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Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#61

Post by crazygringo »

Michael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind [1]

Not just about an utterly fascinating topic (psychadelic drugs), in terms of history (LSD turning from a scientific wonder drug to illegal), his personal experiences, and the neuroscience behind it, but also just extremely well-written -- a real page-turner. A crazy potent combination of science, spirituality (from a skeptic), and narrative. I expect his book will be a significant part of why psychadelic drugs will be legalized in the near future specifically for therapeutic purposes.

Also +1 for 2017's Why We Sleep [2]. After reading it, I couldn't believe how shockingly ignorant I'd been of how I spend a full third of my life, and how much it affects the other two-thirds -- and the degree to which a lack of sleep prevents us from perceiving the effects of lack of sleep, in a kind of vicious cycle.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transc...

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

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#62

Post by ternaryoperator »

jacobn wrote: post #35

Righteous Mind, Why good people are divided by politics and religion by Jonathan Haidt (also applies to classic nerd feuds like Mac vs windows vs Linux) The Mom Test, how to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick (worst title ever, book is great)

The Righteous Mind is brilliant. It gives an excellent framework by which to understand today's events better.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#63

Post by mindcrime »

abecedarius wrote: post #54
mindcrime wrote: post #21

Favorites read in 2018: Dreaming in Code by Scott Rosenberg. This book is, so far, the closest I've come to finding a "spiritual successor" to The Soul of a New Machine by Kidder. If you liked The Soul of a New Machine , or if you like watching Halt and Catch Fire, you may well like Dreaming in Code . Inspired by Marty Cagan. Really solid overview of the essentials of product management. The Book of Why: The New Scie…

I presume this was heavily downvoted because of the Rand. While I'm not a fan of her either, that's unfair: 1. Dreaming in Code and The Book of Why are excellent (I haven't read the other two), and 2. Rand makes some points that some people need to learn, even if I don't buy her whole worldview.

I presume this was heavily downvoted because of the Rand.

Yeah, that's the norm here, sadly. You can post a list of 20 books and if one of them is by Rand, your post will be down-voted into oblivion. It's almost like some people have this Pavlovian reaction when they see Rand's name.

I mean, I get that not everyone appreciates her works, and that's fine and totally understandable. "Different strokes" and all that. But the zeal with which her haters go on the attack is a bit strange.

2. Rand makes some points that some people need to learn, even if I don't buy her whole worldview.

Exactly. This is the same reason that I have copies of Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto and Mao's Little Red Book on my shelf waiting to be read. I don't have to agree with a work to find benefit in reading it. Quite the opposite... I believe that if I'm going to argue against something, I should probably have a reasonable understanding of it. And I prefer to go to primary sources than rely on secondhand commentary.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#64

Post by rationalbeaver »

james_s_tayler wrote: post #34
rationalbeaver wrote: post #25

Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies - César Hidalgo (2015) Fantastic read that gave me a new way to understand the world.

What were some key insights from this? It looks quite interesting. I'm guessing it's centered around entropy?

You're on the right track with that, although I'd say it's centered around order, rather than entropy.

It's hard to do it justice here, but the book builds off of existing information theory to offer an explanation of why there are pockets of order in the universe (like our solar system) instead of uniform chaos.

From there it explains how natural systems can increase in complexity over time, and then moves eventually into human systems like cities and economies.

He basically uses physics and thermodynamics to explain economics, which I found fascinating.

This book made me realize just how valuable dense cities are for economic progress and innovation (and why that is - one reason being that it's relatively difficult to transfer knowledge and know-how from one human to another). It also provides an interesting sort of grand purpose for humanity - to be caretakers of this little region of ordered information we find ourselves in.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#65

Post by teej »

“A Programmer’s Introduction to Mathematics” by Jeremy Kun. It’s funny, approachable, and manages to get deep into math topics important to programmers. It goes into the history and culture of math, helping you understand why math is the way it is. Couldn’t be happier with it!

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#67

Post by klenwell »

Three entertaining reads that also turned out to hide interesting little studies in team management:

- Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (the breakout memoir that made his career)

- Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam (about the 79-80 Portland Trailblazers)

- The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith (about the Bulls first NBA championship with Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson)

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33313.Kitchen_Confidenti...

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75406.The_Breaks_of_the_...

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/246468.The_Jordan_Rules

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#68

Post by Reedx »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #60
guiambros wrote: post #28

* Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker * Masters of Doom, by David Kushner * What Doesn't Kill Us, by Scott Carney * Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou * The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondō * How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams

> Masters of Doom No likable "characters" in that one. Fun reading about the era though.

It's been a long time since I've read it, but... not even Carmack?

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#69

Post by james_s_tayler »

rationalbeaver wrote: post #64
james_s_tayler wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were some key insights from this? It looks quite interesting. I'm guessing it's centered around entropy?

You're on the right track with that, although I'd say it's centered around order, rather than entropy. It's hard to do it justice here, but the book builds off of existing information theory to offer an explanation of why there are pockets of order in the universe (like our solar system) instead of uniform chaos. From there it explains how natural systems can increase in complexity over time, and then moves eventuall…

Yeah, definitely sounds like a good read.

Interestingly a great deal of progress can simply viewed as reducing or containing entropy.

Whenever a claim is made that something "improves developer productivity" I am very dubious of that claim. Instead I try to evaluate it along the axis of "how much entropy does this help contain? And what ways does the abstraction leak? That is to say where is this thing adding to the overall entropy of the system?". I find that gets better mileage.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#70

Post by BostonEnginerd »

asanwal wrote: post #10

Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson - amazing book about US criminal justice system. Read it. The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt - a management novel. Oddly engrossing and educational at the same time The Everything Store by Brad Stone - about Amazon's history, culture, businesses (None of these books was written in 2018. I just read them in 2018)

The Goal was a surprise hit for me this year. It was a recommendation from an airplane seatmate some months ago. Lots of good advice on starting to analyze systems for bottlenecks.
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