# Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A short story collection praised for weaving advanced mathematics, philosophy and computer science into human narratives; the title story inspired the film Arrival.

## Why people recommend it

- Ideas woven into captivating narratives (3 comments): "he introduces advanced concepts from mathematics, philosophy, and computer science in a way that’s subtly woven into captivating narratives" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46132236)) "all it made me want to do is learn Heptapod B and their senagram style of written communication" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398280)) "there's really good stuff that I've loved" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46348141))
- Sci-fi premise frames human questions (2 comments): "same thing asimov does where the sci fi premise is really just a frame for a very human question" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47805573)) "I think "Arrival" as a story is better than the movie." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48394394))
- Consistently high quality stories (6 comments): "I read the "Stories of your life" collection recently and it was quite stunning." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49900872)) "Anyway, Stories of Your Life and Others is a wonderful collection." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49904900)) "Everything I've read by him ranges from very good to sublime." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49901665))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Exhalation by Ted Chiang](https://hackerapproved.com/p/exhalation.md): 21 recommend
- [Valuable Humans in Transit by qntm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/valuable-humans-in-transit.md): 10 recommend
- [Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ficciones.md): 6 recommend
- [The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/decameron.md): 6 recommend
- [Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cosmicomics.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525433678?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780525433675) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang", https://hackerapproved.com/p/stories-of-your-life-and-others/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).