My Favorite Books of 2016 • Hacker News Board

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#101

Post by yvsong » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 4:48 AM UTC

raintrees wrote: post #86

A humorous observation: Ever look at an HTML page created by Microsoft Word? Quite a bit of code goes into what should have been a simple HTML document. Now try viewing source of Mr. Gates' web page here: 6873 lines, the HTML content starts at 5816 and goes for 9 lines to describe the 4 books plus the bonus, for a whopping total of 9 lines of content, 6864 lines of behavior and presentation... Wow.

Bill Gates writes very well in English. It's evidence that he wrote excellent software decades ago. It's interesting that writing software seems to make more money than dealing with English documents as ordinary office workers. However, as one moves up and becomes a successful businessman, he reads and writes in English primarily, and makes much more money than those who write software.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#102

Post by NamTaf » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 5:07 AM UTC

billconan wrote: post #52

sigh, as an engineer, I don't seem to have time to read books. Did he read this many books before retirement?

Bullshit. As an engineer, I have entirely enough time to read books because I prioritise the importance of doing so. Remember, we all have the same 24 hours in a day.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#103

Post by GavinMcG » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 5:14 AM UTC

Cyph0n wrote: post #75

GavinMcG wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't we all slightly dead inside, then? I'm sure there are things you take no interest in, until it's pointed out to you.

Agreed: nobody is interested in everything. If someone was talking about the 19th century Slovakian art movement, I'd probably zone out. But there are some complex systems that form the basis of civilization that just cannot be simply dismissed as "mundane", at least in my opinion. Systems that, without their presence and correct end-to-end operation, would result in absolute collapse of civilization. Systems that ha…

Would you put wheel design/construction in the "mundane" category? That has similar characteristics, I think, except for the scale and coordination required.

I think I disagree that those characteristics necessitate interest. People can consider the fact that the electric grid is an awesome accomplishment, while also having no care for understanding its history or inner workings.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#104

Post by abecedarius » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 5:15 AM UTC

giarc wrote: post #80

scrame wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Gates went to an affluent high school that was one of a handful to have a computer students could use, as well as a computer club, this was in the late 60s I believe.

In Paul Allen's (auto?)biography he mentions that it was a group of mothers from the school that paid for the computer (or maybe the teletype terminal). I might be getting details mixed up, it's been a while since I've read his book.

As I remember it it was a teletype. In the same autobio, somewhat later, Allen and Gates got to learn from Steve Russell (of Spacewar) at his local company which I think might've had its own DEC mini. It's been a long time for me too since I read it.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#105

Post by will_hughes » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 5:48 AM UTC

xenihn wrote: post #44

Cyph0n wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the word "mundane" is out of place. Whoever isn't fascinated by the modern power grid is slightly dead inside. The same applies to a ton of other "mundane" things, like road and rail networks, sewage systems, garbage disposal and recycling, and so on. I think a better term would be "rarely noticed".

>Whoever isn't fascinated by the modern power grid is slightly dead inside. The same applies to a ton of other "mundane" things, like road and rail networks, sewage systems, garbage disposal and recycling, and so on. I feel like the vast majority of people have absolutely no interest in learning about these things, even in a calamitous context.

> I feel like the vast majority of people have absolutely no interest in learning about these things

True, but shows like How It's Made are incredibly popular, even if they give a very very surface view of the details.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#106

Post by emilga » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 6:06 AM UTC

maxxxxx wrote: post #36

kloncks wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This question has been asked a lot. He's impressive in that more often than not, he reads the books cover-to-cover.

Do you know that for sure? He certainly makes that impression.

> He doesn’t spare himself, though. “I have a habit, which I don’t recommend, of finishing essentially every book I start,” he said. “And if I disagree with a book I spend lots of time writing notes in the margins. Perversely, this means that the more I dislike a book, the longer I spend reading it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/fashion/bill-gates-the-bil...

I wonder if being "argumentative" against a book you disagree with in this way is a good antidote to confirmation bias.

One type of person might stop reading a book when it veers in a direction they disagree with and therefore end up never changing their mind.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#107

Post by rhizome » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 6:14 AM UTC

minikomi wrote: post #74

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one that may fit into your list of must read books. Twinkie, Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger. This book is about the ingredients that go into a Twinkie and how they are created. Super informative on the ingredients of everyday foods.

Coming from the other end, is Christien Meindertsm's PIG 05049 Christien Meindertsma has spent three years researching all the products made from a single pig. Amongst some of the more unexpected results were: Ammunition, medicine, photo paper, heart valves, brakes, chewing gum, porcelain, cosmetics, cigarettes, conditioner and even bio diesel. http://www.christienmeindertsma.com/index.php?/books/pig-050...

And money:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/30/bank-england-...

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#108

Post by colmvp » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 6:16 AM UTC

douche wrote: post #45

wishinghand wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can spare an hour a day, and can read at least a page every two minutes, that's 210 pages a week. I understand if you have family obligations and long work hours but I also like to squeeze some reading in during lunch if it's not a social lunch or maybe right before bed. Just like everything else in life you have to find the time for it and then make the time for it.

I manage about a book a week reading for a half hour or so at lunch time. It's not usually heavyweight stuff - fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi, on my kindle. But hey, it's my lunch break, right?

Gosh, I'm a slow reader. Usually when I read books (mostly non-fiction) it takes me a few days. If I just partitioned it to 30 minutes at lunch time like yourself, it would've taken me two to three weeks to read The New Jim Crow!

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#109

Post by Cyph0n » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 6:17 AM UTC

GavinMcG wrote: post #103

Cyph0n wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed: nobody is interested in everything. If someone was talking about the 19th century Slovakian art movement, I'd probably zone out. But there are some complex systems that form the basis of civilization that just cannot be simply dismissed as "mundane", at least in my opinion. Systems that, without their presence and correct end-to-end operation, would result in absolute collapse of civilization. Systems that ha…

Would you put wheel design/construction in the "mundane" category? That has similar characteristics, I think, except for the scale and coordination required. I think I disagree that those characteristics necessitate interest. People can consider the fact that the electric grid is an awesome accomplishment, while also having no care for understanding its history or inner workings.

I'd probably go for automobile manufacturing instead, since (modern) wheel design is a subset of that; i.e., without vehicles, we wouldn't really need advanced tire technology.

That's true. I just feel that a better term could be used, since "mundane" makes it seem like the thing you're talking about is "no big deal". It just feels wrong to use it on something like the power grid.

Re: My Favorite Books of 2016

#110

Post by thirdsun » Tue, Dec 06, 2016, 6:23 AM UTC

raintrees wrote: post #86

A humorous observation: Ever look at an HTML page created by Microsoft Word? Quite a bit of code goes into what should have been a simple HTML document. Now try viewing source of Mr. Gates' web page here: 6873 lines, the HTML content starts at 5816 and goes for 9 lines to describe the 4 books plus the bonus, for a whopping total of 9 lines of content, 6864 lines of behavior and presentation... Wow.

Furthermore, with uBlock Origin on Chrome the doesn't show any text / paragraph. I see the header image followed by an endless sea of whitespace.