Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2019?
20 comments
The Upper Half of the Motorcycle: On The Unity of Rider and Machine.
By Bernt Spiegel
Spiegel is a psychologist. If you are not a rider then you might not know that one of the main appeals of riding, that many riders have not explicitly identified, is the tight integration of mind/body or the subconscious and conscious mind. This was why I bought the book.
Your riding skills have to be automatized subconsciously because the conscious mind is far too slow in this environment. In his book he has a number of riding "objectives" that you need to automatize to be an expert or world class rider. These are pretty standard riding tips and strategies but the part that changed my life was his recommendation of using an error counter. You get one of those hand-held tally-counters, like coaches use to count laps or reps, and you mount it on your bike and when you violate the rules or tips you count an error and forget about it. At the end of your ride or practice race you count and track your error rate and think about ways in which you could have done better.
Now I am just a recreational motorcycle rider and have no desire to become a world-class rider so I never used his method to improve my riding skills. Nevertheless, I realized that everything he says about riding applies to acting and living in your daily life! Daily life moves too fast to think/act consciously and most of our actions are guided by subconscious processing that we automatized in the past. The problem comes when you consciously want to change your behavior but keep subconsciously acting on old ideas, premises and habit.
So how do you undo that automatic error? I bought a couple of tally counters and carry one with me, one in my car etc and count errors in my automatic thoughts or actions for the week and calculate and track a daily error rate. In a few weeks I have been able to make progress on correcting subconscious errors that I have been trying to correct for decades with little to no progress. I am using it to count negative thoughts, mind-reading (of others), logical errors and other subconscious flaws that I want to fix or improve. This tip has changed my life and you probably don't even need to read the book to get this precious gem.
Spiegel is a psychologist. If you are not a rider then you might not know that one of the main appeals of riding, that many riders have not explicitly identified, is the tight integration of mind/body or the subconscious and conscious mind. This was why I bought the book.
Your riding skills have to be automatized subconsciously because the conscious mind is far too slow in this environment. In his book he has a number of riding "objectives" that you need to automatize to be an expert or world class rider. These are pretty standard riding tips and strategies but the part that changed my life was his recommendation of using an error counter. You get one of those hand-held tally-counters, like coaches use to count laps or reps, and you mount it on your bike and when you violate the rules or tips you count an error and forget about it. At the end of your ride or practice race you count and track your error rate and think about ways in which you could have done better.
Now I am just a recreational motorcycle rider and have no desire to become a world-class rider so I never used his method to improve my riding skills. Nevertheless, I realized that everything he says about riding applies to acting and living in your daily life! Daily life moves too fast to think/act consciously and most of our actions are guided by subconscious processing that we automatized in the past. The problem comes when you consciously want to change your behavior but keep subconsciously acting on old ideas, premises and habit.
So how do you undo that automatic error? I bought a couple of tally counters and carry one with me, one in my car etc and count errors in my automatic thoughts or actions for the week and calculate and track a daily error rate. In a few weeks I have been able to make progress on correcting subconscious errors that I have been trying to correct for decades with little to no progress. I am using it to count negative thoughts, mind-reading (of others), logical errors and other subconscious flaws that I want to fix or improve. This tip has changed my life and you probably don't even need to read the book to get this precious gem.
Interesting, it would great to extend the idea to maths. They say 'you dont understand math you get used to it'. And it does feel the same internalizing complex physical knowledge. One morning you wake up and some concept is commited to subconscious.
Very strange.
Very strange.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
A beautiful book about waves, love, writing, and living a good life. As a surfer, skier, mountain biker, and overall risk taker, this book affected me in the same way "Walden Pond" or "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" affects some people. It is the most impactful book I've read in the past 10 years. Probably not for everyone, but for those of a certain ilk it is stunning.
A beautiful book about waves, love, writing, and living a good life. As a surfer, skier, mountain biker, and overall risk taker, this book affected me in the same way "Walden Pond" or "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" affects some people. It is the most impactful book I've read in the past 10 years. Probably not for everyone, but for those of a certain ilk it is stunning.
I cannot agree more. I haven't felt so strongly about a book in a long time.
This sounds great, I'm gonna pick it up on amazon right now.
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Man, reading this book really put a fire under my ass. I realized how much more I could be getting out of life by pursuing optionality and using the barbell strategy.
A quote that stuck with me the most is: "If you have more than one reason to do something, don't do it." That means that you are trying to convince yourself to do it. Obvious decisions require no more than one good reason.
A quote that stuck with me the most is: "If you have more than one reason to do something, don't do it." That means that you are trying to convince yourself to do it. Obvious decisions require no more than one good reason.
It’s a shame he has made himself distasteful to sum through his tweets, as his books (particularly anti fragile) are phenomenal.
Totally agree. his books would be even better if he got rid of the obnoxious chest thumping and just laid out his arguments. I read it a few months ago and it was the only book of the year that I wanted to reread. I continually find myself relating things back to it.
A classic for sure! Now I always look for asymmetric payoffs, like meeting a new person or doing the hard things.
Like some other commenters mentioned, Taleb does spend a lot of time bashing his critics though, could be a better book without the smack talk, but regardless that’s his style.
Like some other commenters mentioned, Taleb does spend a lot of time bashing his critics though, could be a better book without the smack talk, but regardless that’s his style.
What did you change about your life?
"The Simple Path to Wealth" by JL Collins. Gave me a clear path to what to do with my money and investments.
I really enjoyed The Millionaire Nextdoor.
Is there detailed practical advice other than investing in cheap index funds?
Is there detailed practical advice other than investing in cheap index funds?
Can you elaborate?
Biography of saint Siluan the Athonite deeply affected how I view the world and people around me https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/898516.Saint_Silouan_the...
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall.
This book gave me broader prospective in understanding geopolitics in a way I have never thought before.
After reading this book, I see world and global event differently, my biased opinion about many countries have changed.
This book gave me broader prospective in understanding geopolitics in a way I have never thought before.
After reading this book, I see world and global event differently, my biased opinion about many countries have changed.
This might help: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21900498
"The Argonauts" by Maggie Nelson. It turns out that gender is pretty complex, and I hadn't spent much time thinking about it before.
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
Probably made the biggest material difference in how I feel day to day, and finally convinced me to keep a regular schedule.
The last lecture
Thanks for a great community and I look forward to your suggestions.