Ask HN: What was the one book that you read and it actually changed your life? - <AUTHOR> For me it was this very old book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. <comment><USER2> Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Never really been one to enjoy popular books on philosophy (Alchemist was overrated, Monk who sold his Ferrari cliched, The Secret just boring ...IMO) and picked this up at a used book store. The book truly put a new perspective on life for me.

Perhaps it was a combination of the time when I read the book: Undue stress, massive imposter syndrome, that feeling of not moving ahead in life, and the oh-so-messed-up quarter life crisis, but this book was an absolute eyeopener for me.

Find your own meaning in life, and live your own philosophy instead of aping a "master" (spiritual or otherwise) because a "master" is someone who has shaped his own philosophy and that will almost NEVER completely apply to you. In the book, when the titular Siddhartha realises this and starts off on his own journey, something clicked within me and I started making genuine attempts to get past my (mostly) self-imposed problems in life. Can easily say this book helped me get through confusing times and come out better on the other side

Truly a life-changing book for me, and no wonder it's been popular for over half a century!

\----

The Art of War, The War of Art (except the final bits of the book) and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance come in a close second, each having shaped the way I look at decision making processes and influenced my general life strategy

<comment><USER3> I'll add The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse because it saved me from decades of pointless game playing. (Actually just read everything by Hermann Hesse).

<comment><USER4> Sounds interesting that a book about "game" saved you from "game playing". Not sure what sort of game you're exactly referring to, though IMO video games that let you grind against scripted NPCs indeed could waste one a lot of time. However games that pit you against human opponents, when practiced adequately, can actually teach you a lot. There was a piece about how chess playing is being taught in the Wall Street to train decision making under pressure. Many video games can also help you achieve similar effects. So it's not all negative.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The divided mind / healing back pain - Books by John E. Sarno.

To give you a background I have struggled with back pain all my life. After dozens of MRIs, X rays, physiotherapy, ayurveda, yoga, posture exercises, and spending almost 100,000 in the last 15 years on this, a simple book saved me.

The effect was so powerful that I could feel the symptoms fading while I was reading it. It gave me my life back. A few weeks ago I finally had the courage to teach my little one to walk without worrying about bending my back.

Now I feel that more people suffering from back pain, chronic fatigue, etc should be made aware of it. Here is a intro video about it [1]

P.S. I credit hacker news for the source.

[1] [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vsR4wydiIBI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vsR4wydiIBI)

<comment><USER6> Also, for anyone interested, there is a brilliant 2016 documentary film 'All the Rage, Saved by Sarno'

Here's Dr.Sarno's words at the end of movie trailer: 'All this because of one simple idea — that the mind and the body intimately connected'

<comment><USER5> I couldn't find a place to buy it online. Do yoh have a link? Thanks

<comment><USER6> Sure, I found one here on Vimeo. [https://vimeo.com/ondemand/alltherage](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/alltherage)

also, the official website [http://alltheragedoc.com/](http://alltheragedoc.com/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Non-violent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. After reading this book, the way I related and communicated with people completely changed.

Concretely, right after I read it, a break up that would have been very tense for me became straightforward and peaceful. Also, using NVC techniques, a fight with my friend got transformed into both of us getting tearful and pulling over the car to hug each other because we felt so connected.

<comment><USER8> The developer of NPM.js recommended this book highly[1] on his blog, so I picked it up. Already on a first reading[2] I could see its potential to be life-changing. It has definitely changed how I interact with (or see) others (and myself), and I am trying to put more of it in practice; currently on a second reading.

I think it appeals to the programmer/mathematician in me, because to a large extent it is teaching me to be more _precise_ , about distinguishing observations, evaluations, thoughts, feelings, etc. Of course the ultimate goal is to establish genuine and sincere connection with other people, but even if you can do that with one person (yourself?), the time is probably well spent.

[1]: [http://blog.izs.me/post/112818868228/letter-to-marshall- rose...](http://blog.izs.me/post/112818868228/letter-to-marshall-rosenberg)

[2]: [https://plus.google.com/+ShreevatsaR/posts/2428KBRfYdb](https://plus.google.com/+ShreevatsaR/posts/2428KBRfYdb)

<comment><USER7> Well said!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> _TCP /IP Illustrated Volume 1: The Protocols_. It changed my life because I realised I could better comprehend systems others had already pored over and offer new insights. By comparing the contents of this book to RFCs I was able to propose numerous new remote operating system detection strategies which I published. I then had contact from a hacker group on the other side of the world, plus web visits from a swathe of militaries globally. (This was back in the mid-late 1990s when people didn't bother obfuscating their IP.) Gave me the confidence to go do my own thing in a lot of ways, including leaving Australia for its lack of R&D opportunities outside of military/academia, and probably a significant historical factor in my current position as a founder.

<comment><USER10> +1 for Mr. Stevens!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. As a teenager it gave me an intellectual basis for my faith and helped me see it could be defensible.

Darwin's Doubt by Stephen Meyer. If God exists methodological naturalism can't be completely true. This book helped me see that there's still areas science can't fully explain, like the information explosion of the Cambrian Explosion.

Please don't burn me at the stake.

<comment><USER12> Although I'm not as religious as I used to be, I still highly regard 'The Screwtape Letters'. CS Lewis is an excellent writer.

<comment><USER13> I'm not religious at all and still loved 'The Screwtape Letters'. I recently found myself reminded of TSL while watching 'The Good Place'. It's not of nearly the same depth as TSL but plays with some of the same concepts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> 1\. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - practical advice on how to arm yourself every day.

2\. Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl - no matter how bad you think you have it, it can be worse, and you can find meaning.

3\. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - it's the journey (not the destination) and <i>pay attention!</i>

<comment><USER15> I tried getting through Meditations, but I couldn't. Maybe I'm more used to long-form writings, rather than the short paragraphs? I could read them, but I felt like they didn't "sink in", even if I felt they were profound at the time.

<comment><USER16> It's actually his personal diary, written often while he was on campaign. From that perspective I think it's impressive how insightful he managed to be in short bursts. But if you are looking for something more long-form, you might try Seneca's Letters or Epictetus Discourses.

<comment><USER17> Do we know he wasn't just practicing philosophy by writing down what he heard others say?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Two books.

"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman

The Design Bible. This book gave me objective ways to explain what would have previously been my "negative opinion". Coming to grips with the reality that bad design is rampant reinforced my growing interest in product design.

"PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story" by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin

The Phenethylamine Bible. As a kid I was fascinated by Shulgin and his work advancing science for all of these genuinely good and positive reasons. I watched politicians with no understanding of science use hype to outlaw all of Shulgin's fascinating chemicals against the recommendations of experts in their relevant fields. Shulgin's work is open source and the 2nd half of PiHKAL was my first exposure to open source code.

</comment><comment><USER19> 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene.

It's about dealing with conflict. Resource management, especially in regards to conflict. Emotional management on a group level. And it applies to conflicts with yourself as well.

All of us have some kind of conflict to deal with, whether it's an unruly client, bullying boss, emotionally draining relative, burnt out staff. The book covers strategies in dealing with them. It even starts with covering how to identify people who may be enemies acting as friends.

While it sounds aggressive, a lot of it covers on how wars are best won without ever having any fighting. Sometimes you can just discourage people from attacking you. Sometimes you have to decide to withdraw, to engage, to intimidate, or to handle it from a much higher level, distracting or draining their resources before they can attack you.

<comment><USER20> Sir, I'm currently reading non violent communications by marshall rosenberg, do you find any similar idea ?

<comment><USER19> Entirely different idea. The book is still about different types of violence (political, social, military/physical, financial).

To put it one way, it doesn't embrace violence for the sake of violence, e.g. Ares, god of war. But uses the possibility of violence to enforce peace, like Athena, goddess of wisdom.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The 4-Hour Workweek - made me quit my job and start a business. Since then I've been able to travel internationally for the first time in my life while working as much as I want.

<comment><USER22> I would second the 4-Hour Workweek, yet I am still searching for a profitable idea. How long did it take you from reading the book to reaching the ability to quit your job?

<comment><USER23> Same. The profitable idea is the hardest thing for me. It seems like everything I think of has already been done before.

<comment><USER24> With 7+ Billion people on the planet most people have done something similar to any idea. Isn't the point in the book that you can still succeed by creating your own flavor of an idea or selling that idea to a new market?

<comment><USER25> That might be the point. I didn't make it that far because after what seemed like 60 pages of the author talking about how he's naturally a world class performer at pretty much everything he's ever tried to do in his entire life I got tired of the bullshit time-share salesman style of writing.

Where does the actual advice start? This book is recommended pretty much every time someone asks a similar question, I might be willing to give it another shot if there's actual content somewhere in it.

Also, did this guy create a successful business outside of his self-help stuff before he started writing these books?

<comment><USER26> I think the book is worth reading. His inspiration for writing 4HWW was his experience running a supplement business, which he later sold - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Ferriss#Career](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Ferriss#Career)

Prior to reading the book, I had a retire-early mindset. My idea was to work hard at high paying jobs and save a lot so I could retire early. After reading the book, I had the idea to create multiple streams of income in order to achieve the goal of retiring early.

Others have mentioned that it's not easy to find a lifestyle business that earns you enough income to live off of, and I've also had that problem. However, I've had partial success. I don't think I'd have ever pursued this path without reading 4HWW. It's not an instruction manual, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene. I know they are a bit dated by now, but when I read them they broadened my horizons and encouraged to review my religious standpoint from a scientific perspective.

<comment><USER28> For me it was Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World.

I was not especially religious, or especially _anything_ until that book convinced me that skepticism was a useful default setting.

<comment><USER27> Sweet! I will give that a try!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> One book is too restrictive to decide. People change, surroundings change, situations change...so would it be with books that have changed us or influenced us.

I'll leave you here not with a book, but with one tiny piece of one tiny book:

The first chapter of "Illusions" by Richard Bach. As with other fantastic works that others have listed here, a distinguishing factor about these impactful or "life changing" works is that you can re-read them countless times and benefit from them anew on every read. This first chapter is one such work for me.

I'm not implying that the rest of "Illusions" is worse than this first chapter (on the contrary, it's great), but this chapter is short, yet so powerful, and best of all, it stands by itself.

Bonus, if you like to read brief but powerful pieces, pick up "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran and read the chapters that interest you. I'd suggest the "On Giving" chapter as a great start.

</comment><comment><USER30> The Toyota Way - one of the most important books I've read to help understand why companies are dysfunctional.

I knew corporate America (and even many startups) were so dysfunctional, but I didn't know what could replace it. The Toyota Way shows a bright path to the ideal. And makes me realize how far we are from that.

<comment><USER31> Its not the tools its the ideology that matters is basically why many companies are dysfunctional, from what I remember reading about Toyota Way

<comment><USER30> Yep, culture eats process/tooling for breakfast.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Man's Search for Meaning expanded my view of the human spirit and life in general.

Deep Work gave me some good insight on how to get the most out of my days.

Sapiens vastly widened and shifted my understanding of the myths that make up our society.

<comment><USER33> I'll second deep work by Cal Newport. I didn't realize just how distracted I was until attempting his methods.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I don't think any book has significantly changed my life. I've read a pretty wide range of books, and remain basically the same schmuck I've always been.

<comment><USER19> That is quite sad. You should read some of the books in this thread. I know there are at least 10 life changing books for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'm pretty sure from that point on I started going down the same rabbit hole as the protagonist. The results of that are a bit of a mixed bag to be honest, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

<comment><USER36> This was one of my favorites. The style of writing made me rethink what is possible in storytelling and philosophical/psychological narratives.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> "The Great American Health Hoax" by Raymond Francis made me understand that health is not gained with medicines but by avoiding toxins and eating nutricious foods.

[http://raymondfrancisauthor.com/](http://raymondfrancisauthor.com/)

<comment><USER38> Avoiding toxic doctors, too.

When young and before I knew better, I had two surgeries that should not have been done. Or, for one, not executed in the manner it was; and it was only necessary because of an unavoidable gap in insurance coverage.

Ha, when I remind myself, the other was necessary because of a string of failures initially culminating in an incompetent doctor and the PT he lauded. Then compounded a year later by a surgeon who'd rather operate than image and then was quite lackadaisical about recovery.

Beyond the topic of doctors, we have so much sugar in our diet, in good part because ADM needs to move corn products for profit. I imagine they've now cornered the market on beet sugar, as well, although I don't know. And the cane sugar growers who continue to lobby very effectively e.g. with the leverage of Florida state and its political influence.

"Modern medicine" is very limited in what it can actually, thoroughly fix. Staying healthy is the bulwark, but with a lot of financially motivated people poking holes in this for their own benefit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> "Food of the Gods" by Terrence McKenna was a revelation and led me to dive into his other books and lectures (and many topics spawned from it). Complete shift in baseline perception. Though not his quote, he said it frequently: "The truth is not only stranger than you suppose, it is stranger than you _can_ suppose."

<comment><USER40> I must've spent a lifetime listening to and reading McKenna. Time to go back and have another listen.

<comment><USER39> Check out [https://asktmk.com/](https://asktmk.com/) too :) There's an API!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Dune. A camp counselor gave it to me when I was 11, and it changed the course of my life. Opened my mind to thinking about fear, courage, family, sacrifice, Empire, and the scope of human affairs. I reread it every 2-3 years.

</comment><comment><USER42> As a handful of other people have said here, the Bible. It changed my life (although who knows what I would have become if I hadn't read it). Eventually, I decided that if it made such a difference in my life, I should be part of making it available to others. So I studied linguistics, and became a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators/ Summer Institute of Linguistics, who translate the Bible into minority languages (usually languages which were previously unwritten). That got me into computational linguistics. While I'm not a WBT/SIL member any more, I am still a Christian, and I do still work in computational linguistics, which I'm pretty sure I would not otherwise have gotten into. And it has been worth it all.

</comment><comment><USER43> A book published in 1946 is "very old"?! hehe. Maybe try Plutarch's _Lives_ (about 100AD), or Xenophon's _Memorabilia of Socrates_ (about 370BC), both of which are extremely readable, gossipy even, and touch on that subject. Marvel at how little's changed.

If I had to name one book, I guess Emerson's _Essays: First and Second Series_ , (that first copy I had also included _Representative Men_ ) which I discovered when I was about 20, and read from almost every day for at least 10 years, and still never go more than a few days without....well, _it 's more myself than I am_ (to paraphrase Emerson, I think). Trying to track that quote down just now, I realized that Emerson's _Uses of Great Men_ [0] explains the matter far better than I could.

The first time I read it, it was like he'd described 10,000 things I'd experienced, and had thought couldn't possibly be described. That was 27 years ago. I can't imagine at all what difference _not_ coming across him would have made, but I guess "it actually changed my life" would be a huge understatement. Also Russell, Hazlitt, Chesterton, Santayana, Stevenson, William James, Nietzsche etc have been hugely important, but....somehow, in various ways, none are quite such admirable characters, or teachers for all seasons.[1] This:

"It is nothing for any man sitting in his chair to be overcome with the sense of the immediacy of life, to feel the spur of courage, the victory of good over evil, the value, now and forever, of all great-hearted endeavor. Such moments come to us all. But for a man to sit in his chair and write what shall call up these forces in the bosoms of others – that is desert, that is greatness. To do this was the gift of Emerson. The whole earth is enriched by every moment of converse with him. The shows and shams of life become transparent, the lost kingdoms are brought back, the shutters of the spirit are opened, and provinces and realms of our own existence lie gleaming before us." – JJ Chapman

[0][https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Representative_Men/Uses_of_Gr...](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Representative_Men/Uses_of_Great_Men)

[1] I almost added Thoreau, but he seems an extension of Emerson, unimaginable without him. Well, you could say that about Nietzsche too.

" _Emerson._ – Never have I felt so much at home in a book, and in my home, as – I may not praise it, it is too close to me." – Nietzsche

</comment><comment><USER44> Paraphrasing Cory Doctorow, "be worried about the person who only reads one book." [1]

Your life changes when you read many books from many authors.

[1] [https://YouTu.be/Fvhb4WqJ7pg](https://YouTu.be/Fvhb4WqJ7pg)

<comment><USER45> Something Doctorow said in a blog post (not one of his books surprisingly) has had the most impact on my life (paraphrased): "You shouldn't have a bug out bag, you should have a bug in bag. You'll live longer as a group than on your own, so prepare with supplies and tools to help others."

[https://boingboing.net/2015/12/21/a-survivalist-on-why- you-s...](https://boingboing.net/2015/12/21/a-survivalist-on-why-you- shoul.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> The Holy Bible.

Even without the religious aspects, it's an incredible document. A lot of human nature is explained.

</comment><comment><USER47> The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. Specially the edition annotated by Napoleon Bonaparte itself. It was enlightening for me in a moment when I discovered there was a dark side of human nature that I couldn't ignore.

</comment><comment><USER48> Some more answers here from about 4 years ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8716111](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8716111)

</comment><comment><USER49> Mind if I ask how the book changed your life?

Personally, A Farewell to Arms has likely caused the biggest change. I became really absorbed in the book and at the same time in life was expecting my first child. I didn't know the story at all, and was not expecting the ending in the least.

There have been many things in life that have taught me to enjoy what I have because it can all be gone in an instant. But that book combined with where I was in life cemented the lesson.

I'm interested in how Man's Search caused a change in your life.

<comment><USER50> Holy shit, that's a bad time to read that book. I think I may share that book with you as one of the most life-changing books. I remember crying during the ending as a teenager.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Learning OpenCV from O'Reilly

Helped me a lot getting to know computer vision from a practical aspect and became one of the best professional in my department and got to work on so much futuristic projects that would have be seen only in some film.

</comment><comment><USER52> "For a New Liberty" by Murray Rothbard, not only solidified my understanding of power, politics and the state already explained in "Anatomy of the State" by the same Rothbard, but also opened my mind about the eternal struggle between power and liberty, aggression and defense, the essential traits of life in the whole universe.

<comment><USER53> This is a very impactful book, but challenging for those new to the topic. I would recommend reading his "The Ethics of Liberty" first.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> How to Make Friends and Influence People

<comment><USER55> I agree it should be required reading in college. However, it has one _glaring fault_ : it doesn't provide many tips on motivating yourself to take personal interest in others. We geeks like gizmos and logic and stuff, people bore us.

It's like a health book that reveals eating more vegetables and whole grains, and getting more exercise is the way to better health. That's useful info, but the hard part is motivating yourself to eat such and exercise often enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Nausea by Sartre. I used to really struggle with existential anxiety, and still do to some degree. That book took away much of that concern, it gave me a new way to think about meaning in life

</comment><comment><USER57> Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

<comment><USER58> "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, be one"

Always been a favorite.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> Demon Haunted World (Sagan). The art of baloney detection and scientific thinking.

Letters from a Stoic (Seneca). The pursuit of happiness is meaningless, focus on the pursuit of wisdom.

Poor Charlie's Almanac (Charles T. Munger). A library of mental/thinking models can take you a long way.

Of Human Bondage (Maugham). What is the meaning of life?

</comment><comment><USER60> "Real Food, Fake Food" was absolutely critical in getting me into a mindset of caring about the quality of my food. That mindset shift has led to 100+lbs of weight loss.

</comment><comment><USER61> "Stranger in a Strange Land"by Robert A. Heinlein.

It's a science fiction book, but it made me question everything, made me change my way of thinking towards a lot of concepts, and integrate those new concepts it in my life. I can definitely say it changed my life.

</comment><comment><USER62> 1984 - George Orwell

Makes you think we closer to that than we think

<comment><USER63> Flagged! Just kidding, but mine may be..

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> `Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams` by Matthew Walker. Still in the midst of it actually, and it's had a huge impact.

Runner-up would be `the end of religion` by Bruxy Cavey.

<comment><USER65> I'd be curious to hear abit more about those two.

<comment><USER64> Why we sleep has given me an immense amount of respect for sleep, something I rather apparently knew so little about. I've put off sleep for decades, and amidst this book I've come to understand that it's been a really stupid approach to realizing my goals.

I still don't understand sleep, but, Walker breaks down sleeps benefits & shows the data to back up why we should be getting a full night's rest. He has given me a newfound respect for something I wantonly would throw away at my next personal whim. Silly me, it's been working against me the whole time.

Fewer late nights learning to code, and I'm making much better progress already in the memory department.

As for Cavey's book: Cavey takes a really interesting look at Jesus through a historical lens, coupled with all these little things I had missed in my own reading of the New Testament. It's full of goodies, and is one of those books I've got 20 copies of in my library to hand out like candy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> _Nineteen Eighty Four_ \- George Orwell

I read this in high-school, and I can see very clearly how it has influenced my thinking up to the current day (and I'm 45 now). I would definitely say this book was a big part of influencing my to my strongly anti-state / anti- government position. I was so angry at the end of that book, and that still resonates with me today.

Orwell might not have been a libertarian himself, but his book helped make at least one, whether that's what he intended or not. :-)

<comment><USER25> I have a lot of quasi-libertarian beliefs. However, if you read up on the history of capitalism in America and how poor and middle-class people have been manipulated, mistreated, and oppressed by rich landowners and large corporations since the beginning and you may come to the conclusion that I did: Unfettered capitalism is just as shitty as communism.

I think a better form of government results from trying to achieve a balance between capitalism and socialism (Possibly other things too, I'm not a political science major). I'm not sure how far it should lean one way or the other, I just know that both ideologies lead to plenty of human suffering when allowed to completely dominate.

1984 is one of my all-time favorites. I love dystopian fiction. Have you also read Brave New World?

</comment></comment><comment><USER67> Feeling Good by David Burns

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

<comment><USER68> Quiet has been the one life-changing book for me. I read it at a time when I thought of myself as unsocial (because I didn't like parties) and was uncomfortable expressing myself even among a large group of friends. After reading that book and realizing how widespread introversion is, I became more and more comfortable in my own skin. Ironically I also started enjoying more at parties because I wasn't judging myself constantly, which helped me become more of a pseudo-extrovert when I needed to be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

<comment><USER23> I haven't read that one, but I read is _Pre-suasion_ last year, and it was definitely an eyeopener. Have quite a lot of bookmarks in that one still. Need to get around to _Influence_ too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> To Live by Yu Hua. It was one of the most traumatic books I've ever read. A simple stoic "tale of an ordinary man enduring hardships--both of his own and others' doing."

I always felt my life was messed up and unfair because it seemed I managed to experience almost every suffering possible. This book opened up my eyes to how much someone could actually suffer and how it doesn't matter in the end in the long run.

</comment><comment> a-saleh Not a book, but a series of lectures on old testament from yale open courses. I found them as a young Lutheran, at a time more evangelical and fundamentalist influences were comming into my community, including young- earth creacionists.

Understanding the origin of my sacred text from scientific point of viewhelped me keep my faith while being able to accept modern, liberal society as my own.

</comment><comment><USER71> The Brother's Karamazov by Dostoevsky.

I gained an entirely new perspective on love for mankind. There was a passage about taking the blame for all of humanity's sins onto oneself, realizing that this is true, and then forgiving yourself. It's a hard idea to explain or even agree with, but the principle moves me, and the more I think about it, the truer it seems.

</comment><comment><USER4> Might be a bit of an unconventional pick, but Muv-Luv Alternative, the highest rated Visual Novel of all time, is simply life-changing (a sentiment shared by quite a few reviewers). It's especially powerful against tendencies of procrastination and escapism (which I believe are present in everybody to varying degrees). One shall never ever run away from any challenges or hardship after experiencing what the protagonist and the other characters have been through. A story perfectly suited to that particular medium and so incredibly convincing. Don't think it will ever be surpassed by any similar work.

(The ratings sorted on VNDB: [https://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;rfil=;o=d;s=rating](https://vndb.org/v/all?q=;fil=tagspoil-0;rfil=;o=d;s=rating) See how MLA leaves every other VN in its trail. It's absurd.)

</comment><comment><USER72> Far from the only book that's been life shaping for me, but one of the _first_ : Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

</comment><comment><USER73> "Finite and Infinite Games" by James Carse.

Changed the way I think about the rat race, how the rules are agreed upon, what we mean when we think about winners and losers. Gave me a nice framework for dealing with all these roles I take on. Pointed me toward what's really important and how (and why) to help others get by.

</comment><comment><USER74> The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck

Learn how to decide where to invest your energy (f#cks), which things you should really not worry about too much, and what happens if you don't choose wisely. Get an idea of why "being positive" about everything leads to "The Feedback Loop from Hell" and learn how to get out.

Best book ever.

</comment><comment><USER75> What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith

I wish I had read that in my late 20's instead of in my mid-30s. If you are a successful technical person who has been or wants to be promoted to a supervisory or management position, it's a must read.

</comment><comment><USER76> Right now: "The Untethered Soul"

Books that have brought a lot of influence:

. 4hr Body

. Captivate

. Good Calories/bad Calories / How we get fat

. How to cook everything

. I will teach you to be rich

</comment><comment><USER77> Buddha's Little Finger (aka Clay Machine-Gun) / Чапаев и Пустота (Chapayev and Void) (1996) by Victor Pelevin

it helped me trough my mental illness, also other works by him are very strong.

Also a very good translation to lithuanian of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man a 1964 book by Marshall McLuhan

</comment><comment><USER78> Travels - Michael Crichton, got me into travelling, the outdoors and an interest in inner travel

The hobbit - came with the adventure game that my aunty had on her c64 got me into computers and reading aged about 7

Fear - Thich nhat hahn, read repeatably during recent hard times. Might need to re-read again soon...

<comment><USER79> Bruce Lee: Artist of Life (in 2001). This book set me on a path that transformed my life more than any other book.

I met Thich Nhat Hanh in 2005. It's a meeting that changed my life. I've been rereading The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching since then.

<comment><USER78> I have already been recommended the bruce lee book, I'd order it now but I've literally just fired off an order for some of the books in this thread.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> Wings To Awakening by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

I was always interested and had a vaguely interested in Buddhism, but this book laid out everything about it nice and clear(well, in dense language at times), almost like paint-by-numbers. Everything just made sense from then on.

</comment><comment><USER81> "The Breakdown of Nations", by Leopold Kohr. Big organizations, centralization... are not good for humans, nor really efficient or sustainable. Some/many/most(?) of us feel it, this book clearly shows why.

</comment><comment><USER82> The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People.

If you have never read it, do yourself a favor and do so.

</comment><comment><USER83> Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It really opened my mind to so many fascinating mental constructs. I've probably read a half a dozen times and take something new from it each time I re-read it.

<comment><USER84> No doubt this book has been an inspiration to many (including myself), but what I find most fascinating about it is the author.

Here's a quote from the link below: "Napoleon Hill is the most famous conman you've probably never heard of. Born into poverty in rural Virginia at the end of the 19th century, Hill went on to write one of the most successful self- help books of the 20th century: Think and Grow Rich. In fact, he helped invent the genre. But it's the untold story of Hill's fraudulent business practices, tawdry sex life, and membership in a New York cult that makes him so fascinating..."

[https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of- napoleon...](https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-untold-story-of-napoleon- hill-the-greatest-self-he-1789385645)

</comment></comment><comment><USER85> Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

</comment><comment><USER86> For me it wasn't a book but NPR's planet money podcast that triggered my foray into reading up on real world economics. It does a great job at pointing at important concepts that are relatable and breaking it down into simpler parts I can pick up at anytime and travel deep into understanding it.

Sorry if this is off-topic, but thats what comes to mind when I think of a constant source of highly valuable information (besides HN)

<comment><USER87> I really enjoy Planet Money too. As an economics noob, what type of reading/books do you recommend for one's foray into real world economics?

<comment><USER86> I'd start with books by Tim Hartford and Richard Thaler and go from there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> The Law by Frédéric Bastiat [1]

Weighing in at 75 pages, you can read this 176 year old classic in a weekend. For some reason Locke's Second Treatise on Government made it into the canon as the be-and-end-all of the classical liberal political philosophy, and this masterwork was overlooked. Just read it.

[1] [https://mises.org/library/law](https://mises.org/library/law)

</comment><comment><USER88> Bible for myself, especially the new testament

</comment><comment><USER89> The Buddhist Bible. A collection of Buddhist texts collected by a few Beat Generation types.

Anything by John Gottman regarding the four horsemen of the relationship apocalypse. It really pinpointed some serious communication issues I had with romantic partners.

Code. It's what got me here!

</comment><comment><USER90> The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Notes from the Underground:

[https://goo.gl/x6QLgC](https://goo.gl/x6QLgC) [https://goo.gl/aDPsUz](https://goo.gl/aDPsUz)

</comment><comment><USER91> I wouldn't say it changed my life. But "Deep Work" resonated very deeply with me.

</comment><comment><USER92> "The Conspiracy against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror" by Thomas Ligotti. I was also expecting my first child at the time and it made me question my values and is it appropriate or fair to bring a child into this world.

</comment><comment><USER93> Momo, Michael Ende

</comment><comment> ng-user Rich Dad, Poor Dad

</comment><comment><USER94> For me it is "The subtle art of not giving a fck" by Mark Manson.

"Self-awareness is like an onion. There are multiple layers to it, and the more you peel them back, the more likely you're going to start crying at inappropriate time."

</comment><comment><USER95> You can also go through this thread for more answers [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17168136](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17168136).

</comment><comment><USER96> Gender Trouble by J. Butler and Precarious Life by J. Butler

These two allowed me to adopt a whole new perspective on not just gender but life and liberty in general. Also, great writing style!

</comment><comment><USER97> Discourses of Epictetus

</comment><comment><USER98> It's not particularly intellectual, but The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey has definitely changed my life for the better. I wish I had read it years ago.

</comment><comment><USER99> Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Mans Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl.

I know you asked for 1 and I am giving 2 recommendations but nothing wrong with being generous with good things.

</comment><comment><USER100> Who Moved My Cheese?

</comment><comment><USER101> Aesop's Fables. I read any copy I could find when I was a child, and together, they had a lasting and profound impact on my life.

</comment><comment><USER102> "Chasing the Rabbit" by Steven Spear. It gave me a much deeper understanding of the Lean/Toyota than other books.

</comment><comment><USER103> Charisma by Marcia Grad - helped me become less shy as a teenager

How to Win Friends and Influence People

The Keill Randor books got me influenced in martial arts.

</comment><comment><USER104> Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I'm surprised nobody mentioned it yet. It made me reconsider quite a few things.

</comment><comment><USER105> I am that, collected talks with nisargadatta maharaj.

Simple, instructional, profound in its ability to change me beyond words.

And fierce beyond imagination.

</comment><comment><USER106> I'll give you a much higher life-changing-amplitude if you relax the one-book constraint. One book and I can give you something that might impact your life a few months, but that you'll likely forget afterwards. Allow me to suggest ten books (which I promise will all be focused on one specific area, and you promise you'll study seriously), and I'll give you something that will make a much higher, and long lasting, impact.

<comment><USER107> It's been 16 hours. Are you gonna make good on that promise?

</comment></comment><comment><USER108> The Anti-Christ by Friedrich Nietzsche. It made me question my faith and my entire existence.

</comment><comment><USER109> Siddhartha

It is the one book I always re-read every couple of years.

I first read in high school - it is a fairly short book.

</comment><comment><USER110> Laura Day: Practical Intuition

(Inadvertently predicted Sep 11 attack while doing exercises in this book)

</comment><comment><USER111> omnivore's dilemma - fantastic look at modern day industrial food supply chain and consequences/alternatives. perfect amount of science, business, psychology analysis applied to a topic that affects all of us 3+ times a day

<comment><USER79> I read In Defense of Food first and that seemed to stick with me too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER112> For the mind:

"One small step can change your life" by Robert Maurer

For the body:

"You Are Your Own Gym" by Mark Lauren

</comment><comment><USER113> On Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins

</comment><comment><USER114> is there a similar topic for videos? Some YouTube videos can cause profound changes in yourself an your life in minutes (if you are sufficiently open and actually want the change).

<comment><USER20> How to be open ?

<comment><USER114> I'm sure there is a great video or a great book just for you answering this question but finding it among all answering the question in the ways that are not going to help you may be a problem. Threads like this may help greatly.

"In a nutshell" being the kind of open I mean means that every time you read/listen to somebody your prime interest is to understand them (even if they speak weird to nonsensical) and find how, when and why can this possibly make sense (if you fail - try harder and harder) rather than the opposite and being always willing to rationally disprove, correct and expand your view rather than to prove you're right to the others and yourself. In the majority of arguments (and whenever you read/listen to somebody whose views don't mach yours perfectly, an inaudible argument is happening inside your head and chances are you lack conscious awareness of this) each party seems mostly interested in defending its view and disproving that of the other but it usually is more beneficial to "be open" and think about how the opponent's view may possibly enrich mine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> barrow-rider On Killing, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

Changed my view of people, for the better.

</comment><comment><USER115> Shreemad Bhagvad Geeta

<comment><USER116> Which version? I mean you have read direct Sanskrit version or any translation by B. Tilak or Vinoba Bhave or from others?

</comment></comment><comment><USER117> Don't remember the exact title or author, but it was the first book I read about logic, proof, and fallacies. It allowed me to separate the gems from the garbage in most of the other books I see mentioned here.

</comment><comment><USER118> Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

</comment><comment><USER119> Rationality: from AI to Zombies by Eliezer Yudkowsky.

</comment><comment><USER120> Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind. It blew my mind.

</comment><comment><USER121> Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus.

</comment><comment><USER122> The book that caused me the biggest intellectual turnaround was Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. I was a teenager, recently went through Anglican confirmation, but most of my faith was based on some magical source of intelligence or consciousness (the Christian afterlife or the idea of an active god seemed to be obvious bullshit).

GEB convinced me that intelligence and consciousness could be mechanical. I already knew about chaos and fractals, so I already had the idea that mechanical things could be infinitely complicated and unpredictable. But GEB sealed the deal, and that was it: atheism.

</comment><comment><USER123> Calculus on Manifolds, by Michael Spivak

</comment><comment><USER54> "The Power of Habit", by Charles Duhigg.

</comment><comment><USER124> Atlas Shrugged

<comment><USER125> Seriously?

</comment></comment><comment><USER126> For me it was the Dip by Seth Godin.

</comment><comment><USER84> Obligatory "48 Laws of Power". You have to understand the rules, even if you don't want to actively participate. Greene's other books are good, too.

<comment><USER76> They're not as strong. But to echo that.

21 Strategies of war is good the 51st law is not so great. Mastery Is ok

The last I heard from Robert Greene was that he was working on a book about the motivations of people. However, I haven't heard of any progress.

<comment><USER84> "The Laws of Human Nature" is scheduled for publication in October 2018. You can pre-order it here: [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJLX414/ref=dp-kindle- redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BJLX414/ref=dp-kindle- redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER127> The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

</comment><comment><USER128> Tuesdays with Morrie

</comment><comment><USER129> Fox in socks

</comment><comment><USER130> Godel, Escher, Bach

One doesn't read it so much as study and marvel it

<comment><USER131> I would suggest "I Am A Strange Loop". Same author.

</comment></comment><comment><USER132> "How To Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

It's an enduring classic for good reason.</comment>


Mobile uploads to YouTube up 400% after iPhone 3GS launch - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/06/mobile-uploads-to-youtube-up-400-after-iphone-3gs-launch.ars

<comment><USER2> Note that they don't point out how much of that 400% are 3GS videos. I'm willing to bet a lot of that has to do with the Iranian election protests. Also, how much of that was just people making test videos to make sure that the YouTube video upload feature works or out of excitement for a new toy? It will be interesting to see if this level maintains itself.

<comment><USER3> The author doesn't give numbers, but on the point of people just testing out their new phones, the author does qualify her correlation:

"No doubt some of that 400 percent is due to users merely testing out the features on their new iPhones"

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A side note: I wonder what affect the situation in Iran has had on actual mobile traffic in the middle east. Is it just the rare citizen journalist that managed to sneak a video online for the west to see, or is youtube and twitter experiencing exponential growth in traffic from the Middle East as well?

</comment><comment><USER5> Sure sign that Apple did something right!

<comment><USER6> Sure sign that Apple did /something/!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Would be better if it could also upload to Facebook, Vimeo, etc.

<comment><USER8> If you post to <http://posterous.com>, you can syndicate that video all over the place. Mine sends content to tumblr, Twitter, friendfeed, and facebook.</comment></comment>


Admob refunded all my payments - <AUTHOR> http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/advertising-networks/4032-admob-refunded-all-my-payments-3.html <comment><AUTHOR> I noticed a bunch of debits and credits to my credit card yesterday relating to admob. I never initiated these so I feared that my credit card was stolen.

I searched around and saw this link that described my issue. Apparently google has authorization to credit and debit our credit cards at will. They also do not bother to email you to let you know what is going on. And of course, no google customer service.

It also turns out that my debits and credits are not identical as the exchange rates vary and perhaps credit card fees occured. So I am either a bit up or down. Merry fucking christmas google.

<comment><USER2> If this ends up costing you even $1, I would dispute it based on principle. And would not be surprised if a class action lawyer gets interested in extracting some compensation from Google.

<comment><USER3> But note that if they do then it'll be the lawyers who actually get all the compensation they extract.

<comment><USER4> This is exactly what I have wrong with the parent to this post. "Dispute for the principle of it," so that some lawyer(s) can make big money off a mistake Google made. How is that helpful to anyone (except the lawyers)? It ends up making everyone more reserved, or even killing a company off (probably not in the case of Google).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does anybody have a good explanation of how credit card charge limits actually work? I once had Jet Airways mistakenly charge me $30,000 (in two installments of $15,000) on a card that had a limit of $14,000, and while I was unable to use the card afterwards, the original charge should not have been possible in the first place. When I called the bank to complain, all they could say is that it was an "offline" transaction and thus apparently unlimited.

(And yes, I got it reversed eventually, and then had to pick another fight to get them to credit me the difference in exchange rates in the meantime. All this because Jet's shiny new booking engine apparently didn't multithread too well and replaced my $300 tickets with somebody else's... longer version of story here: [http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-asian-australian- south-...](http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-asian-australian-south- pacific-airlines/663761-jet-airways-spurious-s-30-000-charge-credit- card.html))

<comment><USER6> The entire system is designed so banks implicitly trust each other. As with anything else, as a business grows you eventually start cutting out middlemen to reduce costs. Eventually large players are treated effectively as banks themselves, and can push any transaction they want into the network. As long as things total out correctly at the end of the day between individual banks, nobody really gets in trouble.

It ends up being a lot more complicated than that (as everything in banking is), but that is the general idea.

<comment><USER7> and then... Enron.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I remember calling my bank one day and hearing that not only was my balance over a billion dollars, but I had a "two day float" of several million dollars. I called back to make sure I had the right number. I did--the amounts were increasing. Unfortunately, by the end of the day whatever it was corrected itself, and I was no longer a Forbes billionaire.

<comment><USER9> Withdraw cash and flee to a non-extradition-treaty country in your newly- purchased cargo plane?

<comment><USER2> What is the maximum amount of cash you could withdraw from a bank account in a single day with no advance notice to the bank?

Probably less than $10,000. And probably not enough to be worth fleeing to a safe haven for since the plane tickets and one week in a hotel will cost approximately that.

<comment><USER9> I've personally done more than that. You do run into reporting issues if you pull more than $10k at once though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Same issue happened to me, Google responded several hours later with the following email:

""" Dear AdMob Developer,

Last week, we wrote to let you know that on December 19th 2013 we would initiate refunds to you for unused legacy AdMob advertising credits. Today we are writing to let know that between December 19th and 20th we inadvertently processed refunds for more than your unused balance. In some cases, customers will see multiple refund amounts on their bank card statement.

To correct this error, we have reversed these incorrect refunds with corresponding transactions for the same amount(s). These corrections have been processed on December 23rd and December 24th to the same bank card that the initial refund(s) was processed to. This means that you will see one negative and one positive transaction on your card statement for each refund made in error. These transactions will have "GOOGLE*ADMOB" as the description for the credits.

We will be processing the correct refund in early January 2014 for the correct amount owed to you. You will see a separate transaction for this refund amount on your January or February bank card statement.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

If you have any questions about this communication please check out our FAQ's linked here.

Sincerely, The Google AdMob Team """

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm unaffected by this as I have never used Admob but I wonder which imbecile at Google thought it was a good idea to mess with payments and push/pull money out of people's bank/Paypal accounts around Christmas holidays?

I feel bad for all those affected knowing that there's virtually no way to get any kind of customer service from Google.

<comment><USER12> It may have something to do with the transition from "old" to "new" Admob. Advertisers can request refunds for unused funds from the "old" Admob, maybe that job had a bug and refunded everything. Makes you wonder how that's possible for a company that has the supposedly brightest of the best developers.

<comment><USER13> I wonder if there is much of a difference in engineering talent between the advertising products (AdSense, AdWords, Admob, etc) side of Google compared to the consumer and business product divisions (search, maps, G+, docs, etc) and data center engineering.

<comment><USER14> If anything I would expect the ad related engineers to be more talented, given that it ads are the bread and butter of Google's business.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Few days ago Google emailed me saying they have credited all my advertiser balance on admob. But yesterday I noticed a debit of $50 on my credit card from them. I never ever used Admob for advertising but only as a publisher on some of my apps long ago. I can't wait to speak someone to resolve this after holidays. Something is surely messed up with admob.

</comment><comment><USER16> The biggest issue I have with this is Google's practically non-existent customer service.

<comment><USER13> Given this is the single biggest running complaint I've seen about Google for the past decade, it's impressive how resistant to doing anything about it they are. Specifically regarding their advertising customers / partners. The sad reality of course is, they don't have to care, as there's no competitive threat to their core such that they might be forced to offer real customer service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Google screwed me over good today. Around Dec 20 admob refunded me $4400 in multiple transactions. then few days later they took $2700. This gave me $1700 refund which looked ok, since I deposited around 200-300K into admob over time. Today I woke up and found a -14K in my BOA account after admob decided to batch rape my account with 120 transactions for around 17K. My Bank of America that gives me a fraud alert every time I make an extra purchase just let them have this, no problem oh Google Gods. I called my bank today and did a claim, they didn't give me temporary credit pending investigation like the usually do because of the amount and the number of transactions, blah blah, and it can take up to 90 days to get my money back. I spend the whole day today trying to figure out how to run my business with no money. I can go on and on about how much $h1t, grief, nerves and money this has caused me, but I don't have time to whine. I'm not the type to sue people, but they are going to pay for this. not even out of principal, the $h1t just got REAL.

</comment><comment><USER18> Happened with me too,few days back I got a notification about some payment into my account by Google Admob and an email about refund, I thought it must be some unused fund but yesterday I got another notification about google taking it back! I was puzzled that is it my bank account or google's, they seem to be doing whatever they want with it.

<comment><USER19> My account was disabled one year ago. No warning, no reason. Then I contacted the customer service of Admob, after few days, they told me their system detected that my account has some issues. I lost hundreds dollar just because the arithmetic said I was criminal. And someothers told me, their system made mistakes sometimes. If you met, it's your own badluck. :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Sounds like an awesome way to get some sky miles

<comment><USER21> Hmm... do you lose miles for refunds that are not linked with the original transaction?

<comment><USER22> I assume so, someone would have gamed that a long time ago otherwise.

<comment><USER23> I'm actually curious about this. You can refund without having an original charge. This is exactly how Square's new payment system is working. This is simply because a refund is not canceling the original withdrawal, rather it's depositing the original transaction amount back. I'm not quite sure how a credit card company could determine the exact transaction link (other than just comparing merchant and transaction amounts). Maybe they just deduct the base points rate on the deposited amount. I then wonder how they would handle if I bought a TV during a promotion for a bonus 3% points and then returned it.

However, I wonder what would happen if I were to send money from my actual credit card to my Google Wallet (with no fees until Jan 6th, unless extended), and then use the Google Wallet card to use Square to send the money back to my bank account using my debit card. If I wanted to slow the process I could use a bank transfer from Google wallet. Of course there are daily/weekly limits for both of these but it's a method I think would work.

<comment><USER24> If it works, it's somewhere in here: [http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured- spending-719/](http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manufactured-spending-719/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Beyond GDP [audio] - <AUTHOR> https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/23/641278187/beyond-gdp <comment><USER2> I don't give a fuck about GDP. We should be guided by quality of life.

<comment> ur-whale > We should be guided by quality of life.

Whatever that actually means. Your definition of quality of life is very likely not mine and conversely.

I'd be very afraid to have a statistics office define what "quality of life" means. It reeks of centralized planning.

<comment> vertex-four I mean, in nearly every country, there's de facto already one that defines quality of life as being equivalent to engagement in any activity which increases the GDP of the country.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Without really addressing the substance of the article here:

It feels like everytime President Trump does something positively statistically significant, there is an effort by the left wing media to downplay its actual significance, and everytime there is an insignificant detail, gaffe or incident from decades past, there is an effort to turn it into a nationwide crisis.

Fox News did this with great success for 8 years. Disappointing to see others (whom I had regarded as worthy of more respect than an partisan hacks), to sink to this same level.

This narrative about GDP not really being a great indicator of anything coincides very conveniently with the reported GDP numbers that were previously touted as impossible by "experts".

I am quite confident that record (low) unemployment and GDP numbers like this under a Democratic President would not be framed in this manner.

<comment><USER4> Agreed. GDP is an imperfect measure, but 2018 Q2 GDP growth figure (4.1%) is nothing short of amazing.

<comment><USER5> It would be amazing maintained over an extended period, but a brief 1-2 quarter peak at that level like in 2011 (1 @ 4.7%) or 2014 (2 @ 4.9%+) isn't that amazing, and some leading indicators (e.g., business spending) are already down.

And, since the end of the 2001 recession, even in good top-line growth periods, the distributional statistics have sucked compared to previous expansions.</comment></comment></comment>


Why did Oxford circulate a criminalised image of me – because I'm a black man? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/10/oxford-university-circulate-criminalised-image-black-man <comment><USER2> I remember going to UMSL to look up programs and classes for going there. My mother dropped me off near the Psychology building because it had a bench and I did not drive.

I got some flyers and a course catalog and called my mother on a pay phone.

Psychology called a security guard on me because I was sitting on a bench and reading papers. Didn't seem to believe me that I wanted to be a student there. This was in the early 1990s. My mother picked me up but security said someone had panicked in the building because they saw me.

I'm white by the way, never had a criminal record or anything. I decided to wait to go back to college later.

But yeah, security can be paranoid based on one's looks or people calling and complaining until security does something.

</comment><comment><USER3> I was at Oxford from 2004-2007. There were two black students in my year (of around 3-4k), one of whom was an Old Etonian and stood as a Conservative candidate at the last election. I can fully believe this.</comment>


AmigaDOS Command Reference - <AUTHOR> http://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/AmigaOS_Manual:_AmigaDOS_Command_Reference <comment><USER2> Apart from wondering where this sprang from, if anyone wonders why AmigaDOS was such an ugly fit with the rest of exec and written in BCPL not C:

They'd contracted a SV company to produce CAOS, to a spec of Carl Sassenrath - the creator of exec (OO multi-tasking kernel). As deadline got closer and closer it was clear it wasn't happening, or even close. It was meant to get resource tracking and some other features to integrate with exec.

Edit: Found the spec and story of CAOS: [http://www.thule.no/haynie/caos.html](http://www.thule.no/haynie/caos.html)

It got AmigaDOS - a port of Tripos from UK company Metacomco. It got that because no one else they asked believed they could deliver anything in the remaining time. That's why there was all the BCPL weirdness with DOS.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for that; that was so difficult for then young, untrained me to get my head around, as well as reading the Amiga Reference Manuals - it was all so foreign.

<comment><USER2> Tripos started on PDP11, but had already been ported to 68k - just needed the exec glue code. Don't think the story ever properly came out but you get the impression it was the week or weekend before. :)

The weird data thing was because of BCPL language - it only understood words, not bytes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I hadn't realized how ahead of its time the Amiga was for a personal computer: TCP/IP, MIDI, SCSI, REXX, (screamtracker) MODs.

<comment><USER5> I suspect this is a reference for a much later version of the OS. You probably wouldn't see all of these commands on a machine from the Amiga's heyday.

<comment><USER3> The A2000 was in it's heyday, I think; you would see most of those commands (or their equiv) with an Amiga A2000 with the Amiga LANCE ethernet board A2065 and AS225 TCP/IP option, or maybe even the Amiga UNIX; there was even a DECNet stack which worked quite well... AREXX was always there, right? There were many SCSI commands as well to support the A2000 Zorro SCSI board. "bigroadshow"? it was apparently part of the TCP/IP stack. I guess it just depended on which system, boards, and options you bought at the time.

<comment><USER6> ARexx wasn't included with the OS until 2.0. You could buy it as a third-party add on for 1.3 and earlier.

<comment><USER7> 2.0 was already in the amiga 500 plus and that was still very early in the life of the Amiga.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> cha-cho It's been quite a while (the ole 2500 is in storage) but it seems like a person could change directories without the "CD" command. Just type the path in the CLI, hit return, and you moved to that directory. edit: Likely thinking of the "implied CD" mentioned in the link.

<comment><USER8> That's true (I've actually got an amiga shell window open in an emulator on another workspace right now...) - the CD command is only needed in cases of ambiguity.

I hope you removed the clock battery from your A2500 before storing it. By now it would have started leaking corrosive gunk, a very common cause of death for these old machines.

<comment> cha-cho Nuts. I don't think I removed the battery and it's been in storage for almost ten years. Then again if it can survive me naively washing the motherboard with a garden house and letting it dry in the sun, I think the Amiga gods will keep the battery intact for me. I hope so anyway.

<comment><USER8> If you have the opportunity, it's worth checking it and cleaning it up.

I didn't know about this problem at the end of the 90s when I stopped using my A4000 and the battery destroyed the motherboard.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm not sure why this is on the front page of HN. But I'm starting to mess around with Aros so this might come in handy I guess. Thanks!

<comment><USER10> many of us HNers were / are amigans. some still owe them or at least use an amiga emulator. the amiga community is still alive and kicking. don't mind the impact amiga had on computing

<comment><USER11> As a non-amigan but a huge fan of alternate OSes, I am constantly impressed by the enthusiasm and energy you guys still have for this system. It's contagious in a non-annoying way. I upvote interesting Amigan stuff whenever I come across it.

As an old-school DOS user, AmigaDOS, which I wasn't familiar with, looks fascinating. I'll have to see if it's available next time I boot _Icaros Desktop_.

<comment><USER10> welcome to the club! AROS does have a decent amigaDOS support

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've been hosting a similar site for years now, but in a more Amiga-Friendly browser format (basic HTML):

[http://www.jaruzel.com/projects/AmigaDOS-Guide- Help/index.ht...](http://www.jaruzel.com/projects/AmigaDOS-Guide- Help/index.html)

There's also a zipfile for download.

</comment><comment><USER13> Someting is messed up on that page:

      COUNTLINES
      Binds device drivers to hardware.

      CPU
      Counts how many lines a file is made of.

</comment><comment><USER14> Used to be a nice documentation site, until they decided to cover AmigaOS4, ditching 3.

</comment><comment><USER15> I still have a couple boxes of Amiga floppies. Including the source to NewTek DigiView capture software in 68000 assembler hilariously enough.

Anyone know if there's a way to read them?

<comment><USER16> Here and ready to help. email@example.com

<comment><USER15> I'll dig 'em and out and see what I have.</comment></comment></comment>


An anti-aging strategy that works in mice is about to be tested in humans - <AUTHOR> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/to-stay-young-kill-zombie-cells/ <comment><USER2> There are quite a few comments skeptical about whether this would actually prolong life, but that result is not the only possible benefit. Even keeping our same lifespan, but not picking up age-related diseases, aches and pains, and blindness would be a huge benefit to older folk. (And I mean those of us in our 40s and 50s, who already curtail activities due to aging, not just people over 80.)

Seriously, having been though some health problems, and seeing how much your quality of life can suffer, I think some people would willingly take a slightly shorter lifespan for increased quality of life as we age.

Are these drugs the answer? I have no clue. But the direction of the research is encouraging, no matter how long we all live.

<comment><USER3> Health span over life span

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In general in biology there is a simple criteria about the interest of an article:

\- If it is tested in vitro, not only those results do not translate to human health issues (it is not in a living tissue which is a complex milieu, not simply the juxtaposition of cells), but commercial cell lines are not representative of normal cells, as they reproduce indefinitively.

\- If it is tested on a mammalian animal model, it better but obviously mammalian species are different from each other at the organe level (for example the tail is used for thermoregulation in mouses).

\- The best thing for evaluating any human impact, is a phase III of a clinical study.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is largely a promo for Unity Biotechnology and the associated labs. It fails to mention, e.g. SIWA Therapeutics and their work on antibodies, Oisin Biotechnologies and their gene therapy DNA constructs for destroying cells based on internal chemistry, the company that David Sinclair is starting for senolytics, that Betterhumans has beaten Unity to the punch and is currently running phase 0 human pilots of dasatinib and quercetin on a non-profit basis. Also that senescent cell clearance didn't magically spring into being in 2011, but appears clearly in Aubrey de Grey's position paper on human rejuvenation in 2002, and the Methuselah Foundation, SENS Research Foundation, and others have been advocating hard for more work in this direction in the face of a research community that rejected it for a decade.

But hey, if you beat the competitors to be the first to raise 9-figure sums of venture capital, then you too can engineer attention to shine on you only, and rewrite history more or less as you like for a while.

So far all ways to address aging in mice have slowed aging by tinkering with metabolism, but slowing down the damage accumulation. They all produce much larger effects in short-lived species, probably because long-lived species have evolved to have many of these metabolic items turned on already. Calorie restriction extends life by 40% in mice, and I can assure you that while it is pretty beneficial in humans, you are not going to add more than a couple of extra years. Senescent cell clearance is the first way to address aging that involves repair of damage rather than slowing it down: we have no idea how the size of benefit in mice will translate to humans. So 25% gains in mice can be exciting here, whereas for any slowing-aging-only approach it would be a yawn.

</comment><comment><USER6> Isn't this yet another case for keto/intermittent fasting? It is well known that in a fasting state you trigger cell autophagy -> essentially force healthy cells to eat dead or diseased cells for energy...

<comment><USER6> And btw...fasting is free, safe when done properly, and something anyone can do today

I would much rather fast than ingest a drug pushed by big pharma...even if it did work and triggered the same response

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The longevity benefits of fasting/caloric-restriction also appear to work through the clearing of some cells ('autophagy'); see for example:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy#Caloric_restriction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy#Caloric_restriction)

<comment><USER8> <Conjecture> if you were a hungry body, which cells would you cannibalize first, healthy cells or old malfunctioning troublemakers?

<comment><USER9> You just made a mind boggling amount of assumptions in one sentence.

<comment><USER8> Fasting is also an effective remedy for a boggled mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Took me a while to find, but this method apparently only increases the life span of mice by 25%. Given how mice are prey animals - i.e. they aren't meant to live long - I don't anticipate the same results with Humans. Although, it may help reduce risks of diseases.

It'll be interesting to see results.

<comment><USER11> I'll take an "only" 20 year life span increase.

<comment><USER12> Hell I'd take the normal span with my health and my mind intact. I've seen old brains. It scares me.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, I wonder if senolytics have a positive effect on the brain.

<comment><USER13> We already have a potential treatment for age-related cognitive decline: vampirism (kinda). [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fountain-of- youth...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fountain-of-youth-young- blood-infusions-ldquo-rejuvenate-rdquo-old-mice/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some papers showing direct connections between senescent cells and specific aspects of aging, in many cases turning back that aspect by removing the senescent cells.

Osteoporosis: [https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4385](https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4385)

Fatty liver disease: [https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15691](https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15691)

Disruption of platelet formation: [https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2017.00188](https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2017.00188)

Osteoarthritis: [https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.4324](https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm.4324)

Disruption of regeneration: [https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2017.00049](https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2017.00049)

Lung fibrosis: [https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02367-2016](https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02367-2016)

Pulmonary function in general, including tissue elasticity: [https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.87732](https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.87732)

Atherosclerosis: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf6659](http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf6659)

Vascular calcification: [http://dx.doi.org/10.18632/aging.101191](http://dx.doi.org/10.18632/aging.101191)

Chronic kidney disease: [https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.17327](https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.17327)

Cardiac hypertrophy: [https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182668](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182668)

Cardiac fibrosis and function in general: [https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehx454](https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehx454)

</comment><comment><USER14> I would be surprised if people weren't already testing this, e.g. in China where there is less regulation.

I think that could be a trend: US/European researcher publishes hypothesis, and Asian researcher secretly tests it on humans, and if it works, publishes it and/or becomes first to market.

<comment><USER15> What do you think the solution would be, should this take off? Wrapping early stage trials in a veil of secrecy?

<comment><USER16> I'd say we should encourage this, but just make sure our intellectual property agreements are strong enough so that both parties benefit from their contribution.

In my view, we need to be moving much faster on developing technologies, drugs, and therapies. If some societies are able to help out, we should be grateful and welcome that - so long as the subjects all consent.

<comment><USER14> So basically you would applaud weaker ethical rules in China?

<comment><USER16> Making a choice to protect people trying new treatments keeps those people safer but the trade-off is that you develop new treatments slower, which means more people suffer and die waiting for treatments.

Developing quickly versus safely are different decisions, but I don't think one is purely stronger or weaker than the other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder if exercising contributes to killing off these senescent cells. In muscle building one is breaking down and rebuilding muscle cells, this might as well prevent cell "aging" and going into senescence.

<comment><USER18> "I wonder if exercising contributes to killing off these senescent cells. In muscle building one is breaking down and rebuilding muscle cells, this might as well prevent cell "aging" and going into senescence."

I think this is already known and understood - at least with muscle and bone cells. My understanding was that by putting energy production stresses on your cells, you weed out the ones that perform poorly. Specifically, you weed out those cells whose mitochondria are less efficient at producing energy.[1]

So there is a selection process that takes place, over time, in your own cell population.

I find this very interesting but I have also grown very pessimistic about its import ... people that don't like exercising will _do anything not to exercise_ so it really doesn't matter.

We don't need any new findings that demonstrate the (clear, obvious, _nearly immediate_ ) benefits of exercise. What we need are fewer cars and more walking.

[1] I highly recommend Nick Lanes first two books - _Oxygen_ and _Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Just thinking about the societal implications of this. For example, death is one of the few things that causes turnover in the Senate.

It seems ironic that the mechanism here (killing off old cells) enables humans to live longer, thereby possibly enabling these same humans to case society to age.

<comment><USER20> Life extension will be horribly dystopian unless we can also find ways to restore neuroplasticity and enable re-learning-- a kind of "second childhood." Otherwise it'll be a bunch of immortal old curmudgeons sitting on top of society saying "get off my lawn!"

Personally I'm not sure I'd even want too much life extension without neuroplasticity restoration and quality of life extension. I'd rather be dead than walking dead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Not going to prevent aging as well as people think.

As cells age, the risk for mutations occuring when they divide increases. The reason these cells stop dividing and become senescent is because dividing elderly cells poses a high cancer risk.

I think this may buy the trappings of youth (plump skin, clear eyes, etc) at the cost of a higher risk of cancer.

<comment><USER22> Yes, but the remaining non-senescent cells are obviously not damaged too much, and thus CAN divide - perhaps they did not divide as often in their lifetime, their ancestors were not as stressed, or their DNA was not compromised. If you make room for those cells to divide, that should be a good thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Where do I sign up? (-:

</comment><comment><USER24> Where's the catch?

<comment><USER25> 7 Billion humans

<comment><USER12> The universe is big. There is energy everywhere.

<comment><USER26> Meanwhile, the Earth is not, and we still primarily use fossil fuels.

But maybe someday we'll have terraformed Venus and Mars, and found a way to travel those light years. Probably not this century, though.

<comment><USER13> Long-term survival could be the sort of problem that requires people to think about it for 100-500 years beyond kindergarten. Moreover, societies here on Earth could benefit from people caring more about the impact they will have beyond their (currently) inevitable death in 0-100 years.

<comment><USER27> It could actually be beneficial to the planet. If today's politicians knew that climate changes, social inequalities and water shortages would actually affect them in their lifetime, they might reconsider the short term benefits of accepting donations from harmful lobbyists.

<comment><USER28> In other words, it could redefine "short term".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Summary: Kill cells that have stopped dividing, but that are still alive. (Called: Senescent cells.)

Don't prevent them from entering this state (which could cause tumors), just kill them if they do enter this state.

Hard part: Each organ/tissue has different types of cells, so each needs a unique medication to kill those cells.

<comment><USER30> are you an auto-summary bot?

<comment><USER30> thankyou for the downvotes, it was a genuine question. I see a lot of this bot-like behaviour on HN these days

<comment><USER31> A cursory review of their comment history would lead me to think that they're not.</comment></comment></comment></comment>