Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#101

Post by m0zg » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:47 AM UTC

mindcrime wrote: post #63

abecedarius wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume this was heavily downvoted because of the Rand. While I'm not a fan of her either, that's unfair: 1. Dreaming in Code and The Book of Why are excellent (I haven't read the other two), and 2. Rand makes some points that some people need to learn, even if I don't buy her whole worldview.

I presume this was heavily downvoted because of the Rand. Yeah, that's the norm here, sadly. You can post a list of 20 books and if one of them is by Rand, your post will be down-voted into oblivion. It's almost like some people have this Pavlovian reaction when they see Rand's name. I mean, I get that not everyone appreciates her works, and that's fine and totally understandable. "Different strokes" and all that. Bu…

I tried to read Mein Kampf and could not. The language is just so incredibly bureaucratic and dull that I gave up after 50 pages. Maybe it reads better in German, but I can't read German.

I suspect a lot of dogmatic texts are the same way. Rand is at least not a total drag to read even though I find a lot of her ideas hilarious (chief of which is: the very ethical, honest, and hard working rich people).

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#102

Post by ertand » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:47 AM UTC

It's an old book but I really enjoyed Liar's Poker (1989) by Michael Lewis.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#103

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:49 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #61

Michael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind [1] Not just about an utterly fascinating topic (psychadelic drugs), in terms of history (LSD turning from a scientific wonder drug to illegal), his personal experiences, and the neuroscience behind it, but also just extremely well-written -- a real page-turner. A crazy potent combination of science, spirituality (from a skeptic), and narrative. I expect his book will be a sign…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#104

Post by banjo_milkman » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:53 AM UTC

Books I liked in 2018:

Crashed by Adam Tooze ; history of the financial crisis, goes into more detail than most of the others

The Future of Capitalism by Paul Collier; lots of ideas on how to improve our situation, most of them are good, UK focused

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou; if you've ever been in a startup you'll recognize bits of this story, but it quickly gets out of control in novel ways. Astonishing story.

What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michel Sandel

The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu

Who we are and how we got here by David Reich: ancient DNA and human history

The Book of Why by Judea Pearl; liked it but I need to reread this one a few more times to comprehend completely or go to his textbooks

Empire of Cotton: Sven Birckets; a history of the first global technology including how it made the UK & USA rich

The Away Game: The Epic Search for Soccer's Next Superstar by Sebastian Abbot

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#105

Post by lloydde » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:54 AM UTC

shawnps wrote: post #37

Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…

“Never Split the Difference” was fantastic. Still it was super weird that unlike the advice in the book, some of the book comes across as bragging. Also, Chris Voss does not perform the audiobook although in the book he discusses his mastery of voice, his smooth radio jockey voice and covers different speaking techniques. Still, one of my favorites of 2018.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#106

Post by tomlock » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:54 AM UTC

tomlock wrote: post #86

libdjml wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. If anyone thinks it’s a legitimately bad book, feel free to discuss why.

It is a self-help book rooted in Jungian theory, widely discredited in modern psychology. His understanding of modern and postmodern philosophy is only deep enough to convince readers with no knowledge of those topics that he knows something about them.

Also here's a great video that might help Peterson fans understand some of the problems with his positions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LqZdkkBDas

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#107

Post by jen729w » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:55 AM UTC

Breaking news : the remaking of journalism and why it matters now – Rusbridger, Alan

From the editor of The Guardian for the last 20 years, a fascinating look at the move from traditional print to online news.

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The perfect weapon : war, sabotage, and fear in the cyber age – Sanger, David E.

The subtitle says it all. From that I’m now reading ‘Click Here to Kill Everybody’ by Schneier. Enjoying it so far.

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The world as it is : a memoir of the Obama White House — Rhodes, Benjamin J.

Another obvious one based on the title.

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As a side note, join your local library, people. None of this cost me a penny. I hope you still have a library wherever you live. Ours (Melbourne City Library Service) is just magnificent.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#108

Post by nyolfen » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:57 AM UTC

gyre007 wrote: post #55

Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies by Geoffrey West [1] [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scale-Universal-Organisms-Cities-Co...

see also this review by freeman dyson(!):

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/05/10/the-key-to-every...

unpaywalled:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180420081837/https://www.nyboo...

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#109

Post by jen729w » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 4:57 AM UTC

p1esk wrote: post #80

slyall wrote: post #79

* The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough * Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City by Neal Bascomb * Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean * Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari * A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin * The Actor’s Life: A survival guide by Jenna Fischer * The Inter…

Have you read all of these?

FWIW my library account shows me as having loaned 28 books this year. I’d say I finished 80% of them.

Don’t watch too much television, don’t read too much crap online. There’s plenty of time in life to read.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#110

Post by james_s_tayler » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 5:00 AM UTC

backpropaganda wrote: post #99

james_s_tayler wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems somewhat of an odd tagline "why good people are divided by politics"... All people are divided by politics. Perhaps it's one to give a read though. I swear I'm noticing a systemic failure at a global level of people to recognize they are always-on 24/7 political machines living inside an always-on 24/7 political machine and it's mostly Garbage In, Garbage Out. That's the default mode of operation. Most people a…

The tagline is meant to emphasize that even good people are divided by politics, and the book is meant to target people who didn't find that obvious.

Right but "good" itself is a moral/value judgement, so you wind up with the question "who is doing the defining?" And that descends into a disagreement. That is our M.O.

Actually looking at description of this book and some of the reviews it's basically what I'm saying. Though my thesis contains a large component centering around our complete inability to calculate the truth value of most truth claims a priori and our inability to recognize that leads us to being utterly convinced our erroneous conclusions are correct and getting angry at people who disagree with us. This coupled with all the literature on how dissenters are treated and how groupthink takes hold. We are a walking recipe for disaster.

This will make for a good read. Probably help me to expand on my own model even more.

I think a lot of turmoil and confusion could be avoided if we collectively upgraded our protocols for dealing with each other.