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Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

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Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#81

Post by H8crilA »

cl42 wrote: post #36

"Seeing Like a State" by James C. Scott I started my career in international development, and the book above provides a dozen case studies on states using scientific management, stats, etc. to try and control their growth/populations/economies and failing miserably. It is a beautiful book in that it illustrates how difficult it is to actually manage a country and economy well, especially if you are trying to complete…

One thing I've observed is population growth control - be it reducing the growth or encouraging growth - always fails miserably. For example many people have heard of the one child policy in China, but the facts are that both the introduction and the removal of the policy had no perceptible effect on fertility rates.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#82

Post by amelius »

anyfactor wrote: post #17

Accounting... The rule of accouting is that if anything excites you about accounting you shouldn't do accounting. The most fun I had studying accounting was learning about tax evasion, money laundering, defrauding stakeholders etc. Any academic book about forensic accounting could be deemed interesting if you just read only the case studies.

> The most fun I had studying accounting was learning about tax evasion, money laundering, defrauding stakeholders etc.

Sounds like hacking.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#83

Post by ipnon »

PiHKAL by Alexander and Ann Shulgin is on its face a book about love and chemistry. Taken together it becomes more of a treatise on how psychopharmacology is a method of personal and sociological analysis. Drug use becomes a psychological tool to manifest the phenomena of the mind that are normally hidden, and novel synthesis becomes a tool to then access the areas of the mind unexplored throughout history. Aside of all this, the Shulgin's story is one of absolute dedication to science in the face of its many impediments: internal psychology, interpersonal relations, social stigma, technical innovation, and authoritarian censorship.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#84

Post by unoti »

"Deep Learning for Coders" (aka Fastai) https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/deep-learning-for/97814...

This book will take you from knowing nothing other than high school algenbra to knowing both practical applications and theoretical foundations and best practices for AI. If you're interested in AI and machine learning, you need this book.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#85

Post by mkaic »

Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez. I'm a filmmaker and that book glorifies guerrilla filmmaking like no other. Really fun book by the guy who unfortunately didn't go on to make very many critical successes but did create the masterpiece of cinema that is Sharkboy and Lavagirl

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#86

Post by amelius »

artemonster wrote: post #64

The art of electronics for electrical engineers. It is dated, but it has everything

Except a good scientific explanation of how transistors work, how to build an amplifier given a number of constraints (power, bandwidth), how to design an antenna ...

It's a nice book for hobbyists, though.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#89

Post by going_ham »

The entire ray tracing in one weekend[1] series is really good book for getting into computer graphics. It covers a simple implementation of path tracer and getting the image is really satisfying! Modern hardware and light simulation makes art fun!

[1]: https://raytracing.github.io/

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#90

Post by AlexCoventry »

karambahh wrote: post #19
anyfactor wrote: post #17

Accounting... The rule of accouting is that if anything excites you about accounting you shouldn't do accounting. The most fun I had studying accounting was learning about tax evasion, money laundering, defrauding stakeholders etc. Any academic book about forensic accounting could be deemed interesting if you just read only the case studies.

What book on forensic accounting would you recommend for entertainment value? I have some knowledge of french accounting, been exposed to US style, and thoroughly enjoyed long forms involving forensic accounting, money laundering and the like...

Harry Markopolos's No One Would Listen. A bit over the top in places, but entertaining.
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