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Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#201

Post by jimhefferon »

abrowne wrote: post #73
shawnps wrote: post #37

Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…

I also enjoyed Longitude when I read it, but it's been described as "suffer[ing] however from a major flaw, it is a distortion of the real history it is claiming to relate." https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/dava-sobel-tries-her...

I followed your link but it did not lead to a discussion of Longitude. It lead to a discussion that mentioned Longitude and had a link to a longer discussion, which however was dead for me. If you could fix that, I for one would be interested in more.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#202

Post by amorphous »

gkamradt wrote: post #19

How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big - Scott Adams (2013) One of my favorite quotes: “I put myself in a position where luck was more likely to happen. I tried a lot of different ventures, stayed optimistic, put in the energy, prepared myself by learning as much as I could, and stayed in the game long enough for luck to find me.” pg - 158 My top ten list for the year: https://www.gregkamradt.com/gregkamr…

I thought this book was quite good.

I also used to enjoy Scott Adam's blog and ideas, that's why it was quite shocking to me when I revisited his site and found out what he has turned into. I can't take him seriously anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#203

Post by dmos62 »

lloydde wrote: post #105
shawnps wrote: post #37

Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…

“Never Split the Difference” was fantastic. Still it was super weird that unlike the advice in the book, some of the book comes across as bragging. Also, Chris Voss does not perform the audiobook although in the book he discusses his mastery of voice, his smooth radio jockey voice and covers different speaking techniques. Still, one of my favorites of 2018.

I might not end up reading this one due to the comments about bragging, but I wanted to ask: what's with the title? Why would you never split the difference?

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#204

Post by dmos62 »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #138
shawnps wrote: post #37

Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…

I second Libby. You can get just about any of the books recommended on this thread for free. Additionally, for me, I like to get my books from the library since it gives me a reason to read them before I have to return them.

I've not tried Libby yet, but I always find the popular books on LibGen.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#205

Post by leg100 »

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.

My money is on the patronising defensive presentation of the book:

> Do you think you hate Capitalism? Do you not understand why so many people love Capitalism? Have you based your opinion of Ayn Rand on second-hand commentary instead of actually reading her works? Then read this book.

All of this could easily be reversed to mandate reading all three volumes of Marx's Das Capital.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#206

Post by odajay »

dmos62 wrote: post #203
lloydde wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Never Split the Difference” was fantastic. Still it was super weird that unlike the advice in the book, some of the book comes across as bragging. Also, Chris Voss does not perform the audiobook although in the book he discusses his mastery of voice, his smooth radio jockey voice and covers different speaking techniques. Still, one of my favorites of 2018.

I might not end up reading this one due to the comments about bragging, but I wanted to ask: what's with the title? Why would you never split the difference?

He was an crisis negotiator focused on situation where hostages are taken. You don’t go around asking for half an hostage.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#207

Post by icebraining »

unmole wrote: post #133

I see loads of great suggestions in this thread, let me just add three of my LEAST favourite nonfiction books: Thinking, Fast and Slow: Really should have been subtitled The Ludic Fallacy Run Amok . Filled with grand generalisations based on dubious conclusions from small under-powered behavioural experiments. Read if you want further evidence that Behavioural Economics , that bastard child of psychology is an edific…

Regarding the Inner Game, I haven't read that, but felt the same about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Apparently the inspiration of both might have been Zen in the Art of Archery, which some say is better than either of the previous two, but I've never read it.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#209

Post by jordz »

Since setting up a business in 2016, I needed to better understand how to build a business:

Principles by Ray Dalio - I found this really motivating to ensure our business sticks to and has a set of principles that evolve based on mistakes made (sounds obvious).

Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz - I loved listening to this (audible) because being a CEO can be lonely and hearing other peoples thoughts and advice based on their experience (that you can relate to) is really uplifting.

2018 has been a great year for us and I do think these books have helped me get through the roller coaster that is building a technology startup.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#210

Post by fernandotakai »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #89

* Bad Blood - John Carreyou This has been listed multiple times. Depicts the darkside of the startup phenomena * Chasing New Horizons - Alan Stern, David Grinspoon Documents the people and machine that explored Pluto * Sunburst and Luminary - Don Eyles History of the Apollo guidance computer software from the man who wrote it

another recommendation for bad blood. really really good book that shows the dark side of startups.

the audiobook is super good too, well narrated.

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