Both the book and a course:
Behave - Robert Sapolsky
Human Behavioral Biology - https://www.robertsapolskyrocks.com/intro-to-human-behaviora...
As a side effect of the course I also read Chaos by James Gleick and my mind was blown.
Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
181–190 of 206 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I was trying not to spoil that, but that's what I meant when I said "(or is it? one passage suggests maybe that's not the case)". That was interesting to think about when I got to that point, but wasn't enough for me.
Ah fair enough. I think I went into the book knowing that already so I enjoyed it. I think I’d either recently visited Venice or went shortly after reading the book so it resonated with me. I think if I was going into the book expecting a standard novel then I would be disappointed.
I've never been to Venice so perhaps I would appreciate it more after that.
I did become a bit more interested in visiting Venice after watching this one video by DamiLee on Hurry Sickness and how the structure of Venice is like a labyrinth, designed to slow you down and encourage you to wander, as if it were somewhat of a soul-healing mechanism. She also mentions Invisible Cities in the video:
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#183- Build by Fadell - Hard Drive by Wallace - The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Cooper These three books are some of the best books in their respective categories. All three are about product design in a way. Build is about the development of the iPhone and Nest. Hard Drive is about the early history of MS and about the stunts Gates pulled to win. Inmates argues that programmers tend to hijack the product design pr…
Great list! Do you have any recommendations for books on inclusive design? Does any of these books touch upon the topic?
Thanks! I don't have a great recommendation. About Face by Cooper (same author as Inmates) is good, but only covers inclusive design indirectly. Good design makes products automatically more inclusive, but design specifically for people with impairments is something I know nothing about.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#184One book stuck out to me this year: Blindsight by Peter Watts. What happens when humankind on the verge of post-scarcity suffers its first alien contact -- truly alien contact. A team of engineered humans is sent to meet them. What really stuck out to me is how the content of the book could be applied to a potential AGI -- an alien, intelligent entity that we can't really understand and still have to interact with. I…
Blind sight has been recommended enough times so I'll add a note about the sequel.
Watts wrote a loosely related sequel called Echopraxia that was not nearly as good as Blindsight but expands on some of the concepts. It was much more of a slog to read through and a bit confusing to follow the story and I had to force myself to finish it. If you are thinking of picking that up after reading Blindsight.
Both books have a good section after the story where Watts explains the research and citations of how he came up with the story. If you read that part it may break your brain in a questioning existence kind of way.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#185Gleb Uspensky, The Power of the Land (Earth/Soil)
I heard Vladimir Lenin was keeping this one at his desk.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#186Some of my favourites this year: On The Clock by Emily Guendelsberger - Gave me a glimpse into how it is to work at Amazon, McDonalds and Convergys. Though the subject is not the most positive. her style of writing is quite funny, and the combination worked well. Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. He drops you into the middle of his universe without explaining it all at once, and he's very eager about explai…
As a Murakami fan, which did you read? Happy to make suggestions if you are open. Also if you want to hear me blather on about his cannon: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FEkaCe--UR0
It was "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". Happy for any recommendations, thank you
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#187The Wandering Inn. https://wanderinginn.com/ It's a webnovel, litRPG, slice of life, rememeberable cast of characters, with most of the characters getting extensive character building. Has dragons, aliens, time travel, fae etc. Also has modern pop references. For e.g. "arrow to the knee" Also it's massive. You can spend an year reading it to reach the current chapters. I probably spent more time reading this then wat…
Oh, that sounds interesting! I like to take a break from books with other things like drawing, puzzles, manga, graphic novels. But I think I haven't followed a webnovel like this (the HFY subreddit stories is probably the closest I've done). Will give it a try! Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#188One book stuck out to me this year: Blindsight by Peter Watts. What happens when humankind on the verge of post-scarcity suffers its first alien contact -- truly alien contact. A team of engineered humans is sent to meet them. What really stuck out to me is how the content of the book could be applied to a potential AGI -- an alien, intelligent entity that we can't really understand and still have to interact with. I…
Blind sight has been recommended enough times so I'll add a note about the sequel. Watts wrote a loosely related sequel called Echopraxia that was not nearly as good as Blindsight but expands on some of the concepts. It was much more of a slog to read through and a bit confusing to follow the story and I had to force myself to finish it. If you are thinking of picking that up after reading Blindsight. Both books have…
Heh, +1 on Blindsight and also on the sequel not being as good :) I think Watts had remarked something like, people complained there was not enough action, so he added more action. But based on the comments I keep seeing (and Amazon stars) people like it much less...
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#189* Three Body Problem. I've heard of it many times, but never read it. Picked it up a month or two ago, read the whole thing in a few sessions, one of my favourite sci-fi books ever. Will read the next book in the series. * Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive. Best pop-sci book I've read in a while. Strikes the right balance between including pertinent information without being overwhelmi…
I'm going to use my vote to vote against the Three Body Problem. If more people keep recommending it, more people will have to read it, and that would make me sad. Because it's a terrible book. It epitomizes the sort of sci Fi that sci Fi people keep recommending, with it's kinda interesting concept and embarrassingly bad writing. It's just hundreds of pages of unreadable. And it ends abruptly before resolving anythi…
Some people like this kind of book. In fact, I sometimes wonder if explicitly "bad writing" is good for hard sci-fi, at least some authors. My personal favorite example is Greg Egan. In Permutation City/etc., characters are cardboard cutouts, but the books are wonderful based on the ideas. Then in Teranesia he tried to write characters but the ideas fell flat IMHO. It's almost like there's limited bandwidth...
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#1901) Chris Moriarty. Spin State - relatively-hard sci-fi with decent non sci-fi elements (i.e. characters and stuff), which I think is rare.
2) Ralph Ellison. Invisible Man. I really enjoyed the writing, among other things, and how he captures short moments and scenes with sort of a hard-to-describe quality of a visual art, almost.
3) Ilya Somin. Free To Move. To me most of the book was "duh" but I think it would be a good read for people on the fence about immigration and private vs public institutions.
4) Vaclav Smil. Energy And Civilization; possibly How the World Really Works, still reading that one. Really dense and detailed examination of energy history of mankind for the former, and infrastructure of technological civilization for the latter.
5) Pluckrose & Lindsday. Cynical Theories. Good 101 on CRT and modern woke movement.
6) Alexander. New Jim Crow. Good 101 on war on drugs, although some broader social arguments the book makes straightforwardly don't seem to follow, or are contradicted by, its factual base IMHO.
7) Stephenson. Seveneves - really good hard sci-fi imho, although felt very, very long.
8) Orwell. Down and Out in Paris and London. A good book about poverty only 70-100 years ago. Also a good perspective for modern complaints about poverty - I have some non-US background for that, so I think many US readers might benefit more.
On the fence. 1) I want to plug Seleukid Royal Economy, just for the hell of it, if you are interested in ancient economy :)
2) Galef. Scout Mindset - on the fence about this one, but it seemed like it was way too long for what it offers. Maybe I've just read a lot of the same stuff ago.
3) Okorafor. Binti - not bad as a YA book, but sci-fi aspects are remarkably bad.
A few more I'm too lazy to type out ;)