Ask HN: Books that teach you to think

[aristofun]

Which top 2 books you you always remember when someone asks you about books that taught you to think.

Not told your exciting stories about thinking (like those fancy NYT bestsellers), but actually pushed your own thinking skill forward.

[iamjasonlevin]

"Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit" -- I learned that I wasn't a bad writer. I just wasn't hooking people in the first sentence. You need to hook someone in the first sentence, get them to the second, and repeat until the end. This goes for every type of content creation and even other things like first impressions in work and dating.

"The Almanack of Naval Ravikant" -- I learned about leverage, the importance of peace over joy, and how to build long-term relationships. I come back to this book every few months and look through my notes even more frequently.

[P5fRxh5kUvp2th]

As an avid reader for the last 40 years, this does not apply to me.

[nextos]

The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods by Baggini and Fosl. Mathematical logic, fallacies, etc. written by two famous philosophers. It's a great textbook for undergrads.

Also Statistical Models: Theory and Practice by Freedman. I refer you to Taleb's review: https://www.amazon.com/Statistical-Models-Practice-David-Fre...

"[...] This book is outstanding in the following two aspects: 1) It is of immense clarity, embedding everything in real situations, 2) It uses the real-life situation to critique the statistical model and show you the limit of statistic."

Both cover most of what you need to know to think rigorously using logic and its extension to account for uncertainty, probability.

[rramadass]

Great suggestions.

The first one in particular looks very interesting.

How would you compare Statistical Models by Freedman with Statistical Models by Davison ?

[kherud]

I can recommend the puzzle books by Raymond Smullyan [0], for example "Satan, Cantor and Infinity". Among others, this contains puzzles about infinities and apparent paradoxes associated with them. Reading is mostly a form of consumption and therefore not really suitable to train your working memory. For this you have to solve mental tasks on your own instead of following the thoughts of others (without implying that this can not be valuable as well). Smullyan's books contain humorous puzzles of increasing difficulty, that are mentally challenging but still fun to read. I learned of them after finding here on HN Smullyan's article "Is God a Taoist?" [1] and wanted to read more from him.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Smullyan

[1] https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/godTa...

[jonjacky]

How To Solve It by G. Polya [1,2]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It

2. https://archive.org/details/howtosolveitnewa00pl

[shubhamjain]

In my experience, the harder you search for things that can transform you, your thinking, the rarer it is to find them. I might find something impactful, but it's possible no else can relate to that feeling. Sometimes the most unexpected things can change your life. I recently re-watched the movie _Groundhog Day_. I found it pretty amazing the first-time, too. But second time, I thought that there couldn't be a better metaphor for life. I do realize that the writer didn't intend it that way, but it doesn't hurt to draw your own lessons. I found a new value in being kind and trying to seize the day.

Much of impact is dependent on context, and where you're in your life. I have often tried popular recommendations but more often than not, they haven't worked for me. The transformative books have happened to be the weird ones that often don't get talked about. My advice would to read wide variety of interesting stuff. And don't think too much about how to change your thinking. It will happen naturally without effort.

[jcynix]

Among the most important books for me was Summa technologiae by Stanislaw Lem, oldie but (still) a goldie:

Despite its age and a number of inaccuracies in specific domains (e.g., mathematics, biology, sociology), the book has lost no momentum in the past years. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_Technologiae

[przefur]

I second this opinion, would recommend the book.

[roydivision]

I would suggest reading as much great literature as possible. One can learn how to think in many different ways, it doesn't need to be from a manual. Good books invite one to question, to put oneself in the shoes of the protagonists, to imagine what we would do in their situation, and to empathise.

Try Crime and Punishment, or Moby Dick.

[v-erne]

Could You explain in few simple words why Moby Dick is worth reading ? I've got through first few chapters recently (I use it for touch typing practice so I go through it quite slowly) and found it to be extensively dragged out. Its almost funny how many unnecessary and boring details we get from Ishmael narration. I understand that You should not judge book by its cover and not everything have to start like hickok movie but after few chapters I would like to be hooked by the book otherwise what's the point.

[marc_io]

Just as important are books that can teach you how to relate to thoughts, AKA proprioception of thought.

Thinking is a hugely important function, but it should not be considered as the only one, nor the most important in every case.

[Nomentatus]

Meditation for example (vipassana in particular) helps you tune into information coming at you through feelings in various parts of your body. An ancient text said that good monks "always keep their attention on their bodies," for this reason. Antonio Domasio is the leading researcher on how taking the body out of the equation hamstrings humans in making decisions, whether about poker hands or what house to buy. His former students are doing some great work, too.

[joflicu]

Can you say more? What do you mean by "how to relate to thoughts?" Seems similar to mindfulness, but I am not sure.

[greymalik]

Examples?

[morelisp]

(Someone already posted How to Solve It which would be my first recommendation on this forum.)

The Zhuangzi, probably at least two translations.

The Elements (that is, Euclid's).

Process and Reality has had the most impact on my thinking but it's one of the most unapproachable things I've ever read. Get there eventually.

[gglitch]

Agree about the Elements. I was once enrolled in a small class that proved all of the props in order. For a given meeting, a set of props were assigned (fewer and fewer as they got longer and more complicated), and a student's name would be randomly chosen to prove the prop at a chalkboard without the book or any aides-memoires. One did not have to reproduce Euclid's proof exactly. We quickly learned the value of (a) making mistakes, and (b) being able to think things through logically. It was a transformative experience for me.

[dmbche]

The awakening of intelligence, J. Krishnamurti The human condition, Andre Malraux On The Road, Jack Kerouack 1984, George Orwell

Read the books, and then look into reviews and explanations of them, or even better - talk about it with someone that you like. Just try to word the things you've been exposed to and experienced and understood.

[hnaccountme]

Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows

[palashkulsh]

If you liked it try fifth discipline if you haven't

[leobg]

If you prefer older books that stood the test of time:

How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively by Rudolf Flesch.

[psteitz]

This is a hard. Books that made me a better thinker have to be the hard ones / ones that made me change. Top two would be

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Immanuel Kant. Supposedly more accessible version of Critique of Pure Reason but still very hard and mind-bending for me at least. Not just philosophy was easier after wrestling with this content.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Tomas Kuhn. Made me self-aware about what scientific thinking actually is.

[graymatters]

“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

[_carbyau_]

I have seen this referenced so many times. But it didn't work for me. Not sure why.

I gave up on it 20 years ago. Maybe I need to try again.

[holtkam2]

1. The Black Swan 2. Thinking Fast and Slow

[fluffet]

+1 on The Black Swan. I found all of Taleb's books really interesting, but this one I enjoyed the most.

[imranq]

The highest leverage is not which books, but who to meet. Find people you can discuss these topics with and that will push you're thinking the most.

For this forum, I'm assuming you are looking for math / science books (otherwise I'd recommend the Talmud, Bible or Quran), I'd recommend Real Analysis by Charles Chapman Pugh or Surely you're joking Mr Feynman (+ Feynman Lectures on Physics)

[poulsbohemian]

Six Thinking Hats, by Edward DeBono. The concept is very simple, but this idea of looking at something from different defined perspectives is a useful tool that many seem to lack.

Getting to Yes. Still one of the best books on negotiating. Again, the simple concept of seeing the world from the other side of the negotiating table, IE: thinking like the competition.

The Little Blue Book. A must read for people working in progressive politics. Will help you to think like the other side so you can formulate messaging they will understand.

A computer science degree (and thus any materials on CS), if done well, can be an exercise in thinking / problem solving skill that can serve well beyond traditional STEM careers.

[rawgabbit]

Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft.

A History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 is a book by James Ford Rhodes written in 1918. It is one of finest examples of plain English writing I have read. How to get your point across unpretentiously.

[mdnahas]

Textbooks on rhetoric. Aristotle’s book is okay. I also had a book from the 1950s.

They didn’t teach me logic, but taught me how other people think. Or, at least how they act after you communicate to them.

[youssefabdelm]

Metapatterns by Tyler Volk - If anyone knows any similar ones that are as (or more) transdisciplinary and unifying please share!

I'm highly interested in what I call maximal 'unifiers', ideas or concepts which co-occur across as many disciplines and phenomena as possible. E.g. fractals, Bejan's constructal law, or structural complexity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_complexity_(applied...