Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

news.ycombinator.com

331–340 of 344 posts

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#331

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking[1]. Not only about cosmology but also about topics such as the existence of god, finding life in other planets, the future of the humanity and other very intriguing questions. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Brief-Answers-Questions-Stephen-Hawki...

I think the book is targeted towards a younger audience which might explain the lack of more thorough insights into the topics he selected. More disappointing for me was the choice of some of these topics - some of them are covered very superficially and sometimes even with a surprising one-sidedness. As I recently finished Factfulness by Hans Rosling - where he explains how the population increase is slowing down and experts having good reason to believe that it will again plateau in the future - I was stunned to hear Hawking exaggerate this danger over and over again. And unfortunately this was not the only topic on which he is not an expert and yet gives his opinion and presents it as fact. He covers religion, AI, social politics with a very broad brush and a very self assured tone: "Time didn't exist before the Big Bang so there is no time for God to make the universe in." Hawking's concept of God as being part of creation is different to the definition most people/religions have, so his argument feels incomplete. The editing is poor and makes the book feel rushed - which it might have been the case. Maybe they tried to capitalize on a great man's passing by having a new book quickly available. I'm being cynical, but I can't find a better reason why there are so many paragraphs being repeated in different chapters.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#333
post #217

Dr Panetta, Williams: Count Girls In [1] The field guide for anyone who refuses to accept girls and women are less likely to succeed as engineers, scientists, or in any technology profession. This accessible yet science-grounded book was effortless to read and is packed with chapter after chapter of practical age specific advice. I’m a father of two young girls (and a boy) and I will no doubt keep it at my side for m…

Interesting. Here in Norway, girls are outperforming boys in school at every level, and the gap between them gets bigger every year. A few years a go the gap was smallest in math, but I recently listen to a discussion on radio that said even that gap started to get bigger. One of the arguments that are used here often is that school is geard more towards girls than boys. I have to read that book to understand why it…

I just looked up the Norwegian delegate to the International Math Olympiad. Unfortunately, males are still top heavy. There was only 1 female out of 6 spots.

https://www.imo-official.org/year_reg_team.aspx?year=2018&co...

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#334
In no particular order:

- Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund

- How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt

- The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

- Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday

- X by Chuck Klosterman

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#335
Three of my favorites were:

1. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle An excellent analysis of what makes some cultures great and others toxic.

2. Measure What Matters by John Doerr John Doerr describes a simple yet effective management system that has helped Google succeed and scale. The Objective and Key Results approach can be effective for anyone from a single contributor to a large organization trying to encourage a culture of effective collaboration and achievement.

3. Small Giants by Bo Burlingham The stories about a handful of companies that chose to be great rather than big.

Some of the other books that I have enjoyed are listed here: https://behavioralvalueinvestor.com/other-interesting-books/

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#336
post #333
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Here in Norway, girls are outperforming boys in school at every level, and the gap between them gets bigger every year. A few years a go the gap was smallest in math, but I recently listen to a discussion on radio that said even that gap started to get bigger. One of the arguments that are used here often is that school is geard more towards girls than boys. I have to read that book to understand why it…

I just looked up the Norwegian delegate to the International Math Olympiad. Unfortunately, males are still top heavy. There was only 1 female out of 6 spots. https://www.imo-official.org/year_reg_team.aspx?year=2018&co...

Misandry.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#337

- "Rationality: From AI to Zombies" - probably the most influential book I've read in my life, profoundly changed the way I think. It's a collection of LessWrong essays on science and rationality. - "On Intelligence" and "I am a Strange Loop" - how mind works. - "Rework", "Zero to One", "Start Small, Stay Small" - insightful startup advice. - "Atomic Habits" - by far the best book on developing habits. Thought it was…

"Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale)"

It's fiction vaguely based on a real story.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#338

Books I liked in 2018: Crashed by Adam Tooze ; history of the financial crisis, goes into more detail than most of the others The Future of Capitalism by Paul Collier; lots of ideas on how to improve our situation, most of them are good, UK focused Bad Blood by John Carreyrou; if you've ever been in a startup you'll recognize bits of this story, but it quickly gets out of control in novel ways. Astonishing story. Wha…

Liked the Sandel's book.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#339
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"what he has turned into" is roughly "a Trump fanboy" for those who don't want to go trawling through his blog. I also used to really enjoy his blog for his unconventional but mind-opening ideas before he started blogging about Trump in the pre-election runup.

That Adams would join the Trump train isn't all that surprising when you read the book. Right from the beginning, he mentions that he didn't get a promotion at work because of upper management's 'minority hiring' policies (this was in the '80s, I believe). He doesn't provide much information about this policy, only that he perceived himself to have been left behind because of it.

He does provide information later in the book: an explicit policy to no longer promote white males. That policy was communicated to him by his boss, and was one of his primary motivations to become self employed.
Post reply on HN