Musashi's book of five rings

What Hacker News says

1. lionheartedJan 2009
   A quick read is Wikipedia's summary of Miyamoto Musashi's "Book of Five Rings" - it's about Japanese swordsmanship in the early 1600's in a variety of situations: Full-on combat, a duel, outnumbered, with high/low ground, etc. It's strategic more than tactical, and if you like Sun Tzu you might dig it.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings

   The story of his life, "Musashi," is one of my favorite books of all time and has good strategic and philosophical discussion mixed in with some really riveting action and social commentary. Musashi had a lot of potential at a young age, but was extremely undisciplined and constantly had it out with the law, society, and people whose motivations he couldn't understand. The book chronicles him becoming the greatest swordsman in Japanese history. An incredible read, especially for anyone who was bright at young age but questioned a hell of a lot of society's rules.

   Amazon (no affiliate B.S., just a great book): http://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/4770019572

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2. KaizynSep 2007
   1) Musashi's Book of Five Rings 2) Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People 3) Machaivelli's The Prince 4) Sun-Tzu's The Art of War 5) Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action 6) Steven Johnson's Emergence 7) Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel 8) Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything 9) Mark Buchanan's Nexus 10) C. S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain

   Taken together, these books cover just about everything there is to know about the sciences, about human history, human nature and how to understand and communicate effectively with other people. Only one other book besides these needs to be studied/read: The Bible.

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3. JdSep 2007
   Brilliant. Double up-vote (if I could) on Musashi's Book of Five Rings.
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4. rramadassSep 2026
   Resubmission of I recently went through a translation of Musashi's Book of Five Rings - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49660833 (1 comment)
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5. qaexlOct 2007
   From a different part of the world, at around the same era:

   - Do not think dishonestly.

   - The Way is in training.

   - Become acquainted with every art.

   - Know the Ways of all professions.

   - Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.

   - Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.

   - Perceive those things which cannot be seen.

   - Pay attention even to trifles.

   - Do nothing which is of no use.

   -- A translation of Miyomoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings (http://samurai.com/5rings/ground/)

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