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Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#191

Post by romanhn »

madmax108 wrote: post #163
pchm wrote: post #47

Taleb's Incerto (Fooled by Randomness, Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game). Opens your eyes to a wide array of fallacies that govern our daily life (unknown unknowns, "experts" explaining past events as obvious in retrospect, the news, predictions, survivorship bias, confirmation bias, iatrogenics and a lot, lot more) — almost to a fault, i.e. if you take it too far, you'll see these fallacies everywhere and t…

Maybe it's just me, but I feel nearly all of Taleb's books should be blog posts instead of full length books. I first read Black Swan a long while back, and two things popped out at me. 1) The author comes across quite snobby and high-handed in his writing (which has translated over time on his Twitter as well for those who follow him on there) and 2) The essence of the book was distillable into a much smaller novell…

Not just you. I felt like Black Swan was utterly forgettable and could be summarized as "shit happens". The name dropping and snobbery put me off reading anything else by him.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#194

Post by mindcrime »

dotsam wrote: post #100

* Philosophy Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation. Surprisingly readable and insightful, even if you don't buy his metaphysics. Einstein had Schopenhauer's portrait on his wall and considered him a genius. * Poetry John Milton - Paradise Lost Powerful and beautiful writing. * Fiction Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel. Funny and a real feast of words (the translation is a work of art in itself)…

Karl Popper - The Open Society and its Enemies. How to work against totalitarianism

I've had this on my shelf waiting to be read for quite some time. I suddenly get the sense that it's more timely and topical than ever. Will probably start it soon.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#195

Post by epolanski »

hcks wrote: post #84
epolanski wrote: post #20

- The Way of The Superior Man. The only "self help" book I give any credit. It really boils down to encouraging people to have a purpose in life and accept ourselves. - The Stupidity Paradox. Ever feel the world works in a "stupid" way? That your organization keeps promoting stupid ideas? Read this book and get into the roots of functional stupidity. It's a bit repetitive, but extremely insightful book. - Structure a…

SICP is literally computer science 101 in LISP. Personally I found it less englightening than doing medium/hard leetcode problems.

What's enlightening about solving algorithmic problems of harsher difficulty? I don't think it has any relevance to software engineering unless your job involves writing efficient algorithms all the time..

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#197

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

Interesting, why do you ask that question? ( sorry I'm not answering your question directly).

I personally find that beyond a point ( my point of course), it's worthless reading most books, the theme repeats and it then is a waste of time unless it's either entertainment or you if have a short memory.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#198

Post by credit_guy »

koonsolo wrote: post #170
madmax108 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel nearly all of Taleb's books should be blog posts instead of full length books. I first read Black Swan a long while back, and two things popped out at me. 1) The author comes across quite snobby and high-handed in his writing (which has translated over time on his Twitter as well for those who follow him on there) and 2) The essence of the book was distillable into a much smaller novell…

> Maybe it's just me, but I feel nearly all of Taleb's books should be blog posts instead of full length books. I have the same feeling. Don't get me wrong, I really respect Taleb and his insights. But I skipped a large part of Black Swan because some parts are more literature than insights.

He got one thing right: the picked a great title for a book. "Black Swan". These 2 words together made him a multi-millionaire. The content of the book is quite lame, but darn, what a killer title.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#199

Post by mbrodersen »

“Rich Dad Poor Dad”. The most impactful book I have ever read. It completely changed how I handle my personal finances and think about money. It also made me deeply understand why high earning rich people go broke all the time.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#200

Post by oracardo »

sedawk wrote: post #184
oracardo wrote: post #99

The Overstory by Richard Powers: this book changed the way I look at trees. I'll be driving some days and out of nowhere notice a tree and appreciate it. This book inspired me to consider that there is an objective meaning to life. The Incerto Series by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: where to start...I started reading this series over a decade ago and I still think about it weekly. It can be very dense to get through as I to…

> Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it? Of course I would, there is no downside to it. Even if I have no memory of it after the fact, the goodness that would result from such a vacation would remain with me (and hopefully affect me in a positive way). Plus, I get to do it all over again; because, if I had no mem…

The downside is time spent without any memories.

If I could snap my fingers and appear 7 days in the future, my body having experienced a vacation but my mind having no recollection what did I really gain? And at what cost?

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