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Books I loved reading this year

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Re: Books I loved reading this year

#161

Post by greedo »

davemp wrote: post #157
hyperbovine wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd hazard a guess there are thousands of machines running Windows to be found somewhere within Google--they write plenty of software for that platform after all, and most on the sales/biz side are going to be trained on it too. Plus a lot of engineers using VSCode. MSFT also own GitHub, and, well, https://github.com/google . Same goes for pretty much all companies listed in the sibling comments as well.

That’s hardly using MS exclusively.

Never said "exclusively." I said extensively. Excel alone is used almost everywhere.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#162

Post by Baeocystin »

fmvab wrote: post #154
Baeocystin wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I liked a lot of the ideas in PHM. I found the protagonist insufferable throughout, though. Perhaps Weir was going for a more flawed character after Watney? (Never read Artemis, so I can't comment there.) I still think it's a good book, and well worth the read. But man did that character grate on my nerves.

Haha. I thought this too but I can’t quite place my finger on it. What exactly made the protagonist so insufferable?

He was a literal self-absorbed man-child, and worst of all exhibited no apparent growth throughout the entire story. So much so that it was hard to suspend belief in that he was also capable of doing the real thinking required to move the story forward. I know Weir attempted to insert a reason in-story for why such a poor choice would still be sent, but I found it both unconvincing and obvious why the author needed to add it. I think it would have made a more satisfying story to revamp the character so that his position made sense naturally.

In comparison, Rocky was fantastic as a character, the problem faced novel, the solutions enjoyable. That all tips the scales into the 'still well worth the read' territory, but (IMO) it could have been so much more.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#163

Post by hyperbovine »

davemp wrote: post #157
hyperbovine wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd hazard a guess there are thousands of machines running Windows to be found somewhere within Google--they write plenty of software for that platform after all, and most on the sales/biz side are going to be trained on it too. Plus a lot of engineers using VSCode. MSFT also own GitHub, and, well, https://github.com/google . Same goes for pretty much all companies listed in the sibling comments as well.

That’s hardly using MS exclusively.

No one is claiming that...

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#164

Post by CrazyStat »

chestertn wrote: post #155
CrazyStat wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And if Mojica had not discover CRISPR... And if Janssen had not invented the microscope... clearly all Nobel prizes in medicine and physiology should go to a Dutch guy who died 400 years ago. Mojica made a contribution. Doudna and Charpentier made a contribution which clearly conferred greater benefit on humankind. Šikšnys made a contribution but got scooped, which sucks but that's how science goes sometimes. It ha…

The Nobel prize is 120 years old and I don’t think it can be awarded posthumously. > but got scooped, which sucks buts that’s how science works sometimes I work in science. It hasn’t been always like this and it is getting worse. Nobody does basic or risky research anymore.

> I don’t think it can be awarded posthumously.

Correct.

> I work in science. It hasn’t been always like this and it is getting worse. Nobody does basic or risky research anymore.

Getting scooped has always been a risk. Crick and Watson fretted about it when they were working on the structure of DNA. Newton and Leibniz bickered over priority for calculus hundreds of years ago. My wife fretted about it when she was isolating and studying the function of a 450kDa protein for her PhD a decade ago. I don't think it has really changed that much.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#165

Post by erezsh »

munificent wrote: post #102

I haven't even finished it yet, but my favorite book of 2021 is certain to be Rutger Bregman's Humankind . If you are feeling cynical about your species thanks to climate change, COVID, etc. it may be exactly what you need.

What if I'm feeling cynical about humankind but for very different reasons? Like historical trajectory, discrepancy of growth between technology and culture, or even cynical about the very idea of life?
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