Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020? • Hacker News Board

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

#221

Post by yboris » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

beaconstudios wrote: post #203

yboris wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of philosophy is concerned with "how are we to live"? I am consistently puzzled what people seek when they read Nietzsche, or what of value they take away from his writings.

> Much of philosophy is concerned with "how are we to live"? And how does one decide that question? Presumably in response to a model of how the world is. > I am consistently puzzled what people seek when they read Nietzsche, or what of value they take away from his writings. I'm sorry that you aren't able to benefit from his writing.

I wonder if we both agree on our dislike of Ayn Rand. She presents a world view that is nicely convenient to people who don't want to care about others. Having a model of how the world is based on her writing would make one a callous person.

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

#222

Post by pjmorris » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #164

techstrategist wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on your current habits, starting with Digital Minimalism will help get through the others in one year.

curious whats in that book. I feel like i already know what i am doing wrong re tech addiction but that i think is psychological issue with me. Not sue what a book can tell me.

I think the same for me. What I've gotten from books r.e. psychological issues are perspective and tools.

Perspective: sometimes a writer puts things in a way that illuminates or alters how I see my situation.

Tools: sometimes a writer has an idea or a scheme that I can put to practical use. The pomodoro timer on my desk has been handy even without adopting every aspect of the method. That came from a blog rather than a book, but same idea (to me.)

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

#223

Post by Merem » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:12 PM UTC

dmos62 wrote: post #151

I've begun reading The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, his first novel. It's left a very good impression so far. It's a fourteenth century murder mystery, set in a monastery, where the mystery is mostly an excuse for exploring the historical and cultural contexts, which are very interesting. Wikipedia has a nice summary: "an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, a…

I've read that book two years ago and really liked it. As such, I was recommended "My Name is Red" by Orhan Pamuk which is supposedly similar and which will be the next one to tackle (after I finish my current one: "Faust" by Goethe). After that...no idea. I don't really plan ahead like that since the decision on what book to start depends most on how I feel at the time/what kind of genre/story/setting I desire the most. All I can say is that "The Three Musketeers" by Dumas is on my radar.

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

#224

Post by crimsonalucard » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #217

crimsonalucard wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skip design patterns, I think it locks developers into a sort of religious loyalty towards OOP abstractions. When you understand the pattern it describes you get a sort of catharsis for discovering a new interesting thing. In reality, any of these patterns are just bad despite the cleverness. Modern programming is heading in a different direction already so it'd be better to move forward without it.

I disagree because people often don't have the luxury of working on greenfield projects. When you are working with an old codebase, you are going to run across design patterns. You will see terms like factory, builder, observer, decorator, pool, flyweight, etc... and it's going to be helpful to know what those are. A lot of the value of design patterns was in the terminology.

Times have changed where few non-greenfield projects use these patterns as well. Languages like Go and javascript will rarely have these patterns. I would avoid depending on the programming language.

If you are working with Java or C++ these are the two languages where these patterns will appear, even in greenfield projects due to developer loyalty. If you are working with languages other than this, then you are more likely not to encounter these patterns that often.

Thus avoid the book unless you want to become an expert in Java. Also these patterns can be learned without the GoF book just off of quick scans of articles on the internet.

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

#225

Post by renjimen » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

chucky_z wrote: post #137

lghh wrote: post #126

Leisure Stuff: Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, It's Chaotic Founding... by Sam Anderson Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham Dune by Frank Herbert The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (tried it this year and stopped, want to give it another go) Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just finished Exhalation and I think it's great) An Ursula K. Le Guin novel, have not picked one out yet A…

For Ursula, I would strongly suggest Left Hand of Darkness. Try to read it without looking into it too much.

Seconded. As an SF fan since childhood, it’s one of the few that has really taught me something of the human condition.

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

#226

Post by Vieira » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:16 PM UTC

pi-rat wrote: post #147

Elements of Clojure - Zachary Tellman Domain Modeling Made Functional - Scott Wlaschin --- Stormlight Book 4 - Brandon Sanderson The Doors of Stone - Patrick Rothfuss (fingers crossed?) Culture series - Iain Banks

I was also considering buying "Domain Modeling Made Functional" but I read that it uses F#. Are you working with F# or do you think it will be easy translatable to any functional language?

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

#227

Post by wnorris » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:23 PM UTC

madhadron wrote: post #165

habnds wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A book to read immediately after Guns Germs and Steel is Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu. It's also useful to know that Diamond does not have a degree in Geography and many geographers aren't particularly on board with his ideas. I think of him the same way I do Malcom Gladwell, a good story teller but he does this by cherrypicking anecdotes more than by a robust assessment of reality.

I've gotten to the point where I just suggest people skip Guns, Germs, and Steel entirely. Diamond is a really excellent writer, but he cherry picks his material to support a thesis and ignores all the prior art that shows that people already tried his thesis a century ago and discarded it. Jump to 'The Power Broker' instead. Now that's an interesting read.

Agree on this one. Why Nations Fail is a fabulous book. I recommend reading Guns, Germs, and Steel first if you are going to read both. Highly recommend both.

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

#228

Post by pi-rat » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:24 PM UTC

Vieira wrote: post #226

pi-rat wrote: post #147

Elements of Clojure - Zachary Tellman Domain Modeling Made Functional - Scott Wlaschin --- Stormlight Book 4 - Brandon Sanderson The Doors of Stone - Patrick Rothfuss (fingers crossed?) Culture series - Iain Banks

I was also considering buying "Domain Modeling Made Functional" but I read that it uses F#. Are you working with F# or do you think it will be easy translatable to any functional language?

We only have a tiny bit of F#, I’m gambling on it being:

- A decent refresher on DDD.

- Applicable to other functional languages, both strongly typed and dynamic.

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

#229

Post by renjimen » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

lghh wrote: post #126

Leisure Stuff: Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, It's Chaotic Founding... by Sam Anderson Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham Dune by Frank Herbert The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (tried it this year and stopped, want to give it another go) Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just finished Exhalation and I think it's great) An Ursula K. Le Guin novel, have not picked one out yet A…

Some good ones on in your leisure list that I have really enjoyed recently!

I also took two attempts for The Three Body Problem. Gotta say, I don’t understand the hype. Maybe something was lost in translation but it seems like another poorly written SF novel carried by a few interesting ideas. Not in the same league as Dune, Ursula Le Guin or some of Ted Chiang’s shorts.

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

#230

Post by knzhou » Mon, Dec 16, 2019, 5:29 PM UTC

I try to only read books that are at least a few years old, so these aren’t timely recommendations.

On the list for next year:

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

Essays of Montaign

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Higher Speculations: Grand Theories and Failed Revolutions in Physics and Cosmology

The Enigma of Reason

Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and the Embodied Mind

Impro

Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

Invisible Cities

Collapse of Complex Societies

--

Favorites from this year:

Death's End

One Man's Meat

Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution

A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery

Cosmicomics

Why Quark Rhymes with Pork

The Unfolding of Language

A Sand County Almanac