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Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

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Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#321

Post by steamer25 »

adamch wrote: post #298

1: Diaspora (Greg Egan). Brilliant sci-fi where computer science concepts like cellular automata, computation complexity etc are major plot points. Starts with a highly detailed explanation of AI personality creation. Super geeky and a brilliant plot. 2: High Performance Browser Networking. Really explained a lot of modern networking. I was already familiar with the basics of the OSI stack, but this explained a lot o…

> the CIA has shot down democratic regimes to enforce small-government-free-market policy in developing countries when these policies are rejected in polls

I haven't read the book but from another perspective it sounds like the CIA shot down democratic regimes in developing countries to enforce policies favorable towards U.S.-based internationally big, militarily market-intervening government that were rejected in the local polls. I wouldn't be surprised if there were extra-governmental industrial interests that benefited as well.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#322

Post by dumb2223 »

professorgerm wrote: post #232
dumb2223 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed your advice and read chapter 9 of Rationaly from Ai to Zombies. This chapter title is "Expecting Short Inferential Distances", my summary is that if you are using a scientific language and your audience is not used to it then you should explain basic terminology. So from this piece I should estimate content with low density of information.

Yudkowsky is a polarizing writer. Some people love his writing; I do not. There's the occasional nugget of wisdom but I find his style so irritating and pretentious that it's not worth suffering through. Scott Alexander (Slatestarcodex) is related and more readable if verbose, but less focused on that groundwork material of (so-called) rationality.

Thanks, I just read in his blog the post "beware the man of one study". Discussing if rising minimum wage hurts the economy give rise to 270 comments. I agree with the conclusion: Even if someone give you overwhelming evidence in favor of a certain point of view just wait and see if the opposite side has equally overwhelming evidence. My example: This coin came 7000 times heads so almost always gives head. Just wait and count how many times it came tails.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#323

Post by peacetreefrog »

ryanSrich wrote: post #80

Books finished in June: "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan. A fascinating look into the world and science of psychedelic drugs. "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. One of, if not Clarke's best. It's short for a sci-fi book and almost impossible not to like. "The Hydrogen Sonata" By Iain M. Banks. It certainly wasn't my favorite culture entry, but it's worth a read none the less. If you haven't read t…

For anyone reading this: Matterhorn is really good. It's a novel that takes place during the Vietnam war written by a former vet. I feel like it was good insight into what war is like. Also some good lessons to take away on nature of centralized command structures and their drawbacks.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#324

Post by r4ltman »

treme wrote: post #67
cirgue wrote: post #22

‘Simulacrum and simulation’, ‘understanding media’, and ‘society of the spectacle’ right now. My focus this summer is on everything ever written about media and society. I am currently looking for works on social trends in response to radio and television.

Mcluhan's work would be right up your alley then. Medium is the Massage; Gutenberg Galaxy would be my top 2 recommendation given what you wrote.

McLuhan in the 70s is the most relevant today: specifically:

Take Today: the executive as drop out with Barry Nevitt

From Cliché to Archetype with Wilfred Watson

and finally,

Culture is Our Business, the last book he did solo [the one with WWIII being a 'guerrilla information war']

Also, if you're feeling philanthropic: I'm screening McLuhan's origin story at the Park in the place where he began University in Winnipeg.

At the very least watch the trailer and bask in the prescience of McLuhan yelling Fake News in 1969

http://gofundme.com/mcluhan-movie

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#325

Post by sah2ed »

nindalf wrote: post #198
arthurk wrote: post #150

Sapiens/Homo Deus - History of Humankind. Also goes into topics of how money came to be and evolved over time. Homo Deus is the follow up book by the same author which focuses on humanity’s future. Shoe Dog - Nike founder Phil Knight shares the story of the company’s early days. Chasing the Scream - History and impact of drug criminalisation (War on Drugs). The author describes the War on Drugs (mostly in US but also…

I loved Sapiens. It has a couple of ideas that help explain so much of our world - really powerful ideas. Once you know them they seem so obvious and you feel like you should have thought of that yourself. For example, (spoilers for human history ahead), our civilations are based on agriculture and very few hunter gatherers remain. But that doesn't mean that people consciously chose one over the other. It's just that…

The Dictator's Handbook is also on my reading list and I really enjoyed the Kindle sample. In fact, I got to know about the book from a HN recommendation.

It's impressive how so much clearly one may see the world by relearning well-known concepts using one's intuition, which is how the authors happened upon the simple but powerful idea behind what really drives political behavior.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#326

Post by S_Bear »

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

Swedish peasant teen finds himself seperated from his brother and on a boat to California in the 1840s. Reads like an odd mix of Louis L'Amour and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I usually don't read fiction, but I found this to be completely gripping.

40 Chances by Howard Buffett

Warren Buffett's son, a farmer in Illinois, describes the difficulties in feeding the world and America's somewhat backwards approach to helping the third world get self-sufficient. As someone in a very rural area, learning more about the economics of farming is fascinating.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#327

Post by decebalus1 »

cncrnd wrote: post #302
misiti3780 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i love taleb but i thought skin in the game was the most disappointing of all of this books.

I could never get into Taleb for some reason. Am I the only one who thinks his writing is extremely long winded?

Not the only one. I think most of his books are actually prolonged intentionally arrogant blog posts sprinkled with pseudo-science and weightlifting metaphors with the recurrent 'fuck you money' motif.

Black swan, the concept which brought him in the spotlight is somewhat valid but it's worth at most a chapter in a risk management book. But he milks the black swan cow to biblical proportions.

Antifragile is so longwinded it's an exercise in attention and patience. I think it's remarkable how he managed to fill so many pages.

In my view, Taleb resides close to Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin, the 'thought leaders' experts at rebranding/refactoring common concepts and milking the proverbial cow in publishing, speaking events, etc..

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#328

Post by sah2ed »

fao_ wrote: post #273
Yizahi wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should read this essay then: http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html

That's funny. The course I've been doing (dominochinese.com) has approached Chinese from a different angle and it's ridiculously accessible. I remembered and understood more Chinese in a week, than I ever understood of another language (I have attempted learning German, Russian, and Japanese -- in many different learning styles). The perspective given by the course shows to me that Chinese is one of the most sensible…

> Of course traditional learning methods (by rote, etc.) are not going to work for a pictographic language, but mnemonic learning is greatly aided by the story and history of the symbols therein.

Upvoted just for your last sentence.

I've found that this is true for correctly learning certain topics that appear to be impenetrable to me when using standard reading materials. So what I do now is try to read up on some historical materials to help me understand how the original ideas evolved to what they have become today, before re-attempting to read modern texts.

Familiarity with the topic's history prepares the foundation on which I can mentally hang together the topic's most important ideas, in a way that is coherent for me for future recall.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#329

Post by lloydde »

anacleto wrote: post #173
stochastic_monk wrote: post #152

As for me —- 0: Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths Anyone interested in information theory, intelligence (artificial or otherwise), many-worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics, metafiction, the nature of art, or even probabilistic sequence modeling should read Borges’ short stories. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. 1: Hero With A Thousand Faces A classic book collating world mythologies and psychoanalytical tho…

> 1: Hero With A Thousand Faces Unusual. The first time, I - happily - see someone on HN mentioning Joseph Campbell and this book. As a following up lecture, I'd recommend: The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242530.The_Hero_s_Journe...

Although seldom mentioned, I hope Joseph Campbell’s work is familiar to many members of this community, because of his influence on George Lucas, Star Wars, and most fantasy and speculative fiction.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#330

Post by ddsaso »

geephroh wrote: post #312
anant90 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public kanban board is an excellent idea! I'll probably set up one for myself this weekend.

+1 - thanks, ddsaso! Worth digging into the thread just for this.

Glad to hear it! Feel free to open a new issue if there happens to be a book you think I might find interesting based on the books I already have listed. Or if you start your own book list kanban board I'd be interested to see it.
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