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Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

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Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#71

Post by hardlianotion »

dntbnmpls wrote: post #53

> I'm looking for mind games, plot twists, brain expanding books, and literally anything that transforms me into a smarter, wiser person. It's hard to tell whether you want a mystery/thriller book or a book on logic or a self help book. If you want to be more intelligent or aware of culture, then read the bible. You'll be surprised how almost everything you read, watch or listen to is tied to the bible. Almost every…

> It's hard to tell whether you want a mystery/thriller book or a book on logic or a self help book.

Then we can throw over what we like and see what sticks!

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#72

Post by sixhobbits »

Pandabob wrote: post #66
sixhobbits wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read "fooled by randomness" if you haven't already. I much preferred it to his later work, and it introduced me to Popper (who was someone that 3 years of philosophy at university somehow managed to skip) who you might also enjoy.

Yup. While I appreciated the points he made in "Antifragile", the writing itself wasn't as enjoyable as it was in "Fooled by Randomness" or "The Black Swan". I haven't read "Skin in the Game" yet tho.

I managed to get through skin in the game, but I didn't enjoy the writing style at all. It's much more abrasive/emotional, similar to his tweets.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#74

Post by thatswrong0 »

sixhobbits wrote: post #39
Pandabob wrote: post #14

The first time I read Talebs Black Swan was pretty mind bending. It's a intriguing mix of philosophy, history and the application of probabilistic thinking. It's also a great aggregator book. It introduced me to the works of Kahneman, Tetlock, Poincare and Mandelbrot.

Read "fooled by randomness" if you haven't already. I much preferred it to his later work, and it introduced me to Popper (who was someone that 3 years of philosophy at university somehow managed to skip) who you might also enjoy.

I tried to read this but just could not get over his writing style. It just felt so self-indulgent and took forever to get to the point. I have no idea why it's recommended so highly.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#75

Post by fit2rule »

zedr wrote: post #63
fit2rule wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this book completely degrading, even to the point of nauseating .. it discounts tens of thousands of years of human experience with describing itself, producing a taxonomic monster that is of very little actual use to the common man beyond providing a convenient excuse for ones failings and for the nature of humankinds more banal spirit. Science can be repressive. Dawkins is a classic example of the iron fist…

I appreciate your opinion. I think the book gives a very convincing explanation on how evolution works and how it shaped what we call "life". I do not remember Dawkins degrading human achievements in that book, so you might be referring to talks and lectures after the book was written. On the contrary, consider the following quote from the book: > “If there is a human moral to be drawn, it is that we must teach our c…

Indeed there is alignment, as one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite authors brings to bear:

“You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Richard P. Feynman

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#76

Post by thatswrong0 »

fit2rule wrote: post #69
Eldt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feel free to share

I think the fact that Dawkins has become the very thing he so violently resists - a violent, intolerant fundamentalist who brooks no further questioning of his own authoritarian narrative - is evidence enough that there is still much, much to be discovered about the way life works. His is a cultural view, and we know for a fact that all culture is a lie which must be re-told in order to persist. The more the human mi…

That's not counter-evidence, that's just a big ol' ad hominem.

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#77

Post by xtiansimon »

zedr wrote: post #8

The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. It describes what science believes life to be, and it can be very upsetting. Understanding it, however, made me a more confident and happier person than I was before.

Wow. I'm stoked to share this essay I recently discovered in the context of _mind bending_, and because some comments here are critical of Dawkins' views.

Susan Blackmore. “Dangerous Memes; or, What the Pandorans Let Loose” (Cosmos & Culture, p.297) [2]

Blackmore is writing about 'memes' and reacts to some of Dawkins' critics. I can't say to what degree Blackmore faithfully discusses the contents of 'Selfish Gene' (1976), because I've not read it.

This can be found in the March release of NASA's e-book collection [1]. And specifically in this book: Cosmos & Culture: Cultural Evolution in a Cosmic Context Edited by Steven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella (2009?) [2]

Enjoy! Let the debate continue...

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22718489

[2]: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hist_culture_cosmos_deta....

Re: Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?

#80

Post by xtiansimon »

Aczel, Amir. The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Human Mind. New York, NY: Basic Books, (2000)

"Aczel's compact and fascinating work of mathematical popularization uses the life and work of the German mathematician Georg Cantor (1845-1918) to describe the history of infinity--of human thought about boundlessly large numbers, sequences and sets." (https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56858-105-7)

This popularization makes an effort to explain truly mind bending ideas of infinity.

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