I guess no book list can ever escape the mediocrity of Neal Stephenson. At least it wasn't Snow Crash this time.
YC's Winter Reading List
21–30 of 223 posts
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#22I've read shoe dog. Entertaining fast read but I don't think you should prioritize it unless you're really into sneakers or Nike.
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#23In case you're wondering about how we knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, sexist, racist, homophobic conservatives really think, "Strangers in their own land" is not a good representation. Anything by bestselling authors such as Mark Steyn Dinesh D'Souza, Mark Levin, or Ann Coulter would be a much closer approximation. Reading "Strangers in their own land" would be like one of those people writing a book about why Hil…
NB: if your purpose is understanding such a messy thing as a human social group then reading about how they present themselves as thinking isn't really more or less informative than reading about how they are inferred from the outside to think. You'd need both views and some understanding of how they act (regardless of rhetoric) to get started.
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The week-long experiment was terminated early. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13131251 It would have been over by now regardless.
I wish they had put that on the front page since I was still flagging political articles per the request in the original message.
Yeah, I think that would have been a good idea, too, especially as they kicked it off with a "Tell HN". I think they chose to address it as it came up in the comments. That said, this is getting off-topic :)
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#25thanks for including some fiction! so many "data" people miss out on so much because they mistakenly assume something that "didn't happen" can't help or enrich their understanding of what is.
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#26I guess no book list can ever escape the mediocrity of Neal Stephenson. At least it wasn't Snow Crash this time.
Do you think he's eternally mediocre, or is his recent stuff worse? Is all scifi mediocre? Is the problem that Stephenson "crossed over" and got more mainstream credibility?
Is Gibson also mediocre?
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#27My disagreement with the placement of "Strangers in Their Own Land" is basically that it really is well loved by Mother Jones[1], NYT[2], etc. but not at all liked by the people it claims to report on[3]. I guess if you hold liberal beliefs and want some reinforcement, then its a good book, but I would think you probably want to read books by people who actually are the people being talked about. 1) http://www.mother…
Can you recommend an alternative?
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#28[deleted]
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#29I guess no book list can ever escape the mediocrity of Neal Stephenson. At least it wasn't Snow Crash this time.
Do you think he's eternally mediocre, or is his recent stuff worse? Is all scifi mediocre? Is the problem that Stephenson "crossed over" and got more mainstream credibility? Is Gibson also mediocre?
My first experience with Stephenson was Snow Crash, and it was an abomination. I tried Cryptonomicon next, and while slightly more coherent, it was the end of the line for me and this guy. Stephenson likes to write like he's smarter than he really is, plots that are literally everywhere, and characters I really don't care about. Let's not forget the third person present tense writing style.
Regarding Gibson, I only read Neuromancer, and enjoyed the writing. Obviously the concepts were ahead of its time, so reading it much later didn't have the same impact. But neat story.
Re: YC's Winter Reading List
#30My disagreement with the placement of "Strangers in Their Own Land" is basically that it really is well loved by Mother Jones[1], NYT[2], etc. but not at all liked by the people it claims to report on[3]. I guess if you hold liberal beliefs and want some reinforcement, then its a good book, but I would think you probably want to read books by people who actually are the people being talked about. 1) http://www.mother…
Can you recommend an alternative?
Hillbilly Elegy is excellent and touches on some of the points, but really just read conservatives. We're not exactly shy about what we don't like about modern liberalism. Go peruse the pages of National Review or Commentary Magazine.