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Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books

17 points Agraillo | 1 comments | 13 Dec 25 13:05 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

I read many non-fiction books, but recently noticed that only a few qualify as truly heavy, thought-provoking reads, that you literally can't finish in a manageable time because you keep telling yourself, "Wait a minute," then stop to Google something, run an experiment, or just think deeply. My current example (still unfinished) is "Moonwalking with Einstein" by Joshua Foer. It's mind-blowing - the entire memory universe around us that I never properly explored before.
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Bad_Initialism ◴[13 Dec 25 14:45 UTC] No.46254864[source]▶
I thought, "That sounds like an interesting book." And then I read the precis on Wikipedia.

Humans. Everything has to be a fucking competition. Turned me right off reading it. This is one of the (many) things I hate about humans. Along with ideas that go in to the brain and get stuck there and have to be defended to the death without the brain ever having thought critically about them even once.

Why gatekeep? Why compete about things that don't need to be a competition? Why let yourself be brainwashed about a philosophy or a company or a person?

Humans. Yech. Barf. I hate humans. They make me sick.

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Agraillo ◴[13 Dec 25 16:30 UTC] No.46255755[source]▶
If you're talking about the competition part of "Moonwalking..." I hear you. Many would argue that the author's participation in the memory competition glues the book together and adds an entertaining angle. Personally, it sometimes feels boring when the author dedicates too much space to dialogs with memory athletes-focusing on mundane topics instead of techniques or what they learned about memory. Still, there are so many fascinating facts and references that I'm okay with it.
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1. bawis ◴[14 Dec 25 09:37 UTC] No.46261912[source]▶
That book doesn't really teach the tricks of the trade (and it is not promised anyway), but it is a good introduction to the world of memory for people unaware of the potential of memory.