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Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
231–240 of 357 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#232My recommendations from books I read this year: Bad Blood : Man, this book really does read like a Hollywood movie screenplay. The rise and fall of Theranos, documented through interviews with hundreds of ex-employees by the very author who came up with the first expose of Theranos. Truly shows the flaws in the "fake it before you make it" mindset and how we glorify "geniuses". Shoe Dog : Biography of the founder of…
The Three Body Problem had some flashy ideas (like controlling the CMBR, and building a computer the size of a proton), but I didn't really feel like it had much depth. It had none of the great social commentary that you often get in sci-fi, and I thought the characters were kind of two-dimensional. Overall it just didn't really do it for me.
The Three Body Problem is entirely a set up for the other books. It does indeed have social commentary- but that social commentary is coming from a Chinese perspective.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#233My recommendations from books I read this year: Bad Blood : Man, this book really does read like a Hollywood movie screenplay. The rise and fall of Theranos, documented through interviews with hundreds of ex-employees by the very author who came up with the first expose of Theranos. Truly shows the flaws in the "fake it before you make it" mindset and how we glorify "geniuses". Shoe Dog : Biography of the founder of…
The Three Body Problem had some flashy ideas (like controlling the CMBR, and building a computer the size of a proton), but I didn't really feel like it had much depth. It had none of the great social commentary that you often get in sci-fi, and I thought the characters were kind of two-dimensional. Overall it just didn't really do it for me.
I actually disagree and have wondered myself how he got such a book published in China. He is very critical of China's history throughout the series and collectivism. Also the sophons seem (at least to me) to be a direct parallel to the 'surveillance state' concerns that China has right now and how the citizens feel about them
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#234Freakonomics - good “everything you know is wrong” Promote yourself - meh “just become an influencer and pick a new job” Extreme Ownership - good “navy seal war story -> leadership principle -> business application” x12 Rise - good “wow I have an easy life” Drive - good “some people like doing stuff just because” The Accounting Game - good “money explained to a kid to make you feel vetter about not understanding mone…
I'm reading "Extreme Ownership" and it's a really entertaining read. The only offputting aspect is the nonchalant way they describe killing enemy combatants and the language they use is somewhat deragotory towards their adversaries. But I'm not sure you could survive sane through the things the authors went through without a bit of dehumanization of ones enemies - enemies that have killed your friends and colleagues…
Thanks for your take on this one. I was in Baghdad around the same time, Army, but a half step removed from combat arms. A decade removed from that now, I agree with you. In the moment, I think that dehumanization is a necessary side effect of combat. It lets you come to terms with everything slowly over time, rather than dealing with it all at once.
Interestingly, this was a management team read at my current employer. It isn’t seen as the only way to manage - more of a kick to have people own more of their responsibilities rather than deferring to others.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#235My recommendations from books I read this year: Bad Blood : Man, this book really does read like a Hollywood movie screenplay. The rise and fall of Theranos, documented through interviews with hundreds of ex-employees by the very author who came up with the first expose of Theranos. Truly shows the flaws in the "fake it before you make it" mindset and how we glorify "geniuses". Shoe Dog : Biography of the founder of…
I found the three body problems' representation of a computer with 30 million soldiers really stupid. I didn't read the book because of people raving about how clever that concept of the human computer is. http://linusrosskamp.com/articles/2017-08/three-body-problem... Guess what. You can achieve the same power of computation with 1 person, a pen, a paper and our standard number symbols 0-9. Do people not realize why…
But it wasn't a human computer. It was a trisolarian computer made up of trisolarians that were alien beings that had the ability to do things like hyper-fast communication and always be truthful. Both of those traits could actually make for a viable computer system whereas humans obviously would not. I can see how you may have thought that though because in the 3 body problem simulation "game" in the book the trisolarians are represented as humans (the author does point out the difference though)
On a side note, is our system of government really all that different from a mass human computer?
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#236This year, I discovered Agatha Christie. A few years back, when I was temporarily advised bed rest for a month, my sis loaned me a collection of Hercule Poirot short stories. I was always a Sherlock Holmes fan and really enjoyed the logical detective work. Hercule Poirot felt like just like a pretentious quirky old man, making denouements based on evidence that is flimsy and tenuous at best. This year, I came across…
Sherlock and Poirot are great detective genres. I'm not sure if they really have parallels. The French people however love their Inspector Maigret (by Georges Simenon). The Maigret books are apparently some of the best selling books in the Francophone world of all time. Inspector Maigret however is more procedural, and doesn't go for climatic reveals and does not have the flawed omniscient genius character that most…
I’ve been gradually working through producing the Arsène Lupin stories and they’re fabulous, especially when you include his relations to Herlock Sholmes :) Libre Arsène ebooks I’ve produced so far (the remaining PD corpus is gradually following):
The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-extrao...
Arsène Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/arsene-lup...
The Hollow Needle
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-hollow...
813
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/813/alexan...
The Crystal Stopper
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc/the-crysta...
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found the three body problems' representation of a computer with 30 million soldiers really stupid. I didn't read the book because of people raving about how clever that concept of the human computer is. http://linusrosskamp.com/articles/2017-08/three-body-problem... Guess what. You can achieve the same power of computation with 1 person, a pen, a paper and our standard number symbols 0-9. Do people not realize why…
But it wasn't a human computer. It was a trisolarian computer made up of trisolarians that were alien beings that had the ability to do things like hyper-fast communication and always be truthful. Both of those traits could actually make for a viable computer system whereas humans obviously would not. I can see how you may have thought that though because in the 3 body problem simulation "game" in the book the trisol…
Yeah but why use binary? Why not communicate through language rather than binary?
Yes, our system of government is a mass human computer that would be made really inefficient if everyone could only communicate in binary and if we restricted one persons functional processing to output that of a single logical gate.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#238This year was a year in which, along with everything else, I read a number of standout scifi trilogies:
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Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (African girl goes to space, becomes a unifying force in the galaxy)
- Binti
- Binti: Home
- Binti: The Night Masquerade
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Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin (Humans make first contact and it doesn't go all that well)
- The Three Body Problem
- The Dark Forest
- Death's End
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Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie (A spaceship's AI becomes confined to a single human body and seeks revenge)
- Ancillary Justice
- Ancillary Sword
- Ancillary Mercy
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Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin (Earth really hates humans, but some people have the power to control the earthquakes)
- The Fifth Season
- The Obelisk Gate
- The Stone Sky
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#239The Obstacle is the Way (somewhat encouraging) The Art of Empathy (very interesting) The Three Body Problem (good) The Startup Way (decent) The Politics of Bitcoin (short but interesting) Why We Sleep (very much worth it) The Last Arrow (mixed feelings) The Prize (boring but informative) Superhuman by Habit (OK, not much new) The Circle of Profit (straight to the point) Thinking in Systems (couldn't finish it) Radica…
> Harry Potter #1 (too low of a reading level) The series is great and worth a read, even for your superior reading level.
Why are people so crass here? Is an opinion that differs from the majority so bad? I hardly boast a superior reading level, even fans of the series will tell you the first book was written for a 5th grade reading level. I simply didn't care for it, sorry.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
But it wasn't a human computer. It was a trisolarian computer made up of trisolarians that were alien beings that had the ability to do things like hyper-fast communication and always be truthful. Both of those traits could actually make for a viable computer system whereas humans obviously would not. I can see how you may have thought that though because in the 3 body problem simulation "game" in the book the trisol…
Yeah but why use binary? Why not communicate through language rather than binary? Yes, our system of government is a mass human computer that would be made really inefficient if everyone could only communicate in binary and if we restricted one persons functional processing to output that of a single logical gate.
That's definitely a good point; language would likely be much better than binary unless the aliens had some special capacity for binary (which I'm pretty sure was not the case)