I'm reading "Energy: A Human History" by Richard Rhodes currently. It is an engaging read about the last 400 years of energy production, consumption and technology.
Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
91–100 of 396 posts
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#92For sci-fi recs: I recently read The Three-body Problem by Cixin Liu (a trilogy) and thought it was really good. Also just started another sci-fi trilogy with A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge which has some really fun and interesting (if hand-wavy) ideas about deep space physics.
Try his Marooned in Realtime next. Excellent murder mystery!
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#93Sci-fi: Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I found it fantastic though the end goes a little bit too fast and with too little detail as compared to the beginning.
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#94The China Dream: Great Power Thinking and Strategic Posture in the Post-American Era
> Liu describes the 21st century relations between the United States and China as a “Marathon contest” in which the “Beijing Plan will replace the Washington Consensus” so that China would become a “Champion nation”. This is a question of who will rule the world in the 21st century. The implications are institutions and ideas we fundamentally value as Westerners: Our Democratic rules-based world order, Human Rights and The United Nations could become uprooted.
The China Dream may scare you.
Liu provides an interesting alternative perspective on American History, The American psyche and American strategic misconceptions. He also unwittingly reveals deep insecurities with respect to single party rule and global perceptions of China.
This was an amazing strategic read and has opened my eyes to a new perspective.
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#95First, I'll recommend Discrimination and Disparaties by Thomas Sowell, another fantastic work from Sowell put out this year that builds on some ideas from previous essays. It's short, but the arguments are concise, empirical, and convincing.
And 3 books that have most recently made it into my "must-reread" category.
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#96“Dealers of Lightning” by Michael Hiltzik - on Xerox PARC and its highly inventive cast of characters
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl - on choosing your own attitude
“Dreamland” by Sam Quinones - on America’s opioid epidemic
“Technics and Civilization” by Lewis Mumford - on technological progress (and machines) from the perspective of someone in the 1930s
“The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein - on the myth of de facto segregation (vs de jure segregation)
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#97First, I'll recommend Discrimination and Disparaties by Thomas Sowell, another fantastic work from Sowell put out this year that builds on some ideas from previous essays. It's short, but the arguments are concise, empirical, and convincing. And 3 books that have most recently made it into my "must-reread" category. The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt Antifragile by Nassim Taleb Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kah…
I grew up on Thomas Sowell. Extremely articulate economist. I've now come to disagree with probably one-third of what he writes but all of his works are really good frameworks of how to think.
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#98Currently reading "Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty"
Very insightful on a number of levels.
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#991) Education of a Value Investor by Guy Spier
Autobiography of a guy who won an auction to have lunch with Warren Buffett for $600k and ended up becoming a successful, contrarian value investor. Fun read for contrarians out there.
2) Napoleon's Buttons by Penny Le Couteur, Jay Burreson
A look at world culture and historical events through the lens of chemistry.
3) Becoming Leonardo: An Exploded View of the Life of Leonardo da Vinci by Mike Lankford
A quirky and entertaining biography of Da Vinci.
Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?
#100“Never Split the Difference” - fascinating read on negotiation. Author is a former FBI hostage negotiator and his stories were themselves worth the read, but it’s full of good advice on negotiation generally as well.