Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#221

Post by 77pt77 » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:26 PM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #152

gordon_freeman wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not tried Libby yet but recently started checking out eBooks from my local public library (via Overdrive) to read on my Kindle. I am pleasantly surprised how convenient and straightforward that process is. And all that without spending any money.

Libby is the new and somewhat flashier version of Overdrive. My old Android tablet doesn't handle it as well as the old overdrive app, but it works. I think it also has better support for multiple library cards than overdrive, but I haven't tried that yet.

I've used overdrive with 2 library cards and never had any issues.

I really don't understand the need for libby

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#222

Post by staktrace » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:31 PM UTC

amorphous wrote: post #202

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.

"what he has turned into" is roughly "a Trump fanboy" for those who don't want to go trawling through his blog. I also used to really enjoy his blog for his unconventional but mind-opening ideas before he started blogging about Trump in the pre-election runup.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#223

Post by staktrace » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:36 PM UTC

Insanity wrote: post #17

They weren't written in 2018, but some I enjoyed: * Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution (Steven Levy) * Masters of DOOM (David Kushner) * The simpsons and their mathematical secrets (Simon Singh) * Countdown to zero day (about stuxnet, by Kim Zetter) * Sapiens: A brief history of human kind (Yuval Noah Harari) * Coders at work (Some interviews, not all, but I enjoyed it. By Peter Seibel)

+1 for Sapiens, it was really perspective-broadening for me. His two followup books, while good, were not quite of the same caliber in my mind. While I would unconditionally recommend Sapiens to everybody, I would only recommend Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century to more limited audiences.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#224

Post by amorphous » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:37 PM UTC

staktrace wrote: post #222

amorphous wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"what he has turned into" is roughly "a Trump fanboy" for those who don't want to go trawling through his blog. I also used to really enjoy his blog for his unconventional but mind-opening ideas before he started blogging about Trump in the pre-election runup.

it's more than being "trump fanboy". It's his confabulating of abstruse theories like "master puppeteer" and all this gibberish talk.

I find it irresponsible the opposite of what he has done before. Is this really the same person who created Dilbert and the above mentioned useful book?

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#225

Post by staktrace » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

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…

I haven't read Masters of DOOM but I did enjoy the other two books. And yes, the Inner Game of Tennis is more about the "inner game" than the tennis. And the inner game applies to everything in life. Too bad you didn't appreciate the book but I guess to each his own.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#226

Post by p2detar » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:46 PM UTC

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #198

x220 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this too. It was an enjoyable read. You can safely ignore any commentary or review you read about this book since I have not found a single one yet that isn't incredibly biased. About half of reviews I've read seem to be written by people who didn't read the book at all, let alone skimmed it.

The problem with Peterson is that he makes preposterous truth-claims: based on his stylised readings of Western mythology, his understanding of humans as necessarily and essentially hierarchical, and various sub-scientific claims - e.g., about lobsters - that are dressed up as something their not. All in the service of something which is knowingly reactionary, to row back on progressive social moores and the gains of…

> but he is not a reliable intellectual authority.

I don't believe he ever claims the opposite. In fact he urges the reader to check his sources. All 220 papers and books he read before producing his work are listed in the endnotes.

> He's also just a bit of an oddball.

The problem with this type of statements are that now I'll say "No, he isn't an oddball" and this will get us nowhere. Can you understand that?

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#227

Post by kenneth » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:47 PM UTC

Liar's Poker

Zero to One

Straight to Hell

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#228

Post by pjc50 » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:48 PM UTC

I've been enjoying the trilogy of A Time Of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor's story of walking across Europe in the 1930s.

It's an extremely dense book, like a black forest gateaux. It's also extremely Romantic, almost to the point of mysticism. I keep having to put it down to let the imagery fill my head or look up a historical figure. It's changed the way I think about history and taught me a lot about parts of the world I'm unfamiliar with.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#229

Post by r3bl » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC

henrik_w wrote: post #190

jen729w wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW my library account shows me as having loaned 28 books this year. I’d say I finished 80% of them. Don’t watch too much television, don’t read too much crap online. There’s plenty of time in life to read.

If you use Goodreads to track what you read, you get some stats per year, like number of books read, number of pages read. Mine: https://www.goodreads.com/review/stats/63629672-henrik-warne

I find it very useful, and especially by combining the two.

For example, in 2015 I've read more than double of the amount of books I've read this year, but comparing by the number of pages, the difference is just a few dozen pages.

While the amount I've read remained steady, I'm clearly able to retain longer focus necessary to read longer titles, which is something I wouldn't easily spot in such a short timeframe otherwise.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#230

Post by geowwy » Sun, Dec 23, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #198

x220 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this too. It was an enjoyable read. You can safely ignore any commentary or review you read about this book since I have not found a single one yet that isn't incredibly biased. About half of reviews I've read seem to be written by people who didn't read the book at all, let alone skimmed it.

The problem with Peterson is that he makes preposterous truth-claims: based on his stylised readings of Western mythology, his understanding of humans as necessarily and essentially hierarchical, and various sub-scientific claims - e.g., about lobsters - that are dressed up as something their not. All in the service of something which is knowingly reactionary, to row back on progressive social moores and the gains of…

The way he rationalises his advice is pretty whacky. But the advice itself is what he found works in his experience as a clinical psychologist, and it seems to ring true with most people who read it. As far as self help books go 12 Rules is not bad at all.