by Jack Kerouac. There are intentionally misspelled words, almost no punctuation and very little traditional structure to his writing (it's about him having DTs in a cabin on the coast in northern California). I was literally not aware that you could write books and not follow the grammatical rules they teach you in school, I remember showing it to my friends like "Look at this?! Can you believe it?!"
The second book was Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, which also has a non traditional structure, is full of potty humor (and I'm not trying to be polite, it's the best way I can put it), is filled with doodles and is just fucking bizarre while also being very readable and funny.
Kids need to learn the rules of how to write, but they also need to be taught that rules are meant to be broken sometimes.
A comparatively mundane example, and possibly unremarkable to many, but I habe incredibly strong feelings about Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" and "Callahan's Lady" series. In particular, I read them during an extremely difficult point in my life, and the eponymous Law of Conservation of Pain and Joy completely changed me and my motivation in life.
Probably an obvious first answer here, but scripture did that. Not a lot to explain there, most of us know how that works. It's one thing to know about something, but to really get into it is another thing.
I agree. The Bible and the Koran have definitely impacted my life. For example, I pass where the Twin Towers used to stand about once a week, and my country used to give women control over their own bodies.
You say that as if everyone reads it the same way or reads it correctly or that by “scripture” I couldn’t have meant something other than what usually comes to mind.