Top Hacker News Book Recommendations in Self-Help (all time)

All Time Past 6 Months

Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (Think and Grow Rich Series)

Napoleon Hill and Arthur R. Pell

4.7 on Amazon

62 HN comments

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Daniel H. Pink

4.5 on Amazon

61 HN comments

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

James Clear and Penguin Audio

4.8 on Amazon

60 HN comments

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

Jocko Willink, Leif Babin, et al.

4.8 on Amazon

59 HN comments

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell and Hachette Audio

4.6 on Amazon

55 HN comments

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Guided Journal (Goals Journal, Self Improvement Book)

Stephen R. Covey and Sean Covey

4.6 on Amazon

55 HN comments

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Jonathan Haidt

4.6 on Amazon

50 HN comments

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

Marhsall B. Rosenberg

4.7 on Amazon

48 HN comments

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

Susan Cain

4.6 on Amazon

45 HN comments

Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Sam Harris and Simon & Schuster Audio

4.4 on Amazon

42 HN comments

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

4.4 on Amazon

40 HN comments

No More Mr. Nice Guy: A Proven Plan for Getting What You Want in Love, Sex and Life (Updated)

Dr Robert Glover and Recorded Books

4.6 on Amazon

39 HN comments

The 48 Laws of Power

Robert Greene

4.7 on Amazon

37 HN comments

Be Here Now

Ram Dass

4.7 on Amazon

33 HN comments

Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Spencer Johnson, Kenneth Blanchard, et al.

4.6 on Amazon

31 HN comments

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Sorted by relevance

phkahleronJan 11, 2018

>> It is amazing how many people chose number 4.

Agreed. We all need to periodically reread "Who Moved My Cheese?"

dakomonAug 10, 2017

Hah, I read "Who Moved My Cheese?" a while ago but I haven't seen it used as an idiom like this. Nice one!

kojionApr 21, 2012

I think this is a great point. The key to happiness is not planning, because life will not accommodate those plans. The key is to be flexible when life happens. Anyone remember the book "Who Moved My Cheese?"

joelhausonApr 2, 2010

Creative destruction is the theory of evolution applied to economics.

It will always be in the interest of some to hinder the pace of change; however inevitable it may be. Side note: Who Moved My Cheese? is a great parable on dealing with change and I recommend it often.

alfredponMar 6, 2009

Going to the library or bookstore to read makes me happy. I just finished reading "Peaks and Valleys" (by the author of "Who Moved My Cheese").
peaksandvalleysthebook.com

goldsmithonOct 8, 2008

These books are only slightly better than telling someone to read Who Moved My Cheese or Good to Great.

You should read great books because you want a different perspective and will hopefully be entertained; don't read a book because you think it will make you a better entrepreneur.

klausjensenonSep 11, 2020

What would you do if you were not afraid?

From Dr. Spencer Johnson's book, “Who Moved My Cheese?”

Often what is holding us back from doing something is fear. The fear might be important, but asking yourself what you would do if fear was not involved has helped me a lot over the years.

jfornearonOct 3, 2012

Some of them seem interesting like The Innovator's Dilemma, I Moved Your Cheese, etc. Not a huge opportunity cost to read those.

paddyforanonOct 24, 2012

Personally, I thought it was awesome that Hem and Haw were linking to Who Moved My Cheese? and suggesting someone else needed to read it. This seems to be a very cut-and-dry Who Moved My Cheese scenario.

cometonJan 24, 2013

I believe its also possible to convey a lot in the short form of writing (novella) like "Who moved my cheese?" by Spencer Johnson. But I suppose it also depends on the genre & message/story you have mapped out.

lightonphirionAug 8, 2016

In my previous life, MD of company I worked for gave a copy of Who Moved My Cheese to all 300+ employees. Great read.

herghostonApr 9, 2015

"Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson.

It's only a short tale, but it changed my approach to more or less everything. I am eternally grateful to my good friend who showed it to me in about 2000/2001 ish.

martin1975onMay 19, 2015

Everyone reading this thread - you will absolutely love (or at least like) a book called "Who moved my cheese?"

It's sort of a must read for anyone who ever worked any job ever.

beerglassonMar 5, 2013

Understand your intolerance for self-help category in books... generally, I detest them too. But once in a while, when the world around looks too complex, reading simple books like "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull", "Prophet", even "Who Moved My Cheese?" and "The Magic of Thinking Big" has helped me...

skowmunkonSep 23, 2010

What a shame.

What would have happened if the head honchos at Blockbuster had copied the models of netflix and redbox as soon as they came up in the market, and aggressively pushed them? or acquired them agggressively? (doesn't it happen all the time in the tech industry?)

What awesome leverage they would have had to make these models work successfully for them, with their already existing relationships with the studios?

They must have never read the book 'who moved my cheese' or never put those principles in practice even if they read it.

Wonder what personal traits prevented them from seeing these new biz models as mortal threats.

me_againonJune 19, 2019

My manager gathered our team in a conference room to listen to the audio book of "Who moved my cheese". Which, if you're unfamiliar, is a lame allegory about how you shouldn't complain if you are fired or otherwise screwed over.

The oddest part is that the layoffs everyone expected never materialized.

beezlebubbaonJune 18, 2019

I worked for a "huge well-known bank" as a data center engineer. Unfortunately, they had converted all the FTE positions to contractor. As a contractor, you had as much job security as a slab of meat. All new contractor hires were given a copy of "Who Moved My Cheese" to read. In 32 years of working, I've never seen a place with a higher turnover rate. It was sad because the job itself was pretty nice, just nothing else about it was.

klausjensenonJan 15, 2012

"If you want to do something big in your life, you must remember that shyness is only the mind," she said. "If you think shy, you act shy. If you think confident you act confident. Therefore never let shyness conquer your mind."

Pretty close to my motto: "What Would You Do If You Were Not Afraid?".

Taken from "Who Moved My Cheese?" by Dr. Spencer Johnsson.

sbussardonApr 28, 2015

Read these books: The Go-Getter, Who Moved My Cheese, QBQ!, Rhinoceros success, The Go-Giver. They're all short and each can be read in a couple hours. They'll change you.

klausjensenonAug 8, 2016

I have given away ~20 "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson over the years.

It is a great little book, which deals with how we handle change in our lives (work and other) and how we sometimes fail to see, when it is time to move on.

My favorite one-sentence takeaway from the book is the question: "What would you do, if you were not afraid?" - which has helped me make hard decisions many times over the years.

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-Amazing/dp/039914...

plinkplonkonOct 7, 2009

"Perhaps--and this is pure conjecture--the biggest problem the industry has is that people rarely take a process or methodology and apply it as written,"

Hmmm. Perhaps the biggest problem the industry has is that processes and methodologies are written by people who are poor programmers?

Think about it. No methodology is written by great programmers, great managers or great product designers. Why should people use them "as written"?

Taking all the "agile" methodologies as an example, All the signatories of the Agile Manifesto put together never coded up any great software. The same applies for CMMi or RUP or whatever.

XP starts from a failed project at Chrysler. They are essentially process consultants who are good at thinking up processes. Implementing their reccomendations "as written" would be insane, just as trying to run a company as per the prescriptions in latest management fad book as written would be insane.

Come to think of it there are similarities to management books. Comparatively few of them are written by great businessmen. Most of them have written by people who've never run a business in their lives.

I don't get it. Logically no one should pay any attention to such methodologies or books. But people do, to the point where software methodologies and "Who moved My cheese" books are multi billion dollar industries.

wedmondsononDec 26, 2012

Many of today's most popular business books are written in this fashion. I believe the style is called "business parable". A couple popular titles from recent years are "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" and "Who Moved My Cheese". I would not be so worried about the actual source of the story. The principles are still the same. At one point in my life I was very much like this individual but not now...while the story may be fiction my life is not :)

kabousengonDec 17, 2015

Well I don't have a MBA :D, but I do have a masters degree of a similar orientation (Masters in engineering management). I can only recommend the ones I have read and found of value:

[1] Crossing the chasm (Marketing related)

[2] Peopleware (HR related)

[3] How to win friends and influence people (HR related)

[4] The Goal (Business related)

[5] Critical chain (Project management related)

[6] Who moved my cheese (Change management related)

and any of the lean / agile businessy books for ex.

[7] The lean startup

These might not be viewed as traditional MBA material, but my course featured some of these along with more traditional academic books on subjects like financial management, people management, operations etc. I can provide these textbooks to you as well if you like.

*Amazon links just for convenience, no affiliation.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstre...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-3...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/06...

[4] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884271951?keywords=eli%20g...

[5] http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Chain-Eliyahu-M-Goldratt/dp/0...

[6] http://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-Amazing/dp/0399144...

[7] http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-...

LVBonJuly 21, 2012

Rude. For as much as the guy loved Sparrow and how it has "added a lot of value to [his] life" for $9.99, good luck finding a "congratulations" or even "thank you" in the post. Instead it's a bunch of complaining about how he is now denied his app, along with a few jabs at the Sparrow team, Google, and Apple for not fixing it all.

Recommended reading: "Who Moved My Cheese?"

haidralionJan 2, 2018

I have read

- Who Moved My Cheese?

- Che Guevara: A Life by Nick Caistor

- A Case of Exploding Mangoes

alashleyonFeb 28, 2017

I like Who Moved my Cheese - Dr. Spencer Johnson

http://jef.mentalis.org/hersenspinsels/downloads/WhoMovedMyC...

colson04onJune 12, 2011

I briefly checked out the first 20 or 30 reviews on Amazon and was not surprised by the comments, but by the ratings. My take on the comments? True: if you are a long time follower of the signal vs. noise blog then you will have seen some of the material before.
True: some of the advice is ambiguous, but necessarily so - this is not a "how to start a web company" step-by-step manual. It is an aid to seeing business from a total non-traditional platform.
True: the book is short on pages and word-count - you can easily read it in an afternoon. Every other page is an illustration (no informational value) of some kind taking away from actual information space - I did feel I was mislead by this.
True: They do use their own company as an example quite a lot which took away credibility. Their biz is the extreme example in a few ways but it is very interesting how they embrace obstacles that others run from i.e. having globally spread employees.

I got over my own negativities when I read the book for the second time three months later. The book is written in such a way that, to me, the message will adapt and be meaningful regardless of the current situation. Kind of like the bookd Who Moved My Cheese is still taught and changes meaning for each reader, each time they read it.

In my opinion it's definitely worth reading - take that for what you will.

Other suggestions? I've got plenty if you want 'em. I read a book or two a week. Here's two more of my fav business-type books.

Seeking Wisdom by Peter Bevelin &
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber - a classic

Here's a short cut to the best reading on business and entrepreneurship - take the following links and cross reference. If a book is on both lists it's usually very good.

http://sivers.org/book

http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/

DyslexicAtheistonApr 5, 2018

not sure why you're getting downvoted for this. Those working for Google (or any large Silicon Valley firm) are usually among the top in their league and should be able to decide where they want to go based on their ideals/values, not because they have no other choice. Compared to the gazillions of engineers out there who are part of a 2nd or even 3rd party outsourcing chain (on crap salary and without rights in the company), Google employees are there because they want to. If the general opinion (in light of what we learned) now shifts towards a believe these companies are evil (which IMO they are) then I hardly feel sorry for the individual engineers. Googlers, Facebookers, Palantir guys should adapt and adjust or read "Who moved my cheese". Time for making these changes are now IMHO.

raganwaldonOct 7, 2009

Logically no one should pay any attention to such methodologies or books. But people do, to the point where software methodologies and "Who moved My cheese" books are multi billion dollar industries.

If you think that's insane, let me tell you about this book written by a guy who translated a book written by a guy who knew a guy who knew twelve other guys who knew a carpenter...

People are searching for answers wrapped up lists of ten or fewer commandments. See also Paul's essay on essays that are lists and why they are both easy to write and popular with readers.

georgebarnettonSep 19, 2015

There's a great short book called 'Who moved my Cheese?' which tackles the impermanence of any particular means of income stream.

Putting aside the morality/ethics discussion for a moment, it seems to me that the 'cheese' is moving for content publishers and so they are left with a choice, change and find new cheese - or stay and starve. Either way, the current gnashing of teeth will have little effect.

bynkmanonMar 6, 2017

Average is Over by Tyler Cowen. About educated middle class workers working with collaborative automated systems vs non-educated and a changing society.

Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson. An allegory about how our modern jobs are changing.

Mindset by Carol Dweck. About the belief of fixed mindset vs a growth or learning mindset, and the effects of both.

The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin. How our industrial (conformity) economy has evolved into a connection (post-industrial) economy, and what it takes to survive in this new world.

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