YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
blog.ycombinator.com
YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
1–10 of 101 posts
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#2Lost in Shangri-la is good (read it last year, there's video from the rescue mission on YouTube if you search for it), also good:
- Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World
- Escape From The Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew
- Ruthless River: Love and Survival by Raft on the Amazon's Relentless Madre de Dios (not as good but still worth reading).
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#3“This is water” has to be one of my favorite short essays/speeches of all time.
If you haven’t read it/seen it before so yourself a favor and go through it, it doesn’t take very long.
Seriously wish I could get these ideas into everyone’s head.
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#4Happy to see some great books recommended there. Specifically, let me call out:
The Three Body problem. The Lathe of Heaven.
And while I haven't read Parable of the Sower yet, everything I've read of Octavia Butler has ranged from really good to some of my favorite books ever, so I'm sure it's a good one.
One anti-recommendation (kind of): I recently read Finite and Infinite Games, after many (many) recommendations for it, and didn't particularly like it. Obviously I'm in the minority on this, but I really wonder what other people saw in it.
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#5“This is water” has to be one of my favorite short essays/speeches of all time. If you haven’t read it/seen it before so yourself a favor and go through it, it doesn’t take very long. Seriously wish I could get these ideas into everyone’s head.
FWIW, I have seen people use the image related to this piece (seen through a google search...) in the most annoying way to discredit peoples views on a subject because "they are a fish in the water."
I have not known the source of this garbage, so I hope it's a simplification of the actual source, but I will listen carefully :)
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#6Lathe of Heaven an incredibly beautiful story. One of my favorites of all time.
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#7Happy to see some great books recommended there. Specifically, let me call out: The Three Body problem. The Lathe of Heaven. And while I haven't read Parable of the Sower yet, everything I've read of Octavia Butler has ranged from really good to some of my favorite books ever, so I'm sure it's a good one. One anti-recommendation (kind of): I recently read Finite and Infinite Games, after many (many) recommendations f…
I loved Octavia Butler's Kindred. More than the science fiction, its cultural importance cannot be emphasized enough.
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#8I am really glad to see Mans Search for Meaning on here for another year in a row. It is a short read with a very powerful message.
A few others I would really like to see on this list would be:
- Principles by Ray Dalio
- Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#9I saw someone mention it in a HN comment before, but I'd like to restate it here since it is definitely one of those perspective-altering books: "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker.
The author is a professor and prolific researcher of the effects of sleep on the human body, and goes into nearly every nook and cranny of what sleep does for the human body. He has scared me off of my usual practice of sleeping 6 hours or less to get some work or studying done and to get more hours in the day. Throughout the book, the author cites a scientific study and article on nearly every page, so you know that these are real hard facts.
If you are curious about some common causes of ailments or what the function that consumes pretty much 1/3 of your lifetime does, I'd absolutely whole-heartedly recommend this book.
Re: YC’s 2018 Summer Reading List
#10Happy to see some great books recommended there. Specifically, let me call out: The Three Body problem. The Lathe of Heaven. And while I haven't read Parable of the Sower yet, everything I've read of Octavia Butler has ranged from really good to some of my favorite books ever, so I'm sure it's a good one. One anti-recommendation (kind of): I recently read Finite and Infinite Games, after many (many) recommendations f…
I loved Octavia Butler's Kindred. More than the science fiction, its cultural importance cannot be emphasized enough.
Agree! Great book.