Obviously, each of these works influenced me at most by ~0.5% on an imaginary scale. That still is a lot in my opinion for just reading a book or watching a movie. I’m going to try to optimize for works with a maximum influence per obviousness ratio. For example, Star Wars obviously affected me a lot but it affected everyone else too, so it isn’t a particularly interesting work to list here.

Books

• Arthur Clarke’s short stories – Scifi in it’s purest form – Blew my mind as a kid. Singlehandedly inspired me to learn how technology works and got me excited for the future.
• The Lion of Comarre – One specific Arthur Clarke short story – Made me consider what I want the future to look like. Got me excited about robotics and how that would reshape society.
• Matterhorn – Vietnam war novel – There but for the grace of God go I. It was an experience reading this.
• How To Be A Victorian – A historical book detailing how Victorians actually lived – Opened my eyes to how people in the past weren’t any different from us today, they just operated under different incentives and constraints.
• The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber – Short story by Hemingway about courage – I read this at a pivotal time in my teenage years when I was taking on a more risk-taking attitude.

Movies

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty – Man goes from daydreamer to global adventurer – Seriously influenced me to become more adventurous as a person.
• Tampopo – A Japanese ramen western – It inspired me to take food more seriously. It has an outsized effect on me anyways, I might as well give it the respect it calls for.
• The Family Man – I can’t figure out what the moral of this story is. Every few years I change my mind on which path I would’ve chosen for myself. I think when I watched this as a kid it made me consider what role working plays in life.

TV Shows

• Mad Men – A show about an ad agency in the 60’s – The only show where I felt like I KNEW the characters. I haven’t ever rewatched it because my memory of watching it the first time is so mindblowing.

Games

• The Total War series – Historical RTS games set in Feudal Japan/Fall of Rome etc – Inspired my love of history.