Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#361

Post by kinow » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 1:23 AM UTC

cynik_ wrote: post #238

I've been maintaining a list of books I've read over the past years at https://explog.in/books/list.html ; some that come to mind – 1. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett (this might actually be more than 10 years ago, but I'll still list it) I really like this one because it emphasizes the value of caring about the _core_ of anything instead of the _trappings_ that will spring up around it. Keeping this book in mind reminds…

Also a programmer, but have a copy of Zinsser's book next to me right now. Got from local library a few days ago, and am really enjoying. My pull request comments will hopefully become clearer, as well as company e-mails. Plus the whole book is fun, especially when he talks about some writing style and you realize he is starts using that style in the same paragraph/chapter.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#362

Post by sevensor » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 1:25 AM UTC

Howard's End. From observations on the alienating experience of automobile travel, to the nature of the corporation, to the precarious lot of the low-end knowledge worker, Howard's End feels shockingly, jarringly modern. I'm fascinated by the character of Leonard Bast and his almost self-destructive pursuit of self-improvement. HN likes to recommend "The Machine Stops," but if you think everything else Forster wrote is just costume drama, you're missing out.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#363

Post by natmaka » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 1:41 AM UTC

"The Breakdown of Nations", by Leopold Kohr

It clearly shows why huge human groups aren't adequate.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#364

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 1:45 AM UTC

crimsonalucard wrote: post #262

shortandsweet wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have heard of witnesses supposedly seeing the same event but having profoundly different interpretations haven't you? They believe them fully but what they see changes based on genetics, culture, history of the person. There are as many realities as there are people.

What happens when you gather all witnesses to watch a video recording of said event and describe the event as it happens? Do they see something different or do they see the same event? Likely they will see the same thing and the distinct descriptions that permeated the "interpretations" will disappear. Evidence from common sense and psychology attribute the distinction in your example to flaws in human memory. No fie…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#365

Post by lstodd » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:00 AM UTC

crimsonalucard wrote: post #183

lstodd wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, no. You don't get a free pass of some single shared reality. There is an infinite bunch of realities, and the one you see is defined by your own experience only. In other words, what you perceive is what that you are. Or that you can't perceive that what you can't accept. Hat tip to Douglas Adams who described this idea that obvious.

Haha, no to you. Except that the majority of people perceive realities that are highly, highly similar indicating that they are all perceiving a singular thing outside of their own experience. There's a reason why people who deviate too far from the norm get locked up. There's also a reason why you understand the reality that I am describing to you right now. Likely because we are both perceiving the same thing. In o…

There is no single reality.

People that get locked up are just the poor souls that can't live with this fact.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#366

Post by Gatsky » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 2:51 AM UTC

guzey wrote: post #263

biophysboy wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to give this a more thorough read, but so far this critique strikes me as done in bad faith. I read the book. I'm also in the middle of a biophys PhD, so I like to think my opinion is "extra super special". Here are my comments: Point 1: the chart bottoms out at 7, which falls within the range the book recommends. I'm fairly sure he recommends 7-9, and that the required amt varies from person to person. Anot…

Hi, I'm the author of that critique. >Point 1: the chart bottoms out at 7, which falls within the range the book recommends. I'm fairly sure he recommends 7-9, and that the required amt varies from person to person. Another thought I had: metabolism and longevity go hand and hand. I mean, I just read a brand new paper from George Church's Harvard lab, showing that they reversed several chronic ailments in mice by ins…

Thank you for all your work, which must largely be a thankless task.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#367

Post by WCityMike » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

rbg246 wrote: post #305

609venezia wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I'm shocked. I had never heard of these controversies, despite spending some time interested in Frankl a while back. They seem plausible at first read, and should receive more attention. Thank you for highlighting them.

Please be careful... Investigate these claims more fully than Wikipedia, these claims can be exaggerated / out of context

As far as I can tell, these claims are backed up by Frankl's own autobiography and interviews. See quotes:

https://existentialstoic.wordpress.com/2018/02/18/victor-fra...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#368

Post by thisisit » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 3:45 AM UTC

Two books: 1. Straight Line Leadership: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11556152-straight-line-l...

Still going through the chapters and it is illuminating.

2. 12 Week Year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10009377-the-12-week-yea...

Some might find it very basic but I found that breaking my intentions to 3 months and tracking them has helped me see what I want and where I want to go.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#369

Post by Zanni » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 4:36 AM UTC

jagrsw wrote: post #87

dave84 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Foreword by Deepak Chopra” is hardly co-authoring.

The amazon book page is confusing, it lists him as a co-author. The book's cover says it's just a foreword, so I guess you're right. Still, not to surrender in this thread completely, letting such type of person to write a foreword for a book is not a very good initial signal in itself - it casts doubt on the main author's judgement with regard to whom she considers an authority in matters of communication (or, in an…

That's standard practice for Amazon (the author of the introduction being listed as an author of the book). It's confusing and annoying.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#370

Post by vmurthy » Mon, Dec 30, 2019, 4:49 AM UTC

j1elo wrote: post #167

I'm not seeing it mentioned here, also a good resource: https://hackernewsbooks.com/

Thank you for this. Really intriguing how they do it: "All links to Amazon, Safaribooks and O'Reilly get extracted once a week from Hacker News posts. We then rank the links based on how often they are mentioned and the karma of the user on Hacker News. So books mentioned several times by different people having high karma tend to rise to the top." [0]

[0] https://hackernewsbooks.com/about