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Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#111

Post by acjohnson55 »

mmorris wrote: post #87
acjohnson55 wrote: post #77

Javascript Allongé is one of my favorite programming books ever: https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read . I think it's a great book even if you don't program Javascript, because the way Braithwaite talks about programming language techniques is so interesting. I had been programming Javascript for a long time before I read this back, and afterward, it changed my whole point of view on how it could be used.

Actually, the original version of this book is no longer for sale. The link for the updated free version is here: https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read Or, if you want to buy it in other formats, here: https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix

Ah, thanks, wasn't aware of the update!

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#112

Post by devalier »

mturmon wrote: post #89
devalier wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are definitions of fascism by which Moldbug is advocating fascism. There are definitions of fascism by which FDR or Woodrow Wilson were fascists. The definition of fascist by which Moldbug is a fascist is not the same definition that made fascist a synonym for evil incarnate. Moldbug certainly does not want a mob with pitchforks to take over the government and to murder the Jews and go on a global plan of conqu…

"create hyperbole in the opposite direction of the current prevailing ideologies" This is accurate and well-said. I differ greatly in the value I'd assign to the end product. It takes way too much work to untangle the possibly true, mind-bending stuff ( 50%). It's not worth it. Also, and I say this as someone who enjoys reading long-winded essays for fun: the information density is too low. And finally, given the abo…

I would say that about 20% of the time he nails it square on, and another 70% of the time he goes overboard but he is still closer to the truth the current mainstream view. I think he appeals more to people who 1) are significantly disaffected with mainstream politics, and 2) do not believe that that problem with politics is insufficient progressivism.

If you believe the political situation is more good than bad, or if you believe it is bad only due to not being progressive enough, bad due to America not being enough like Sweden, then you won't find Moldbug at all convincing.

But if you are disaffected with both the mainstream right and progressives, then you are in search of an alternative theory of why everything is going so rotten. And in that case, Moldbug's theories are a revelation.

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#113

Post by bootload »

"What are your recommended reads that are available for free?"

Ask Professor Steve. [0]

I ran into Steve on HN back in 2010 and went for a walk with a mob of economists. [1][2] The key thing I got talking to Steve? Economics is fundamentally flawed. Read with caution.

Reference:

[0] https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen

[1] http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html

[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#115

Post by proveanegative »

devalier wrote: post #32

The writings of Mencius Moldbug: http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/ Mind-bending writings on politics, history and economics.

If you are looking for a place to start try What if there's no such thing as chaotic good? (http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-if...). It is a short and fairly standalone post that well shows Moldbug's most major line of thought and writing style.

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#116

Post by hoopd »

hodwik wrote: post #108
anthony_romeo wrote: post #86

Just a bit of caution. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a group devoted to specifically advocating one branch of economics, Austrian Economics. Part of this branch is staunch Libertarianism, but they don't believe in several aspects which are typical in mainstream economic branches, such as using statistical modeling and mathematics to draw conclusions about economic status or action. I'm not here to debate the meri…

In a chaotic system, arriving at abstractions of the forces at play often gives a more illuminating picture than trying to model those systems from weakly-linked data points. It's not that Austrian economists can't find their own data models to defend their positions, with an area like economics finding data to support your opinions is the easy part. Rather, we've found that obsessing over the data provides very litt…

> It's like neurology. Yes, it's a terribly interesting field, but you'll learn more about the human mind from reading Proust.

I think this is a great metaphor but for very different reasons than you. Reading Proust will help somebody who sits on the sidelines take in the scene of somebody's neurological condition degrading. Studying neurology will help somebody find and (hopefully) cure the disease.

Neurologists save lives, people who sit in armchairs cherishing Proust may enrich themselves but they have no grounds to look down upon those who are getting their hands dirty.

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#117

Post by hoopd »

tjradcliffe wrote: post #92
anthony_romeo wrote: post #86

Just a bit of caution. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a group devoted to specifically advocating one branch of economics, Austrian Economics. Part of this branch is staunch Libertarianism, but they don't believe in several aspects which are typical in mainstream economic branches, such as using statistical modeling and mathematics to draw conclusions about economic status or action. I'm not here to debate the meri…

That said, the "One Lesson" of the book's title is applicable to all schools of economics: that to qualify as good economic thinking, the consequences of a proposed change must be propagated through the entire economy, and not cut off until they are plausibly insignificant. This is something that any modern economist should agree with, regardless of what their other biases are.

Wouldn't that make all microeconomics bad economic thinking?

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#118

Post by brickcap »

noblethrasher wrote: post #64

The short stories of P.G. Wodenhouse, just to see what real mastery of the English language looks like.

Good to see a fan of Wodehouse :) I like his longer works better. I read ukridge and mulliner nights a while back. They were good but not as good as jeeves and the others.

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#119

Post by dmfdmf »

devalier wrote: post #44
dmfdmf wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read it to see for yourself but this is long-winded, pseudo-intellectual garbage advocating fascism. Moldbug is a follower of Thomas Carlyle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle

There are definitions of fascism by which Moldbug is advocating fascism. There are definitions of fascism by which FDR or Woodrow Wilson were fascists. The definition of fascist by which Moldbug is a fascist is not the same definition that made fascist a synonym for evil incarnate. Moldbug certainly does not want a mob with pitchforks to take over the government and to murder the Jews and go on a global plan of conqu…

There is a lot to say about paragraphs one and two but I'll limit my comment to number three;

"I do agree with the long-winded part. Some people like his whimsical, sci-fi jargon infused, verbose writing style, others cannot stand it. That is a matter of taste."

I would agree that such a style, up to a point, is a matter of taste. But beyond that point I think that verbosity, long run-on paragraphs, detours and "long-cuts" into side issues and irrelevant historical background, etc. serves two rhetorical purposes. First, to obfuscate and ameliorate a point he can't state plainly; that he is advocating a dictatorship [I call it fascist, you can call it whatever you want]. Second, it gives him the appearance of saying something deeper and more important than what he is actually saying, i.e. pseudo-intellectualism.

Re: Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

#120

Post by dmfdmf »

devalier wrote: post #112
mturmon wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"create hyperbole in the opposite direction of the current prevailing ideologies" This is accurate and well-said. I differ greatly in the value I'd assign to the end product. It takes way too much work to untangle the possibly true, mind-bending stuff ( 50%). It's not worth it. Also, and I say this as someone who enjoys reading long-winded essays for fun: the information density is too low. And finally, given the abo…

I would say that about 20% of the time he nails it square on, and another 70% of the time he goes overboard but he is still closer to the truth the current mainstream view. I think he appeals more to people who 1) are significantly disaffected with mainstream politics, and 2) do not believe that that problem with politics is insufficient progressivism. If you believe the political situation is more good than bad, or…

"But if you are disaffected with both the mainstream right and progressives, then you are in search of an alternative theory of why everything is going so rotten. And in that case, Moldbug's theories are a revelation."

Far from being a radical repudiating "the currently prevailing ideologies" I would say that he is steeped in the currently ideologies and just advocating their logical end; dictatorship. The Left and Right are both intellectually bankrupt and now just seek power for power's sake, i.e., they stand for nothing. The society is ripe for a dictator and we will get one as soon as another economic or other crisis arises. The Left and the Right secretly are hoping for such a crisis and that their gang happens to be in power when it happens. Writers like Moldbug are a harbinger of the future of the US as we drift toward dictatorship and they existed in Germany before the rise of the Nazis, laying the intellectual ground work.

Fortunately there is real intellectual opposition to this fate in Ayn Rand's philosophy. You should read "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" and more importantly her intro on ethics "The Virtue of Selfishness". She identified what is wrong with the Left and the Right and proposes an alternative ethical and political theory to support Capitalism and her writings are crystal clear and to the point.

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