Hacker News Books

I just ordered the book Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins (just came out).

If you haven't watched David Goggins' interview by Joe Rogan, it's definitely worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvWB7B8tXK8

David Goggins was the subject of Jesse Itzler's book Living With A SEAL which I did read after watching the interview.

If you haven't heard of David Goggins, he went from 280 lb bug exterminator to SEAL, and is now retired and runs seemingly-impossible marathons.

He is truely a "mind-over-matter" kind of person.

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Otherwise, this year I started reading Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Pretty good and recommened.

My favorite books...

> Deep Work https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/...

> Can't Hurt Me https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Hurt-Me-Master-Clean/dp/15445078...

> Talking to Humans https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Humans-Success-understanding-...

> Rich Dad Poor Dad https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680...

> 4 Hour Workweek https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/...

> Steve Jobs https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648...

> The Design of everyday things https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand...

> Siddhartha: A Novel https://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Novel-Hermann-Hesse/dp/055...

> The Four Agreements https://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal-Fr...

> Rework https://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745?dchi...

Just books in general? Professional development? Science Fiction? Politics?

Can't go wrong with the classics like "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" along with "How to Win Friends and Influence People." For motivation: "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins... it's impossible to read that book and come up with a good excuse why you cannot achieve your goals.

Some books that helped me:

- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

- Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins

- Indistractable by Nir Eyal

- Mastery by Robert Greene

Recently, I am unsatisfied about spending a lot of time on consuming knowledge, rather then producing. As soon as I get to some level of expertise in some area, the benefit of passive reading approaches zero. So I plan to write more and code more (mastering Julia for mathematics and CS) in 2020.

A few titles I enjoyed this year:

"An Invitation to Applied Category Theory" by Brendan Fong, David I. Spivak.
It was fun to dig deeper into categories and read how you can apply thinking in them to different domains: databases, signal processing, circuits. Some mathematical background is probably required. It is available for free as a PDF:
http://math.mit.edu/~dspivak/teaching/sp18/ or if you are, like me, love collecting good titles in paper, a hardcover copy is nice with good paper and colour pictures:
https://www.amazon.com/Invitation-Applied-Category-Theory-Co...

"Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. https://davidgoggins.com/book/ It helped me to start running, and I keep doing it. It improved my mindset about overcoming physical discomfort, inspired to cultivate a savage mindset within. I lost a few kgs as well. There is an audio version of it.

"Turn the Ship Around" by David Marquet http://davidmarquet-com.3dcartstores.com/Autographed-Book-Ha... A book on leadership, told as a story of transforming the team on the nuclear submarine USS Santa Fe. Not that boring like usual leadership titles.

I made this account only to answer you, since I have few insights that might help you.

Following noncoml's advice on bodybuilding, there is a truth in that direction: you need a challenges and victories to get out of your state.

Most enlightening reads on that subject are:

David Goggins - Can't hurt me
Jocko Willink - Discipline equals freedom field manual

The center point of your problem lies in a fact that you are measuring your self in comparison to others, while the problem is within you - therefore, you need to challenge yourself in many ways and overcome those challenges in order to set yourself straight.

Warning - this is a journey not a shortcut.

Lifelong ADDer here. Yes, the damage of lifelong undiagnosed mental / attentional issues is absolutely a real and crippling thing.

You HAVE to break those patterns and the negative self-talk.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is helpful for this. Probably the biggest thing I've found helpful was David Goggins book "Can't hurt me: Master your mind and defy the odds". [1]:

>>"For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare — poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes..."

The audible version is PHENOMENAL IMO. He talks explicitly about learning disabilities and attentional issues - but be-forewarned his language is very raw, but it is 100% authentic.

1 - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41721428-can-t-hurt-me