Name: Big Ideas Simply Explained
ISBN: 9781465458551

What Hacker News says

miabellJul 2023

Understand What Philosophy Is: Philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It involves critical thinking, argumentation, and reflection on complex topics.

Read Introductory Books: Start with beginner-friendly books on philosophy. Some recommended titles include "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder, "The Philosophy Book" by DK, and "The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained" by DK.

Explore Philosophical Topics: Philosophy covers a wide range of subjects such as ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, aesthetics, and more. Read short articles or watch videos online to discover which areas interest you the most.

Even you can watch YouTube videos of more tutorial, btw you can try YouTube ReVanced to watch without Ads https://revancedapk.org/

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MrVuMay 2021

I run 3 Business, Realtor/Landlord, Cleaning Homes, and Photography (events).

The Business Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained (gave me insight on what it takes to keep grinding, and knowing the potential in any idea)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (a classic, every CEO or high performer i know and met practice this)

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It (Gave me the technique to understand what I have to know on the other side, to come out making a win-win situation)

Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition (Allowed me to understand the other side before talking)

The Art of Communicating (Great good for networking, which opened alot of doors for me getting new clients and making friends)

7L: The Seven Levels of Communication: Go From Relationships to Referrals (Made me understand the importance of certain communication levels to use on certain situation to get better results.)

Overall this is only a few, but really it helped me, meet the people that knew more then me to become what i am now. Knowing that i have a circle that will give me guidance is worth more then gold.

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freedombenApr 2018

If you want a more gentle introduction, I recommend (in no particular order):

  1.  This website:  https://www.philosophybasics.com/

  2.  The "Philosophize This" podcast (start at the beginning)

  3.  The "Philosophers in 90 minutes" series (I recommend going in chronological order since most philosophers build on the work of previous philosophers)

  4.  "The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained": https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0756668611/

For a very thorough and newcomer friendly introduction:

  1.  The HoPWaG (History of Philosophy Without any Gaps) podcast:  https://historyofphilosophy.net/

When you're ready for more deep dive, or if you like to start out sprinting:

  1.  Introduction to Greek Philosophy (yes it's an "intro" course but it's amazing and pretty deep.  Highly recommended even if you are mostly interested in modern philosophy): 
 https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/introduction-to-greek-philosophy.html

  2.  The Modern Intellectual Tradition - Descartes to Derrida:  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/modern-intellectual-tradition-from-descartes-to-derrida.html

  3.  The Modern Political Tradition - Hobbes to Habermas:  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-modern-political-tradition-hobbes-to-habermas.html

  4.  A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell:  https://smile.amazon.com/History-Western-Philosophy-Bertrand-Russell/dp/0671201581

  5.  European Thought & Culture in the {19,20}th Century:  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/european-thought-and-culture-in-the-19th-century.html  and  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/european-thought-and-culture-in-the-20th-century.html

  6.  Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition (honestly not my favorite, but it covers a lot of ground):  https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/great-minds-of-the-western-intellectual-tradition-3rd-edition.html

  7.  Original Sources!  Especially:

    A.  John Locke's Second Treatise of Government

    B.  Descartes First Meditation (this will blow your mind)

    C.  Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

    D.  Kant's Metaphysics of Morals

    E.  If you are into politics and/or economics (if you really try to understand these books, you may come away having no idea what your political leanings are): 

      1.  Karl Marx - Communist Manifesto, and Das Kapital

      2.  Ludwig von Mises - Socialism, and Human Action

      3.  Hayek - Road to Serfdom

Those are some of my favorites. There is a giant queue I have left to read, and I've also left off some good ones.

There are quite a few additional books and Great Courses that I can also recommend if you're interested.

NOTE: Don't pay full price for a Great Courses course. They go on sale a couple times a year, so just keep an eye on them until they are 70-90% off. Also if you buy through their website they are DRM free.

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rootsudoMar 2020

Actually - any college level book. There are tons, they're cheap on ebay, look for pearson or mcgraw hill. If you're creative, you can probably find a epub/pdf.

But even the DK Eye Witness have a good idea - how business works, how money works.

Financial system, economics, monetary policy become very simple with pictures, and even easier on an spreadsheet. Even more so is how many people don't know how much the government does in collecting statistics to analyze and examine the health of the economy - The BLS https://www.bls.gov/ is a great resource and once you have a basic understanding (or know healthy or "safe" numbers) you can explore other country economic numbers and see if they make sense (or not!) e.g. https://psa.gov.ph/ for Philippine Statistics.

Contemporary Financial Management is great -

Accounting Princicpals are also great (can you read a PL sheet? Do you know GAAP? How about Compliance regulations?)

Just "money" is one piece of the puzzle - money is a tool and that tool has been transformed into different pieces that fit what we do finance in life -

A basic book would be rich dad, poor dad - it's quite cliche but it's a good introduction to "wealth" and assets vs liability == net worth.

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tl;dr I ranted, I can go on - the DK Eyewitness books are a good starting point and then you can dig deep - but mostly it really runs quite simple for most things and then gatekeeped by interesting vocabulary.

How Money Works: The Facts Visually Explained (How Things Work) Hardcover – March 14, 2017 by DK (Author) . How Business Works: A Graphic Guide to Business Success Hardcover – 2015 by Dk (Author)

The Economics Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained Paperback – February 6, 2018

The Business Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained Paperback – November 20, 2018

How Business Works: The Facts Visually Explained (How Things Work) Hardcover – April 14, 2015

DK Eyewitness Books: Money: Discover the Fascinating Story of Money from Silver Ingots to Smart Cards Paperback – June 14, 2016

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mpetkeviciusAug 2017

Here are the sources I use:

1. HackerNewsBooks.com subscription

2. Amazon recommendations for books I've enjoyed

3. Book on literature, such as The Literature Book from Big Ideas Simply Explained series

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