Sam Harris
Neuroscientist & author
Neuroscientist, philosopher, and host of the Making Sense podcast. Author of books on consciousness, meditation, free will, and religion. One of the most rigorous public intellectuals alive — his reading list is a map of the hardest questions in human thought.
@samharrisorg23
Timeless books
4,868
Avg Lindy score
1376 yrs old
Oldest book
Stood the test of time — old, widely published, and repeatedly endorsed
“Dawkins' Selfish Gene is one of the most important science books ever written — it permanently changed how I see life.”
“There’s another work of philosophy here. Sort of philosophy/science that I’ve been greatly influenced by of late.The philosopher, Nick Bostrom, wrote a book called “Superintelligence,” which has impressed many people for the thoroughness with which he has argued that we have a serious problem looming with respect to the birth of intelligent machines.”
“Harari is one of the few writers thinking seriously about the long-term trajectory of our species.”
“Walker's work is a public health emergency in a book. The data on sleep deprivation is terrifying.”
“Deutsch's account of knowledge creation is the most compelling epistemology I've encountered.”
Waking Up
Sam Harris
4.3k
“I suspect many of you want recommendations on books about meditation and spiritual experience. There’s no book out there that is free of the superstition and religiosity you tend to get with books aboutBuddhism or Advaita Vedanta, the Hindu teachings of non-duality. I can’t really recommend those books without caveat. I wrote the book that I think needed to exist, “Waking Up,” which was my last book. I am reluctant to include my own book in a list of books everyone should read, however. But there was a reason why I wrote that book, because there’s really no book I could point rational people, students of science, critics of religious mumbo jumbo, with a clear conscience.”
“There’s a lot to be said for having kids and that really is not a rejoinder to the research that suggests that people are made, for a very long time, reliably less happy as parents. You can find this in Daniel Gilbert’s work on effective forecasting, which he summarised in a book “Stumbling upon happiness,” which is also a good book which I recommend.”
Also Recommends
12 books · below Lindy threshold
Reasons and Persons
Derek Parfit
3.2k
“I also recommend Derek Parfit’s book, “Reasons and Persons,” which is just brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence. It’s a deeply strange book filled with thought experiments that bend your intuitions left and right.It’s just a truly strange and unique document and incredibly insightful about morality and questions of identity and well worth reading if you are of a philosophical cast of mind.”
The Flight of the Garuda
Keith Dowman
3.0k
“There’s one book called The Flight of the Garuda, which I think is especially beautiful and wise.And among the Hindus who teach Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual teachings of yogic meditation that really just talks about pure consciousness and the illusion of the self – don’t be confused about the assertion of the existence of the big Self, capital S. They’re just talking about awareness in that case.”
The Last Word
Thomas Nagel
3.0k
“Nagle is a very fine writer, a very clear. Just as a style of communication, I think he’s worth going to school on. I would recommend you read his little book, “The Last Word,” which champions rationality in a very compelling way.”
The Anatomy of Disgust
William Ian Miller
2.9k
“There’s a writer – William Ian Miller –who I think is unfairly neglected. He writes some fascinating books. Several have been on negative emotions. One book is entitled “Humiliation,” which was a great read. Just on the phenomenon of being humiliated and differentiating it from embarrassment and other similar emotions. He also wrote a book on disgust called “The Anatomy of Disgust,” which is also fun.These are very interdisciplinary books. He is a lawyer, I believe or a professor of law. But he goes deep into the relevant sociology and these are cool books.”
Machete Season
Jean Hatzfeld
2.7k
“If you want to see what it’s like when things go about as wrong as they can go, read “Machete Season,” which is a short book about the Rwandan genocide that is, if I recall correctly, entirely borne of interviews with some of the main perpetrators of this genocide. So not merely the people who were swinging the machetes, but the people who were running those gangs and enforcing people’s membership therein.They invite you in there and they give you the full tour. It is uncanny that circumstances can come together culturally, neurophysiologically and otherwise so as to produce this kind of behaviour again with a clear conscience. So it is a short book and a very sobering one worth reading, if you can stomach that sort of thing.”
God Is Not Great
Christopher Hitchens
2.6k
“If you haven’t read Christopher Hitchens, you should. He was a brilliant writer and also a brilliant speaker. You can get the benefit of both his voice and his writing if you listen to his audiobooks, the ones he read himself. “God is NotGreat,” and “Hitch-22” are two of those. I don’t know if he read any of the others. But it’s great listening.”
Hitch-22
Christopher Hitchens
2.4k
“If you haven’t read Christopher Hitchens, you should. He was a brilliant writer and also a brilliant speaker. You can get the benefit of both his voice and his writing if you listen to his audiobooks, the ones he read himself. “God is NotGreat,” and “Hitch-22” are two of those. I don’t know if he read any of the others. But it’s great listening.”