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Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#91

Post by sien »

jargnar wrote: post #54
unmole wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber Graeber misinterprets the history and ideas of mainstream economics, calls the safest securities on the planet a debt that will never be paid and spins bizarre conspiracy theories about the Iraq invasion. You might learn about the quaint cultural practices of remote tribes but a lot of the ideas presented are complete nonsense. You might say it has good and original parts…

> Graeber misinterprets the history and ideas of mainstream economics Can you provide a well researched body of literature that counters Graeber’s thesis as opposed to just stating an opinion?

Brad De Long - a left leaning professor of economics has written extensive, quality take downs of Graeber. Search for him and Graeber. Here is one.

https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2014/11/monday-smackdown-in-t...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Bradford_DeLong

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#92

Post by kabdib »

BasilPH wrote: post #88

The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. It merges science and storytelling in an amazing way, I can highly recommend it. The books are long, but they didn't seem like it. Neuromancer by William Gibson. The book that started cyberpunk. I love the genre, but I think it's well worth a read just to see how he can craft a world with language. I sometimes found it hard to understand what exactly was happening, but the vi…

Those are really good choices. I re-read the Mars trilogy every couple of years, though the differences between the book's timeline and our own are getting a little embarrassing :-)

Here are some early "cyberpunk" books that people may not be aware of. I'm using a loose definition of stories where networked computers play a major role, the characters are technologically sophisticated and from the shady edge of society, and there's a caper of some kind.

John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider (1975)

Thomas J Ryan, The Adolescence of P-1 (1977)

Vernor Vinge, True Names (1980)

John M Ford, Web of Angels (1980)

I've left a few out (e.g., Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Bester's The Computer Connection) because they're not really "punk".

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#93

Post by elgar1212 »

Glenn Greenwald - No Place to Hide

Reason why isn't necessarily because of the specifics of the 2013 leaks, but because he documents the interaction between government and press (and how he was demonized and threatened afterwards). Tl;dr the government blackmailed journalists to keep the story from getting published

Also (on a related note because both are about obscure bureaucracy), Kafka's Castle. Kafka bored me at first, but he writes situations that are just a little "off" in a way that's really unique. It's incredibly hard to describe and definitely very surreal, he takes certain aspects of human nature and amplifies them to the point of absurdity

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#94

Post by specialist »

unmole wrote: post #40
hypersoar wrote: post #34

Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber of Bullshit Jobs , and, more importantly, this book. Graeber was an anthropologist, and he goes through the history of debt and how it became intertwined with our culture and morality with many, many examples. The book is chock full of ideas. Also The Dawn of Everything , which Graeber cowrote with archaeologist David Wengrow. The broader point of the book is that there is…

> Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber Graeber misinterprets the history and ideas of mainstream economics, calls the safest securities on the planet a debt that will never be paid and spins bizarre conspiracy theories about the Iraq invasion. You might learn about the quaint cultural practices of remote tribes but a lot of the ideas presented are complete nonsense. You might say it has good and original parts…

As suggested by its title, "Debt" is an anthropology book about the history of debt. And by extension the origins of money. Not economics.

Adam Smith and his contemporaries hypothesized that barter proceeded money. Modern economics textbooks and pundits continue to repeat this misbelief. Academics even admit the tale is often repeated as form of short hand narrative.

Charlemagne was quaint?

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#95

Post by specialist »

sien wrote: post #91
jargnar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Graeber misinterprets the history and ideas of mainstream economics Can you provide a well researched body of literature that counters Graeber’s thesis as opposed to just stating an opinion?

Brad De Long - a left leaning professor of economics has written extensive, quality take downs of Graeber. Search for him and Graeber. Here is one. https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2014/11/monday-smackdown-in-t... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Bradford_DeLong

I concede that deLong gleefully trolled Graeber. And not much more.

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#96

Post by sien »

How the World Really Works by Vaclac Smil is one of the best book I've read this year. It gives such a great perspective on how much energy and material we use. It's one of the most readable books by Smil and has gems like this :

“Moreover, within a lifetime of people born just after the Second World War the rate had more than tripled, from about 10 to 34 GJ/capita between 1950 and 2020. Translating the last rate into more readily imaginable equivalents, it is as if an average Earthling has every year at their personal disposal about 800 kilograms (0.8 tons, or nearly six barrels) of crude oil, or about 1.5 tons of good bituminous coal. And when put in terms of physical labor, it is as if 60 adults would be working non-stop, day and night, for each average person; and for the inhabitants of affluent countries this equivalent of steadily laboring adults would be, depending on the specific country, mostly between 200 and 240. On average, humans now have unprecedented amounts of energy at their disposal.”

My review is at : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4708765021

Another excellent book is Arbitrary Lines by Nolan Gray - which is a great book about zoning and why we should all be YIMBYs.

My review is at : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4800787011

How Asia Works by Joe Studwell is a fascinating look at why Japan, South Korea and China have done so well.

My review is at : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4806521204

Another book I really enjoyed was Firepower : How Weapons Shaped Warfare by Paul Lockhart

review at : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4417950705

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#97

Post by ShredKazoo »

I've been reading a lot of history books. For me, reading history is like reading fiction but better. It still transports me to a different place. But the characters are more realistic. My suspension of disbelief never breaks. And I learn about things which really happened.

If you just want to dip your toe in reading history, the Cartoon Guide to the History of the Universe series is a reasonable place to start. I think it prioritizes entertainment over accuracy some, but it's pretty entertaining! https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-History-Universe-Volumes-1-7/...

Someone I know factchecked a different book, A Brief History of the Human Race, and said it did really well: https://acesounderglass.com/2017/04/18/epistemic-spot-check-...

I read A Brief History of the Human Race based on their recommendation and I can def recommend it also. So here's the link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Human-Race/dp/039332645...

After learning about the macro contours of history, I started reading more about specific things which seemed potentially interesting. I liked all of these, roughly in this order:

* Venice: https://www.amazon.com/Venice-History-Thomas-F-Madden/dp/014...

* Lincoln and contemporaries: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Rivals-Political-Abraham-Lincoln...

* The United Nations: https://www.amazon.com/United-Nations-History-Stanley-Meisle...

Reading history is a great way of getting a broader perspective.

Learning about history is underwhelming when you do it as a kid because when you're young, everything is new to you. You don't gain an appreciation for how interesting the past really was.

But as an adult, you have a well-developed model of how the world is supposed to be, so history becomes really interesting because you realize that lots of historical events actually violate your model. (Did you know that when Venice first heard about the USA, they didn't bother establishing diplomatic relations because they thought the experiment would not last? Turns out it was the Venetian state that soon disappeared! Sometimes it feels like I'm highlighting an interesting fact like that on practically every page. There's a lot that gets left out of popular narratives.)

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#98

Post by damontal »

tbonesteaks wrote: post #70

My favorites I read this year in order: - Prayer of Owen Meany, it’s the basis of the movie Simon Birch if you have seen that. The book has so much more going on though - My Antonia, wonderful characters - Jude the Obscure, the cover tells you the ending is shocking, and the cover is right! - How the Irish Saved Civilization, really fun and interesting

I read Jude the Obscure recently after seeing it on the bookshelf of a character in the HBO show Westworld. It was a very controversial book in its day because of its portrayal of marriage. I found it pretty bleak and yes shocking. It made me want to do a deep dive into Hardy’s other works though.

Re: Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

#99

Post by tylerneylon »

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro is amazing.

It's about one possible future of our relationship with AI. It paints multiple perspectives on this relationship while being implicitly judgmental. I'm being vague because the story reveals itself slowly, and the blossoming of information is itself a work of art -- this unfolding is part of Ishiguro's mastery.

Most people feel that AI currently has zero emotions, and perhaps a near-future version may convince some people that it has _some_ kind of emotions, though these emotions almost certainly will feel wrong, maybe-invalid, and strange to us, merely by them being different and by our awareness that an AI is not human. This and other questions are explored in Klara and the Sun.

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