Hacker News Books

Rewire Your Anxious Brain, by Pittman and Karle. This little book changed my life in several important ways, and I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone who's dealing with anxiety, panic, and related issues.

Same here. I recall being most anxious when I worked in level 3 customer support many years ago - a different highly stressful customer problem would land in my lap each day. I used many things to help with it.

One thing that was crucially important for me was to understand the biological causes of anxiety and how it occurs in the human brain. The book Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine Pittman and Elizabeth Karle helped me a great deal. The biggest insight that I got from that book was understanding that there are two distinct causes for anxiety (one that comes directly from external stimuli and one that comes from our thought processes) which we need to deal with in fundamentally different ways. The book gives a lot of advice and strategies for coping with both causes and I highly recommend it.

1. Humankind, a Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

Pokes a big hole in the popular post-apocalyptic stories of humanity.

2. Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Pittman and Karle

This book genuinely changed my life this past year or so. If you're dealing with anxiety in any form, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Clear, easy to read, understand, and apply.

3. One Small Step Can Change Your Life--the Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer

I actually re-read this little gem of a book in 2020. It's practical and clear. I've given it as a gift to many people.

The problem for you is not climate change, it's anxiety. Focus your energy on learning how to manage your anxiety, not how to avoid thinking about specific topics.

A book I strongly recommend: Rewire Your Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry. A very practical and useful book that changed my life.

If you're more spiritually inclined, I also highly recommend Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.

There are five sources that have changed my life in the past several years:

1. Stoicism.

2. Atomic Habits, by James Clear.

3. One Small Step Can Change Your Life, by Rovert Maurer

4. How to Fail and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams (don't like the guy, but agree with this book)

5. Rewire Your Anxious Brain, by Pittman and Karle

I can't recommend these highly enough. They've literally help me remake my life.