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Best book/paper you read in 2018?

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Best book/paper you read in 2018?

#1
What's the best book or paper you read in the last year, and why? 'Best' in terms of value it gave you personally - what's something you learnt from it, or something you used from it, or was it inspiring, what possibilities did it show you; what question(s) did it answer for you, where did it lead etc. Thank you.

I guess it could as well be a lecture, talk, video etc, I don't want to rule something out just because of the format.

Re: Best book/paper you read in 2018?

#2
If you have taken some "intro to proofs" or "intro to abstract algebra" or "intro linear algebra" or any other such course where you've seen rigorous proofs, then Jay Cummings' "Real Analysis: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook" [0] is simply a phenomenal introduction to real analysis. It's a fast paced tour de force through rigorous analysis.

I actually wrote a longer comment, but I had to invoke the names of other authors. Better not. Either way, I love the book.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Real-Analysis-Long-Form-Mathematics-T...

Re: Best book/paper you read in 2018?

#3
"Why We Sleep", by Matthew Walker [1]. I've read a lot about sleep over the years, but I still found it fascinating and comprehensive.

I've mentioned the book on several other threads [2], so I'll avoid repeating here.

Along the same lines of expanding the ability of your body/mind, one that I'm currently reading is "What doesn't kill us" [3]. Pretty fascinating to think that we have a lot more control over our immune system than originally thought.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-Unlocking-Dreams/dp/1501...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17606274

[3] https://www.amazon.com/What-Doesnt-Kill-Environmental-Condit...

Re: Best book/paper you read in 2018?

#5
post #2

If you have taken some "intro to proofs" or "intro to abstract algebra" or "intro linear algebra" or any other such course where you've seen rigorous proofs, then Jay Cummings' "Real Analysis: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook" [0] is simply a phenomenal introduction to real analysis. It's a fast paced tour de force through rigorous analysis. I actually wrote a longer comment, but I had to invoke the names of other au…

i found that book this year as well, and it is indeed very good. it's just fun to pick up and read. hopefully the author writes more books in this style.

Re: Best book/paper you read in 2018?

#8
not a paper that came out this year but Emergence of Locomotion Behaviors in Rich Environments by Google deepmind: (https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.02286)

made me realize that although RL is brittle and slow it can still be super effective the problem domains I care about (robot locomotion).

Re: Best book/paper you read in 2018?

#9
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1994), an amazing book on the history, science and philosophy of comics, is itself a comic...then checking out most of the cartoonists he mentions that I hadn't heard of[0], too many to mention. I discovered a load of great stuff from that, e.g. the graphic novels of Will Eisner and wordless novels of Lynd Ward.

[0] Library Genesis's comics section helped with that http://libgen.io/comics/index.php

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