The Autobiography Of Ben Franklin

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1. breckNov 2022
   My recommendations (stick almost exclusively to autobiography):

   - My Father Marconi (degna marconi)

   - Made in Japan (sony founder)

   - Made in America (walmart founder)

   - How to win friends and influence people (though I hear all 4 of N Hill's books are worth their weight in gold). Alternatively I read "Never Eat Alone" which is similar and also great.

   - Autobiography of Ben Franklin

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2. lancewiggsAug 2014
   Great question, and one that I asked just before going to Mozambique for 10 weeks a few years back. I'd just bought a kindle, which were not available outside the USA back then, and asked a few interesting folks I was chatting to at Foo. Here are my resulting first few kindle purchases: The Match King Heros Die (I bought the rest of them) The city and the city Every patient tells a story Blindsight Born to Run Hot, Flat & Crowded The Autobiography of Ben Franklin The Hunger Games (!)

   And on it went - asking for recommendations was a fantastic thing to do. I'd asked for fiction as I was going there to work and would be too exhausted at first to do much else.

   So I do encourage everyone to give some names of books. And yes - do take a good camera, do take binoculars - Leica if you can afford them, and embrace the experience.

   A few years later I went to Antarctica on a boat for 30 days offline. By then I had hundreds of books on kindle, and several devices to read them. This is basically a solved problem now. I did take Wikipedia in offline state, which was useful.

   In decades previous when traveling I cared about weight and price per word and focused on "good" books - books that you know you should read but which need a bit of effort. When you are off the grid and in countries where there are few English books then it was a great way to read great books. But now the Internet is everywhere. It might be flaky, and it might be painful to access, but you'll be able to find access to buy and download books relatively easily.

   Three recommendations, aside from the above which I enjoyed a lot.

   Bill Aulet: Disciplined Entrepreneurship, covers the topic very well and generously references everything else.

   The Circle by Dave Eggers paints a picture that's creepily familiar already.

   League of Denial will have you shake your head gently and sadly at NFL and other contact sports.

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3. seanlinehanNov 2012
   About a year ago I starting becoming incredibly interested in making ideas spread. I decided to read books on how to present myself and my ideas in a way that builds my own credibility, trustworthiness, and helps people to take on my ideas.

   If you are interested in these things, I highly recommend Made to Stick by the Heath Brothers [1]. It focuses on the SUCCESs framework:

   S - Short

   U - Unexpected

   C - Credible

   C - Concrete

   E - Emotional

   S - Stories

   They elaborate in excellent detail on each of these ideas and the acronym that they coined is a perfect example.

   In terms of building your own credibility, I suggest reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. [2] This book is instrumental in understanding the basic concepts that can have a material impact on your life. I think that Autobiography of Ben Franklin [3] teaches a few key lessons in the use of diffidence that harmonizes well with Carnegie's ideas.

   [1] http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/140...

   [2] http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/06...

   [3] http://www.classicly.com/download-autobiography-of-benjamin-...

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4. rmsApr 2008
   For anyone who hasn't read it: The autobiography of Ben Franklin! http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/148

   Also: it's been a year since this has been submitted. I think dupes should be allowed once a year. Does everyone think this is ok to submit?

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5. kirseDec 2007
   The Bible

   Autobiography of Ben Franklin

   Mastering the Winds of Change (solid self-improvement book)

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