Guns, Germs, and Steel

Here are some books that pop bubbles, but must be read with humility to avoid becoming its own new bubble, as the world is complex and contains contradictions: Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma Ayn Rand's the Fountainhead Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics Julian Jaynes's the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Iain McGilchrist's the Master and his Emmisary Varlam Sharlamov's the Kolyma Tales Jacques Ellul's Propaganda: the Formation of Men's Attitudes (or alternatively Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death)

Sociology: - The Coddling of the American Mind - The Tao of Pooh - Guns, Germs, and Steel - Weapons of the Weak Religious: - Guru Granth Sahib - Bible (King James Version) - Q’uran - The Book of Mormon - Tipitaka Fantasy: - Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw - The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan - The Way of Kings series by Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn also by Brandon Sanderson - Red Rising by Pierce Brown - The Licanius trilogy by James Islington - Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series by Larry Correia Biography - John Adams by David McCullough

The following have all had a significant effect on my worldview. You can find more information at [1]. - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany - Thinking, Fast and Slow - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Crime and Punishment - The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity - Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - Franny and Zooey - Master of the Senate - Atlas Shrugged - Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed - Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics - The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't - Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow…

+1 for this recommendation. I'll add The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley. It's gems are a little metaphorical, but a great read nonetheless.

I'd second this one!

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Would recommend checking out Guns, Germs, And Steel if you liked Sapiens. More grounded in research and less hypothetical story-telling on what drove human development in history.

Agree on this one. Why Nations Fail is a fabulous book. I recommend reading Guns, Germs, and Steel first if you are going to read both. Highly recommend both.

I would argue "Guns, Germs and Steel" is actually better than Sapiens. I felt Sapiens was a bit biased in a number of points.

Guns, Germs and Steel. So many types of thinking and areas of science that I wasn't aware of. Not every part of it has to be correct for it to be incredibly interesting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel

I would argue that “changing the way you think” doesn’t require the book to be factually accurate. The idea that external factors like geographical starting conditions can have a huge impact and shape things as complex as human culture is a powerful one, regardless of the conclusions drawn in the book. If anything, the way it has been challenged and shown to be flawed is a lesson on and of itself - that complex systems have emergent properties, and that those starting conditions are not as deterministic as it might appear at first blush.

Gun germs and steel The Innovator's Dilemma Thinking Fast and Slow Godel Eschel Bach Hard Things about Hard Things

I read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. It will go down as the one of the best books I have read in my life. I have written the review for that book here - http://xtoinfinity.com/posts/2018/05/04/book-review-guns-ger... (http://xtoinfinity.com/posts/2018/05/04/book-review-guns-germs-and-steel.html)

Some books have been very influential on how I see the world. Ishmael is one about an intelligent ape that explains the natural world to a guy in socratic dialogue style. Guns Germs and Steal. The Forest People, a book from the 60s by an anthropologist who lives with a pygmy tribe. These books about where we came from I find really interesting. For self improvement books you can’t go wrong with 7 Habits of a highly effective people. It’s short and to the point and very practical. I’m half way through Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and it’s either way over my head or overrated. I don’t particularly like the narrator which does not help

Goedel, Escher, Bach -- If you're reading this page you will dig this book. Guns, Germs, and Steel -- how circumstance drove civilizations. Fun storytelling even if it's a bit too "just-so". definitely trains you to look at any situation and seek it's origins with less initial judgement. The Visual Display of Quantitive Information -- gets at the essence of communication and medium. more than it seems! The Alchemy of Finance -- "reflexivity", but if you're also interested in Soros or some finance storytelling it's worth it. The Selfish Gene -- as everyone else has said. The Prize -- the history of oil. huh? yeah. Likely to change how you look at the history of technology, government, power, the saudis, and geopolitics.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is the best book I've read in a while. It's like Guns, Germs and Steel but better argued and far greater in scope. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins was a great read too. A bit of a slog in some places but otherwise brilliant and insightful.

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. When I read it in the late 90s, I had already read complete accounts of world history and thought myself well-informed on the topic, yet virtually every chapter blew my mind. The book is about the patterns that drive human history, both the written history that we know and the vast period of prehistory which we have a pretty good idea about these days due to genetics and linguistics. A recurring pattern has been people moving around, displacing less fortunate people. Further, Diamond looks for root causes to explain why some tribes or nations would gain an edge over their neigbours, and a lot of the explanation is ultimately found in technology and animal farming. Before I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel", I had been under the impression that the world was a fairly static and ecologically stable place until the European age of discovery started uprooting everything. In reality it was nothing like that. Almost every strip of land is inhabited be people whose ancestors fought off other people, and cultures expanding beyond ecological sustainability and suddenly collapsing is a common event. Runner-up: anything by Hunter S Thompson

Guns, germs and steel - Jared Diamond History and evolution of man kind. Hihgly recommended.

Influence - Psychology of persuasion Gun Germs and Steel Hero with a thousand faces Starting Strength

Do a google search for Charlie munger reading list and you'll uncover gems like Influenc, guns germs and steel, poor Charlie's almanac

Just finished Guns, Germs and Steel by Jarod Diamond. A bit longer than it needed to be for my purposes but he covers the material in some depth, I'd definitely recommend it. Prior to that I'd read Psycho Vertical by Andy Kirk Patrick which I would very strongly recommend, I don't think you need to be into climbing to enjoy it. I think I'm about to start reading What the doormouse said by John Markoff or finish reading Technical revolutions and financial capital by Carlota Perez. I think I'll leave the latter and restart it when I've more brain time to spend on it.

I'm just going to answer with the books that rearranged my understanding of the world the most. In no particular order. "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman. "Quantum Computing since Democritus" by Scott Aaronson. "The Strategy of Conflict" by Thomas Schelling. "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "The World until Yesterday" by Jared Diamond. "The Retreat To Commitment" by W. W. Bartley. "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan. Despite the name it made me appreciate democracy a lot more. "Wars, Guns, and Votes" by Paul Collier.

I read 'Guns, Germs and Steel' by Jared Diamond in College and it is single handedly the most insightful book I have ever read. One of these days I will buy all of Jared Diamond's and Robert Greene's books and read them multiple times.

Guns, Germs & Steel was a real revelation about the rise of Western civilization. Ain't because we're so smart or genetically superior, sorry. Just a matter of being in the right place at the right time a few thousand years ago.

Guns, Germs and Steel http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/03... (http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552) Life of Pi http://www.amazon.com/Life-Pi-Yann-Martel/dp/0156027321 Billions and Billions http://www.amazon.com/Billions-Thoughts-Death-Brink-Millenni... (http://www.amazon.com/Billions-Thoughts-Death-Brink-Millennium/dp/0345379187) The Ancestor's Tale http://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Dawn-Evoluti... (http://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Tale-Pilgrimage-Dawn-Evolution/dp/061861916X) Sorry for suggesting so many, I couldn't help myself

Fiction: tie between Of Human Bondage by W.Somerset Maugham or The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky Non-Fiction: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond Business: Rework by Jason Fried - one of the best in a long time

read guns germs and steel by jared diamond if you wanna know more about why history of mankind panned out the way it has.

I loved G,G&S, but found Collapse disappointing in comparison. There was a lot of unnecessary personal gushing about his home state which had no contribution to the work and undermined the credibility of the argument. It picks up after that though. It's a much more political and argumentative book than G,G&S, and seems to force a view on the reader (a view I happen to agree with, but still felt uncomfortable with the amount of persuasion in there).

I had heard much about this book earlier :Guns, Germs and Steel , But only recently did I watch a documentary (hmm, probably on hulu.com) which was completely based on that book. VERY GOOD.

Not in any particular order, but I'd highly recommend these interesting books: How to run a Thriving Business - Ralph Warner (the founder of Nolo book) The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy (I read this based on a recommendation by a fellow HNer) Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Dan Ariely. The Winner-Take-All Society - Robert H. Frank, et all. Gun, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond.

Guns, Germs and Steel - It will change the way you think about the course of human development and the forces of history. The Innovator's Dilemma can be summed up in two paragraphs but is still worth reading - it explains why giant companies fail to keep innovating. Stumbling upon happiness - how people's perception of what makes them happy has little basis in what actually makes them happy - and why.

Don't miss sivers's great list: http://sivers.org/book As for mine, Science Fiction (I like these authors so I'd recommend most of their books -- listing which ones I think are a good 'starter novel' for them): Charles Stross: Halting State Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep Iain M. Banks: Culture novels, start with Player of Games David Louis Edelman: Jump 225 Trilogy Daniel Suarez: Daemon and Freedom(tm) John Scalzi: Old Man's War series Dan Simmons: Hyperion Self-improvement: The Talent Code Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Non-fiction: Amusing Ourselves To Death (highly recommended) The Science of Fear The Black Swan Tokyo Vice Racing The Beam (Atari history, very cool) books by Daniel Pink Guns, Germs, and Steel The Prize by Daniel Yergin Fantasy: Anything by Gaiman or China Mieville, pretty much. EDIT: links to previews (legally) available online Charles Stross's Accelerando (entire book): http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera... (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html)…

Guns, Germs and Steel - still reading it but one of the best I 've read so far..

you should probably try guns germs and steel by jared diamond, it also is a different way to look at history and how and why it has spanned the way it has over different geographies.

1. Guns, Germs, and Steel 2. Hackers and Painters (expected to see this more here)

Current: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Last: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. The best recent: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamon.

This Perfect Day by Ira Levin (out of print, yet much more worthwhile in my opinion than other dystopic novels) Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond The Books of the Fey by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer The Deathgate Cycle by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis

1) Musashi's Book of Five Rings 2) Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People 3) Machaivelli's The Prince 4) Sun-Tzu's The Art of War 5) Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action 6) Steven Johnson's Emergence 7) Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel 8) Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything 9) Mark Buchanan's Nexus 10) C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain Taken together, these books cover just about everything there is to know about the sciences, about human history, human nature and how to understand and communicate effectively with other people. Only one other book besides these needs to be studied/read: The Bible.