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Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?

#41

Post by mirceal »

sorenn111 wrote: post #23
rayalez wrote: post #10

- "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. - Fun autobiographies: Ghost in the Wires (Kevin Mitnick), iWoz (Steve Woznia…

The Selfish Gene has been the most influential book on my life. Especially when Dawkins makes the point about pre-darwininan philosophy needing rethinking. His point being that natural selection/evolution is such a profound notion that it should be embedded into the underpinnings of philosophy itself.

You know, when I first saw (many years ago) an animation of DNA replication my first though was: hey, this looks like code. Imagine my suprise seeing this Dawkins fellow comparing DNA to code in the beggining of the “The Blind Watchmaker”. Great minds... something something.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?

#44

Post by thaumasiotes »

Pre-Industrial Societies: Anatomy of the Pre-Modern World https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1780747411/

Brotherhood of Kings: How International Relations Shaped the Ancient Near East https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195313984/

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the Economy Bigger https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691136408/

The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CG3JMD0/

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature https://www.amazon.com/dp/0670031518/

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?

#46

Post by hprotagonist »

Blanchard, Devaney and Hall, "Differential Equations". The first math textbook I found that you can actually read.

Oppenheim, Willsky, and Nawab, "Signals and Systems". The foundational modern text for signals processing; Fourier analysis becomes a fundamental way of thinking.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?

#49

Post by rubinelli »

"Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity" is a short book that anyone that has any interest in Ray Bradbury's work or in fiction writing should read.

"The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg and "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini are both books that showed how and why you often act against your best interest.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?

#50

Post by TeMPOraL »

mirceal wrote: post #41
sorenn111 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Selfish Gene has been the most influential book on my life. Especially when Dawkins makes the point about pre-darwininan philosophy needing rethinking. His point being that natural selection/evolution is such a profound notion that it should be embedded into the underpinnings of philosophy itself.

You know, when I first saw (many years ago) an animation of DNA replication my first though was: hey, this looks like code. Imagine my suprise seeing this Dawkins fellow comparing DNA to code in the beggining of the “The Blind Watchmaker”. Great minds... something something.

Hah, I remember learning about how DNA works in secondary school. You know, there's this "reading frame" that reads "triplets of nucleotides"... just like a CPU reading machine instructions! Might have had something to do with me reading an intro book to x86 ASM at that time.
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