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Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#31

Post by dwd »

nickster wrote: post #9
satvikpendem wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please add double line breaks between each point or question as your comment just renders as a big block of text.

In Computers? The Mythical Man Month Fred Brooks In Management? Turn the Ship Around David Marquet In literature? Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad In Philosophy? The Republic Plato In Religion? The Confessions St. Augustine In Mathematics? The Elements Euclid In History? Parallel lives Plutarch In Physics? Principia Isaac Newton

Literature: Brothers Karamozov

Constantly recommended on Twitter and I really wonder how many of those recommending it have actually read it.

Heart of Darkness is a short easy read in comparison. Moby Dick was another hard read and a real slog with only the occasional memorable passage to reward enduring the tedium.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#32

Post by defrost »

dwd wrote: post #31
nickster wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Computers? The Mythical Man Month Fred Brooks In Management? Turn the Ship Around David Marquet In literature? Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad In Philosophy? The Republic Plato In Religion? The Confessions St. Augustine In Mathematics? The Elements Euclid In History? Parallel lives Plutarch In Physics? Principia Isaac Newton

Literature: Brothers Karamozov Constantly recommended on Twitter and I really wonder how many of those recommending it have actually read it. Heart of Darkness is a short easy read in comparison. Moby Dick was another hard read and a real slog with only the occasional memorable passage to reward enduring the tedium.

Moby Dick is enhanced by perspective, it's sublime when dwindled to a 3.5 minute LitRap clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al5-bU8DUAg

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#33

Post by dagw »

usgroup wrote: post #29
mrbeast6001 wrote: post #4

I somehow feel everyone pretends to have read “Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman, but whenever I dig deep, most of the time I get to know they just bought the book but watched a video summary (it’s quite a biggie)

Its a short and approachable -- and turns out wrong in parts -- book, so I'm not sure why its readership is doubtful?

I will admit I bailed half way through, as I felt it was just repeating itself over and over with slightly different words and examples. That plus the fact that by the time I started reading it it was becoming more and more clear that much of the experimental evidence presented didn't stand up to scrutiny. All the being said the parts I did read were interesting and I buy the overall framework presented, if not all the conclusions they draw. It is also a really interesting document on how supposedly cutting edge psychological research was done.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#34

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

prepend wrote: post #12
mrbeast6001 wrote: post #4

I somehow feel everyone pretends to have read “Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman, but whenever I dig deep, most of the time I get to know they just bought the book but watched a video summary (it’s quite a biggie)

I read that it’s the most started and not finished kindle book ever. It’s great though and definitely worth reading.

While I do not care for Amazon sniffing on reading habits, I am curious what else tops the list.

Also if the failure to finish was in absolute numbers or a relative percentage.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#36

Post by randomcarbloke »

satvikpendem wrote: post #7

Capital in the 21 Century by Thomas Piketty is quite long and dry as there are many facts and figures, but it's essential reading to understand that the United States' 1960s, where people could buy a home, car, got to college etc working a minimum wage job and where people often say they want to return to in the modern day, is instead an anomalous post war boom and that the level of wealth inequality today is actuall…

in your industry it's important to have read a pop-econ book that has been proven to misrepresent facts and figures in favour of the authors ideological bent?

What industry could that possibly be? it certainly isn't economics related.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#40

Post by neversaydie »

In software:

Could plausibly have read, but also likely to blindly recommend without having read them (I've done that myself, only ever skimmed either): The Mythical Man Month, Code Complete.

Very unlikely to have read: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming. (I'm moderately sure Donald Knuth has read these, but beyond that, dubious. Personally I've read their titles on a shelf three times now.)

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