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

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

#121

Post by kashyapc »

Sapins[1] by Yuval Noah Harari. Currently 220 pages into it, I wholeheartedly recommend -- it's remarkably well written and is full of very interesting perspectives.

Credit where it's due: learnt about this book in an edge.org conversation[2] between Dr. Harari and the eminent psycologist Daniel Kahneman.

Speaking of professor Kahneman, I recently finished his "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (I did notice it's mentioned in the comments, but still), over a period of deliberate slow reading of 5 months. Much has been said and written (more than well deservedly!) about this book. Don't let the title invite you to dismiss it off as yet another over-simplifying popular psyocology book; it's anything but that. It is an account of about 30 years of collaboration with his late colleague Amos Tversky. Certainly not a breezy page-turner. It's well worth it to take your own time to assimilate the content.

  [1] http://www.ynharari.com/sapiens-the-book/short-overview/
  [2] http://edge.org/conversation/yuval_noah_harari-daniel_kahneman-death-is-optional

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

#122

Post by MaysonL »

Try Peter Drucker's Adventures of a Bystander, Jane Jacobs's Cities trilogy (non-fiction, written over many years, classic) and Robert Cialdini's Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion. Also I'll second the David Simon, Atul Gawande, Feynman, Shannon, and Keynes recommendations.

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

#123

Post by semi-extrinsic »

cjf4 wrote: post #19

I think if you're really looking to get a sense of how the world works, the best stuff to read are journalistic accounts and histories. Just pick a subject your interested in, do a bit of googling on well regarded accounts of that subject, than go to town. The reason I think these are more valuable than the pop psychology/business airport books is they don't operate under the pretense that the world's great truths ca…

I also think histories and biographies can be great for high S/N nonfiction. Good examples that I really enjoyed include "Ignition" by John D. Clark and "Excuse me sir, would you like to buy a kilo of isopropyl bromide?" by Max Gergel.

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

#124

Post by hammeringtime »

* Influence by Cialdini - great overview of the psychology of human motivation and influence. You'll get the inside dirt on a lot of sales and marketing tricks.

* Seeing like a State by James Scott - a good political history with lots of insight into many conventions in our modern society, such as even last names, were created to make society manageable by a central government.

* Europe and the Europeans by Barzini - the closest thing I have found to being a time traveler, skipping between different places and times in Europe from 1920 to the 1970's.

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

#125

Post by conistonwater »

bko wrote: post #22
davidjhall wrote: post #6

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

I started reading this book and am half way through and, although I'm not finished, I would have to disagree with you. This book is mostly pop-psychology with overstated implications and reliance on low-stake experiments that can not always be replicated. Also, the book glosses over actual results by saying "the participants were more likely to x than y". How much more likely? A typical example of psychological disco…

Would you find What Intelligence Tests Miss - Psychology of Rational Thought by Keith Stanovich more convincing?

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

#126

Post by leephillips »

danialtz wrote: post #106

I was lucky that during my research time I got to know Dawkin's work. And the journey started there: 1. "Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People" by Steven Vogel. If you were fascinated by the wings of birds or little waves behind the plants in water read this. Fascinating book! 2. "The meme machine" by Susan Blackmore. Starting off where Dawkin's book ended. 3. "Three steps to yes" by Gene B…

Blackmore's book is a very clear introduction to the meme, and general replicator, concept.

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

#128

Post by hackuser »

There's another problem besides poor signal-to-noise, the information in pop-(history, psychology, economics, etc.) books often is simply wrong or deceptive. Even scholarly books can misinform you or give you a very biased perspective; with millions (tens of millions?) of PhD's in the world, you can find a book that will say almost anything you like.

Thankfully, the experts in each field effectively review the books for you. An there are more widely-respected, serious scholarly works of true genius than you can read in your lifetime. The signal-to-noise generally is very high, misinformation is low, and writing by the very best is often very engaging.

In other words, if all you read is the very best humanity has to offer, you still won't live long enough to read more than a fraction of it. So why waste your time on anything else?

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