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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?

#841

Post by aEJ04Izw5HYm »

"A history of western philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. The world's most prominent philosopher at the time, took a few years out of his working at the front line to write a summary on 2000 years of thought for layman's and won a nobel prize. It's not the easiest read, you can take issue with some interpretations but theres nothing like it. I think it required reading for being a thoughtful human.

“A precious book … a work that is in the highest degree pedagogical which stands above the conflicts of parties and opinions.” – Albert Einstein

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

#842

Post by llamaimperative »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #802
llamaimperative wrote: post #776

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A portion of a property tax is a land value tax, but 1) it’s only one portion of it and 2) it’s the opposite of the portion that you just described. It’s very specifically not based on how you use the land. And that’s literally the core fact of the system. The two calculations yield entirely different incentives. It’s clear you misunderstood it. I recommend reading the book itself as it will be clearer than you’ve ap…

>It’s very specifically not based on how you use the land. Sorry but you are wrong. Farmers and homeowners pay less than investors. If you build expensive stuff on the property (put another way, if you USE it to do something expensive) you generally pay more. Again, I don't need to read a whole book, much less one based on pure idealism and with no thought given to real economic data and real human nature, to know th…

lol, you are unambiguously, 100% wrong.

By analogy: “I don’t need to read On The Origin of Species because I’m already familiar with the idea that a singular designer made all of life on earth and I don’t believe it! I already know that actually three intelligent designers made everything on earth. No sense in reading Darwin, who is an idiot for believing there’s only one intelligent designer!”

Like it is a satirical level of misunderstanding. To clarify, in case you’ve also listened to a podcast or whatever: Darwin doesn’t argue there’s one designer. George doesn’t argue for property tax.

There’s nowhere for the conversation to go if you think otherwise and are digging in your heels on it, so I’ll just reassure you that you’re exhibiting satirical levels of misunderstanding and frankly shocking foolishness to not be reacting to point blank demonstrations of your wrongness.

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

#843

Post by llamaimperative »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #803
llamaimperative wrote: post #775

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I didn’t mean cartoonish in the sense of extreme (quite the opposite), I meant it in the sense of not understanding what you’re talking about. You’ve stuffed an impressive number of misunderstandings into these few comments, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to help you unwind them except to say you should read the book.

Well, perhaps the people glorifying this book are the ones who have misunderstood it. They certainly did not convey anything about it to me besides what I have said and criticized here. I don't feel the need to read it one way or another. If the main idea is simply that property tax can be good, I already think that. If the main idea is that property tax is likely to fix poverty and inequality (as I have been led to…

That’s not the main idea. In fact it’s the opposite of the main idea. You do not understand what you’re arguing against, and it’s not a subtle misunderstanding either. You are wrong on the very core of the idea.

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

#844

Post by empiricus »

NateEag wrote: post #789
empiricus wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is happening in the book. "When Hermione DIES Hariezer does nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." - in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future revival, etc. Also many of the things that "do not make sense" are actually from the canon, and EY is making fun of their ab…

> Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is happening in the book. "When Hermione DIES Hariezer does nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." - in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future revival, etc. The reviewer predicted that this is exactly what Harry did when he got to Hermione's body disappearing. I th…

Yes, I think I misrepresented a little the review, I wrote the comment after just skimming quickly the beginning where he presents some conclusions. The rest of the review is quite detailed, and entertaining in a way. Because many times he stops just before the final step of understanding, and so he misunderstands the point. In particular this happens with many science bits, which makes it even funnier. Too many cases to mention here. But I agree with your "slogging through a big chunk of it", I think there is an issue with the flow of the story, which makes it hard to read for long periods of time.

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

#845

Post by llamaimperative »

danielhep wrote: post #810
wakawaka28 wrote: post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s very specifically not based on how you use the land. Sorry but you are wrong. Farmers and homeowners pay less than investors. If you build expensive stuff on the property (put another way, if you USE it to do something expensive) you generally pay more. Again, I don't need to read a whole book, much less one based on pure idealism and with no thought given to real economic data and real human nature, to know th…

> If you build expensive stuff on the property you generally pay more. This is not Land Value Tax. Georgism is an argument against this concept of taxing based on what you do with the land.

Correct. In fact it’s the entire premise. If one doesn’t understand this fact then they do not understand literally anything about Georgism.

GP is woefully confused and so darn sure of it!

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

#846

Post by dfex »

Vegenoid wrote: post #284

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. It's hilarious, absurd, and surprisingly thought-provoking. There are many philosophical questions and lessons that are not really presented as such (though they aren't hidden, either). I read it when I was young, it really shaped my sense of humor and got me thinking about some of life and the universe's big questions.

So much this. I too read the book when I was very young, and enjoyed it for its awesome mix sci-fi, absurdity, dry humour and absolute classic one-liners.

What I love about it now is how it presents a view of life in the universe as entirely random, but mostly harmless and fun, and that interplanetary exploration is something you would do as a hitchhiker on an adventure, rather than a conqueror chasing resources.

That vision really lifts me when contemplating the future and our place in it when we reach for the stars.

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

#847

Post by dfex »

dmonitor wrote: post #502
joshdavham wrote: post #446

The best books I read last year were the "Three Body Problem" books by Cixin Liu. It's a science fiction series about aliens, space travel and the universe and they're easily the best books I've read in a while. I genuinely can't remember the last time I got that absorbed in a series. I'd read until the early hours of the morning and sometimes just sit at the edge of my bed for like 20 minutes just contemplating the…

I was interested in the series until I heard the worldbuilding bit about how the aliens have FTL 12-dimensional supercomputers the size of an atom that can cause hallucinations and interfere with particle accelerators from orbit. Author basically just gave the antagonists god-powers to prove some kind of point about how hopelessly pathetic humans are?

Interesting read - I thought that the reason the aliens sent the supercomputer probe things ahead of their invasion fleet was because they understood the humans capacity for advancement would far exceed their own capabilities if left unchecked for the duration of the invasion trip, indicating "pathetic" now, but capacity to be far superior.

Devoured all three books - really interesting hard sci-fi, although as noted by others, the first one took a bit of effort to work through.

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

#848

Post by WillAdams »

xlii wrote: post #806
WillAdams wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"History is written by the victors" would be the succinct way to describe it.

I can’t disagree, but such succinct description is robbing the story from its value. For me it was coherent (and back then I knew Tolkien lore well). Stark contrast between believable realities gave me plenty of space for wandering thoughts. E.g. both are work of fiction, so no ultimate proof of truth can be found, but what are the elements that make world real; who stumbled more in their story?

Each story was very much a product of the society in which its author lived.

Tolkien grew up in a country with a state-funded news agency which had honest information as a core driver and was trusted by the population, while Yeskov's country instead had the goals of the party and was viewed with distrust and disdain and resulted in widespread cynicism.

Tolkien was a scholar with a mastery of language few have reached which has been widely translated, while Yeskov's work is only available to Russian readers and the one translation is not available for want of authorization, so arguably doesn't really get out the gate.

Obviously, I'm not impartial:

https://imgur.com/e6EHQkv

(which is everything except _Letters_ --- I have the new edition on my Kindle and am waiting on a corrected new edition --- if someone knows of an academic/publisher who would be interested in either a reprinting or a new edition of _The Book of Exodus_ please contact me, I'm most of the way through resetting it in LaTeX, but was rebuffed by Turville-Petre's son who holds the copyright on the commentary)

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

#849

Post by FrustratedMonky »

nataliste wrote: post #726
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are missing point, not everyone is up for an inquisition at every new meeting. Using this method, people that agree with you might just move on, because they don't feel like probing you. You are turning away people that would agree with you just because they don't want to argue with you. You also haven't given any reason for them to even try'. Or better example: Person 1: I like Atlas Shrugged (secretly d…

I don't see how this isn't the filter still working. A polite end to the conversation and self-selection is just as useful to me as being scolded. I've used the same test (simply reference Ayn Rand in a non-disparaging context when topical) and it's fantastic what the results are as far as actually finding independent, open, and prosocial people. There's a narrow band of people that will actually give Rand a fair sho…

So you want to also turn away the people that dismiss Ayn Rand too harshly?

So turn away the people really super into Ayn Rand, and also the people that dismiss her to quickly?

Kind of weeding out the Left and Right?

That is a narrow band.

I've seen some pretty smart people that react very negatively to Ayn Rand. Sometimes just as a reaction to the fan-boys of Rand that miss-interpret her and have made such a thin philosophy so popular.

It is possible for people that would give her a fair argument intellectually, but get tired of dealing with the fan-boys and not want to engage anymore.

Unfortunately, Rand has become part of the culture war, so it is hard to find anybody talking about her actual philosophy. But, guess that is the group you are finding.

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

#850

Post by FrustratedMonky »

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,…

"A Canticle for Leibowitz"

I'd recommend also "Anathem" by Stephenson

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