If you're interested in language, I really love "Metaphors We Live By." It's more profound than I previously thought a book about metaphors could ever be. It starts saying interesting things on page 1.
Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
201–210 of 213 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#202"There's very little fluff in these books" Very little fluff in a book that claims to be able to provide "40 percent of a two-year MBA program in ten days", at a fraction of the price? If you want no-fluff writing on technical subjects, look for a good textbook on the subject of interest. I think people are averse to it, probably an artifact of formal education. But if you can find a well-written, introductory text,…
Do you have a list of these introductory textbooks you refer to? I fish around at used bookstores for things, but it's really hard to tell a good textbook from a bad one until you've read it.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#203==For electronics:
The Art of Electronics 3rd Edition (interview with the one of the authors, if you're unconvinced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCI3B5eT9NA )
==For finances:
The Millionaire Next Door (filled with a lot of interesting facts and habits from extensive research)
==For food/cooking:
Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen
BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
I encourage anyone who reads Pinker's book to also consider Nassim Taleb's critique http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/longpeace.pdf
... and then read Pinker's reply http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/comments_on_taleb... TLDR: The book’s structure was lost on Taleb, who blends the different chapters and then criticizes his own confusion.
It seems like pinker has been conclusively refuted given recent events.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#205Thinking, 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…
Oh give me a break, it's probably one of the most well corroborated pieces of research in that tradition.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
... and then read Pinker's reply http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/comments_on_taleb... TLDR: The book’s structure was lost on Taleb, who blends the different chapters and then criticizes his own confusion.
I'm a bit of a Pinker fanboy, but his counter-criticism of Taleb is very well-written and hits on every point Taleb makes. "Taleb shows no signs of having read Better Angels with the slightest attention to its content. Instead he has merged it in his mind with claims by various fools and knaves whom he believes he has bettered in the past. The confusion begins with his remarkable claim that the thesis in Better Angel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Dm2ZYeA6U , "Statistics of Violence as Special Case of Fat Tails", there's been a ton of commentary on this back and forth, but not one of them thinks "Pinker is correct" if you've been paying attention. I need to start collecting resources related to this.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#207* Last Call The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
* The Information, a theory, a flood
* The Fruit Hunters
* The Third Chimpanzee
Off the top of my head were pretty information dense in the sense that I remember walking away from them knowing a good deal more about something I didn't previously
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#208Try 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.
+1 for Jane Jacobs' books. Just finished Cities and the Wealth of Nations.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#209"There's very little fluff in these books" Very little fluff in a book that claims to be able to provide "40 percent of a two-year MBA program in ten days", at a fraction of the price? If you want no-fluff writing on technical subjects, look for a good textbook on the subject of interest. I think people are averse to it, probably an artifact of formal education. But if you can find a well-written, introductory text,…
Do you have a list of these introductory textbooks you refer to? I fish around at used bookstores for things, but it's really hard to tell a good textbook from a bad one until you've read it.
>Do you have a list of these introductory textbooks you refer to?
Not really. I just Google things like, "best textbook on ", and you'll end up on some Amazon reviews or SO thread that will at least get you started.
This is where tablets shine, being able to put a literal ton equivalent of paper on a single, portable device.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#210"There's very little fluff in these books" Very little fluff in a book that claims to be able to provide "40 percent of a two-year MBA program in ten days", at a fraction of the price? If you want no-fluff writing on technical subjects, look for a good textbook on the subject of interest. I think people are averse to it, probably an artifact of formal education. But if you can find a well-written, introductory text,…
That claim is overblown but it has a lot of useful content. You'll get what I'm talking about if you read it. Don't think of it as a substitute MBA. Think of it as a fun way to get a good overview of what it takes to run a business. It's that sweet spot where it's not as dry as a textbook but not full of fluff like some pop psychology book.
>It's that sweet spot where it's not as dry as a textbook but not full of fluff like some pop psychology book.
It does look interesting, and I think I may give it a spin. That said, some of the most valuable lessons in an MBA are technical (finance, marketing, operations).