Do americans only read books on summer?
Summer Reading List
61–70 of 283 posts
Re: Summer Reading List
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Still one of the best books I've read, period. Can't recommend it highly enough.
I'm about one third of the way through, but I was turned off by him dismissing Kant and Bentham's moral theories because they are autistic ("diagnosed" on the basis of circumstantial evidence). I see the value of bringing systematizing vs empathizing in the picture, but you can do that without character-assassinating them. It was really bizarre to read him bring up their autism, then insist he didn't commit Ad Homine…
I had forgotten about that... it did rub me the wrong way as well. Generally speaking, I am a fan of Kantian philosophy.
That being said, it didn't really detract from the overall messages of the book. Just a strange one-off.
Re: Summer Reading List
#63Every time I see Sarno's book recommended, it's always controversial, with the "woo-woo" camp and the "it worked for me so I don't care" camp, though I think the people-who-I-respect-who-recommend-this ratio is way higher than most crank books, so it's interesting in that regard. Thoughts? (I haven't read it)
It always surprises me that people find the concept of the brain being connected to the body to be "woo-woo". The objections are very unscientific. Biology is incredibly complex, and our understanding of it is very shallow, yet people scornfully dismiss the idea that the brain could in any way cause sensation in the body. I think the key to their misunderstanding is the tendency to imagine the brain as a completely s…
Speaking only for myself: I consider it woo-woo because there's no real set of steps which makes it repeatable for a majority of people. What works for one person works for one person, but it's sold like it works for everybody.
I've heard of folks who are capable of meditating their way through a root canal. Should we stop offering Novocain to patients? Should we start actively discouraging dental patients from getting Novocain?
To me (dons flameproof suit), it's a lot like Homeopathy - another attempt to sell the placebo effect.
Re: Summer Reading List
#64Am I the only one who would actually prefer these Amazon links to be affiliate links? Affiliate links make me feel like I'm paying back the curator(s) for the awesome recommendations I'm thankful for. However minor that might be. Do people feel like recommendations would be biased if the links were affiliate links?
Amazon smile is for you! https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...
Re: Summer Reading List
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
This, so much this. I don't mind a day full of chores or yardwork if I've got a good book to listen to. Especially when you realize that you can listen to a lot of books at 1.5x - 2x speed, with very little loss of comprehension.
> when you realize that you can listen to a lot of books at 1.5x - 2x speed, with very little loss of comprehension. Is it enjoyable, though?
Yep. 1.5x isn't that big of boost, especially since some of the readers of books seem to be really fond of their own voices.
Re: Summer Reading List
#66Slightly off topic, but how many books do you all read a month? I have a hard time getting past 1 a month.
1) Keep a book open on your work machine (pdf, epub, .txt in a terminal with "less", whatever) and every time you would read HN or FB or Twitter any other time wasting Internet BS, read some of the book instead. DO NOT let yourself do anything else when you want/need a distraction. It has to be the book, or else you keep working. Physical book might work too though it might be a little weird, depending on your work environment—maybe put paper over the cover if it's especially not-related-to-work looking. I don't know, I haven't tried this.
2) There is no step two.
Re: Summer Reading List
#67Sapiens is a very preachy, low-on-citations work... the Goodreads reviews are interestingly divided ("Dude it changed my whole world!" to "This is not a serious work."), but the early sections on pre historical humans are still interesting to read, and seemed mostly correct from what I remember from
my college anthropology class.
Re: Summer Reading List
#68Every time I see Sarno's book recommended, it's always controversial, with the "woo-woo" camp and the "it worked for me so I don't care" camp, though I think the people-who-I-respect-who-recommend-this ratio is way higher than most crank books, so it's interesting in that regard. Thoughts? (I haven't read it)
It always surprises me that people find the concept of the brain being connected to the body to be "woo-woo". The objections are very unscientific. Biology is incredibly complex, and our understanding of it is very shallow, yet people scornfully dismiss the idea that the brain could in any way cause sensation in the body. I think the key to their misunderstanding is the tendency to imagine the brain as a completely s…
> It always surprises me that people find the concept of the brain being connected to the body to be "woo-woo"
I don't think it's an objection to psychosomatic phenomena as much as just skepticism towards Sarno's work specifically, lack of support from other MDs, lack of strong peer reviewed evidence, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_myositis_syndrome#Cont...
IMHO we're fairly likely to eventually find that what he calls TMS is an early precursor / catch-all to a larger class of health issues (like "cancer"), and as we find better ways to classify, distinguish and diagnose these, we're also going to be able to run better studies and come up with more specific treatments that satisfy the medical community's standards of proof.
Re: Summer Reading List
#69I would add "The Three Body Problem" and following two books in its trilogy to the list. Sci-fi series by Liu Cixin. Won the Hugo award and is recommended by Obama and Zuck. I felt so small after reading that one :)
Re: Summer Reading List
#70Am I the only one who would actually prefer these Amazon links to be affiliate links? Affiliate links make me feel like I'm paying back the curator(s) for the awesome recommendations I'm thankful for. However minor that might be. Do people feel like recommendations would be biased if the links were affiliate links?
People seem to be really passionate about this topic, but they might as well try to convince me to hate the color orange. The arguments make zero sense to me. Affiliate links don't affect me one way or the other.