Siddartha
by Hermann Hesse · first published 2007
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, reflective novel following a seeker's inner struggle and search for self-knowledge. It is humbling and thought-provoking, and it rewards rereading at different stages of life.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…that is why I love reading about science & science fiction ; it is indirectly related to religion in the sense that it makes you think about your world, about yourself. Buddhism / Religion / ... : - Siddartha - Hermann Hesse - The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Science: - A brief history of time - Stephen Hawking (space, time) - The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins (evolution) - Le cerveau intime - Marc Jeannerod…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books? I'm bored” ↗Yeah, brilliant. A great illustration of gumption and willingness to pursue self-knowledge giving rise to amazing opportunities. Along the same lines, Siddartha by Herman Hesse was my favorite book this year. Quite similar to the Alchemist really, viz. understanding yourself and being conscious and receptive to your environment.
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why” ↗Siddartha - Herman Hesse
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013?” ↗Siddartha by Hermann Hesse
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗…very likely a relation. I'm going to defer to them until such time I ever have the skills to do otherwise. That's how the division of labot goes. Thanks for te book recommendation. Looks amazing. Loved Siddartha.
on “Münchhausen Trilemma” ↗…Abelson / Sussman. Learned a lot about how to structure and organize code, how to abstract and build smaller functions that solve problems and glue them together and thus build ever more complex soltions. „Siddartha“ by Hermann Hesse. Reminded me of my inner struggle in my young years regarding life, religion and meaning of life. „Wherever you go, there you are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Introduced me to the idea of mindfulness,…
on “Ask HN: Are there any books that changed your life during college or school?” ↗Siddartha by Herman Hesse. It's a short read but very interesting.
on “Ask YC: Good books to take on a week away?” ↗Oh, and Siddartha, by Hermann Hesse,
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…smarter people than you. But if you train the practical parts really hard it becomes meaningless because the results are the same. Also if you want to learn something about humbleness, read Herman Hesse's Siddartha, just don't dive into esoterics afterwards. Good Luck. [edit] Nice article about depression and social media: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/04/08/new-stud...
on “Ask HN: How do I stop comparing myself to others?” ↗…Contract (Rousseau), Tao Te Ching (Laozi), Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky), History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) Newer Stuff: Nine Stories (Salinger), The Razor's Edge (Maugham), Nausea (Sartre), Siddartha (Hesse), Road to Serfdom (Hayek), The Book (Watts), Design of Everyday Things (Norman), Atlas Shrugged (Rand), Invisible Man (Ellison), Debunking Economics (Keen), Blood Meridian (McCarthy), The Center…
on “Ask HN: What books do you wish your manager would read?” ↗…me. I feel it tries too hard when those lessons and the analogies are things that could be explicitly said without so much ceremony. I also found the story itself rather boring. I prefer a book like Siddartha by HH. The lessons are there, but the interpretation is open and the narrative is not compromised. You start reading it and you don't want to stop reading it because you're now part of Siddharta's journey.…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗…"insightful" books in a philosophical sense. To those who mentioned Marcus Aurelius's meditations, I recommend the reading of "Zen mind beginner's mind". Along the same lines of somewhat spiritual books, "Siddartha" is a classic and also Khalil Gibran's "The Prophet". Very different: for my personal history, reading "Goedel, Escher, Bach" when I was 18 deeply affected my vision of things. Other science books I…
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗…There's been plenty of times I've gone into something thinking not much of it, and being pleasantly surprised after. There's also a book that really helps me which I periodically reread every few years: Siddartha by Herman Hesse. Its a short read, ~150 pages. It reminds me how important the fullness of life is, the good and the bad.
on “The cause of depression is probably not what you think” ↗Books: Siddartha: to think about myself and my changes/voyage through life. Half-time: to think what-the-hell-comes-next (only if you are 40+)(it won't resonate with a 20yo) Systemantics, Nexus: if you work in mega-big-corpos…
on “Ask HN: What's your favorite book you've read?” ↗Hesse’s books are phenomenal. Besides Siddartha, highly recommend reading A Glass Bead Game and also Steppenwolf.
on “Siddhartha (1922): Competence Porn – before it was cool” ↗