Ask HN: Books you read in 2017? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#91

Post by BlackjackCF » Wed, Dec 20, 2017, 8:23 PM UTC

edanm wrote: post #89

BlackjackCF wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup! Making my way through Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea right now. It's a little more "pop math" than Fermat's Enigma or The Code Book. I also have The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and Elliptic Tales on my to-read list once I wrap up Zero.

Awesome! I'll check them out. (Read The Man Who Loved Only Numbers already, it's great). If you're looking for something else, "Journey Through Genius" is absolutely the best semi-pop-science Math book. It's premise is that it goes through about 10 of the most interesting proofs in mathematics, giving their history and context, then the actual proof. It does what few other "pop" books attempt - it actually gives the…

This sounds right up my alley. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#92

Post by nkzednan » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 3:38 AM UTC

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#93

Post by atreg_ir » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 10:20 AM UTC

Two of the most interesting books I've read this year are:

1. Man's search for meaning, by Viktor Frankl. He was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded Logotherapy as a form of analysing one's life with the idea of finding meaning or living a purposeful life. According to Frankl, such a life would mean doing important/meaningful work, enjoying nature in all it's beauty, loving and taking care of another person and being courageous when going through hard times. These are things that I personally consider part of the common sense package I had built-in when I was born, so this book kind of talks to my soul. I would recommend it to anyone who is highly self-reflective.

2. Stumbling on happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. This was an interesting read and the different studies described in the book made me think how would I react in a similar situation and I realised funny things about how memory works and how does our brain imagine future events.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#94

Post by j_s » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 1:52 PM UTC

mswen wrote: post #72

strictnein wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congrats to her!

Thank you. If you don't mind I will brag on her a bit. Kenzi started writing fiction pretty seriously at about 14 years of age. So while 24 seems young to be a published author she has put in a decade of sustained effort honing her craft. She has completed something like 8 full length novels plus several others in various stages. She seems to have found her daily writing pace and can write 2 or maybe 3 novels a year…

This seems soon. If appropriate you may want to share a general region in case anyone here will be able to help out, unless she is specifically targeting remote work opportunities (which would also be worth sharing).

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#95

Post by mswen » Thu, Dec 21, 2017, 6:41 PM UTC

j_s wrote: post #94

mswen wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. If you don't mind I will brag on her a bit. Kenzi started writing fiction pretty seriously at about 14 years of age. So while 24 seems young to be a published author she has put in a decade of sustained effort honing her craft. She has completed something like 8 full length novels plus several others in various stages. She seems to have found her daily writing pace and can write 2 or maybe 3 novels a year…

This seems soon. If appropriate you may want to share a general region in case anyone here will be able to help out, unless she is specifically targeting remote work opportunities (which would also be worth sharing).

Yes it is a bit soon, on the other hand it feels like it is good to get the word out there when you know that a change is coming.

She is located in Minneapolis MN. She would be happy with remote work.

She is smart, productive and reliable but not particularly ambitious with regard to the day job. Seems happy to take on the entry level grunt work including auditing telcom vendor bills, remotely updating router firmware and running test cycles, testing custom software portals, document/write test plans, update and clean up system documentation and whatever else the engineers don't want to do that isn't too technical.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#96

Post by sitajay » Fri, Dec 22, 2017, 12:57 PM UTC

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, it's a memoir of a neurologist who comes across lung cancer himself and how his life changes from being a doctor to the patient. I recently finished reading it and let me tell you, I had to pause every other page to reflect upon those words as they were surreal.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#97

Post by StevenForth » Sun, Dec 24, 2017, 7:50 PM UTC

fgandiya wrote: post #62

This year I read: 1. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer - A steampunk graphic novel about Ada Lovelace and Charlie Babbage. Fun story with loads of research to back it up. Got even better when I got to go the UK and explore the places they worked at in their livetimes 2. The Hardware Hacker - A compilation of storis by bunnie focused on the hardware/maker(i…

I also enjoyed and learned a great deal from The Hardware Hacker. I gave copies to my daughter and to a friend who do manufacturing in China.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?

#98

Post by jonvillage » Tue, Dec 26, 2017, 7:55 PM UTC

This year I've read:

Maxims - Epictetus

The road to serfdom - Friedrich Hayek

De officiis - Cicero

De divinatione - Cicero

Lives of eminent philosophers - Diogenes Laertius

Confessions - Al ghazali

Illiad - Homer

Odyssey - Homer

Influence - Robert Cialdini

Guns, Germs and steel - Jared Diamond

Poor Charlie's Almanack - Charlie Munger - 2nd reading

Andrew Carnegie's Biography - Joseph Frazier

Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb - 2nd reading

Bed of Procrustes - Nassim Taleb

Never Split the Difference - Christopher Voss

The intelligent investor - Benjamin Graham

Autobiography - Benjamin Franklin

I always remember this quote:

"In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time -- none, zero." Charlie Munger