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Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#31

As parents we wanted to be one of the better ones. A while back, we started with Bringing up Bébé , and since then learnt How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk ; we were even Prepared while Reviving Ophelia . This year , we realized, we want to just settle on being A Good Enough Parent . 1. https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Up-Bébé-Discovers-Parenting/... 2. https://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-W…

This is fantastic. I'm a relatively new parent, and I really feel like I could use some of these materials. Thank you for sharing.

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#33
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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> Guns, Germs and Steel is basically a modern eugenicist theory, racist and dumb. Um, run that by me again? It’s been a while since I read it but doesn’t the book specifically argue that the Europeans conquered the Americas because of geographic factors rather than because of race? Do I have the main thrust of the book completely backwards?

I’m not sure what their claim is based on as your memory is broadly correct. The two criticisms I’ve read basically come down to it being oversimplified (e.g. ignoring the degree to which European successes depended on local allies) and that it ends to being too passive about the decisions made at key points which weren’t accidents of geography even if some of the capability to conquer arguably was.

Here’s a reasonable summary:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/08/03/guns-germs-an...

https://www.livinganthropologically.com/archaeology/guns-ger...

There’s hours of reading in the Reddit r/AskHistorians FAQ:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/historians_views...

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#34
Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber of Bullshit Jobs, and, more importantly, this book. Graeber was an anthropologist, and he goes through the history of debt and how it became intertwined with our culture and morality with many, many examples. The book is chock full of ideas.

Also The Dawn of Everything, which Graeber cowrote with archaeologist David Wengrow. The broader point of the book is that there is no one story of the "evolution" of society into modern states and no "agricultural revolution" triggering the rise of urbanization and social hierarchy. Instead, there have been countless arrangements and permutations of these things with intelligent, politically-conscious people thinking about how they wanted to order their society long before the invention of writing. He takes particular aim at popular writers pushing simpler stories painting Western capitalism as a natural endpoint, especially Stephen Pinker and Yuval Noah Harari.

Even if you aren't onboard with Graeber's radical left politics, both books are so chock full of ideas and examples that it's hard to come away without a lot to think about.

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#35
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post #3

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Thank you for sharing your recommendation, but I'm afraid that this book contains misinformation and promotes conspiracy theories that are not supported by evidence. I would kindly ask that you refrain from posting recommendations for this book in the future, as it is not in line with the standards and guidelines of HN.

Is guzik a moderator like dang?

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#36
The God Of Small Things

Winner of the booker prize, a delightful tale set in Kerala, a province of India where our ancestors first landed on the subcontinent.

Very well written, and invokes powerful imaginery of Kerela's environ and social setting.

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#37
"The Constructed Mennonite: History, Memory, and the Second World War" by Hans Werner

It was a great read because it gave an insight into the "Russian" style perspective of the Anabaptist understanding, and the deep complications around: nonresistance, nationhood, language, and war. It is only a small slice of some of the horrifying realities the Anabapists' suffered at the hands of both Axis and Allies during WWII, but as a personal account, and as a detailed series of event, it is excellent.

"Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture" by David Kushner

It gave a real snapshot of what it was like making (and playing) games in the 80's and 90's. It helped to remind the reader of the technical challenges programmers faced, as well as the much less money-focused nature of video games as an industry. (I have way more to say on this, but will resist the urge.)

"Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" by Patrick Radden Keefe

Gives, in my opinion, very accurate account of both "sides" of the issue regarding The Troubles. It brought up a massive number of details I was either unaware of, or forgot about. From my perspective, it didn't appear to pull any punches, but instead laid things out precisely as they happened, and showed the blood on the shirts and knuckles of both side. It gave a personal insight to the people who were going through it first hand, and the ways in which they lived their lives; in many ways, it reminded me of some of the descriptions I had heard about the 2003-2011 Iraq War from civilians. (A common theme in both I recall hearing described was the fear of waiting in lines for things, as it meant that location might be targeted for bombing.)

"History Is Wrong" by Erich von Däniken

Although the book is meant to be a serious read, I take it as a comedy. I enjoy listening to various conspriacy theories to see whether I find any shreds of truth in them. In this book, there are some claims about how the way we understand human history is fundamentally wrong, and that "a lost subterranean labyrinth in Ecuador" held specific secrets in the form of "gold panels" - panels which mysteriously disappeared.

Note: I don't mean to sound overly dismissive to anyone who might be a "true believer" in this specific line of thinking, I just find the claims made to be preposterous.

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#39
I seriously doubt this appeals to the modern Hacker News crowd, but it might appeal to a couple of you:

Published in October 2022, The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 4B is dazzling. It's like a guide to expressing (in non-obvious ways) all kinds of problems as some variation on Exact Cover (or Boolean Satisfiability) and using wicked tight little general-purpose backtracking solvers to solve them.

If you want a peek, watch Knuth's 2018 lecture on Dancing Links Exact Cover:

https://youtu.be/_cR9zDlvP88

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#40

Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber of Bullshit Jobs , and, more importantly, this book. Graeber was an anthropologist, and he goes through the history of debt and how it became intertwined with our culture and morality with many, many examples. The book is chock full of ideas. Also The Dawn of Everything , which Graeber cowrote with archaeologist David Wengrow. The broader point of the book is that there is…

> Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

Graeber misinterprets the history and ideas of mainstream economics, calls the safest securities on the planet a debt that will never be paid and spins bizarre conspiracy theories about the Iraq invasion. You might learn about the quaint cultural practices of remote tribes but a lot of the ideas presented are complete nonsense.

You might say it has good and original parts. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

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