Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Read Fewer Books

theschooloflife.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 152 posts

Re: Read Fewer Books

#131

Post by thaumasiotes »

msla wrote: post #116
thaumasiotes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the religion-shaped hole in western morality Religion and morality aren't distinct concepts. What's lost in the west is the stability of having an orthodoxy.

> Religion and morality aren't distinct concepts. This is only true if you define the "Religion" out of religion; that is, shear it of any dogma or faith claims or even the "funny hats social club" cultural aspect, and then say that all of the remaining guidance is the religion. This isn't what religion means to most people, regardless of whether they have one or not.

On my analysis, I'm shearing what I believe you mean by "faith claims" from the term "religion". But I'm definitely leaving in dogma and the funny hats social club cultural aspect.

For example, look at the scandal from some years back in which some European (Spanish?) meat products were found to include horse meat. Everyone agreed that (1) there was no risk of any kind involved in eating the "contaminated" products; (2) you could not taste the difference; (3) a recall was in order; (4) this was and deserved to be a HUGE scandal.

I'm saying that the modern Western prohibition on eating horse is a religious phenomenon, regardless of whether people are comfortable calling it one. If you are using a definition of "religion" that doesn't include things like this, your terms do not carve reality at the joints.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#132

Post by JdeBP »

I've seen a number of religious cults dressed up as bookshops in my life, and this, with all of its expensive "counselling", "therapy", and "classes", looks to me like another one.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#133

Post by dublinben »

bonoboTP wrote: post #35

Well, fewer than what? I'd wager the median person reads 0 (or perhaps 1) books per year, where a book means something with more than 100 pages and at least 90% of those pages filled with text and read means read at least 90% of the words printed. To most people reading is like exercising, dieting, studying etc. They want to want to do it but don't want to do it. You must live in a bubble if you think normal people r…

More people report reading a book than you'd think. But the median books read per year is still too low for this to be a problem the author thinks it is.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/26/who-doesnt-...

Re: Read Fewer Books

#134

Post by msla »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #131
msla wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Religion and morality aren't distinct concepts. This is only true if you define the "Religion" out of religion; that is, shear it of any dogma or faith claims or even the "funny hats social club" cultural aspect, and then say that all of the remaining guidance is the religion. This isn't what religion means to most people, regardless of whether they have one or not.

On my analysis, I'm shearing what I believe you mean by "faith claims" from the term "religion". But I'm definitely leaving in dogma and the funny hats social club cultural aspect. For example, look at the scandal from some years back in which some European (Spanish?) meat products were found to include horse meat. Everyone agreed that (1) there was no risk of any kind involved in eating the "contaminated" products;…

> I'm saying that the modern Western prohibition on eating horse is a religious phenomenon, regardless of whether people are comfortable calling it one.

And this is contrary to what people understand as religion, which seems to avoid carving reality at the joints: All of a sudden you can dispute the notion that people can be irreligious by pointing to some social conventions they follow, and demanding that those conventions are religion. That does not seem very respectful to personal self-identity.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#136

Post by arethuza »

idolaspecus wrote: post #76
arethuza wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure it is that new - Constantinople had feuding groups who supported different chariot racing teams. As a Scot I can't help be amused that the greatest rivalry was between the Blues and Greens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nika_riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Firm

I can’t help but take this chance to recommend Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium . It’s an absolute masterpiece of a novel set in Byzantium just after the Nika Riots; the chariot races and Blue/Green dynamic play a big role in the plot. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104097.Sailing_to_Sarant...

I can recommend Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22711736-istanbul

Re: Read Fewer Books

#137

Post by auganov »

cafard wrote: post #127
auganov wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is, if a book fulfills all your 4 criteria it's extremely unlikely its "wisdom" hasn't become common knowledge. No surprise = no information. A truly life changing book would need to have been ignored or misunderstood by the world at large. But most such books will obviously be junk so I'm not sure there's a simple way to discover the good ones.

C.S. Peirce said that plain English common sense was basically reheated Aristotle. Is there no information in Aristotle?

In the context of learning some valuable already revered wisdom I don't think you'll find much of it.

Now in a general sense there will be a lot of things you didn't expect in any book. So tons of information but not the kind you're looking for.

The most interesting thing people who read Marx bring up is how he's been mischaracterized or had some ideas misattributed to him. Which doesn't interest me all that much.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#138

Post by tomxor »

novok wrote: post #107
tomxor wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People want belonging and a sense of being part of something greater than themselves. Belief in the supernatural is not required to engender that feeling. I agree, but feel like this is a not a bad thing most of the time (even though it can be), and I say this as an atheist in the traditional sense, with iconoclastic tendencies when provoked...

The problem, is the same faults of religious movements happen with these religions-without-the-supernatural, but as an atheist you don't have the same supernatural to mock as a defense. You see faith based reasoning and very strong emotional reactions to things that are not real.

On second thought you are right, there is a lot of faith base nonsense going on, especially post-facebook.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#139

Post by bonoboTP »

martin_a wrote: post #54
bonoboTP wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of elite that likes and actually reads books is still a better kind. Also the existence of lots of poor people struggling does not mean you should live like them and imitate them. Some Christian sects and other historic cults do have this poverty worship in them, but it's fringe. You talking about your latest programming project is just elitist posturing that you have a computer and stable electricity, which…

Well, some people would like to sell us on the point that you can only form your character, be a good leader, a successful person, if you read $amount books, or at least "the right ones". Not everybody got the money or the time to do that. And it's not about poor people or imitating their lifestyle, to suffer willingly or whatnot, but it's the "I'm better than you, because I read lot of books"-expression that more an…

There are communities and subcultures for everything. I guess there are circles where having traveled to n countries is the brownie points or knowing the lyrics to all the XYZ artist's songs or knowing all about anime or whatever.

People come up with all kinds of subcultures. Obsessing over business/self help/entrepreneur books is just one such subculture. I guess they are not bragging about reading Anna Karenina but the latest best selling get-rich-by-this-mental-trick book endorsed by Elon Musk.

The solution is not to read linkedin.

Telling people to read fewer books is too general of an advice. Books span a huge range of different topics. Reading Kim Kardashian biography is not the same as reading a book on game theory or medieval history or a classic novel or a good sci-fi or an exciting psychothriller or whatever.

The same way, someone could saw "Do less sports!" because there are bodybuilding addicts and crossfit evangelists on Instagram who think you're subhuman if you don't work out 4 hours every day. Sure, there is such a subculture, but the general population does way too little sports. Similarly with reading.

Re: Read Fewer Books

#140

Post by jonstaab »

georgefrick wrote: post #109
jonstaab wrote: post #58

I thought this was going to be a typical HN "build things instead" thing, but I actually love their take. Looking at the world around us lately I've been realizing more and more that "it's all in Plato"; his Republic is a book I read once in high school, but it's high time to re-read it. What are some books you find your self going back to repeatedly (or want to)? My list: - Domain Driven Design - Ray Bradbury's shor…

- F-451 - The Winter of Our Discontent - Man's Search For Meaning

I love Steinbeck, but I had never heard of The Winter of Our Discontent, thanks!
Post reply on HN