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Books I loved reading this year

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Re: Books I loved reading this year

#111

Post by paulclinger »

localhost wrote: post #14

I was disappointed by A Thousand Brains. The last part of the book veered into ... I don't really know. On the other hand, I loved Jeff Hawkins' earlier book on this topic: On Intelligence [1]. It's easily one of the top 5 books that I've read and the first part of A Thousand Brains recaps much of that work, so still relevant today according to the author. [1] https://numenta.com/resources/on-intelligence/

I had a similar reaction. I very much enjoyed reading On Intelligence shortly after it was published and was eagerly waiting for A Thousand Brains, but it left me with a conflicting impression. I found some of the details I was looking for missing and it seemed like the book was sort of all over the place (especially in the second half). I was reading another book on related topic (how the brain operates and why/how the consciousness has evolved) at about the same time (The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness) and had a much more positive impression with a good picture on what the author was trying to convey.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#112

Post by perihelions »

cinntaile wrote: post #47
melling wrote: post #29

We need the HN 2021 list. Fiction and non-fiction:

There used to be monthly(?) threads, but I guess that got shut down because it doesn't really lead to interesting discussions?

There's also at least one project that aggregates the HN threads,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28595967 ("40,000 HackerNews book recommendations identified using NLP and deep learning")

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#113

Post by decebalus1 »

twinkletwinkle_ wrote: post #34
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #33

> Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir No. Just no. It is hard science fiction, but there is no character development. I had no empathy for the main character and did not care about him or his fate. Also he is unusually prude, which he blames on being a school teacher, but even his inner dialogue consists of “HOLY COW!” when surprised. I mean, really??

I think that's just Andy Weir at this point. I enjoyed The Martian, but Artemis was horrible. Characters were indistinguishable from one another, they were all just Andy trying to emulate the success of the cocky sarcastic hero from The Martian. After reading that I don't think I need to read any more of his work.

> I enjoyed The Martian, but Artemis was horrible.

I personally hated both. With the risk of sounding elitist, the guy writes like /r/SubredditSimulator/

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#114

Post by bibabaloo »

notatoad wrote: post #76
tomgp wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that video seem odd though? I don't understand what's going on here, it's just surreal. Like if I was a multi-billionaire would I hire a film production crew including a bunch of extras and Christmas themed set to tell the world about 5 (already high profile and best selling) books? Is this just marketing for Bill? To what end? I guess everyone has to have a hobby.

things just grow on their own sometimes, especially if you're successful enough. it's perfectly reasonable for a multi-billionaire to want to write a blog to publish his thoughts on various things. the existence of "the gates notes" is pretty normal. and when you're rich, you hire somebody to run the website for you. web design and marketing are pretty interlinked, so the guys running the blog do some promo, and gene…

It's interesting to think about how they'd measure success with this. Like, I guess with normal marketing for a product, it's already difficult but at least you have metrics around increased sales etc. What do they measure here, positive sentiment for Bill Gates?

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#116

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #99
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He created the public understanding that "software" means ready-to-run executables. He created the public understanding that "software" is non-repairable, non-modifiable and created (only) by wizards in corporations. He created the public understanding that software had to cost money, and specifically per-copy, per-platform, per-user licensing terms. None of these things were accepted before Gates et al. create Micro…

It's amazing to see first world nerds cry about software freedom and rail against Gates when he is trying to save millions of lives. Software freedom is a pet cause. Fighting malaria and infant mortality in impoverished parts of the world is noble.

Just a few comments above I said:

     Oh, he's a great guy now (mostly). I fully applaud 99% of everything he's tried do with the Gates Foundation.
That doesn't absolve him of his past. Also, I have a few good friends who do work in developing countries on health care and get funded by the GF. Guess what they rely on for software? (Hint: Bill didn't write it)

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#117

Post by chestertn »

CrazyStat wrote: post #70
chestertn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He did not just "do important work". He discovered and described the CRISPR mechanism. Without CRISPR, there is no CRISPR-cas9. > showed how to use it as a DNA editing tool Don't we care about basic research anymore?

A general-purpose DNA editing tool is still basic research by most standards. The Nobel Prizes are awarded for conferring the greatest benefit to humankind. Showing how to use CRISPR as a genome editing tool (Doudna and Charpentier) confers much more benefit to humankind than "just" characterizing CRISPR (Mojica). I don't mean to trivialize Mojica's work, but at the end of the day if not for the later work of Doudna…

> I don't mean to trivialize Mojica's work, but at the end of the day if not for the later work of Doudna and Charpentier, Mojica's work on CRISPR would be unknown and irrelevant to 99.9999% of the world population.

And if Mojica had not discover CRISPR...

Anyways. Here's an article if you are interested:

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/nobel-crispr

The point here is that if Mojica (or Šikšnys) instead of professors in a random European university, were supported by University of California, MIT, or any of the big names, they would not be in the predicament they are today.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#118

Post by akomtu »

dunefox wrote: post #66

I'm reading Dune and I just bought a couple of neuroscience and math books. Maybe I'll even have time to read them!

Dune is pretty good, actually. It's an artistic allegory on "the path" (as the author calls it). Dune's bene gessiret looks like an allegory on one of the schools whetr candidates who come to the exam (gom jabbar in dune) unprepared, die. The name itself, bene gessiret, the Dune's author must've taken from "binah tipereteth" which means something like "intuition and will". Without at least some familiarity with occult symbolism, it will be difficult to appreacite Dune.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#119

Post by ffwacom »

rememberlenny wrote: post #25

- List for the lazy - A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir.

^ List of books I’ll now never read.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#120

Post by GrifMD »

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #59
talor_a wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

artemis was disappointing, Weir seems like he has no idea how to write a female protagonist. this was my introduction to his work, seeing that others feel the same way makes me think it was probably just the wrong pick and I should try his other books.

Project Hail Mary is worth a read. Totally different vibe. It felt like he was trying to do something very different with Artemis and failed. I rarely have to put a book down but I just couldn't finish Artemis. The whole scene with the "strong" cop holding her down had my eyes rolling so hard they almost got stuck.

I somewhat agree, though I did finish the book and enjoyed it despite its flaws. The Martian was a delight, and Project Hail Mary follows in a similar vein.
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