# Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang 3 Hacker News commenters recommended Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend it for its story about being drawn into alternate versions of one's own life, and for how strongly it affected some readers. ## Why people recommend it - Explores alternate versions of one's life (1 comments): "explores how people become enmeshed and addicted to alternate versions of how their life could have gone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49615874)) - Resonates with the reader's own past events (1 comments): "The story made me realize the same thing about certain events in my life." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48396310)) - Called one of the best stories read (1 comments): "That was one of the best stories I ever read" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48392305)) - Altered a reader's life course (1 comments): "altered the course of my life" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48388472)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [The Last Question by Isaac Asimov](https://hackerapproved.com/p/last-question.md): 50 recommend - [There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury](https://hackerapproved.com/p/there-will-come-soft-rains.md): 27 recommend - [They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/they-re-made-out-of-meat.md): 17 recommend - [Lena by qntm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lena.md): 16 recommend - [The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster](https://hackerapproved.com/p/machine-stops.md): 15 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Anxiety+is+the+Dizziness+of+Freedom+by+Ted+Chiang&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang", https://hackerapproved.com/p/anxiety-is-the-dizziness-of-freedom/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).