Reading Antifragile by Nassim Taleb was eye-opening for me. I turn to the concepts of the book whenever I feel unsure about a decision or opinion.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. I was interested in anarchism in my college years, but turned away from it because of what I perceived as the strongman problem. What happens when the psychopaths come for what you have?

    Walkaway solved that. In a post scarcity society, you walk away. Let them have your shit. You can build new shit, better shit, avoiding the mistakes you made and making grander mistakes forever into the future.

    This book brought me back into the fold. It was transformative, and in a really big way

    • @[email protected]
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      81 year ago

      You wouldn’t have post scarcity society in anarchism, though. And if that has been achieved before, it would be what they attack first.

      • @Candelestine
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        101 year ago

        There’s different flavors of anarchism just like there’s different flavors of anything. Saying they’d all “attack x first” is very far beyond what any person can reasonably predict. Particularly given how chaotic anarchy can be.

    • @severien
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      1 year ago

      In a post scarcity society, you walk away. Let them have your shit. You can build new shit, better shit

      How do you do that if they take all your 3d printers (the technology which sustains the post-scarcity world in this novel)?

        • @severien
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          Post-scarcity society still has to be backed by something. In the novel, it’s 3d printers. If you have more 3d printers than others, you can use it to produce weapons to capture even more 3d printers from other people, making them scarce, and thus introducing scarcity again.

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design 10th edition

    Sigh… kind of wish it wasn’t.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        I agree that its a fantastic resource. But the only times that book gets opened is when I’m about to make my brain hurt bigly and it makes me regret choosing mechanical eng just a liiiiiitle bit.

  • @[email protected]
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    151 year ago

    The Lord of the Rings trilogy, by Tolkien

    I return to it ever couple of years, always in bad times and often in good times too. Everyone is trying to do the best they can, contributing what they can. Only few characters are at all malicious. Emotions are deep and powerful, portrayed lightly. The whole story is a great collaboration where wildly different people overcome their differences to reach a single, all-encompassing goal.

  • Blake [he/him]
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    1 year ago

    The Jedi Code: A Manual for Students of the Force. I am lucky enough to have a copy which been passed from master to student, and many annotations have been added to enrich, update or contest the material in the book, which really widens the perspective. Sadly, a section near the front of the book has been ripped out, I’m guessing that one of my predecessors wanted to scan the section regarding the Prophecy of the Chosen One - probably to email a PDF of it to Master Windu!

  • ProtonBadger
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    121 year ago

    I have a version of The More Than Complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy that’s genuine leather bonded with gold leaf page edges and builtin bookmark. It’s on display on a special shelf. Everyone who visits thinks it’s a bible, and in a way it is as it does have a lot of good advice about life, the universe and everything.

  • @moshankey
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    91 year ago

    Man’s Search for Meaning by Dr. Victor Frankl. Saved me in so many ways.

  • krellor
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    81 year ago

    Some of my favorites:

    Thinking fast and slow, Daniel Kahneman
    Truly a great book that has been influential in how I approach presenting material to other people and in making sense of the world. Daniel and his long standing research partner received the Nobel prize in economics with there work in behavioral psychology. The book teaches you how people think, make decisions, and process information.

    Antifragile, nassim taleb.
    I won’t say much other than to make a counterpoint. As much as I enjoyed the book and his presentation and arguments around making systems antifragile, his witing can be summarized by a quote from Dr. Tetlock: “His witing is like a fine French meal, gently dusted with shit.” Taleb is a bit up his own ass at times, but antifragile is imo his best work.

    Superforcasting, Phillip Tetlock.
    Great book on how to quantify the chance of future events. Famously feuding with nassim taleb, though really it’s more taleb feuding with anyone who has different ideas than him.

    Man’s search for meaning, Victor frankl.
    One of the most interesting, heart wrenching and warming books. Whether you subscribe to his exact philosophies, frankl is a wonderful read.

    The better angels of our nature, Steven pinker.
    Probably the most exhaustively assembled academic book I’ve ever read on the trends of progress.

    Origin story, David Christian.
    An excellent history of everything with a focus on the repeating patterns of humanity trending towards more complex social interactions. Am easy and enjoyable read.

    • @Today
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      81 year ago

      I don’t think you deserve the downvotes and attacks. I believe they’re from people who think everyone who reads the bible is a right wing religious fanatic. Same as the people who think everyone who reads the Koran is a jihadist, which ironically tends to be…

    • @[email protected]
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      71 year ago

      I came here to say that. Sorry about the abuse you’re about to take. But we deserve it apparently. Sins of the fathers or “people like us” or something, I guess.

      You literally only said “The Bible” and I already saw some frothing.

      • Chariotwheel
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        91 year ago

        Chill.

        The day has barely begun. Gotta go to the morning stoning first. Pushy people like you make us regular baby brain bashers look like weirdos.

        • @[email protected]
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          -41 year ago

          Sorry. So at what point do we lust after our lovers, whose genitals are like those of donkeys and whose emission are like that of a horse?

    • @Vimto11
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      21 year ago

      Have kept for decades now a guided metta meditation by her. :)

    • @[email protected]
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      31 year ago

      “Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the word. It must be given freely. In abundance.”

      Still my favourite quote from the series.

  • @BallShapedMan
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    41 year ago

    Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins

    Not for most people but very much how I see the world and helps me get the best out of me.