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Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#561

Post by justin66 »

tb_technical wrote: post #142

"The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life." Not because I remember anything about it, or believe anything it espouses, or even like it all that much, but because it's a useful filter for obnoxious people in meatspace. If someone I don't know too well asks me what my favorite book is, I say Atlas Shrugged. If they react inappropriately, I'll be cordial and treat them with respect,…

> "The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life."

The obvious followup question is how did it change your life? Under this gambit of yours I wonder how you'd respond?

I'm not interested in Ayn Rand or her bizarre fanboys but I think if someone said that to me I'd honestly be curious enough, not out of empathy but out of anthropological interest, to ask the question

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#562

Post by bwb »

hermitcrab wrote: post #543
bwb wrote: post #537

From The Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple https://shepherd.com/book/from-the-holy-mountain I read this in my early 20s and it had a huge impact in changing the course of my life, sending me traveling over a Christmas break, and changing my entire perspective. He is an amazing author and this book is beautiful.

He also does a very good history podcast, 'Empire': https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/empire/id1639561921

Ah good to hear, I just downloaded some episodes last month and need to get on that :)

And bought his new book!

Do you have a fav of his?

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#563

Post by ChumpGPT »

cambaceres wrote: post #457

I read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and I loved both of them, can recommend. Seveneves is an amazing book, just make sure you skip the last part. If you are into history I can recommend The last days of the Incas by Kim MaqQuarrie, it's just an insanely interesting description on how the Incas was conquered, it feels like you're there man. If you like evolutionary biology/phsycology t…

>The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Amazing books....

+100

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#564

Post by WillAdams »

flenserboy wrote: post #369
creature_x wrote: post #173

Steppenwolf By Herman Hesse. It's remarkable how a fictional character written by someone a century ago can resonate so deeply with a modern person. But then again, that's a common thread amongst great literature. I recommend this book to anyone struggling with loneliness or feeling like they haven't found their footing in this world. “Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at everything else.”

Give his Glass Bead Game a try; it is dense, delightful, & its content would appeal much to the denizens of this site.

Not sure how I feel about the on-going vanishing of efforts to create The Glass Bead Game as a computer interface/programming methodology.

I want it to be something workable which helps folks in their use of computers, but the more I work with node programming interfaces and so forth, the more I worry that the fact that there is no universally agreed-upon answer to the question:

>What does an algorithm look like?

and that such systems are strongly-bounded complexity-wise by screen size, that they simply aren't workable beyond small/toy problems and educational usage, i.e., Blockly.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#565

Post by WalterBright »

bee_rider wrote: post #227
Vegenoid wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know almost nothing about Atlas Shrugged, besides that it is very political, but this seems a strange and deceptive way to interact with people. I can't imagine it is very good for establishing trust with someone even if they "pass the test". I would think that many level-headed people you seek to select for would not appreciate being tested in this way, but I suppose you are selecting for a very specific kind of p…

It is political, but it is also not a good book. Like, it has a gigantic monologue in the middle where one of the main characters just stands there and expounds on the theme of the book, for many pages. It is not well written. If somebody said they liked… some books by Heinlein or whatever, there’s a guy with some Political Opinions. But he can write . It is believable, picking a Heinlein book isn’t an obvious politi…

Consider Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". A looong, socialist monologue takes up a big chunk of the book. It's the socialist version of "Atlas Shrugged".

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#566

Post by andrepd »

lolinder wrote: post #377
cactacea wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life." "huh, ok" > Really, I'm just looking for people who won't jump down my throat on a faux pas. I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that would note you as an idiot without comment and move on wanting nothing to do with you. Edit: tests and trick questions with people you just met is an ineffective way to navigate the world…

> I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that would note you as an idiot without comment and move on wanting nothing to do with you. > Edit: tests ... with people you just met is an ineffective way to navigate the world. My 2c Do you see the irony here? I wouldn't personally run the kind of test OP is running, but I think that even in your case the test succeeded: they've successfully separated themselve…

No, I don't see the irony. GP is making a judgement based on a statement that paints him as a crass individual (to say the least). GGP is making a judgement based on how people react to his own statement that is actually made-up to sound crass on purpose.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#567

Post by dogleash »

znpy wrote: post #343
lordnacho wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered that someone who hears Atlas Shrugged is your favourite book might react similarly? I'd be polite, but note you down as either an immature thinker or someone who likes to provoke. With a little more prodding, possibly also one of those people who has to be right about everything, and this is their hill. I guess I'm on passive radar and you are on active.

> Have you considered that someone who hears Atlas Shrugged is your favourite book might react similarly? I'm not the author of the post you're replying to, but that line of reasoning reminds me of an hiring bias that I read a while ago: avoiding a bad hire is more important than getting good hire. In this context this could mean that the tb_technical really cares about avoiding people with extreme viewpoints, even i…

> The more comments I read, the more tb_technical's idea sounds good.

Yeah, they're just doing a bit. A fairly tame bit for that matter. There's an expression "giving someone enough rope to hang themselves" that I think fits here.

Depending on crowd and delivery I might not clock it as a bit. But even someone earnestly answering Atlas Shrugged, they know what they're doing and that deserves at least a few followups. Probably a bit mischievous myself. "Oh, that's cool, because I always wanted to find someone I could ask why the statue is doing squats instead of shrugs?"

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#568

Post by tb_technical »

drzephyr wrote: post #419
tb_technical wrote: post #142

"The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life." Not because I remember anything about it, or believe anything it espouses, or even like it all that much, but because it's a useful filter for obnoxious people in meatspace. If someone I don't know too well asks me what my favorite book is, I say Atlas Shrugged. If they react inappropriately, I'll be cordial and treat them with respect,…

15 years ago I had a colleague who was obsessed with Ayn Rand. I didn't know anything about Ayn Rand and her philosophies. I was/am good friends with that person. Fast-forward a decade and I know who Ayn Rand is and her philosophies. I know generally what type of people adhere to her philosophies and they are the opposite of who I would normally associate myself with. My opinion of my friend has not changed now that…

I completely agree with you, and I have similar sentiments with my friends who hold different views.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#569

Post by jerjerjer »

lolinder wrote: post #478
llamaimperative wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about "tests with an obviously high risk of systematic, invisible false negatives are bad"

Is it a false negative if the point of the test is to filter out people who will immediately assume that anyone who likes Atlas Shrugged is someone that they don't want to know better? It's not a filter I would choose to use, I'm just saying that OP isn't providing a failure case—the filter is still doing its job there.

Few books are more indicative of people I'd like to filter out immediately than Atlas Shrugged. It's about as close to saying "screw other people" as possible.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#570

Post by bityard »

adamhp wrote: post #168
diggan wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fiction: Neuromancer I've tried twice to read this, but it looses me about 10% in for some reason. Is it worth continuing past that? Does it get "better"? Or does that just signal that the whole book isn't for me?

I was in your boat. I revisited later and powered through and it does indeed get better. The narrative forms into something more cohesive and you start being less exhausted by all the lingo because you've learned it. You settle in. You have to sort of try to immerse yourself. I'd recommend trying to read in larger chunks of time and really absorb the aesthetic of the world.

> exhausted by all the lingo

I think that was my problem with Burning Chrome. Every sentence contained a new word or three that the reader is supposed to guess by context or conversation. Combined with something that read like stream-of-consciousness narration. I literally had no idea what was even happening after 30 or 45 minutes of reading.

But then I had the same problem with Shakespeare, so maybe I'm just dimmer than most folk.

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