Ask HN: What's a book that fundamentally altered your mental models
Not looking for books that taught you something new, but ones that changed how you think – the kind that made you see patterns or connections you couldn't unsee. What book rewired your thinking? Probability Theory: The Logic of Science by ET Jaynes was the book that made statistics and probability theory finally make sense to me. Before reading this book, I was already familiar with Bayesian probability, having finished (among other books) The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver, but Jaynes took everything to a whole new level. Probability is not an objective measure of likelihood—it is a subjective measure of incomplete information. This seems like a small shift in perspective, but it is much more profound than that, and you have to read the book to understand it. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M Goldratt opened my eyes to process optimization. It is nominally about process optimization in a manufacturing plant, but so many of the lessons can be applied to other domains, such as software development. (And also about life in general, how to think about what matters and what doesn't.) It is a bit dated now; for example The Principles of Product Development Flow offers a much more systematic treatment of the topic. But I think The Goal remains the best intro to process and systems thinking. The Goal was such a fun read, the solution is always evident in hindsight but I found myself having small "aha" moments over and over. The Social Construction of Reality[1][2] provided me a method of examining the things that I assumed where obviously true and describes the process by which human ideas are transformed from beliefs into real tangible objects and natural truths. It forever changed the way I look at claims of human behavior framed as universal laws and my ears pearl up whenever I hear phrases like reality, truth, and nature used to justify personal beliefs. 1. Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Penguin Books, 1991. 2. https://amstudugm.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/s... I read this book too young, and it ultimately dismantled a lot of beliefs I had, which ended up being a net negative effect on my life. Sometimes you shouldnt look behind the curtain I read it at 36. How old were you when you read it? I'm sorry. It sounds like it fundamentally altered your perspective but that's not necessarily a good thing. How have you lived after reading it? I'm genuinely curious and hope you're willing to share. I read it when I was 15/16, along with "beyond good and evil" by nietzsche. I grew up in a religious house hold, and it really brought alot of things into question. Mostly lead to a many year long existential crisis. I also felt isolated from my peers, as I was reading these books and supporting secondary academic texts. My day to day thought process was "different". I did fall into something I would consider to be like mental masochism, where I actively tried to stretch (or tear down) my psychology and understanding using these texts. I am now actually 36, and I don't know that deep philosophy, while some of it true, actually had a positive impact on my life. Those are quite heavy ideas to receive as a teen. How did you come across it, if I may ask? Not too many teens would seem to know those texts even exist. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Gave me new perspectives about railroad safety and proper behaviors around trains. Dumb Ways to Die (not a book) did that for me. Was the book enjoyable otherwise? The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman It’s a collection of his essays but the one quote that stuck out to me is: I don’t see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize-I’ve already got the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding things out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it - those are the real things, the honors are unreal to me. It really got me to get over external validation and doing things for the sake of discovery and learning. Capital in the 21st Century, by Thomas Piketty The book devolves into policy opinions that have been absolutely torn apart, but the parts about inequality and inheritance shattered some long standing assumptions. For example, it points out how generational wealth being gone in 3 generations is not for the reasons people extrapolated, the common assumption being that the person that earned it had a lot of discipline, while the subsequent generations experienced complacency and excess, as that was just anecdotes with no data. It replaces them with data that highlights population growth alone influencing this outcome: In periods of large population growth inheritances were simply diluted to the point of having little efficacy for heirs. In America the free population was 3,100,000 in 1790, while 308,000,000 in 2010. The last census before the book came out. In comparison, France in the old world had 30,000,000 in 1790 and 60,000,000 in 2010. Old world wealth has tended to stay in the same families for centuries. The US is experiencing the same thing amongst some families and as more families get better at estate structures that work for them, a lower birthrate and age of the country, but all of it challenges the common assumption and point of generational wealth. There are more illuminations around the movement of capital in that book. Interesting take on generational wealth. Selfish Gene, of course. There is no self. We are but pre-programmed
propagation vectors. I'd say similar stuff, maybe The Moral Animal more for me, how things like morality also come from evolution. Also the Singularity stuff though I'm not sure how to pick an individual book - maybe Singularity Is Near by Kurzweil and Robot by Moravec. About the future after we get past the propagation vector stuff. It’s just a nice looking model author made up. One of many possible. When all is said and done, this book must be the one. “Thinking in Systems” by Donella Meadows. It didn’t just teach me systems theory it permanently changed how I interpret cause and effect. I stopped seeing problems as isolated events and started seeing feedback loops, delays, leverage points, and unintended consequences everywhere: in businesses, politics, personal habits, even relationships. Once you internalize the idea that most outcomes are the result of system structure rather than individual intent, it’s impossible to go back to linear thinking. A close second would be “Gödel, Escher, Bach” by Douglas Hofstadter. It rewired how I think about self-reference, consciousness, and abstraction. After reading it, I began noticing recursive patterns across math, language, art, and software connections that felt invisible before. Both books didn’t give me answers; they changed the questions I ask. +1 to "Thinking In Systems". Looking for (maybe hidden) stocks in systems also changes how one sees the world. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume Multiple books from both the Torah, and Old and New Testaments of various versions of the Bible Gomorra by Roberto Saviano The Bible. Through it, I see the connection from the fall of man, the redemption of the cross and the future return of the King to restore all things. I also see connection from wisdom shared 2-3 thousand years ago through the Psalms and Proverbs. This has rewired my understanding of how ancient men and women were pretty awesome and got me over chronological snobbery. If thats what you enjoyed about it, you should read what Socrates and Aristotle were writing about then People are uncannily similar when they have the basic infrastructure to focus on these musings Gödel, Escher, Bach If I could save only one of my books from destruction, it would be that one. Watership Down by Richard Adams Is it that good? I quite liked The Plague Dogs. He writes with a nice flowery style. Yeah its a must recommend from me , worldbuilding is very immersive and the characters are A+. Havent read Plague Dogs - will put it on my List. Ta Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath, and Influence by Cialdini are classics for a reason. Influence in particular made it shockingly clear how our environment shapes not only our decision process, but our personality. Le Petit Prince. It is a deceptively simple book I was required to read at school as a child. Each time I revisit it, I understand deeper layers about human nature and life itself. Hi Dad. I'm sorry, I still haven't read it. But I did get a beautiful pop-up book version. The Demon-Haunted World, by Sagan. I read it during a journey that ended up leading me out of religion. That book showed me so clearly how strange it is to believe in supernatural events. The Art of War by Steven Pressfield. It addresses the fears associated with any new endeavor and how to create systems to dance with the fears. You the mean The War of Art is it strictly for artists? The origins of virtue by Matt Ridley. A good follow up to the selfish gene. Changed my thinking regarding altruism. Six thinking hats, taught me how to structure my thoughts by wearing multiple hats where hats are perspective Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle 1984 by George Orwell. Selfish Gene,
Thinking fast and slow,
Pale blue dot Exact thinking in demented times by Karl Sigmund Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead Sapiens
I wish I’d read it 20 years earlier. Jonathan Livingston Seagull I read it as a child. The eom Expression: Beautiful Chaos Interesting satire, would add it to my reading list Games People Play (1964) Seeing like a State (1998) Atlas Shrugged. Downvote at will, but I’ll die on this hill. It has some issues, sure, but it should be mandatory reading. I enjoyed it when I was a kid, but one of the ways my thinking has evolved is away from the concepts central to this book. (Though I’ll never leave the concept that makers make the world and we should have no patience for people who contribute only a markup, though to be clear I classify Wall Street in that camp) +1 And Nietzsche. What is basically what Rand’s novels were based on. Too bad she fell for the “Will to Power” hoax. Atlas Shrugged is a bit of a slog, but the ideas are brilliant. You trippin. 1000+ pages to say greed is good, a realization most
people make by fifth grade. If just one book can rewire your thinking, I feel very sorry for you :) Virtually every book that survived the test of time has some gem worth finding. For example the bible is a perfect source of ethical and moral ideas and problems, whether you’re agnostic or not. Any decent university level course of general physics is a perfect source to learn not only the universe but how would you approach the process itself of learning and exploring it.