These are some of my favorite books! Some of them I can honestly say have changed my life for the better. I’m kicking around the idea of writing some longer, more in-depth reviews of some of them, but we’ll see.
This book by Bill Bryson might be what first got me into science and engineering when I read it with my dad in 8th grade. It’s a super fun overview of the history of the planet and our journey of coming to understand it a little better. This book was a complete paradigm shift for me, and as I was reading it I endlessly annoyed my roommates with how big the ideas in it were. I think this was the first time I truly internalized the fact that most of mankind’s important questions don’t have answers, and the ones that do are the subject of great debate. Human progress is not linear, and in some ways, we may not be that much better off than our caveman ancestors. Yuval Noah Harari has a lot of crazy ideas in here, and I’m not sure I buy all of them, but I definitely came away questioning my assumptions about everything.Tim Ferriss will be the first to admit this book was controversial. I don’t love everything about it, but I can also say it really made me think deeply about some important questions and that it’s largely responsible for much of my success as a college student. It formally introduced me to the 80/20 rule, showed me the power of saying no, changed my world view with respect to time and money, and taught me that being busy for its own sake is a form of laziness. The subtitle really says it all. This book is an epic story of the “founders” of chemical engineering as a discipline. It really should be required reading for any aspiring chem-e, and it totally reinvigorated my interest in the field.Another epic story from science history. It blows my mind that people used to die from illnesses we consider no big deal today. Thomas Hager truly is a great storyteller.This book was a game-changer for me, and it drove my interest in meditation to new levels. As the world is shedding a lot of the bad things about religion, we are also losing some of the good. Sam Harriss’s take on the human condition really feels self-evident after its explained. This is without a doubt the best case for moral realism I have ever heard. I can’t promise you will agree with all of it, but it will definitely get you thinking. My worldview is definitely heavily influenced by Hariss’s thinking here.An incredibly in-depth look into what makes people happy, and what doesn’t. Its a fun read, and you may walk away with some tangible life changes you can make to be a little bit happier.
