161–170 of 434 posts
I skimmed through the answers and didn't find anything to do with math. To anyone interested in math, what math text/books and papers of the decade seemed the most interesting to you? As far as fiction, this decade I discovered Peter Watts, Ted Chiang and Clive Barker. Now I am obsessed with horror and sci-fi in the style of these authors. If you are into these genres (and possibly authors), who/what blew you away th…
Out of Control by former Wired editor Kevin Kelly. This book was a labor of love and it shows--every chapter explores some fascinating new topic on the intersection of biology and technology. Even though the book was written 25 years ago it feels completely fresh. I'm sure anyone who reads this site would enjoy it. David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity. If you know him, it's probably because Deutsch did some pion…
The only other book I read this year was Evicted by Matthew Desmond. It was an excellent account of poverty cycles as it relates to housing.
-Secrets of Sandhill Road
-Hackers and Painters
-The Great CEO within
-Venture Deals
-Predictable Revenue
-Zero to One
-The Hard Thing About Hard Things
-Lean customer development
-Lost and founder
-Lean B2B
-From Impossible to Inevitable
-Traction
Best computer science books:
-Competitive programming 3
-Structure and interpretation of computer programs
Best for fun (non-fiction):
-Meditations
-Sapiens
-How to win friends and influence people
-A brief history of time
-Self-reliance
-Frente a la estrella polar
- The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell was a pretty good one. He has a lot of ideas that were ahead of their time (positive psychology, etc). You can see a lot of parallels between his ideas and modern Stoicism (although Russell criticized it elsewhere, I think he came to some of the same conclusions).
- Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. Another Russell one. I think this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand explanation I've ever read of the underpinnings of mathematical foundations. It's written in a style that should be accessible to almost anyone with a high school education. He wrote it while he was in prison (for refusing to be drafted) during WW1. Apparently he left a copy of it to the prison warden.
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. This is worth reading because it is the motivation for basically all of modern philosophy of science (at least in the west). It's also pretty easy to read and if you read it you'll be able to more easily understand other books and papers that are responses to it.
- Turing's Cathedral by George Dyson. This book should be required reading for every programmer or aspiring programmer IMO. I learned so much about the history of computing that I didn't know before reading this. You will not regret buying this one.
- I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. Obviously everyone knows about GEB, but he also wrote a shorter follow up that in my opinion expresses his ideas much more clearly. I think that even if you disagree with him, it's worth reading because there are so many things you can take away from this book. For example, he talks about his wife's death, and ties that into his theory of mind and explains the unstated purposes of why we have funerals/wakes for people.
- An Introduction to Information Theory by John R. Pierce. For someone like me who doesn't really have a very strong math background, this was a very clear intro to the ideas behind information theory, and why they're important historically. I would recommend this to anyone who feels like they need a gentle intro to the ideas and motivation for them. Dover mathematics books in general are great.
- Borrow: The American Way of Debt by Louis Hyman. This is a fantastic historical overview of personal credit in the US that covers the past 120 years or so. I learned a ton from reading this that I had no clue about. Recommended to anyone who wants to understand the origins of credit cards / loans, and how society came to embrace being in debt.
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.222834/page/n7
https://people.umass.edu/klement/imp/imp-ebk.pdf
https://archive.org/details/humeenquiry00humerich/page/n7
https://www.amazon.com/Turings-Cathedral-Origins-Digital-Uni...
https://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas-Hofstadter/dp...
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Information-Theory-Symbo...
https://www.amazon.com/Borrow-American-Debt-Louis-Hyman/dp/0...
Professionally influential: - High Growth Handbook (general company building tips) - Traction (the one by Weinberg and Mares; engineer-friendy guide to marketing and growth) - Understanding Michael Porter (great intro to business strategy) - Monetizing Innovation (pricing advice) Personally influential: - Thinkertoys and Cracking Creativity (how to be more creative) - Atomic Habits (how to establish good habits) - A…
Professionally influential: - High Growth Handbook (general company building tips) - Traction (the one by Weinberg and Mares; engineer-friendy guide to marketing and growth) - Understanding Michael Porter (great intro to business strategy) - Monetizing Innovation (pricing advice) Personally influential: - Thinkertoys and Cracking Creativity (how to be more creative) - Atomic Habits (how to establish good habits) - A…
Is High Growth Handbook for later-stage companies (say 1M+ ARR)? Or not necessarily?
Non-fiction: The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. Of all the books of the last ten years, I can't think of one that more transformed my understanding of (and compassion for) my fellow thinking, feeling, moralizing, tribal primates. https://righteousmind.com/
Tangent: doesn’t the decade end at the end of next year?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm9CQn07OjU
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