141–150 of 213 posts
"Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" by Steven Pinker Bill Gates calls it one of the most important books he's read in his life. "People often ask me what is the best book I’ve read in the last year. Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined stands out as one of the most important books I’ve read – not just this year, but ever." http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-…
"Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" by Steven Pinker Bill Gates calls it one of the most important books he's read in his life. "People often ask me what is the best book I’ve read in the last year. Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined stands out as one of the most important books I’ve read – not just this year, but ever." http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-…
One of the most important books in my life has been The Way of Zen by Alan Watts (I listened to it as an audiobook). It changed the way I think and feel (or at least how I react to feelings). Other interesting books about philosophy/spirituality are Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle The last one is the least recommended, I'm not sure I got anythi…
"The signal and the noise" by Nate Silver
are worth look.
Shameless self-plug about my book that covers calculus and mechanics in 300pp flat. No bullshit guide to math and physics: http://noBSgui.de/to/MATHandPHYSICS/
Shameless self-plug about my book that covers calculus and mechanics in 300pp flat. No bullshit guide to math and physics: http://noBSgui.de/to/MATHandPHYSICS/
If you've included the non-standard analysis approach to calculus it could benefit a ton of people.
"The biological basis of teleological concepts" by Harry Binswanger.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is very long though so I'm not sure it's exactly the type of book being requested here. Not that the data is unimportant, but the inclusion of so many tables and tables and charts caused me to give up on trying to finish the book.
You can get much of the information in a quicker way by watching one of Pinker's talks eg https://youtu.be/feuq5x2ZL-s?t=3m28s
* the Flynn Effect
* various points of human psychology (victim vs perpetrator bias)
* the crime spike in the 90's and its causes
* a critique of Freakonomics' hypothesis that abortion caused the decline of the 90's crime wave
* Sections on bullying, animal rights, gay rights, women's rights, etc.
* The various types of wars and their individual proximate causes for decline.
* An interesting section on self-control, how it works and how its lack contributes to crime. Even fascinating pragmatic information on how one's own self-control can be improved.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I encourage anyone who reads Pinker's book to also consider Nassim Taleb's critique http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/longpeace.pdf
... and then read Pinker's reply http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/comments_on_taleb... TLDR: The book’s structure was lost on Taleb, who blends the different chapters and then criticizes his own confusion.
"Taleb shows no signs of having read Better Angels with the slightest attention to its content. Instead he has merged it in his mind with claims by various fools and knaves whom he believes he has bettered in the past. The confusion begins with his remarkable claim that the thesis in Better Angels is “identical” to Ben Bernanke’s theory of a moderation in the stock market. Identical! This alone should warn readers that for all of Taleb’s prescience about the financial crisis, accurate attribution and careful analysis of other people’s ideas are not his strong suits."
Gödel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter.