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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?

#111

Post by H8crilA »

coder-3 wrote: post #97
H8crilA wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Interesting. Do you have a good source for this? Googling it is just the same (Chinese source) line repeated over and over: > National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman Mao Qunan said the agency’s work had reduced the number of births in China over the years by “400 million”. Nothing much about the effect of the removal of the policy either.

https://www.google.com/search?q=china+fertility+rate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#/media/File:B...

It was introduced (officially) in the 80s

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

#112

Post by JuettnerDistrib »

H8crilA wrote: post #110
nxmnxm99 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely not true. There was a decade of population growth control mechanisms in the decade before the official, universal one child policy. Over that decade (the 70s) China experienced an incredibly sharp reduction in fertility. It’s likely that increasing socioeconomic wealth would have naturally followed that trajectory, but it’s unarguable that Chinas fertility policies accelerated the drop.

I mean, I still don't see anything out of trend here between the 60s and the 70s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#/media/File:B...

It's pretty obvious if you ignore the great leap backwards... I mean forward, coming down from ~40 births/1000 in the 1950s and 1960s to ~20 in the late 70s and after.

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

#113

Post by renewiltord »

m_a_g wrote: post #47
karaterobot wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm that this book made me interested in "real" engineering (as in, engineering physical things in the real world rather than abstract symbols) when I read it. A bit too late for a career change, but I have talked to a few other people who hold this in high esteem as well. Good recommendation!

What makes you think those "abstract symbols" are not real?

Surely the fact that he put “real” in quote marks is sufficient to not have this tiresome argument.

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

#114

Post by H8crilA »

JuettnerDistrib wrote: post #112
H8crilA wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I still don't see anything out of trend here between the 60s and the 70s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#/media/File:B...

It's pretty obvious if you ignore the great leap backwards... I mean forward, coming down from ~40 births/1000 in the 1950s and 1960s to ~20 in the late 70s and after.

You mean to ignore the dip during the leap, ignore the spike in the 1960 (assuming this is the recovery from the leap), so that we would have ~flat line up to year 1970?

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

#115

Post by izzygonzalez »

werber wrote: post #77

Eloquent JS, for coding, On Photography by Sontag for Photography, Anything James Baldwin for literature, Anything Angela Davis or Emma Goldman for political theory, A blank (perhaps square lined, Rhodia brand) notebook and a pack of Stabillo pens for creativity.

Eloquent JS changed my life. It made me realize that it would be hard, but I really could do this.

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

#116

Post by cercatrova »

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata

It teaches Latin in a very cool way, where the entire book is written in Latin but it starts off with simple sentences anyone with a Romance language background can understand, before diving into deeper sentences, all while being illustrated so one can still follow the plot if they're stuck.

It contrasts with very dense Latin books that focus on grammar and spelling, which often bore students. LLPSI instead takes readers on an entertaining journey.

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

#117

Post by adastra22 »

The Case for Space by Robert Zubrin.

Puts recent developments by SpaceX in context, and shows how we really are about to settle the cosmos in an economically sustainable way. A call to action to anyone who wants to participate to start making space companies now.

Radical Abundance by K. Eric Drexler.

Re-introduces the concept of atomically precise manufacturing (aka molecular nanotechnology) and shows how it can solve basically all major global problems from climate change to energy crisis to wars over resources.

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

#118

Post by JuettnerDistrib »

H8crilA wrote: post #114
JuettnerDistrib wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty obvious if you ignore the great leap backwards... I mean forward, coming down from ~40 births/1000 in the 1950s and 1960s to ~20 in the late 70s and after.

You mean to ignore the dip during the leap, ignore the spike in the 1960 (assuming this is the recovery from the leap), so that we would have ~flat line up to year 1970?

Yes, exactly!

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

#120

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]
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