One quote from Lord of the Rings stuck with me when I read it: "Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least. " It just struck me how elegantly it encapsulates the need for empathy and the hope for redemption.
My favorite is from Return of the King: "There, peeping among the cloud wrack above a dark tor high in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light, and high beauty forever beyond its reach."
Gandalf's comment to Bilbo is an unexpected gem in the middle of a story about cultural tension and pride. I helps Bilbo understand that the relationship of all things is not what it should be expected, but rather how it naturally unfolds.
@@joejackson4202 I had to read The Mayor of Casterbridge, Life of Pi, and the Poisonwood Bible over a summer and compare the three. That pretty much did me in.
@@dgstump Basketball Diaries is apparently an autobiography. It details the authors drug abuse as well as his homosexual prostitution of himself including an incident where a John wanted him to whip a cat to death which was tied to a toilet seat while urinating on the man who was in the bath tub. After reading the first few chapters in class, it was quite obvious that this was a disturbing story and in an effort to spend as little time as possible on this book, i proceeded to read the entire thing in one sitting. Thankfully that garbage piece of literature did not impact my life for more than 1 day. Most kids in the class chose this book because it was the shortest of the selection we were given. Looking back now, that teacher was either very sick in the head choosing such a book knowing most kids would choose it because of its size. Or she was so disconnected from her job as an educator that she didn't even bother to vet these books for education merit. That was 15 years ago and like i said, i havent picked up another novel since. Wish i could go back in time with the 15 years of life experience i have now and teach that educator a thing or two. Unfortunately at 18 you just dont have the faculty to push back on this type of nonsense.
Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam a question: ua-cam.com/channels/iDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOA.htmljoin Books mentioned in this video: Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman: amzn.to/3kxzX1q Inner Game of Tennis, by W. Timothy Gallwey: amzn.to/3jq9Qb6 One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: amzn.to/2ToMQ1A Teachings of Don Juan, by Carlos Castaneda: amzn.to/3mfS4t5 Who Rules the World, by Noam Chomsky: amzn.to/37F1Hh0 Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal, by Noam Chomsky: amzn.to/3kq6iqE Interviews with Francis Bacon/Brutality of Fact: amzn.to/2HsNjx8 Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson: amzn.to/34sy3tk Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M Pirsig: amzn.to/3okruki Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (Penguin Classics): amzn.to/2IZvDdb Disclaimer: Tested may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through the links here.
Hey, Tested Crew! Listening to Adam talk about pool triggered an idea. When the world gets back to something resembling normal, a new interview/vlog/podcast concept: Set up 3-4 cameras locked at different angles around the pool table in the shop (locked to keep crew out of the way), then invite guests over to play with Adam and have conversations over the table. Like the "on location" parts of the new Letterman show, or "Hot Ones" with pool instead of chicken wings.
(keeping the crew out not only saves space in the room, but I think guests would be more open in a one-on-one situation, rather than with a bunch of other people standing around)
My book is not so involved as his. I was in fifth grade. I was bullied constantly. I hid in the library, not for the books, but because the librarian was there and wouldn't allow bullies to target me. Her name was Mrs. Julian. I am 49. This was 39 years ago and I still remember her face. She said for me to stay in there, I had to read. But I didn't know what to read. I was not a reader. She talked to me about what interested me. She handed me a book called The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain). It took me two days to read. She talked to me about the book. I basically gave her an oral book report. Then she handed me book two, then three, four and five. Then The Chronicles of Narnia. Then the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings. Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. I never looked back. I read voraciously. I am trying to write science fiction right now. But that first book. That changed my life. More importantly, that woman, that special, wonderful woman changed my life. She gave me a safe place to be ME. She accepted me. Still love her for that.
@@johnralph3704 It is one of the cornerstones of my personality. By eighth grade I was reading on a college sophomore level. It gave me a better ability to communicate. In my story I am writing, I actually put this event in there (with a small tweak to fit the setting) as an homage to her. I tell people about her all the time. She is probably long gone by now. She was in her late 50s back then (1982). But I wish I could have told her just how much she changed my life. She was a hero.
Thank you to whomever asked this question. It was excellent, and an excellent reply. Like so many others I greatly value Adam's take on life. However, as with anyone currently respected, it's very instructional to know what helped to form that person. Will my take and application of these books be the same? Probably not, but they will inform me in the way they need to.
I'm a music teacher, and I've been teaching some 14yos the basics of cajon rhythm lately. It's really cool to hear about the way you learnt to view pool and billiarts as one long movement, rather than a series of small ones. I have been trying to teach "my kids" that to play percussion, you don't think about the motions, you think about the sound and the full rhythm, rather than the single beat and motion. Pretty cool, yeah.
I am so stoked you mentioned the “inner game of tennis.” That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the subject of the video. The concept of non- judgement and try to clearly beyond my own prejudices deeply affected so many of the decisions I’ve made in my life. I hadn’t realized anyone else had read this book!
Cannot believe that binge watching these QA's would lead me back to Castaneda again. Some incredibly fascinating reading that definitely changed the way I think about reality.
I knew I was about to listen to something special when I saw that the answer of this question was 16 minutes long :) Can't thank you enough for taking the time and effort to share with us these great books! I'll be reading all of them in a matter of months.
OMG I also loved Design of Everyday Things and the several Chomsky I've read! Now I have to check out your other recommendations :) We have a lot of reading history in common
Great list. On the comment about reading in High School, the best tip I ever received is get the book list early and read them before the semester. Now you're not under the pressure to analyze everything or remember every detail...you can just enjoy the book. Pick up on themes that speak to you. Then when class does start up you can learn more about a book you at least had the chance to enjoy and hear other perspectives you might not have thought of as you went through. I loved reading but definitely noticed my enjoyment of it crumbling my first year of high school. I can't imagine what my reading habits would be today if I hadn't taken that tip to heart. Do yourseld a favor and read some of the greatest books of all time and enjoy them on your own time, BEFORE class bogs them down.
You're assuming that the book list would be less of a slog if read in one's own time. I can't imagine that would've made any difference for me. "Z For Zachariah" haunts me to this day, for instance; I would love to have never read it. Of course, my (male) crumbling started in 5th grade, with "Little Women", so maybe I was already too far gone. 8(
I think your concept of a prop telling a story is so significant for many tasks. As a classical guitarist I find having a story about what a new piece of music tells is sooooo important to learning i.e. memorizing and performance of the music
09:32 Manufactured Consent: It was the first book I ever read by this "unknown" author in one of my humanities classes in college. It blew my mind ans I kept reading him ever since.
Near the end of the video Adam talks about taking on others opinion vs the truth and literally all I can hear in my head is 'I reject your reality and substitute my own.'
It sounds fun and it shows up on t-shirts because unsocial anime fans rejoice in it, but rejection of reality is infantile. It's part of why nobody cares about its adherents. They're like Olestra, shit out at the end unaltered and having contributed nothing.
Two books that changed my way of thinking were ones I read in the 1960's. "How to lie with statistics," Which forced me to learn how to apply critical thinking to statistical arguments. The other was "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, which introduced me to the need to apply ecological analysis to how we treat the environment.
Not the only book that has changed the way I think, but certainly one of them is " The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward Tufte. If you do anything with data, this is a must read and a beautiful book.
When I had read everything I thought I was interested in from our local library (science fiction) my librarian gave me Tarzan. I was carried away just as I was by Asimov. And I realized there was more to the world of reading than other worlds. So I grew to appreciate a broader view of the world. And I feel that has made me better, or at least happier.
As an artist who is usually generally confused about a lot of things Adam talks about with tools and machining and what not I'd be very interested to hear more about artists and his favorites or just art in general I'm sure he's got some story or hot take that would be very interesting
@@Bmac2112 I don't know you and you have no right to question anything about my past, my childhood, growing up, or what influenced me. To Kill A Mockingbird is the book I shared. So STFU. And pull the stick out of your ass. It might (and I emphasize might) make you a better person, but I doubt it.
I didn't think of this but now I do remember it as a big influence. I went to school in an all white high school (save one) in the north so had almost no contact with black people. It gave context to what we were seeing on tv in the '60s. It was very powerful in its gental story. All evil needs is for good people to do nothing. I never tolerated bigotry around me again.
A marvellous book and one which should help shape your world. Maybe if more people took to heart Scout’s discovery of the world around he r and it’s injustice, maybe things wouldn’t be as wild in the west today.
In High school every year we had a steinbeck story, so throughout i got to read the pearl, grapes,of mice and men and then spend the next years wondering why I think life is futile
Yeah, the Pearl, The Red Pony, and all those other bland books that they make you read just destroyed my interest in reading. I did really enjoy 1984 and Brave New World though, but neither of those were "required reading" for us even if I did choose them for school
@Some characters aren't allowed yup! I always remember that it had an over abundance of the word ‘organism’ being used, but the teacher we had had an inabilty in being able to say that word when she read it, or discussed it!! Let’s say it was very interesting for a class of 15 yr olds to have say in unison, “Mrs W, you said it again!” To which she would always reply, “Oh, I didn’t, did I?”. Clearly she was either very happy in her marriage and always satisfied, or it was the complete opposite! She clearly had an problem!
I have to love this video. Excellent book selection/recommendation: Chomsky, Castaneda, Marquez...love them all. To add some of my own favorites (which I realize you have no particular reason to care about): "Strange Wine" Harlan Ellison, "Godbody" Sturgeon, "Walden" Thoreau, "Tao: The Watercoarse Way" Watts. I get giddy every time one of my favorite people mentions Chomsky. Thank you Adam, you made my day. BTW Chomsky is still out there fighting the good fight. Older, grayer, and slower, but tenacious and wise to the end.
The book that changed my way of thinking the most was Miyamoto Musashi's book of five rings. Being able to break down various aspects of life then learning and understanding how those parts of life are what keep us well rounded and the usefulness of knowing how to use them in various ways.
This may sound trival: The first book that changed my thinking was a cooking book from my grandmother and she had it from her mother, printed back in 1892. I was about 8 years old when i started reading and studying it. I was totally fascinated learning about raw products and things morph into something tasty, or not so tasty when it came to spinache. 😁 And the greatest thing is, every recipe works with ingredients wich are easily to come by. I still own that book, it has repairs all over and i think half of the weight comes from glue and ductape, due the paper wasn't of great quality. I still use it and read it, it shows how to cook without pre processed ingredients and microwave, how not to waste leftovers and how to make delicious food with very little and infancy ingredients. And last but not least, how to prepare healthy food for my family. Sorry for my rough English, as a non native speaker it's sometimes a bit difficult. Stay all safe and healthy.
@@Epicmonk117 It came out better... My children got me an almost mint condition original for my 60th birthday .. And i have to touch the old one now and then, it's magical moment every time reading my granny's handwritten notes on lot's of the pages 😀
Back in 1990 I read a book called Chaos: The Making of a New Science. It completely changed the way I looked at the world. Everything suddenly made sense.
So cool to find out that you played a lot of pool in your earlier years, Adam. Me too! And when you were about to name the best book on the subject, I was wondering if you were about to say Byrne's. And then you did! Totally agree with you... best book I've ever read on playing pool. Nice to have that experience in common!
Well that's my reading for the next few months sorted XD. Reading 1Q84 atm on Adam's recommendation, no idea where it's going but enjoying the journey!
As soon as I read the title of this video, I knew "Zen" is going to be on the list :) "100 years" is a must read for everyone, and a late goal for Rilke made my eyes water a bit... We're about the same age, but from opposite sides of the world, and it amazes me that about 80% of the most important books are the same for both. Just bought "The Design" for Kindle, to make it 90%, hopefully...
I've actually read none of these except for the Design of Everyday Things and Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Wow, so many good recommendations! I'm excited to read these over the next few months
I would recommend: "The Nature and Art of Workmanship" by David Pye. The "workmanship of risk" vs the"workmanship of certainty" has resonated with me for years.
Came for the ASMR of watching you build things while I'm in lockdown, stayed for the interesting details of movie props and random stories. Now the bonus of a reading list! I'd like to weigh in for one that changed how I thought about what leadership is: South: The Endurance Expedition, by Earnest Shackleton.
Mine was ‘The technique of casting for sculpture by John Mills’ -stolen from my ceramics teacher. He loved that book, I’m forever sorry about it. Still have it to this day..
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry, Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, Router Jigs and Techniques by Patrick Spielman
One book I was half expecting to hear you list was mind-altering for me in the best of ways: GÖDEL-ESCHER-BACH: AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BRAID by Douglas Hofstadter (1979). It won the Pulitzer, and it's a remarkable book about how (or maybe why) thought and logic function.
This is a great book. Personally I love the sort of playful nature of it, and it's loaded with wonderful ideas and different ways of thinking. I's say it's more about a way of thinking and interpreting than it is about describing something as complex as logic and thought... which I think are largely indescribable as a whole. The follow-up, I Am A Strange Loop is interesting, and I'm glad I read it, but it lacks that sort of playful, open nature that Godel, Escher-Bach had. GDB is definitely a great book for people who like thinking about thinking.
@@1pcfred Did you come in here just to take a dump on somebody else's joy, or do you have an actual, useful point to make? I loved it, it was a best seller, it won the Pulitzer Prize, and it was undeniably an important book of philosophy, as well as being entertaining. I suggest you make a detailed case against the book, or just keep your petulant nonsense to yourself. If you didn't like it, or didn't get it, then say so, but you express your opinion in a fairly definitive manner, as though your opinion carried some weight. I am a little at a loss because if Gödel-Escher-Bach is insufferable, then I would need an even more emphatic dismissive adjective to apply to your ignorant opinion about the book.
@@stevesether Hofstadter is a philosopher and computer scientist who is principally concerned with furthering the study of artificial intelligence (or more accurately with the study of processes and algorithms which seem to be required to emulate brain function). You're not wrong in saying the book is not about logic, except that it does sincerely attempt to understand why a sentient intelligence has logic, and how that logical thought might function.
@@ChristopherOdegard I've no doubt that was Hofstadter's intent. What you're describing is essentially what he covered, more narrowly in I Am A Strange Loop. To me GEB is more open ended in its approach, and can be taken in a lot of different ways, which is what I love about the book. IMHO authors intent is but one piece.. Sometimes I don't think authors fully understand their own work, not that I do.
Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner did it for me. A book for musicians but has parallel in other studies. I read the book about once a year or so. As I move along the road of proficiency on my instrument there always seems to something profound that I glazed over in past reads. A quote from the book.. "...While moving quickly through material, you’re under the delusion that you are making progress. Spending enough time learning something would feel interminably slow, but that is the way of true growth. It takes what it takes. The fact is that if you don’t stay with the material long enough for it to become comfortable, you’ll find that it doesn’t stay with you. Then you will truly be wasting your time! It really doesn’t pay to move on until something is mastered...." Adam, you are my hero!
I watch nearly all of your posts but his one is very, very special. I've shared this to all of my social media platforms. It's insightful and important and valuable on so many levels. Thank you!
I was literally lying awake, unable to sleep this morning, wondering what to do with all this "free" time in lockdown now that I lost my job, and I thought now was the time to really go into some classic literature and read all those books I "never got around to" when I was younger. This list shows up at JUST the perfect time to start that journey, so thank you!
“The God Delusion” was very important to me when I was younger. I was raised in a Catholic family and 12 years of Catholic school. So when I didn’t believe I felt a horrible guilt, after reading that it felt ok.
That winning feeling, Jane Savoie. Within a year I was the youngest rider combination winning at national level. Changed my life, not only as a competition rider, but the way I became a successful teacher.
I started watching this video, listened to the question, and RIGHT before Adam said "The Design Of Everyday Things" ....I had already uttered it! YES! It is critical. Absolutely.
Rainer Maria Rilke is a hero of mine. I painted a portrait of him and he's always watching over me ! Lol it was great to hear Adam mention it and i hope people check him out
On the first day of middle school a teacher wrote on the board the quote "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." By Eleanor Roosevelt. And it has stuck with me ever since that day.
The quote that stuck with me from Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" was "It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines." I also would recommend "User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way we Live, Work, and Play" by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant.
I remember reading Zen and the Art just after getting out of the military. I enjoyed it thoroughly as I was reading it, but when he started to really tackle "what is quality?" it took my breath away. That was easily the most formative book I'd read up to that point in my life, and even 15 years later, it still has had a lasting, profound impact on how I navigate the world. A solid list, Mr. Savage. A solid fucking list. If I may add a recommendation, functioning under the absolute delusion that you'd actually read this, may I recommend Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Really, anything by Richard Bach, like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, or Hypnotizing Maria.
The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu Factfulness by Hans Rosling Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten And my all time favourite: The Iliad & The Odyssey. I recently got Troy by Stephen Fry and I can't wait to get into it!
When Adam mentioned that Inner Game of Tennis helped him play pool, I was reminded that the best book on game design I have ever read is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, which, as the name suggests, is about comics and never mentions games. That book is a masterpiece of dissecting what makes comics their own distinct art form, and so much of the author's method of analysis can be applied to other forms. I read that book as a teenager and it has had a monumental impact on the way I view art.
Totally agree about ‘100 Years of Solitude.’ ‘Love in The Time of Cholera’ is just as good. You really should give it a go. I find it profound that he covers the issue with the media passing off rhetoric in the press. How fitting for this day and age. It was the first time I’d ever gotten such an idea that the media could be a possible enemy! Amazing!
After watching, I hastily ordered a copy of "The Design of Everyday Things" from eBay. I just searched and bought the first inexpensive copy. Well, the book arrived from Goodwill in San Francisco. I have been reading it a few days and just noticed it is signed by the author! In addition, there are two boarding passes to Hawaii on New Years Eve. One is in the name of the person to which Don Norman inscribed the book. This is a very Adam Savage type of book, one with a story! Thanks for the great too on a great book, and thanks
I'd like to share a couple of books that were massively impactful to me that are not related to the focus of the channel, but I think are so important to me I can't not recommend them, even if no-one reads this. Assata Shakur's autobiography had a massive impact on the way I see the punitive legal system, the prison system, and more. It's emotionally hard to read but I think it's the most important book I've ever read. Secondly, Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg. Another very emotionally-hard-to-read book (and definitely not for kids), but also very important. Between the AIDS Crisis's devastation of our community and the passage of time and loss of access to and lack of education about our own history, young LGBT people tend to have a strong disconnect from those who came before us and the lessons they learned and struggles they faced. We know broad strokes, but we often don't even realise the gaps in our knowledge. Finding that book felt like rediscovering something I'd felt cut off from my whole life, that I never knew that I didn't know because of the lack of information about LGBT+ people when I grew up. I entered school when it still wasn't legal to mention gay people. And as a young lesbian woman, it was a book that made me realise how much I had to learn.
"Falling in love with the ball" reminds me of something I've mulled over for a while, I can only really describe it as artificial synesthesia, essentially becoming so experienced in a specific task that you no longer need to care about the tiny details and can instead just SEE what needs doing as you go. I feel like this is something that everyone experiences to some degree, but is easier to spot in highly experienced makers.
In the before times, I used to design restaurant kitchens, it got to a point, when I wasn't looking at lines in AutoCAD or Revit, I was letting the room tell me how it wanted to be a kitchen. Many times, we had to wait for the clients budget approval, and 6 months later I would see the design to proof it, and wonder who designed it because it worked so well, what could I learn from them, and not realise till I looked at the designer initials, that it was one of mine. I could never teach AutoCAD or my design skills, because they had become so ingrained, that I didn't realise what I was doing. I think this is when the big picture synesthesia comes about, you are looking at what the end goal is, the design thinking, and don't know what the parts are, what the individual motions, the key presses, the mouse moves, because that's not what you are thinking of, you can understand a more fundamental beauty and aesthetic to the piece. You may look at a boring technical drawing, to me, it was on the lines of the most fabulous painting or sculpture. I am changing industries at the moment, and it's so frustrating that I am having to concentrate on each individual move, minutes seem like hours, when many times after a flow day, my inbox was empty, my outbox was full, and I felt like I had been in the office for 5 minutes after a 12 hour day (I felt the mental exhaustion on getting home though!). Now I can just about see the end goal, but not how the end goals finish line responds to the mechanical movements I make, whereas when you have achieved flow and full mastery, you only see the end goal, and not the mechanical movements required to achieve a subtle yet profound and skilled change.
That bit about about designing in a way that other people can understand 1:10 is absolutely vital in software engineering. You can write the most elegant/badass algorithm, if its not intuitive to everybody else it's useless.
In roughly the order I happened to read these books: J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955) Made me realize I can quite quickly read even a long book, as long as that book captures my attention. Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (2006) Made me realize that I'm not a pantheist but rather an atheist. Carl Sagan - The Demon-Haunted World (1995) [see also: Steven Novella et al. - The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (2018)] The book that essentially made me into a scientific skeptic and got me to focus on a more clear direction in my life, valuing science and critical thinking. Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot (1994) [see also: Carl Sagan - Cosmos (the book and the original TV series; 1980)] In part worked in unison with the previous book. Also got me to thinking about what telos we might want to imagine for humanity. Jonathan Haidt - The Righteous Mind (2012) An especially valuable insight into how to think about group differences and disagreements. Essentially, the book advocates the benefits of us being aware of our different intuitive moral foundations; how it can help us be less self-righteous and better understand and approach one another across political and religious divides. Paul Bloom - Against Empathy (2016) Made me understand why (emotional) empathy should not be romanticized, and how (rational) compassion differs from empathy in ways that largely avoid its downsides. Hans, Ola, & Anna Rosling - Factfulness (2018) Helped me open my eyes how we seem to be largely biased towards the negative. It's not all doom and gloom. John Stuart Mill - On Liberty (1859) Probably the best known defense of free speech (with 'harm' as a limit). To a significant degree it stuck with me. Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (c. 350 BCE) My first proper introduction to a form of virtue ethics. Got me to think more deeply what living a good life, and being a good human (or person), implies. Marcus Aurelius - Meditations (161-180 CE) My first introduction to Stoicism. Kind of solidified my realization that there is a lot of very useful wisdom in ancient Hellenistic philosophies that flies under most people's radar. Sextus Empiricus - Outlines of Pyrrhonism (c. 200 CE) My first introduction to ancient skepticism. Kind of mind blowing: a philosophy deeply against dogmatism; without beliefs. Views that there are only appearances, and that suspension of judgement leads to ataraxia (i.e., tranquillity of mind). Owen Flanagan - Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2011) [see also: Owen Flanagan - The Geography of Morals (2016)] The book that introduced me to naturalized Buddhism, hashing out the core philosophy in quite an appealing way without the necessity of any supernatural elements. Also solidified my realization that it is truly worth to _also_ look outside the "West", if we want to find ways to properly live together in a global world.
Hi Adam, I'm not sure if you'll read/see this, but current Industrial Design student here! I read The Design of Everyday Things about three years ago while attending a pre-college program and it changed the way I see design. Any designer I highly recommend you read it! ❤
The books I read more recently, which changed my way of thinking, approaching challenges, learning and writing science papers quite a lot: Rolf Dobelli „The Art of Thinking Clearly“ Scott H. Young „Ultralearning“ Joseph M. Williams „Style-Toward Clarity and Grace“ William Strunk Jr., E. B. White „The Elements of Style“
1:17 - my son has a friend named Adam who on a regular basis encounters this exact same problem with glass doors. It's a bit surreal to have this Adam explain it's not your fault while remembering all the times our Adam smacked into glass doors.
Stones of the Abbey by Fernand Pouillon. It contains the best passage about the act of creating and how the limitations of a medium becomes the soul of the finished product. "Even recklessness seems a bit halfhearted"
"The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp changed how I view creativity and creative block, it's been SUPER helpful for me as an artist and I recommend it to anyone who works creatively. Other books that really helped me develop as an artist and maker are "The Nude, a study in ideal form" by Kenneth Clark, and "What is Art" by Leo Tolstoy. I do not agree with everything that was written in those books, but they showed me what it means to have a well thought out opinion/direction/philosophy about the things I make and the media I choose to consume.
I read all the old science fiction classics.. Asimov and other authors... Lots of books on how to build engines and ALOT of text books on electronic architecture and electrical theory.. And mechanical engineering... I have found whether it be water or air or electrical currents the underlying pricipals are very similar....
whenever i was a kid i absolutely hated reading. i didn’t want anything to do with reading and if anyone asked if i has read this book or heard of that book my response was always oh i don’t read. i almost had a hatred for books and literature from being forced to construct essays in a certain way that argued a point i didn’t believe in or being forced to read a book that i didn’t comprehend coupled with the fact that i’m already a slow reader, i was never any good at constructing sentences very well, and sitting in one spot for to long or stooping my neck for to long would physically pain me. this left me not wanting anything to do with books or literature. after graduating i attending a welding school and and was also working a pretty boring and repetitive job of unloading boxes. in my free time i decided to give reading another shot and went to the library. i got a few books that i found interesting but still reading just wasn’t for me. However, while at the library i found the library’s selection of audiobooks on there app and decided to give that a try. the audiobooks turned my boring repetitive job into a fantasy land of history, fiction, science fiction, etc. audiobooks have enabled me to listen to thousands of hours of books and has also allowed me to listen to books that are apart of everyday culture that i was never aware of. i’ve listened to books that i certainly would have never read on my own and i have learned so many great lessons from my time listening to books. thank you adam for all the wonderful content and life lessons i’ve learned from watching you over the years.
The book that changed my way of thinking the most was Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I was not a book reader at all and I read it cover to cover in 2 days. My life is forever changed and I'm hitting one milestone after another now. I'm also starting to buy and read books for the first time. Like Adam alluded to, the American education system will make anyone on the fence about reading hate it. As an adult now I realize I can choose the books I want to read and read them as slow or fast as I want. Doing so I've found I ACTUALLY enjoy reading and I never realized I do.
'the design of everyday things' - absolutely spot on! I've been in web/multimedia UX design since the late 90's and YES - YOU have failed if you have not provided a clear and obvious choice to the user, thank you for the stimulating content adam from a long time subscriber. My favourite fiction would probably be Paul Theroux's 'O-zone' amongst any of his other great works. Scarily prophetic...
The knife laying on the table makes me anxious. Just found these videos and I’m working my way through them all. I really miss the podcast. love the content
Never thought I'd hear Carlos Castaneda's name on this list! I spent my early 20s tracking down used, first edition copies of all his books. I highlighted and marked them up like crazy. I passed them on to an ex girlfriend years ago, and I often regret it, but it was a gift in the spirit of those books and I know it changed her life. She told me she passed them on to a friend as well, and I hope they keep making the rounds.
7:30 My senior year high school English class is why I don't read "serious literature" anymore. Blasting through Crime and Punishment and so many others was just miserable. I'm grown up now and don't have to read that crap.
Excellent, inspiring, fascinating and relatable installment (and book choices) Adam!! Absolutely love your passion, your intelligence, taste, talent and style (and Jamie's similar attributes too????). Thanks dude!
I had a teacher long ago tell me to look at it like a child. Children pick things up because of how simplistic they look at it. It’s just a game, it’s play time. Don’t worry about how quickly you are improving just enjoy the game.
Alan Watts did it for me. But I don't remember which particular book of his it was. Drawing Down the Moon was also important. Design of Everyday Things is good. The Power of Myth, powerful book. Deep Survival made me realize some things that go on inside my head aren't under my control. Isaac Asimov's non-fiction science writing is marvelous. Reviving Ophelia start me on my path towards intersectional feminism. Lies My Teacher Told Me, a must read for all Americans. Noam Chomsky was interesting. The Moral Rules by Bernard Gert is the foundation of my moral compass. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance is good.
If you like poetry and spirituality, I'd highly recommend The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks. I read the whole thing during a snow storm in a cabin in Aspen, and it truly changed my life. Rumi, and Barks, are true geniuses.
The Magic of Recluse series of books by L.E Modessit totally changed my thoughts on the process of building anything. The intention of the process mattering as much as the techniques.
@@alwayscensored6871 I don’t believe you can get it in the U.K., but I will keep an eye out for it. I wasn’t able to get Jazza’s book or his boxes in the U.K. either.
Yes. Yossarian lives!! The first half was a hard slog and took me a while. But the last half was equally hilarious and heartbreaking. Brilliant. Can't wait to read it again when my memory of it fades.
I saw Sinbad play a sweaty, high-energy genie in the 90s. In my teens, learning that the first movie I ever saw a remake of never existed- “Shaq is the OG?” changed me.
Here are some of the books that changed my mind • The Courage To Be Disliked - Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi • Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse • Onto-cartography: An Ontology of Machines and Media - Levi Bryant • Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk - Franz Kafka
many of these books i also love, check out How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand, which changed my thinking about architecture and design similarly to Norman's Design of Everyday Things
One quote from Lord of the Rings stuck with me when I read it: "Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least. " It just struck me how elegantly it encapsulates the need for empathy and the hope for redemption.
It's a great example of Tolkien's interpretation of Christian morality.
My favorite is from Return of the King: "There, peeping among the cloud wrack above a dark tor high in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light, and high beauty forever beyond its reach."
@@theboredengineer2612 I dunno man shafts piercing men sounds a little um fruity to me.....??
@@Marcus2750-u1t Seriously? You should probably read some more that preferebly wasen't written by a mass murdering fachist...
Gandalf's comment to Bilbo is an unexpected gem in the middle of a story about cultural tension and pride. I helps Bilbo understand that the relationship of all things is not what it should be expected, but rather how it naturally unfolds.
Thanks for the books recommendations and to the person who asked that particular question.
From here too 👍
Thanks
"A reasonable American high school education could ruin anyone's love of literature"
This is why it took me to 30 to want to read again.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. -Mark Twain
In high school English we were forced to read and review a book called "Basketball Diaries". It was the last novel I ever read.
@@joejackson4202 I had to read The Mayor of Casterbridge, Life of Pi, and the Poisonwood Bible over a summer and compare the three. That pretty much did me in.
@@dgstump Basketball Diaries is apparently an autobiography. It details the authors drug abuse as well as his homosexual prostitution of himself including an incident where a John wanted him to whip a cat to death which was tied to a toilet seat while urinating on the man who was in the bath tub.
After reading the first few chapters in class, it was quite obvious that this was a disturbing story and in an effort to spend as little time as possible on this book, i proceeded to read the entire thing in one sitting. Thankfully that garbage piece of literature did not impact my life for more than 1 day.
Most kids in the class chose this book because it was the shortest of the selection we were given. Looking back now, that teacher was either very sick in the head choosing such a book knowing most kids would choose it because of its size. Or she was so disconnected from her job as an educator that she didn't even bother to vet these books for education merit.
That was 15 years ago and like i said, i havent picked up another novel since. Wish i could go back in time with the 15 years of life experience i have now and teach that educator a thing or two. Unfortunately at 18 you just dont have the faculty to push back on this type of nonsense.
@@joejackson4202 You read a novel you didn't like so you never read another novel again? You sound like a real weakling.
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Books mentioned in this video:
Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman: amzn.to/3kxzX1q
Inner Game of Tennis, by W. Timothy Gallwey: amzn.to/3jq9Qb6
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: amzn.to/2ToMQ1A
Teachings of Don Juan, by Carlos Castaneda: amzn.to/3mfS4t5
Who Rules the World, by Noam Chomsky: amzn.to/37F1Hh0
Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal, by Noam Chomsky: amzn.to/3kq6iqE
Interviews with Francis Bacon/Brutality of Fact: amzn.to/2HsNjx8
Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson: amzn.to/34sy3tk
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M Pirsig: amzn.to/3okruki
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (Penguin Classics): amzn.to/2IZvDdb
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Hey, Tested Crew! Listening to Adam talk about pool triggered an idea. When the world gets back to something resembling normal, a new interview/vlog/podcast concept: Set up 3-4 cameras locked at different angles around the pool table in the shop (locked to keep crew out of the way), then invite guests over to play with Adam and have conversations over the table. Like the "on location" parts of the new Letterman show, or "Hot Ones" with pool instead of chicken wings.
(keeping the crew out not only saves space in the room, but I think guests would be more open in a one-on-one situation, rather than with a bunch of other people standing around)
For me Adam it was Mein Kampf..... awesome read !!! 👍🏻👍🏻
*Which books
Thank you for these recommendations, I’m excited to add them to my reading list.
My book is not so involved as his. I was in fifth grade. I was bullied constantly. I hid in the library, not for the books, but because the librarian was there and wouldn't allow bullies to target me. Her name was Mrs. Julian. I am 49. This was 39 years ago and I still remember her face. She said for me to stay in there, I had to read. But I didn't know what to read. I was not a reader. She talked to me about what interested me. She handed me a book called The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain). It took me two days to read. She talked to me about the book. I basically gave her an oral book report. Then she handed me book two, then three, four and five. Then The Chronicles of Narnia. Then the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings. Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. I never looked back. I read voraciously. I am trying to write science fiction right now. But that first book. That changed my life. More importantly, that woman, that special, wonderful woman changed my life. She gave me a safe place to be ME. She accepted me. Still love her for that.
I love this story. 😊
@@johnralph3704 It is one of the cornerstones of my personality. By eighth grade I was reading on a college sophomore level. It gave me a better ability to communicate. In my story I am writing, I actually put this event in there (with a small tweak to fit the setting) as an homage to her.
I tell people about her all the time. She is probably long gone by now. She was in her late 50s back then (1982). But I wish I could have told her just how much she changed my life. She was a hero.
Did not anticipate a Noam Chomsky name drop but I’m here for it.
Adam’s excitement and enthusiasm are so absolutely radiant and contagious, listening to him light up about these things makes me so happy
Thank you to whomever asked this question. It was excellent, and an excellent reply. Like so many others I greatly value Adam's take on life. However, as with anyone currently respected, it's very instructional to know what helped to form that person. Will my take and application of these books be the same? Probably not, but they will inform me in the way they need to.
Are we going to talk about the irony of using quotes from Self-reliance in an ad? A book about not letting others tell you what to like.
And the fact that they would not tell him where the quotes originated...forcing him to be self-reliant.
I'm a music teacher, and I've been teaching some 14yos the basics of cajon rhythm lately. It's really cool to hear about the way you learnt to view pool and billiarts as one long movement, rather than a series of small ones. I have been trying to teach "my kids" that to play percussion, you don't think about the motions, you think about the sound and the full rhythm, rather than the single beat and motion. Pretty cool, yeah.
I am so stoked you mentioned the “inner game of tennis.” That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the subject of the video. The concept of non- judgement and try to clearly beyond my own prejudices deeply affected so many of the decisions I’ve made in my life. I hadn’t realized anyone else had read this book!
Got in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance at the last second Thank you
Frank Herbert's Dune had a profound impact on me.
I hadn't thought of that, but yea, I guess it did for me too.
Yep, but Starship Troopers and Stranger in a strange land are the two that affected me in very different ways.
I agree C’ptn! You look pretty cunning in your photo! Real shiny.
@@alwayscensored6871 starship troopers was pretty good. I haven't read stranger in a strange land yet.
@@josephawatson Stranger in strange land is not as weird as 2020.
Cannot believe that binge watching these QA's would lead me back to Castaneda again. Some incredibly fascinating reading that definitely changed the way I think about reality.
I knew I was about to listen to something special when I saw that the answer of this question was 16 minutes long :) Can't thank you enough for taking the time and effort to share with us these great books! I'll be reading all of them in a matter of months.
OMG I also loved Design of Everyday Things and the several Chomsky I've read! Now I have to check out your other recommendations :) We have a lot of reading history in common
The first Twilight book and Fifty Shades of Grey changed my perspective on how easy it is to waste paper and ink and still get a movie deal.
The Hobbit.
Always Censored wait what? that’s a brillant book....
those poor trees...
Great list. On the comment about reading in High School, the best tip I ever received is get the book list early and read them before the semester. Now you're not under the pressure to analyze everything or remember every detail...you can just enjoy the book. Pick up on themes that speak to you. Then when class does start up you can learn more about a book you at least had the chance to enjoy and hear other perspectives you might not have thought of as you went through.
I loved reading but definitely noticed my enjoyment of it crumbling my first year of high school. I can't imagine what my reading habits would be today if I hadn't taken that tip to heart. Do yourseld a favor and read some of the greatest books of all time and enjoy them on your own time, BEFORE class bogs them down.
That’s a fantastic idea. I should work that into my middle school reading assignments
You're assuming that the book list would be less of a slog if read in one's own time. I can't imagine that would've made any difference for me. "Z For Zachariah" haunts me to this day, for instance; I would love to have never read it. Of course, my (male) crumbling started in 5th grade, with "Little Women", so maybe I was already too far gone. 8(
I think your concept of a prop telling a story is so significant for many tasks. As a classical guitarist I find having a story about what a new piece of music tells is sooooo important to learning i.e. memorizing and performance of the music
1) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
2) Journey To Ixtlan (yes, I know a ton about Castenada, but the book is a masterpiece.)
09:32 Manufactured Consent: It was the first book I ever read by this "unknown" author in one of my humanities classes in college. It blew my mind ans I kept reading him ever since.
Near the end of the video Adam talks about taking on others opinion vs the truth and literally all I can hear in my head is 'I reject your reality and substitute my own.'
It sounds fun and it shows up on t-shirts because unsocial anime fans rejoice in it, but rejection of reality is infantile. It's part of why nobody cares about its adherents. They're like Olestra, shit out at the end unaltered and having contributed nothing.
Two books that changed my way of thinking were ones I read in the 1960's. "How to lie with statistics," Which forced me to learn how to apply critical thinking to statistical arguments. The other was "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, which introduced me to the need to apply ecological analysis to how we treat the environment.
Not the only book that has changed the way I think, but certainly one of them is " The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward Tufte. If you do anything with data, this is a must read and a beautiful book.
I can’t believe that someone else was influenced by that book. As an engineer I think about it in every report I write or review.
suddenly I feel like reading.
I've never experienced this before.
Have you?
When I had read everything I thought I was interested in from our local library (science fiction) my librarian gave me Tarzan. I was carried away just as I was by Asimov. And I realized there was more to the world of reading than other worlds. So I grew to appreciate a broader view of the world. And I feel that has made me better, or at least happier.
As an artist who is usually generally confused about a lot of things Adam talks about with tools and machining and what not I'd be very interested to hear more about artists and his favorites or just art in general I'm sure he's got some story or hot take that would be very interesting
Please do a part 2 of this
To Kill A Mockingbird resonated with me as a child and the truths contained within it have stayed with me for almost 60 years.
Come on lol, didn’t you read any other books? TKM is just such a thin answer ☹️
@@Bmac2112 I don't know you and you have no right to question anything about my past, my childhood, growing up, or what influenced me. To Kill A Mockingbird is the book I shared. So STFU. And pull the stick out of your ass. It might (and I emphasize might) make you a better person, but I doubt it.
Don't pull the "I was only joking" crap. I refuse to be gaslit by someone like you.
I didn't think of this but now I do remember it as a big influence. I went to school in an all white high school (save one) in the north so had almost no contact with black people. It gave context to what we were seeing on tv in the '60s. It was very powerful in its gental story. All evil needs is for good people to do nothing. I never tolerated bigotry around me again.
A marvellous book and one which should help shape your world. Maybe if more people took to heart Scout’s discovery of the world around he r and it’s injustice, maybe things wouldn’t be as wild in the west today.
“The Pearl” was enough to suck the life out of any classroom. We had that scar inflicted on us in High School in Scotland too.
In High school every year we had a steinbeck story, so throughout i got to read the pearl, grapes,of mice and men and then spend the next years wondering why I think life is futile
Yeah, the Pearl, The Red Pony, and all those other bland books that they make you read just destroyed my interest in reading. I did really enjoy 1984 and Brave New World though, but neither of those were "required reading" for us even if I did choose them for school
@Some characters aren't allowed yup! I always remember that it had an over abundance of the word ‘organism’ being used, but the teacher we had had an inabilty in being able to say that word when she read it, or discussed it!! Let’s say it was very interesting for a class of 15 yr olds to have say in unison, “Mrs W, you said it again!” To which she would always reply, “Oh, I didn’t, did I?”. Clearly she was either very happy in her marriage and always satisfied, or it was the complete opposite! She clearly had an problem!
As cliche as it might be, reading some of George Orwell's books has had a big impact on me personally. Thank you for the recommendations.
I have to love this video. Excellent book selection/recommendation: Chomsky, Castaneda, Marquez...love them all.
To add some of my own favorites (which I realize you have no particular reason to care about): "Strange Wine" Harlan Ellison, "Godbody" Sturgeon, "Walden" Thoreau, "Tao: The Watercoarse Way" Watts.
I get giddy every time one of my favorite people mentions Chomsky. Thank you Adam, you made my day. BTW Chomsky is still out there fighting the good fight. Older, grayer, and slower, but tenacious and wise to the end.
The book that changed my way of thinking the most was Miyamoto Musashi's book of five rings. Being able to break down various aspects of life then learning and understanding how those parts of life are what keep us well rounded and the usefulness of knowing how to use them in various ways.
And the novelization by Eiji Yoshikawa speaks so much to understanding about many aspects of what life is and is not...
This may sound trival:
The first book that changed my thinking was a cooking book from my grandmother and she had it from her mother, printed back in 1892.
I was about 8 years old when i started reading and studying it. I was totally fascinated learning about raw products and things morph into something tasty, or not so tasty when it came to spinache. 😁 And the greatest thing is, every recipe works with ingredients wich are easily to come by.
I still own that book, it has repairs all over and i think half of the weight comes from glue and ductape, due the paper wasn't of great quality.
I still use it and read it, it shows how to cook without pre processed ingredients and microwave, how not to waste leftovers and how to make delicious food with very little and infancy ingredients.
And last but not least, how to prepare healthy food for my family.
Sorry for my rough English, as a non native speaker it's sometimes a bit difficult.
Stay all safe and healthy.
have you ever considered either paying someone to copy the book onto better paper or doing it yourself?
@@Epicmonk117
It came out better...
My children got me an almost mint condition original for my 60th birthday ..
And i have to touch the old one now and then, it's magical moment every time reading my granny's handwritten notes on lot's of the pages 😀
@@TheElrondo awww, that was sweet of them. You're lucky to have such good kids.
Back in 1990 I read a book called Chaos: The Making of a New Science. It completely changed the way I looked at the world. Everything suddenly made sense.
So cool to find out that you played a lot of pool in your earlier years, Adam. Me too! And when you were about to name the best book on the subject, I was wondering if you were about to say Byrne's. And then you did! Totally agree with you... best book I've ever read on playing pool. Nice to have that experience in common!
Well that's my reading for the next few months sorted XD. Reading 1Q84 atm on Adam's recommendation, no idea where it's going but enjoying the journey!
As soon as I read the title of this video, I knew "Zen" is going to be on the list :) "100 years" is a must read for everyone, and a late goal for Rilke made my eyes water a bit... We're about the same age, but from opposite sides of the world, and it amazes me that about 80% of the most important books are the same for both. Just bought "The Design" for Kindle, to make it 90%, hopefully...
I've actually read none of these except for the Design of Everyday Things and Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Wow, so many good recommendations! I'm excited to read these over the next few months
I would recommend: "The Nature and Art of Workmanship" by David Pye. The "workmanship of risk" vs the"workmanship of certainty" has resonated with me for years.
Came for the ASMR of watching you build things while I'm in lockdown, stayed for the interesting details of movie props and random stories. Now the bonus of a reading list! I'd like to weigh in for one that changed how I thought about what leadership is: South: The Endurance Expedition, by Earnest Shackleton.
"Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini -- This book may also change your life.
Mine was ‘The technique of casting for sculpture by John Mills’ -stolen from my ceramics teacher. He loved that book, I’m forever sorry about it. Still have it to this day..
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry,
Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner,
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy,
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens,
Router Jigs and Techniques by Patrick Spielman
One book I was half expecting to hear you list was mind-altering for me in the best of ways: GÖDEL-ESCHER-BACH: AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BRAID by Douglas Hofstadter (1979). It won the Pulitzer, and it's a remarkable book about how (or maybe why) thought and logic function.
Lord that book is insufferable.
This is a great book. Personally I love the sort of playful nature of it, and it's loaded with wonderful ideas and different ways of thinking. I's say it's more about a way of thinking and interpreting than it is about describing something as complex as logic and thought... which I think are largely indescribable as a whole. The follow-up, I Am A Strange Loop is interesting, and I'm glad I read it, but it lacks that sort of playful, open nature that Godel, Escher-Bach had. GDB is definitely a great book for people who like thinking about thinking.
@@1pcfred Did you come in here just to take a dump on somebody else's joy, or do you have an actual, useful point to make? I loved it, it was a best seller, it won the Pulitzer Prize, and it was undeniably an important book of philosophy, as well as being entertaining. I suggest you make a detailed case against the book, or just keep your petulant nonsense to yourself.
If you didn't like it, or didn't get it, then say so, but you express your opinion in a fairly definitive manner, as though your opinion carried some weight. I am a little at a loss because if Gödel-Escher-Bach is insufferable, then I would need an even more emphatic dismissive adjective to apply to your ignorant opinion about the book.
@@stevesether Hofstadter is a philosopher and computer scientist who is principally concerned with furthering the study of artificial intelligence (or more accurately with the study of processes and algorithms which seem to be required to emulate brain function). You're not wrong in saying the book is not about logic, except that it does sincerely attempt to understand why a sentient intelligence has logic, and how that logical thought might function.
@@ChristopherOdegard I've no doubt that was Hofstadter's intent. What you're describing is essentially what he covered, more narrowly in I Am A Strange Loop. To me GEB is more open ended in its approach, and can be taken in a lot of different ways, which is what I love about the book. IMHO authors intent is but one piece.. Sometimes I don't think authors fully understand their own work, not that I do.
Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner did it for me. A book for musicians but has parallel in other studies. I read the book about once a year or so. As I move along the road of proficiency on my instrument there always seems to something profound that I glazed over in past reads.
A quote from the book.. "...While moving quickly through material, you’re under the delusion that you are making progress. Spending enough time learning something would feel interminably slow, but that is the way of true growth. It takes what it takes. The fact is that if you don’t stay with the material long enough for it to become comfortable, you’ll find that it doesn’t stay with you. Then you will truly be wasting your time! It really doesn’t pay to move on until something is mastered...."
Adam, you are my hero!
I watch nearly all of your posts but his one is very, very special. I've shared this to all of my social media platforms. It's insightful and important and valuable on so many levels. Thank you!
I was literally lying awake, unable to sleep this morning, wondering what to do with all this "free" time in lockdown now that I lost my job, and I thought now was the time to really go into some classic literature and read all those books I "never got around to" when I was younger. This list shows up at JUST the perfect time to start that journey, so thank you!
“The God Delusion” was very important to me when I was younger. I was raised in a Catholic family and 12 years of Catholic school. So when I didn’t believe I felt a horrible guilt, after reading that it felt ok.
Three personall suggestions
Shogun - James Clavell
Paradox of Choice - Barry Schwartz
The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
That winning feeling, Jane Savoie. Within a year I was the youngest rider combination winning at national level. Changed my life, not only as a competition rider, but the way I became a successful teacher.
Thank you. So many bathroom faucets that aren't intuitive in use out there
Understanding Power is a great Chomsky primer for those who may be unfamiliar with him
"Meditations" by Emperor Marcus Aurelius should be read by everyone alive. Maybe multiple times.
I started watching this video, listened to the question, and RIGHT before Adam said "The Design Of Everyday Things" ....I had already uttered it! YES! It is critical. Absolutely.
Rainer Maria Rilke is a hero of mine. I painted a portrait of him and he's always watching over me ! Lol it was great to hear Adam mention it and i hope people check him out
On the first day of middle school a teacher wrote on the board the quote "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." By Eleanor Roosevelt. And it has stuck with me ever since that day.
The quote that stuck with me from Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things" was "It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines." I also would recommend "User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way we Live, Work, and Play" by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant.
Alas, if only they had read a book about picking a good book title.
You are such an interesting man Adam. Thank you for your sense of wonder. Thank you for what you do.
I remember reading Zen and the Art just after getting out of the military. I enjoyed it thoroughly as I was reading it, but when he started to really tackle "what is quality?" it took my breath away. That was easily the most formative book I'd read up to that point in my life, and even 15 years later, it still has had a lasting, profound impact on how I navigate the world.
A solid list, Mr. Savage. A solid fucking list. If I may add a recommendation, functioning under the absolute delusion that you'd actually read this, may I recommend Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Really, anything by Richard Bach, like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, or Hypnotizing Maria.
The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten
And my all time favourite: The Iliad & The Odyssey. I recently got Troy by Stephen Fry and I can't wait to get into it!
When Adam mentioned that Inner Game of Tennis helped him play pool, I was reminded that the best book on game design I have ever read is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, which, as the name suggests, is about comics and never mentions games. That book is a masterpiece of dissecting what makes comics their own distinct art form, and so much of the author's method of analysis can be applied to other forms. I read that book as a teenager and it has had a monumental impact on the way I view art.
Totally agree about ‘100 Years of Solitude.’
‘Love in The Time of Cholera’ is just as good. You really should give it a go.
I find it profound that he covers the issue with the media passing off rhetoric in the press. How fitting for this day and age. It was the first time I’d ever gotten such an idea that the media could be a possible enemy! Amazing!
After watching, I hastily ordered a copy of "The Design of Everyday Things" from eBay. I just searched and bought the first inexpensive copy. Well, the book arrived from Goodwill in San Francisco. I have been reading it a few days and just noticed it is signed by the author! In addition, there are two boarding passes to Hawaii on New Years Eve. One is in the name of the person to which Don Norman inscribed the book.
This is a very Adam Savage type of book, one with a story! Thanks for the great too on a great book, and thanks
I'd like to share a couple of books that were massively impactful to me that are not related to the focus of the channel, but I think are so important to me I can't not recommend them, even if no-one reads this. Assata Shakur's autobiography had a massive impact on the way I see the punitive legal system, the prison system, and more. It's emotionally hard to read but I think it's the most important book I've ever read. Secondly, Stone Butch Blues, by Leslie Feinberg. Another very emotionally-hard-to-read book (and definitely not for kids), but also very important. Between the AIDS Crisis's devastation of our community and the passage of time and loss of access to and lack of education about our own history, young LGBT people tend to have a strong disconnect from those who came before us and the lessons they learned and struggles they faced. We know broad strokes, but we often don't even realise the gaps in our knowledge. Finding that book felt like rediscovering something I'd felt cut off from my whole life, that I never knew that I didn't know because of the lack of information about LGBT+ people when I grew up. I entered school when it still wasn't legal to mention gay people. And as a young lesbian woman, it was a book that made me realise how much I had to learn.
"Falling in love with the ball" reminds me of something I've mulled over for a while, I can only really describe it as artificial synesthesia, essentially becoming so experienced in a specific task that you no longer need to care about the tiny details and can instead just SEE what needs doing as you go. I feel like this is something that everyone experiences to some degree, but is easier to spot in highly experienced makers.
In the before times, I used to design restaurant kitchens, it got to a point, when I wasn't looking at lines in AutoCAD or Revit, I was letting the room tell me how it wanted to be a kitchen. Many times, we had to wait for the clients budget approval, and 6 months later I would see the design to proof it, and wonder who designed it because it worked so well, what could I learn from them, and not realise till I looked at the designer initials, that it was one of mine.
I could never teach AutoCAD or my design skills, because they had become so ingrained, that I didn't realise what I was doing. I think this is when the big picture synesthesia comes about, you are looking at what the end goal is, the design thinking, and don't know what the parts are, what the individual motions, the key presses, the mouse moves, because that's not what you are thinking of, you can understand a more fundamental beauty and aesthetic to the piece. You may look at a boring technical drawing, to me, it was on the lines of the most fabulous painting or sculpture.
I am changing industries at the moment, and it's so frustrating that I am having to concentrate on each individual move, minutes seem like hours, when many times after a flow day, my inbox was empty, my outbox was full, and I felt like I had been in the office for 5 minutes after a 12 hour day (I felt the mental exhaustion on getting home though!). Now I can just about see the end goal, but not how the end goals finish line responds to the mechanical movements I make, whereas when you have achieved flow and full mastery, you only see the end goal, and not the mechanical movements required to achieve a subtle yet profound and skilled change.
That bit about about designing in a way that other people can understand 1:10 is absolutely vital in software engineering. You can write the most elegant/badass algorithm, if its not intuitive to everybody else it's useless.
In roughly the order I happened to read these books:
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955)
Made me realize I can quite quickly read even a long book, as long as that book captures my attention.
Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion (2006)
Made me realize that I'm not a pantheist but rather an atheist.
Carl Sagan - The Demon-Haunted World (1995) [see also: Steven Novella et al. - The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (2018)]
The book that essentially made me into a scientific skeptic and got me to focus on a more clear direction in my life, valuing science and critical thinking.
Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot
(1994) [see also: Carl Sagan - Cosmos (the book and the original TV series; 1980)]
In part worked in unison with the previous book. Also got me to thinking about what telos we might want to imagine for humanity.
Jonathan Haidt - The Righteous Mind (2012)
An especially valuable insight into how to think about group differences and disagreements. Essentially, the book advocates the benefits of us being aware of our different intuitive moral foundations; how it can help us be less self-righteous and better understand and approach one another across political and religious divides.
Paul Bloom - Against Empathy (2016)
Made me understand why (emotional) empathy should not be romanticized, and how (rational) compassion differs from empathy in ways that largely avoid its downsides.
Hans, Ola, & Anna Rosling - Factfulness (2018)
Helped me open my eyes how we seem to be largely biased towards the negative. It's not all doom and gloom.
John Stuart Mill - On Liberty (1859)
Probably the best known defense of free speech (with 'harm' as a limit). To a significant degree it stuck with me.
Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics (c. 350 BCE)
My first proper introduction to a form of virtue ethics. Got me to think more deeply what living a good life, and being a good human (or person), implies.
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations (161-180 CE)
My first introduction to Stoicism. Kind of solidified my realization that there is a lot of very useful wisdom in ancient Hellenistic philosophies that flies under most people's radar.
Sextus Empiricus - Outlines of Pyrrhonism (c. 200 CE)
My first introduction to ancient skepticism. Kind of mind blowing: a philosophy deeply against dogmatism; without beliefs. Views that there are only appearances, and that suspension of judgement leads to ataraxia (i.e., tranquillity of mind).
Owen Flanagan - Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2011) [see also: Owen Flanagan - The Geography of Morals (2016)]
The book that introduced me to naturalized Buddhism, hashing out the core philosophy in quite an appealing way without the necessity of any supernatural elements. Also solidified my realization that it is truly worth to _also_ look outside the "West", if we want to find ways to properly live together in a global world.
Great comment. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Hi Adam, I'm not sure if you'll read/see this, but current Industrial Design student here!
I read The Design of Everyday Things about three years ago while attending a pre-college program and it changed the way I see design. Any designer I highly recommend you read it! ❤
The books I read more recently, which changed my way of thinking, approaching challenges, learning and writing science papers quite a lot:
Rolf Dobelli „The Art of Thinking Clearly“
Scott H. Young „Ultralearning“
Joseph M. Williams „Style-Toward Clarity and Grace“
William Strunk Jr., E. B. White „The Elements of Style“
1:17 - my son has a friend named Adam who on a regular basis encounters this exact same problem with glass doors. It's a bit surreal to have this Adam explain it's not your fault while remembering all the times our Adam smacked into glass doors.
I have read "A Hundred Years of Solitude." I remember the opening being about a man remembering as a boy when his father took him to see ice.
You changed my life adam!!! You made me want to go into stem as a job path.
Stones of the Abbey by Fernand Pouillon. It contains the best passage about the act of creating and how the limitations of a medium becomes the soul of the finished product. "Even recklessness seems a bit halfhearted"
"The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp changed how I view creativity and creative block, it's been SUPER helpful for me as an artist and I recommend it to anyone who works creatively. Other books that really helped me develop as an artist and maker are "The Nude, a study in ideal form" by Kenneth Clark, and "What is Art" by Leo Tolstoy. I do not agree with everything that was written in those books, but they showed me what it means to have a well thought out opinion/direction/philosophy about the things I make and the media I choose to consume.
I read all the old science fiction classics..
Asimov and other authors...
Lots of books on how to build engines and ALOT of text books on electronic architecture and electrical theory..
And mechanical engineering...
I have found whether it be water or air or electrical currents the underlying pricipals are very similar....
whenever i was a kid i absolutely hated reading. i didn’t want anything to do with reading and if anyone asked if i has read this book or heard of that book my response was always oh i don’t read. i almost had a hatred for books and literature from being forced to construct essays in a certain way that argued a point i didn’t believe in or being forced to read a book that i didn’t comprehend coupled with the fact that i’m already a slow reader, i was never any good at constructing sentences very well, and sitting in one spot for to long or stooping my neck for to long would physically pain me. this left me not wanting anything to do with books or literature. after graduating i attending a welding school and and was also working a pretty boring and repetitive job of unloading boxes. in my free time i decided to give reading another shot and went to the library. i got a few books that i found interesting but still reading just wasn’t for me. However, while at the library i found the library’s selection of audiobooks on there app and decided to give that a try. the audiobooks turned my boring repetitive job into a fantasy land of history, fiction, science fiction, etc. audiobooks have enabled me to listen to thousands of hours of books and has also allowed me to listen to books that are apart of everyday culture that i was never aware of. i’ve listened to books that i certainly would have never read on my own and i have learned so many great lessons from my time listening to books. thank you adam for all the wonderful content and life lessons i’ve learned from watching you over the years.
The book that changed my way of thinking the most was Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I was not a book reader at all and I read it cover to cover in 2 days. My life is forever changed and I'm hitting one milestone after another now. I'm also starting to buy and read books for the first time. Like Adam alluded to, the American education system will make anyone on the fence about reading hate it. As an adult now I realize I can choose the books I want to read and read them as slow or fast as I want. Doing so I've found I ACTUALLY enjoy reading and I never realized I do.
'the design of everyday things' - absolutely spot on! I've been in web/multimedia UX design since the late 90's and YES - YOU have failed if you have not provided a clear and obvious choice to the user, thank you for the stimulating content adam from a long time subscriber. My favourite fiction would probably be Paul Theroux's 'O-zone' amongst any of his other great works. Scarily prophetic...
There is plenty of design fail in this world too. Like Adam says it is not the fault of the end user.
@@1pcfredyes indeed, that was my point - blinkered design choices by the developer
The knife laying on the table makes me anxious.
Just found these videos and I’m working my way through them all. I really miss the podcast. love the content
We need a library tour!
I was really glad you finally got to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Great book.
For me it was “A Hero With A Thousand Faces.”
“I still have it...” of course you do.
Not a criticism... I’m a kindred spirit.
200 boxes of books, hate moving.
Never thought I'd hear Carlos Castaneda's name on this list! I spent my early 20s tracking down used, first edition copies of all his books. I highlighted and marked them up like crazy. I passed them on to an ex girlfriend years ago, and I often regret it, but it was a gift in the spirit of those books and I know it changed her life. She told me she passed them on to a friend as well, and I hope they keep making the rounds.
7:30 My senior year high school English class is why I don't read "serious literature" anymore. Blasting through Crime and Punishment and so many others was just miserable. I'm grown up now and don't have to read that crap.
Mine was "The Things They Carried". God that was the worst 4 weeks of Novels class...
Excellent, inspiring, fascinating and relatable installment (and book choices) Adam!!
Absolutely love your passion, your intelligence, taste, talent and style (and Jamie's similar attributes too????). Thanks dude!
I was stunned you hadn't mentioned Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. I can look at you and tell you have read it :)
I had a teacher long ago tell me to look at it like a child. Children pick things up because of how simplistic they look at it. It’s just a game, it’s play time. Don’t worry about how quickly you are improving just enjoy the game.
Alan Watts did it for me. But I don't remember which particular book of his it was.
Drawing Down the Moon was also important.
Design of Everyday Things is good.
The Power of Myth, powerful book.
Deep Survival made me realize some things that go on inside my head aren't under my control.
Isaac Asimov's non-fiction science writing is marvelous.
Reviving Ophelia start me on my path towards intersectional feminism.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, a must read for all Americans.
Noam Chomsky was interesting.
The Moral Rules by Bernard Gert is the foundation of my moral compass.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance is good.
If you like poetry and spirituality, I'd highly recommend The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks. I read the whole thing during a snow storm in a cabin in Aspen, and it truly changed my life. Rumi, and Barks, are true geniuses.
Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and the Dune series of books changed my life.
Me too with the Dune series. I still remember a reviewer’s quote in the back “Rich Fair, Heady Stuff”
The Magic of Recluse series of books by L.E Modessit totally changed my thoughts on the process of building anything. The intention of the process mattering as much as the techniques.
Great author n series.
You should read Shad's book. Shadow of the Conqueror.
@@alwayscensored6871 I don’t believe you can get it in the U.K., but I will keep an eye out for it. I wasn’t able to get Jazza’s book or his boxes in the U.K. either.
Currently reading
Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Slow start, but worth persistence.
Shop Class as Soulcraft is a brilliant book. Also Catch 22.
Yes. Yossarian lives!!
The first half was a hard slog and took me a while. But the last half was equally hilarious and heartbreaking. Brilliant. Can't wait to read it again when my memory of it fades.
I saw Sinbad play a sweaty, high-energy genie in the 90s. In my teens, learning that the first movie I ever saw a remake of never existed- “Shaq is the OG?” changed me.
I could shake off the only “stein” I ever knew other than Einstein but Shazaam?
I was hoping to hear Pirsig. Changed my life. Quality.
Here are some of the books that changed my mind
• The Courage To Be Disliked - Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi
• Finite and Infinite Games - James Carse
• Onto-cartography: An Ontology of Machines and Media - Levi Bryant
• Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk - Franz Kafka
many of these books i also love, check out How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand, which changed my thinking about architecture and design similarly to Norman's Design of Everyday Things
The Fountainhead, following a personal dream no matter what.
The Fountainhead, following a personal dream no matter what.
More of this kind! This was fantastic 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻