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YC's Winter Reading List

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Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#181

Post by Uhhrrr »

hackuser wrote: post #94
Uhhrrr wrote: post #75

This is my favorite passage from Titan: With a talent for seeing things anew, Rockefeller could study an operation, break it down into component parts, and devise ways to improve it. In many ways, he anticipated the efficiency studies of engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor. Regarding each plant as infinitely perfectible, he created an atmosphere of ceaseless improvement. Paradoxically, the mammoth scale of operations e…

Interesting story; thanks. I have a few reactions to it: First, it seems like a marketing photo-op for the CEO. In your opinion, is the author trying to make Rockefeller relatable? You can see how it works with HN readers. These days his success is attributed to business acumen and notorious practices, not engineering, but I haven't read much about him. What impression does the book give? Also, I would argue that the…

I don't think that sort of thing makes him more relatable to anyone except bean counters and engineers. It might have been company lore, though.

In general the book shows him to be very good at seeing opportunities and at optimizing. I recall similar behavior in the sections about issuing stock and shipping via rail as well.

Your point about the lowly solder machine operator is belied by the fact that he first suggested 38, then went back up to 39 after there were too many leaks. One other trait which is omnipresent in the book is that he was very careful with the ledger. He would have noticed if costs were increasing elsewhere.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#182

Post by adrienne »

bmelton wrote: post #179
adrienne wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also refers to Convicted Felon Dinesh D'Souza without adding his well-known title! (Seriously, the man was convicted of violating campaign finance rules, and he's an inveterate liar. Why the hell would anyone take his word for anything?)

He went to jail; it's true. That doesn't make his writing any more or less good. If you have a critique of his writings or books, it would be better to lead off with that than to make ad hominem attacks. Oscar Wilde, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Sir Walter Raleigh and Thoreau all spent time in jail or prison. Should we discard them as well, or should we evaluate their works on their individual merit of those works?

No, of course we shouldn't. But Dinesh D'Souza thinks the rules are different for him. He lies and commits fraud. It does, in fact, matter what you get convicted of. Fraud & campaign violations sure as hell speak to credibility, for me!

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#183

Post by bmelton »

adrienne wrote: post #182
bmelton wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He went to jail; it's true. That doesn't make his writing any more or less good. If you have a critique of his writings or books, it would be better to lead off with that than to make ad hominem attacks. Oscar Wilde, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Sir Walter Raleigh and Thoreau all spent time in jail or prison. Should we discard them as well, or should we evaluate their works on their individual merit of those works?

No, of course we shouldn't. But Dinesh D'Souza thinks the rules are different for him. He lies and commits fraud. It does, in fact, matter what you get convicted of . Fraud & campaign violations sure as hell speak to credibility, for me!

Is it safe to assume then that you have no specific complaint with any of his books other than that they were written by D'Souza?

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#184

Post by adrienne »

bmelton wrote: post #183
adrienne wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, of course we shouldn't. But Dinesh D'Souza thinks the rules are different for him. He lies and commits fraud. It does, in fact, matter what you get convicted of . Fraud & campaign violations sure as hell speak to credibility, for me!

Is it safe to assume then that you have no specific complaint with any of his books other than that they were written by D'Souza?

Oh, no, that's certainly not safe to assume. I have plenty of actual issues with D'Souza's writings. But i don't choose to engage here at HN in ways that would actually take up my time and energy, because why would i bother?

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#185

Post by kriro »

Of course tastes differ but I didn't see much that immediately grabbed my attention (a bit of a letdown because it was the first thing I clicked on this morning). I guess ultimately that's a good thing because my backlog is still fairly long. Titan and the Nike book look interesting but I'm currently not in the mood for a "this amazing person/company" type of book.

I might pick up "City of Gold". "Make it so" could also be interesting those are the only two that immediately grabbed my interest.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#186

Post by kriro »

heymijo wrote: post #50
ThomPete wrote: post #35

Creativity INC is one of the best books I have ever read on creativity and I have read a lot to know how much most of them really suck. It has the added bonus of providing an alternative biography of Steve Jobs which in itself is interesting. It's much more than a story about Pixar. It's a great insight into some of the very problems you deal with as you build and try to maintain a culture. I can't recommend it enoug…

Creativity, Inc. is also one of the best books on management. I say this with reverence for the work of Peter Drucker and W. Edwards Deming.

Having read most of the "quality gurus" (including Deming) and a bit of Drucker...your comment catapulted the book up my reading list. Thx.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#187

Post by nl »

redthrowaway wrote: post #70
sn9 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How do you see that aligning even slightly with your earlier statement about not passing Obama agenda because it wasn't aligned with conservative beliefs?

How can a trillion dollars infrastructure spend under Trump and yet a health care plan that would save money be blocked by under Obama?

I applaud your constructive approach in this conversation BTW. And I hope you are right about blocking Trumps craziness.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#188

Post by zodiac »

dyim wrote: post #132
hackuser wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting story; thanks. I have a few reactions to it: First, it seems like a marketing photo-op for the CEO. In your opinion, is the author trying to make Rockefeller relatable? You can see how it works with HN readers. These days his success is attributed to business acumen and notorious practices, not engineering, but I haven't read much about him. What impression does the book give? Also, I would argue that the…

I would argue that you can combine two parts of your cynicism to create something very wholesome! 1) "It seems like a marketing photo-op for the CEO." 2) "Rockefeller would have helped his company much more by improving his own efficiency." Surely the photo-op helped create a culture of efficiency and optimization throughout Standard Oil?

To me the 40 drops suggests that the operator only "guessed" how many drops are enough, to the nearest multiple of 10, and left that as good enough; and rhe 38 suggestion was basically saying, "find out exactly how much is enough instead of being ok with good enough"

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#189

Post by tonyedgecombe »

ThomPete wrote: post #35

Creativity INC is one of the best books I have ever read on creativity and I have read a lot to know how much most of them really suck. It has the added bonus of providing an alternative biography of Steve Jobs which in itself is interesting. It's much more than a story about Pixar. It's a great insight into some of the very problems you deal with as you build and try to maintain a culture. I can't recommend it enoug…

I was a disappointed with it, I couldn't help feeling it was a little too self congratulatory all the way through. You could argue that was justified, after all Pixar has been very successful but it spoilt it for me.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#190

Post by simonbarker87 »

metaphorm wrote: post #85
crucini wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 opinion on Stephenson: Cryptonomicon is fun, Baroque Cycle is great, Anathem is his best work (from a literary perspective), and Seveneves is 2/3rds awesome 1/3rd bad scifi pulp. Snow Crash is how most people first encounter him. It's a warmed over cyberpunk book that repeats a lot of what Gibson did, but is also good. The Diamond Age is one of the best pieces of speculative fiction written in the last 20 years ex…

Weird, I loved part 1 and 2 but part 3 stands out as the best bit to me - I really enjoyed the envisioning of rebuilding a world from scratch and getting lost in that new world. I think the third part could make a nice series of books but I think I am in the minority about part 3
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