Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio? • Hacker News Board

myth_buster wrote: post #33

For me it was Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. It blew my mind on almost every section! I loved it I suppose coz it answered a lot of questions I'd growing up and a bit more. I've recommended it to everyone in my family. One critique I received was that there is repetition of ideas but I think its because primarily humans carry past successes anf failures so most of the changes a…

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Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#47

Post by yomritoyj » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:36 PM UTC

    In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation

by William J. Cook.

Combinatorial optimization is very important for many practical problems and increase in computational power and improvement in algorithms has lead to an immense increase in the scale of problems which can be tackled. This book describes these developments through the lens of the travelling salesman problem

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#48

Post by summerdown2 » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:37 PM UTC

For writing fiction and simply how to use words effectively: The way to write by Joan Moat http://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Write-Ted-Hughes/dp/0140272704/

For understanding computer networking, Computer networks by Andrew Tanenbaum: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Networks-Andrew-S-Tanenbaum...

For physics (though old now), Feynman's lectures: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/d...

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#49

Post by rmckayfleming » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:37 PM UTC

myth_buster wrote: post #33

For me it was Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. It blew my mind on almost every section! I loved it I suppose coz it answered a lot of questions I'd growing up and a bit more. I've recommended it to everyone in my family. One critique I received was that there is repetition of ideas but I think its because primarily humans carry past successes anf failures so most of the changes a…

Yes the repetition was noticeable, I would typically start reading a paragraph, realize that it was a point made previously and end up skipping a whole page.

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#50

Post by Adam_O » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:37 PM UTC

mckoss wrote: post #35

Adam_O wrote: post #25

Here are 3 that I particularly liked in the last few years: The Information, James Gleick A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss Abundance, Peter Diamandis

I was surprised to see a recommdation for The Information. Gleick seems the epitome of a rambling author who says almost nothing. I made it through Chaos, but could not get through Feynman or The Information. This kind of InfoJunk is what the OP is trying to avoid, I think.

Maybe you are right, it is not in the same category as The Selfish Gene. However, I thought the parts about the early history of computing were written very well, as someone who did not know much about it before.

I was also thinking that a non-fiction book with no fluff and no injection of personality/flair from the author is a textbook. There are many outstanding textbooks (like Molecular Biology of the Cell) which offer pure information, but I think commercial non-fiction books are aimed at a more general audience. The author needs to fluff a book up a bit to make the material approachable. I also wonder how some non-fiction books would read if untouched by editors.