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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?

#761

Post by llamaimperative »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #751
slwvx wrote: post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd prefer a more substantive critique than an ad-hominem statement

That is not an ad hominem statement. It is an opinion about how overblown the idea is and why George is famous for it. Some property tax is probably a good idea. Does this dude deserve credit for the idea? No. Is he right in asserting that all poverty results from a lack of access to land? No. Will property tax make the economy go brrr? No. The idea of choosing the uses of land by taxing the hell out of random entiti…

Oh yeah, now that I got to this comment of yours… it’s very evident you haven’t read it by your (honestly, I don’t say this just to be insulting) downright cartoonish misunderstanding of its contents.

Even more impressive, it’s obvious you haven’t even read a decent critique or summary of it.

You should consider it! There’s a reason for its stature :)

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

#764

Post by lolinder »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #639
dvaun wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are trying to posture and prove all kinds of things. I would hope that it’s a mixture of personalities posting here, rather than a subset of people who are following some personal agenda. This crowd is hopefully mature enough to avoid this type of behavior.

Well, there's careers being made, egos being stroked, and insecurities being salved. It's not just a shared interest community. YC isn't a benevolent organization, and many of the folks, hereabouts, have some pretty serious cred (and money/power). Lots of folks want to get on their good side, and may think that frontin' is the best way.

Note that you're one of a minority of people here who aren't using a pseudonym.

I don't use my real name here precisely so that I don't have to worry about what other people will think about me when reading my comments.

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

#765

Post by fasa99 »

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…

Yea exactly, it's like "I just met you, and this is crazy, here let me shit-test you maybe". Like running a "reverse a linked list" test on first meeting. There is by definition judgement to it, which, judging strangers, can come off as arrogant / condescending

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

#767

Post by lolinder »

bityard wrote: post #549
test1235 wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've probably read certain Discworld books more than a few times, if they fit under this category of 'junky'

I'm midway through my second reading through the Discworld series. Several years ago I discovered that they were just the right mix of interesting enough to read yet sedate enough to not raise my adrenaline that I could read them and reliably fall asleep within 5-15 minutes of going to bed. This was a godsend because prior to discovering this, it took my brain anywhere between 1-2 hours EVERY night to settle down eno…

I use these books for exactly the same reason! I had a really hard time falling asleep until I discovered that putting a Discworld novel on in one earbud was enough to silence the voices in my head long enough for me to fall asleep.

It used to be that I'd take an hour or more to fall asleep, now I'll often be asleep within one 5-minute run of the sleep timer.

I finished Discworld and have moved on to Stephen Fry's Sherlock Holmes, which has much the same effect.

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

#768

Post by wakawaka28 »

llamaimperative wrote: post #761
wakawaka28 wrote: post #751

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not an ad hominem statement. It is an opinion about how overblown the idea is and why George is famous for it. Some property tax is probably a good idea. Does this dude deserve credit for the idea? No. Is he right in asserting that all poverty results from a lack of access to land? No. Will property tax make the economy go brrr? No. The idea of choosing the uses of land by taxing the hell out of random entiti…

Oh yeah, now that I got to this comment of yours… it’s very evident you haven’t read it by your (honestly, I don’t say this just to be insulting) downright cartoonish misunderstanding of its contents. Even more impressive, it’s obvious you haven’t even read a decent critique or summary of it. You should consider it! There’s a reason for its stature :)

I disagree. I listened to an hour long, glowing summary of it and read about it on Wikipedia. It is just not convincing to me. The only thing cartoonish is how hard people praise it, considering we already have property taxes much like George wanted, which are often quite high and don't add to the economy. Property taxes like that are very close to communism, especially if you take it to an extreme. The higher the taxes, the less you actually own anything.

I have also had the displeasure of arguing with someone who thinks Henry George had the right idea. The dude was literally defending the communist Chinese "property" model which is just a 70 year lease from the government.

Calling my view extreme is like saying that an atheist is religious. Just because I don't accept this idea and all the ensuing conclusions, does not make my views extreme or unreasonable, much less "cartoonish"...

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

#769

Post by EasyMark »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #362

These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars. I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me. I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read. Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books ar…

Best fantasy series I read are the Elric universe ones

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

#770

Post by wakawaka28 »

llamaimperative wrote: post #760
wakawaka28 wrote: post #737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxing land is definitely not a revolutionary concept. What made George famous is that he wrote a manifesto that blamed the "rich" land owners for all the ills of society, and proposed that solving the problem would be as simple as levying another tax. It sounds good but has little substance or relation to actual economics.

I suspect you don’t know what you’re talking about based on your subsequent conflation of property tax with a land value tax. That’s a good shibboleth for “never have actually engaged this idea.”

Property tax is a land value tax. You literally pay a percentage of some notional value of your property every year, largely based on how you use it. The fact you don't recognize that is a good shibboleth for "never have engaged with the real world."
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