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Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#591

Post by alecst »

tappio wrote: post #580
alecst wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe that it was the climate that killed all the large mammals worldwide in a span of tens of thousands of years. But I'm open to having my mind changed.

It is one of the hypotheses. It seems very likely that there were multiple factors at play in the late pleistoscene extinction. A quick search with that topic will provide you with materials. Hunting is a common hypothesis, but it is impossible to prove the causality, and world is usually not that simple. Also, prehistoric human consumption of plant food has most likely been underestimated, as the plant remain fossil…

You inspired me to read the Wikipedia article, which paints a pretty damning picture. It is not that far off from what is presented by Harari.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_extinction

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#592

Post by Strom »

martindbp wrote: post #422

"Why greatness cannot be planned" by Kenneth Stanley It's a bit depressing that academia works the way it does, but in a twisted way it gives me hope that I could make a significant contribution somewhere by just tinkering or following what feels interesting. Even if there are tens of thousands of people working in an area like AI, most of them are just making incremental improvements to what already exists, so there…

I've also read this book, but unfortunately I found that whenever the authors talk about things beyond their immediate research - it gets bad.

The good parts are the descriptions of their research and discussion of the findings as far as it directly interacts with their research. Fortunately you don't have to read the whole book to get to the good parts. There is a 40 minute presentation/talk on YouTube that covers the good parts. [1] This talk is what originally got me to read the book.

The bad parts are where the authors take their AI algorithm quirks and jump to insane conclusions, going as far as to claim that setting goals for your own life is a bad idea. The fundamental misstep that the authors take is that they conflate goals with measurement of goals. They keep giving examples of naive ways one could measure progress towards goals - basically the functions they write for their AI program. These functions suck. Instead of just admiting that the functions they wrote suck, the authors conclude that one shouldn't have goals at all, because they couldn't come up with a good way to measure progress.

--

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXQPL9GooyI

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#593

Post by janvdberg »

kingcharles wrote: post #576
janvdberg wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote about that last year: https://j11g.com/2020/07/01/how-i-read-52-books-in-a-year/ Long story short: read every day. I notice my average is pretty steady, around 30 pages/day. So if I manage that, I’m good. But the thing is — with a good book — reading 30 pages is a breeze. And I often end up reading more. I also notice if I can’t read at least 30 pages in one sitting I probably don’t like the book very much.

When I was in jail with (almost) zero distractions I read 100 books a year and 100s of magazines each year. Since release 5 months ago I have read a total of zero, but I am getting back into it. The real world is distracting.

I often have a fantasy of long periods of uninterrupted time to be able to just read. But jail time is not part of that fantasy! You seemed to have made the best possible use of your time though. I read some of your previous comments, I would be very interested to read your story when you are ready to put it on paper.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#594

Post by dmrg »

spicyusername wrote: post #29

Images of Organization by Garth Morgan. I went in expecting a somewhat fluffy business book, but it is nothing of the sort. Every page is full of interesting anecdotes, analogies, and insights around not just corporate life, but life in general. It was way more thorough and academic than I expected, very highly recommend it.

Having worked more than 15 years in the industry and having completed several OB courses during my MBA, I cannot point to a better resource than this book that helps understand what actually drives organizations and how they function.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#595

Post by AlexanderTheGr8 »

marttt wrote: post #257
AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sunk cost fallacy [1]? Or was there something actually interesting in the book? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost

Ha, great parallel, thanks for pointing to this, but I think not. More likely, since I've had literary ambitions myself, I was really curios to find out what exactly keeps me immersed in this book. Technically, how does the author accomplish this? I have some clues: simple, casual language with occasional to-the-point metaphors, lots of dialogues, then stream-of consciousness-sections and philosophical cross-referenc…

Comparing a book with a programming language is such a wonderful metaphor

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#596

Post by finiteseries »

Aeolun wrote: post #590
finiteseries wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ve done much better in summing them up here then I’ve ever seen elsewhere or done myself personally. Well sluiced. Will note the writing style is almost weirder and more niche than the rigidly strange content though if that’s possible. It’s not difficult to get past and without a doubt enhances the general vibe & chewiness of it all, but man the sentence structures are just downright convoluted at times. Totally…

Holy shit you were not joking. I’m trying to like the book, but while I like the story, it borders on unreadable. I find myself trying to figure out what the author was thinking while writing something out, as only half of the words seem to make it to the paper.

I remember it getting “easier” once the universe & style sank in a bit after they ventured out into the desert IIRC but yeah, definitely a reread while reading type experience.

Absolutely worth it if you can stomach it though, especially the second book with the wizard students and extensive civil engineering!

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#597

Post by pas »

vmurthy wrote: post #247
digianarchist wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a fan of Harari’s pop science books. Lots of theories and opinion presented as fact.

Serious question and would love to better my understanding : why do you say so? Any sources?

https://www.writemypapers.org/examples-and-samples/5-errors-...

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#598

Post by yef »

mijoharas wrote: post #374
jillesvangurp wrote: post #343

If you like science fiction, there were a few books published this year worth picking up: - The Hail Mary Project by Andy Weir (of the Martian). Nice page turner and he's back to form with his third novel. - Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Enjoyable and fun; though arguably not his finest work. I might pick up his earlier work for re-reading over Christmas. Anathem probably, which I would recommend to anyone. -…

I'd second the recommendation of anathem, which is one of my favourite books. Thanks for pointing out the new book by Neal Stephenson, I didn't know he'd released that and will probably check it out. I also read the hail Mary project which I thought was an enjoyable light read, but nothing too special.

Project Hail Mary was special because it was so straightforward. It didn't try to beat you over the head with some grand message about society. It's just a science teacher doing cool stuff in space. Refreshing, in my opinion.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#599

Post by mijoharas »

yef wrote: post #598
mijoharas wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd second the recommendation of anathem, which is one of my favourite books. Thanks for pointing out the new book by Neal Stephenson, I didn't know he'd released that and will probably check it out. I also read the hail Mary project which I thought was an enjoyable light read, but nothing too special.

Project Hail Mary was special because it was so straightforward. It didn't try to beat you over the head with some grand message about society. It's just a science teacher doing cool stuff in space. Refreshing, in my opinion.

The thing I found the most funny about project hail Mary, was that the bits that most broke my immersion were the political bits.

(WARNING: minor spoilers follow)

In a story about someone travelling to another galaxy and investigating other life forms, the thing that I struggled with the most was that the entire planet unilaterally put their faith in one person and there wasn't a giant amount of infighting and countries at each other's throats.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#600

Post by digianarchist »

vmurthy wrote: post #247
digianarchist wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a fan of Harari’s pop science books. Lots of theories and opinion presented as fact.

Serious question and would love to better my understanding : why do you say so? Any sources?

There are some really questionable claims from both an anthropological and political perspective.

John Sexton's summary mirrors my own opinion:

> The book is fundamentally unserious and undeserving of the wide acclaim and attention it has been receiving. But it is worth considering the book’s blind spots and flaws — the better to understand the weaknesses of the genre and the intellectual temptations of our age. [0]

[0] https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/a-reductionist-h...

Intellectual temptations is our contemporary desire for condensed information from a single source.

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