Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YC's Winter Reading List

blog.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 223 posts

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#61

Post by anigbrowl »

protomyth wrote: post #41
anigbrowl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not at all liked by the people it claims to report on That's rich considering the popularity of conservatives books with titles like 'Liberalism is a mental disease' and 'Liberal fascism.' How about Victoria (2014) by William S. Lind? There's a good conservative author for you. I would recommend everyone interested in politics to become familiar with his ideas.

I commenting on one book anigbrowl and not at all about the naming of others. It is a pretty common practice on political and business books of all stripes to go for the most provocative title. In fact, I am commenting on the contents, not the title. I have not read Victoria (2014) by William S. Lind, so I have no comment on that.

The two books I mentioned were debated as much for their content as for the provocative title, though I might add that the use of a provocative title to maximize sales by manufacturing controversy is hardly something to be celebrated, but rather represents the decline of political discourse.

Regardless, I don't think that unhappiness of a work's subject with the portrayal therein necessarily carries any weight. Demonstrable inaccuracy would be a valid critique, but portraits can be both truthful and unflattering.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#62

Post by tedunangst »

anigbrowl wrote: post #32
protomyth wrote: post #20

My 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…

not at all liked by the people it claims to report on That's rich considering the popularity of conservatives books with titles like 'Liberalism is a mental disease' and 'Liberal fascism.' How about Victoria (2014) by William S. Lind? There's a good conservative author for you. I would recommend everyone interested in politics to become familiar with his ideas.

Is "liberalism is a mental disease" on the YC reading list?

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#63

Post by protomyth »

ArlenBales wrote: post #49

One genre that is always missing from HNer's and YC's recommendations is Fantasy. It feels like most people here read books to acquire knowledge and philosophy to apply to real life. Most fantasy books are read for entertainment and imagination. There's no hidden message to parse and put toward your next start-up project. That doesn't mean Fantasy books are a waste of time though if they're engrossing and entertainin…

If you consider modern fantasy in the YA category then Diane Duane's Young Wizards series has been a favorite of mine http://ebooksdirect.co

Her Star Trek books are quite good, and the audible books of the Young Wizards series are narrated by Christina Moore who does a very good job on all her audiobooks.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#65

Post by mch82 »

Also consider Robert Harris' historical fiction trilogy "Imperium," "Lustrum," and "Dictator" about the life of Cicero and the fall of the Roman Republic under Julius Caesar (assuming it's okay to recommend additions).

The ideas explored in these books are fascinating and could not be more timely. The historical notes are interesting. The reading is fun! "Dictator" is the third book in the trilogy & its Wikipedia page links to the rest: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator_(Harris_novel) The narration on the Audible editions is fantastic.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#66

Post by ashark »

VLM wrote: post #53
ashark wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you didn't care for Cryptonomicon , you're probably right to stop. I've read four of his novels and that's the only one that didn't fit the pattern of [promising first 1/3], [2/3 section is bad but I'm holding on that it'll go somewhere], [3/3 goes off the rails entirely, no payoff for suffering through the middle third]. Cryptonomicon was consistently OK , at least. The Diamond Age was the most frustrating of the…

The focus being on character development and conversation and scenes shows you might be a fan of soft sci fi. Thats OK. Different strokes, different folks, etc. The only real problem Diamond Age has from a hard sci fi perspective, is its 20 years old and everyone knows about additive manufacturing and 3-d printing and slicing objects to be printed and feedstock issues and compiling and analog analogies to digital log…

Oh, the ideas are good, certainly. I'd have rather they'd been delivered in a much better novel half as long, though—which is, I suspect, as long a story as Stephenson could have managed from that promising beginning without wrecking it. It would have been less irritating if none of the story had been good, really, but that first section is great.

I don't think it's very good hard SF, either. It does so much that its explorations of the social implications of the advances—which are the whole point of fleshing out an entire novel from the "gee, wouldn't it be cool if we could X?" concepts that the book is full of, rather than writing the short essay or even (these days) tweet that would suffice to explain them as well as the book does—are underdeveloped and/or feel false. The density of these drops off quite a bit early in the book, too, leaving little to chew on but the confused characterization and the increasingly unsatisfying story.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#68

Post by Uhhrrr »

ashark wrote: post #38
overcast wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

If you didn't care for Cryptonomicon , you're probably right to stop. I've read four of his novels and that's the only one that didn't fit the pattern of [promising first 1/3], [2/3 section is bad but I'm holding on that it'll go somewhere], [3/3 goes off the rails entirely, no payoff for suffering through the middle third]. Cryptonomicon was consistently OK , at least. The Diamond Age was the most frustrating of the…

I was on the edge of my seat towards the end of the second third of Seveneves. The last third was mostly world building, though. I liked it, but I can understand why others would check out.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#69

Post by protomyth »

anigbrowl wrote: post #61
protomyth wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I commenting on one book anigbrowl and not at all about the naming of others. It is a pretty common practice on political and business books of all stripes to go for the most provocative title. In fact, I am commenting on the contents, not the title. I have not read Victoria (2014) by William S. Lind, so I have no comment on that.

The two books I mentioned were debated as much for their content as for the provocative title, though I might add that the use of a provocative title to maximize sales by manufacturing controversy is hardly something to be celebrated, but rather represents the decline of political discourse. Regardless, I don't think that unhappiness of a work's subject with the portrayal therein necessarily carries any weight. Demon…

"The two books I mentioned were debated as much for their content as for the provocative title, though I might add that the use of a provocative title to maximize sales by manufacturing controversy is hardly something to be celebrated, but rather represents the decline of political discourse."

I also notice that I didn't say if I agreed or disagreed with the practice, nor have I read either book. Marketing is quite a nasty subject in its own right.

"Regardless, I don't think that unhappiness of a work's subject with the portrayal therein necessarily carries any weight. Demonstrable inaccuracy would be a valid critique, but portraits can be both truthful and unflattering."

raisspen found a nice review that points out the flaws https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13162277

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#70

Post by redthrowaway »

sn9 wrote: post #60
redthrowaway wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Didn't both of those publications vigorously oppose Trump? Yes. >The "conservative intellectual" niche may be the most politically irrelevant group in the country. Trump won the Presidency, not the Movement. The rest of the GOP, though shell-shocked, has not suddenly ditched conservatism and embraced Trumpism. The vast majority of the GOP members of the House and Senate, and those in state governments, are conservat…

You're conflating politicians with voters. Most GOP voters are not conservative true believers. The fact that Trump won the GOP nomination is proof enough of that.

That's certainly true, and you'll see Republicans pass some legislation they don't want to. But they're not going to rubber-stamp policies they find abhorrent.

I suspect the trillion-dollar infrastructure spend will happen. But the "Muslim registry", and similar illiberal proposals, will not.

Post reply on HN