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Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#251

Post by irajdeep »

deebosong wrote: post #135
tayo42 wrote: post #65

I read "Crucial Conversations" this year. It feel like it has the potential to be life changing. Need more time to tell what impact it really has. It introduced me to a new topic, which is analyzing social situations and apply problem solving skills to them. Something that never occurred to me for some reason. I now realize there are smart people working and having interesting thoughts and conclusions in this topic.…

Another drop in this bucket. I read it once and took some notes. Haven't looked back on either the source nor my notes (until now!), but the book came to me at a time when I was dealing with a lot of inner-organizational bureaucracy on a small-scale, but was utterly frustrating. The book gave me new frameworks, and was reco'd to me from someone within the org who I was confiding in on the top-level. But ultimately, t…

A bit tangential question.

> I read it once and took some notes.

Curious to know how you go about taking notes for the books you read.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#252

Post by mrslave »

kovrik wrote: post #128

Gene Wolfe. The whole Solar Cycle (The Book of the New Sun, Urth of The New Sun, The Book of The Long Sun, The Book of The Short Sun), Fifth Head of Cerberus, Peace, There Are Doors, The Sorcerer's House ... . Wolfe is a genius. Before that I also finished Malazan.

I fizzled on Malazan. Despite warnings that the first book isn't that great - but the series is! - I really enjoyed it. However I subsequently found the second book to be an unsatisfying grind and then so was the third where I stopped half-way.

I have just started The Book of the New Sun and am hopeful it will be a better experience.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#253

Post by tayo42 »

flakiness wrote: post #247
ListeningPie wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is the author? There are two books with the same title.

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-... Based on the description. I read this too and it was enlightening. So +1.

Yeah this is the book I was talking about

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#254

Post by deebosong »

irajdeep wrote: post #251
deebosong wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another drop in this bucket. I read it once and took some notes. Haven't looked back on either the source nor my notes (until now!), but the book came to me at a time when I was dealing with a lot of inner-organizational bureaucracy on a small-scale, but was utterly frustrating. The book gave me new frameworks, and was reco'd to me from someone within the org who I was confiding in on the top-level. But ultimately, t…

A bit tangential question. > I read it once and took some notes. Curious to know how you go about taking notes for the books you read.

So I'm a bit extreme.

I'll either write quotes from a book by hand or type it out on some word processor. But there are times I've typed out or written out entire chapters from a book. And one book I almost transcribed pretty much from end to end.

I think it's pretty inefficient. And I definitely don't recall perfectly. But it does help a lot of the info lodge in deeper than just active reading. Might just be a belief I hold, and I don't really recommend others to do it because it's definitely a lil kooky and time consuming.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#255

Post by RationPhantoms »

mandeepj wrote: post #170
tayo42 wrote: post #65

I read "Crucial Conversations" this year. It feel like it has the potential to be life changing. Need more time to tell what impact it really has. It introduced me to a new topic, which is analyzing social situations and apply problem solving skills to them. Something that never occurred to me for some reason. I now realize there are smart people working and having interesting thoughts and conclusions in this topic.…

I ordered both - "Crucial Conversations" and "Nonviolent Communication" - as audio books. Both turned out to be super dry. Same analogies and scenarios over and over again, eventually got tired of listening them; will try again now.

I find using the website Short Form to help with get to the meet of these self-help books. Can't recommend that enough.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#256

Post by bwanab »

conductr wrote: post #122
bwanab wrote: post #106

The two recent books by Madeline Miller, "Circe" and "The Song of Achilles" "Crossroads" Jonathan Franzen "Agassi" Andre Agassi - I don't normally read sports memoirs, but this one came highly recommended by a woman author that I have read recently so I gave it a try. As a tennis fan who pretty much alway routed for the other player when he played (except when he played Pete Sampras), I found the book totally engagin…

I was a big Sampras fan, curious on details of your exception. I don’t follow off the court/field drama so was he a huge jerk or something?

Sampras was a great player, but I never really liked his style of play. As a baseliner, I far preferred Courier and Agassi. As a serve and volley player, I far preferred Edberg and Rafter. Maybe it's unfair to compare him to the best of given styles since he was competent all around.

Agassi, though he's careful to give Sampras his due as an opponent, has some very interesting observations about him as a person in the book.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#257

Post by shivenigma »

madmax108 wrote: post #115

Book: You Are Not Expected to Understand This: How 26 Lines of Code Changed the World by Torie Bosch [1] Came across this book randomly on Twitter and picked it up. The book is broken into 26 essays about significant pieces of code (defined vaguely), ranging from the Morris Worm to Pagerank to the popup window and the 1x1 invisible gif and how these shaped the modern tech landscape. Lovely read overall, and really sh…

the dynamo db paper was a great read. I was reading it repeatedly just for the fun of the numerous topics/choices it introduced to me.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#258

Post by jarno3000 »

jszymborski wrote: post #120
bryan0 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing book. I would love to see a film adaptation. I also recommend his Bas-Lag series starting with Perdido Street Station.

I've not seen it but there's a mini-series adaptation https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7205264/

Great BBC mini series. Faithfully follows the book.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#259

Post by conductr »

bwanab wrote: post #256
conductr wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a big Sampras fan, curious on details of your exception. I don’t follow off the court/field drama so was he a huge jerk or something?

Sampras was a great player, but I never really liked his style of play. As a baseliner, I far preferred Courier and Agassi. As a serve and volley player, I far preferred Edberg and Rafter. Maybe it's unfair to compare him to the best of given styles since he was competent all around. Agassi, though he's careful to give Sampras his due as an opponent, has some very interesting observations about him as a person in the…

Cool. Good points that I never really realized. I was young and pretty newly minted tennis fan at the time so I think his style just stood out to me as different and seemed dominant. I didn't get much of the nuance you mention, but I remember thinking of him as a "power player" compared to others who tended to be more quick and nimble.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#260

Post by snapplebobapple »

The road to serfdom and the constitution of liberty by fa hayek. Really nails home why the individual is the moat important organizational block of society and how to protect that. Why nations fail and the narrow corridor by daron acemoglu were also excellent and gave more practical ideas on how to make institutions that work well (and also protect individuals). Wanting by luke burgis was also a really good jntro to rene girards ideas that like drive social interraction.
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