These are hard going. I've read thousands of books (I own over 1300) and %26quot;Wealth of Nations%26quot; was harder to read than %26quot;Das Kapital%26quot; and %26quot;Mein Kampf.%26quot; It was even harder to read than %26quot;Bridget Jones' Diary.%26quot; However there are dozens of concepts that expanded my mind in ways I would never have expected from the book that created the science of economics.
To name the one that really hit me when I was 17, Adam Smith uses the cost of a common workman's shirt to illustrate just how complex economics really are. Just start thinking about all the things required to go into the production of an ordinary shirt at any store you like. Who built the store? Who installed the glass in the front window? What kind of software do they use for point-of-sale, who made it and is it conected to thousands of other computers across the country and who made all of those? How did the shirt get to the store? By truck? By train and then truck? By ship and then train and then truck? Who built %26amp; invented the ship, train and truck? Where did they get the materials %26amp; ideas? Where did the cloth come from? Who wove the material, who sewed the shirt together? Was it a machine? Who built the machine? What predecessor machines/tools had to be created before the textile machine was made?
This is just the tip of the iceberg, and it can be argued that the cost of a shirt you buy for $30 at the mall is really the sum of all human endeavor since the beginning of time.
That's all well and good for economics, but when you apply the same concept to people you get the same result. The mathematical concept of Chaos Theory is really just Adam Smith's conundrum applied to physics or biology. When you try to work out the interactions for almost anything all you really do is boggle your own mind.
This is only one of the gems in the massive book. I've read it 3 times and am planning to read it again next year. It's mind-blowing in a way that the hippies would've hated. They wanted to control the world, and it simply won't be controlled. It's humbling in a way that is truly painful to the pride, because among other things it really REALLY forces you to see just how small you are. At the same time it also shows you how important every little cog is in the larger scheme, but it doesn't inflate your head the way lovely communism does. You don't get to be the revolutionary vanguard nor the noble knight, just a small but essential axle for a cog that interacts with billionsof other cogs.
It makes you feel that being overly judgemental is a waste of time. That old saw about a the ripples caused by throwing a rock in a pool looks far too tiny. There aren't a few pretty concentric ripples but a river of events that flow from eensy weensy decisions that you make without giving them a moment's thought. It's staggering to realize the impact you might have.
An interesting way of looking at it is to imagine what Satan might say on your judgement day. According to some he'll be the chief prosecutor when you face God to receive your reward, and will recall every bad thing you ever did, and then some. Whether you believe in God and Satan or not is irrelevant for the exercize--here's an example.
%26quot;On June 3rd, 2004, the accused cut off John Baker on the freeway, who at that moment was in the midst of a difficult divorce. He in turn grew so angry that he flipped off Melody Thomas, who was so frightened by his anger that she slowed down appx 22mph in about 2 seconds. This caused a slowdown behind her that was the start of a traffic jam that lasted 70 minutes. Caught in that traffic jam was Herman Quintana, who was at that moment en route to pay the ransom for his 5-year-old daughter Ximena. Because he was late in delivering the ransom Ximena was murdered by the kidnappers Vincent Vega and Kaiser Soze, neither of whom had ever murdered anyone before, and also resulted in Herman's suicide. The accused, therefore, by refusing to pay attention to traffic and behaving with thoughtless disregard for human life, set in motion a chain of events that caused not only the deaths of Ximena and Herman Qintana, but also the 19 other people murdered by Vincent Vega and Kaiser Soze.%26quot;
Now obviously all of those things are not the responsibility of the 'accused.' But nonetheless it would really stink to be the straw that broke that particular camel's back in one of these situations. And it also demonstrates how a small action can have gigantic and grotesque consequences.
If the actual monster books are too much, you could also try %26quot;On The Wealth of Nations (Books That Changed the World)%26quot; by PJ O'Rourke. Not only does he cover all the essential concepts, he's just plain hilarious.
Good luck!Has anyone read and life changing books?Absolutely! God's Word, the Bible. Doesn't it make sense that the One Who created the entire universe, including us, would author a life-changing Book? The Bible continues to change my life!Has anyone read and life changing books?Yeah read some Wayne Dyer's stuff. if your that judge-mental your not going to have many friends. If your judgemental then you have some anger issues.Has anyone read and life changing books?Upton Sinclair - The Jungle.
Even though it's old, it still opened my eyes to just how screwed up people and businesses can be. It also showed me how it is a cruel, unfair place we live in and how much you need to really look out for yourself. I t helped me think of how others might be trying to take advantage of me.Has anyone read and life changing books?the freedom writers diary, i saw the movie, and then my mom bought me the book. it was amazing, way different then the movie, i suggest you read itHas anyone read and life changing books?this book is my fav
http://www.cafepress.com/921916.15931116Has anyone read and life changing books?Man's Search for Meaning- Viktor Frankl
It made be appreciate who and what I am.
he says in the book:
%26quot;Everything can be taken from a man but ...the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.%26quot;Has anyone read and life changing books?Never for me has a book totally change me, however i've read a book that has changed a lot of persons, its called %26quot;the God Delusion%26quot; by Richard Dawkins. It is pretty interesting though it might be very insultive to religionHas anyone read and life changing books?As far as fiction goes, there have been a few, three actually. They all taught me similar lessons. The Outsiders, which I read in middle school taught me not to look down on people labeled %26quot;thugs%26quot;, they are people, have friends, families, emotions, and that money does not, in fact buy happiness. Les Miserables changed the way I look at people, I try my hardest now to not judge people who seem %26quot;rough around the edges.%26quot; And when someone wrongs me to turn the other cheek. And then there was To Kill A Mockingbird, which reminded me to climb into another person's skin and walk around in it before forming an opinion about them. I can be a judgemental person too sometimes, but these three books all keep me on my toes, and make me hold myself to the standards of characters in the books, Atticus Finch and the Bishop (I forget his name) in Les Mis. I know it sounds dumb that I try to behave like a fictional character, but these books changed the way I look at the world and the people in it.
