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Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#91
post #3

I look forward to read “Meditations”[1] by Marcus Aurelius and re-read “Black Swan”[2]. On the _craftsperson_ front I’ve heard good things about “Designing Data-Intensive Applications”[3] by Martin Kleppman. Also hope to get some good recommendations here :) [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30659.Meditations?ac=1&f... [2]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242472.The_Black_Swan?ac... [3]: https://www.goodre…

“craftsperson”

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#92

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin "This Is How You Lose The Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar "Priestdaddy" by Patricia Lockwood "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James "Consider Phlebas," and maybe the rest of The Culture series of novels, by Iain Banks

>"Consider Phlebas," and maybe the rest of The Culture series of novels, by Iain Banks

Oh man, this will start a shitstorm, because it's so subjective, but Consider Phlebas isn't the best intro to the culture series. I would start with Either Player of Games or Use of Weapons.

Now let's hear from everyone who disagrees with me.

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#93
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I studied Nietzsche it was more or less “Read Zarathustra, then read all the ‘Viking Portable Nietzsche’ then read all of the ‘Basic Writings of Nietzche’” all translates by Hollingdale or, preferably, Kauffman. Among the jewels you’ll find in such a reading are things like the seed of Nietzsche’s thought being placed, imo, in The Birth of Tragedy, with the line: > It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that exis…

I'm on the back end of Zarathustra at the moment, hence moving onto something a bit stronger. I tend to flick between different books by any given author in order to assimilate their ideas, so I might add Birth of Tragedy at the same time - thank for the recommendation. I'd like to get through all of Nietzsche's key writing in the next couple of years. I've thought about reading Schopenhauer as I understand he's a gr…

I heavily recommend the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Republic, and Phaedrus (in particular) - it’s said all of philosophy is a footnote on Plato until Nietzsche. I think only a summary of Schopenhauer (like a penguin selection or something) is all that’s needed - he moves past Schopenhauer pretty quickly.

I enjoyed Camus due to it being an attempt to move beyond Nietzsche and offer something more digestible, but I never moved past the Nietzsche/Plato combo for my personal philosophies (with a heavy dash of stoicism)

Re forms: I find that Plato’s forms are one of the most used mental models I engage with - especially working with software.

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#94
* The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport

* The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Stephen Brusatte

* Machine Platform Crowd: Harnessing the Digital Revolution Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson

* Kiss The Ground Josh Tickell

* The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth by MichioKaku

* * * My other 95 Books I am going to continue re-read in 2020:

http://casualwalker.com/95-best-books-to-read-in-2019

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#95
post #92

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin "This Is How You Lose The Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar "Priestdaddy" by Patricia Lockwood "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James "Consider Phlebas," and maybe the rest of The Culture series of novels, by Iain Banks

>"Consider Phlebas," and maybe the rest of The Culture series of novels, by Iain Banks Oh man, this will start a shitstorm, because it's so subjective, but Consider Phlebas isn't the best intro to the culture series. I would start with Either Player of Games or Use of Weapons. Now let's hear from everyone who disagrees with me.

Use of Weapons or Excession, IMO.

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#97
post #74

The Body - Bill Bryson Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - Rovelli, Carlo Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment - Robert Wright Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

The only one on this list I disliked was the Wright book, mainly because it's not a scientific justification of Buddhism. It's really about how evolutionary psychology explains stuff like road-rage and dieting struggles and how insight meditation (Wright's brand of secularized Buddhism) helps us manage those emotions. Which is fine. Only he's not an evolutionary psychologist and almost all the evidence he puts forward for the effects of meditation is anecdotal. For me a pretty disappointing book.

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#98
I hilariously overestimate the number of books I can get through when I make these lists, but my current list for 2020 is as follows:

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution

Book of Proof

Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation

Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War (for a friend)

Master and Commander

Educated

Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark

Stretch goal: The Power Broker, as a warm-up for Caro's LBJ series

The Bible (perpetual, I don't get through it every year, but I get through much of it, often)

EDIT: I also hilariously underestimate the number of books I want to read. Here's one more I think is vital for my 2020:

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#99

My top priority books: Software Requirements - Karl Wiegers Programming TypeScript - Boris Cherny Associate Cloud Engineer Study - Dan Sullivan Design Patterns - Gang of Four Refactoring - Kent Beck, Martin Fowler Programming Pearls - Jon Bentley Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture - Martin Fowler The Pragmatic Programmer - David Thomas, Andrew Hunt CSS: The Definitive Guide - Eric A. Meyer, Estelle Weyl…

Sounds like you’re diving head first into web development? Or taking it to the next level? Careful not to burn yourself out, that is a long list of technical books, that have nothing to do with the books you’ve read and enjoyed in the past that are from other genres.

Long story short, I am an entrepreneur who sold a company and am transitioning into maximizing my engineering knowledge before diving back into entrepreneurship.

I've spent a considerable amount of time studying top performers and learned how to manage stress levels effectively. I do exercise, meditation, yoga, stretching, forest bathing, mindfulness, journaling, and other activities that battle against burnout.

I am much more worried about failing to meet my goals than I am burnout. Appreciate your concern though!

Re: Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you’re diving head first into web development? Or taking it to the next level? Careful not to burn yourself out, that is a long list of technical books, that have nothing to do with the books you’ve read and enjoyed in the past that are from other genres.

Long story short, I am an entrepreneur who sold a company and am transitioning into maximizing my engineering knowledge before diving back into entrepreneurship. I've spent a considerable amount of time studying top performers and learned how to manage stress levels effectively. I do exercise, meditation, yoga, stretching, forest bathing, mindfulness, journaling, and other activities that battle against burnout. I am…

> forest bathing

That sounds pretty awesome..

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