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Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Commenting for later. Wish you could "favorite" comments.

You can. Click on the time for the comment. Then you can favorite it.

Wow this is well hidden. Thanks for the tip!

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#233
post #87
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not GP, but I have a similar experience. The Tao Te Ching presents a kind of supreme entity which is the unity underpinning all things. It questions dichotomy and difference and scarcity and control, as these things are only possible in a world of differentiated objects. We can’t always be present to this Unity because sometimes we need to eat a sandwich. But the book is a nice reminder—“hey, we all come from the sam…

Yes yes but this is a longer version of what I inferred from parent post. God is Love is The Force is 42, etc. Instead of asking "What attracts you to this idea?", I want to ask: "What made you think it was true?"

> "What made you think it was true?"

Most older religions held the "many paths" view, including Judaism. You don't get sky daddy until the Romans needed a new imperial state religion and started mixing personal cults with monotheist cults.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#234

1. Peter Norvig's Design of Computer Programs course on Udacity probably singlehandedly changed my perspective on thinking and modeling software solutions to problems. https://www.udacity.com/course/design-of-computer-programs--... 2. Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom is of similar quality. There are a lot of 'oh that's how that works' moments in this book. https://craftinginterpreters.com/ 3. Doyle Brunson's S…

+1 Peter Norvig's class. His approach is totally fascinating and the way he effortlessly translates common-thinking and logic into a program is pure magic to me. Highly recommend it and also checkout his notebooks, unparalleled beauty: https://github.com/norvig/pytudes

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#236

1. Peter Norvig's Design of Computer Programs course on Udacity probably singlehandedly changed my perspective on thinking and modeling software solutions to problems. https://www.udacity.com/course/design-of-computer-programs--... 2. Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom is of similar quality. There are a lot of 'oh that's how that works' moments in this book. https://craftinginterpreters.com/ 3. Doyle Brunson's S…

If you liked Stephen King's "On Writing", give William Zinsser's "On Writing Well" a read. It's not a memoir but more like a manual addressing different types of writing from corporate writing to sports to academic.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#237

1. Peter Norvig's Design of Computer Programs course on Udacity probably singlehandedly changed my perspective on thinking and modeling software solutions to problems. https://www.udacity.com/course/design-of-computer-programs--... 2. Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom is of similar quality. There are a lot of 'oh that's how that works' moments in this book. https://craftinginterpreters.com/ 3. Doyle Brunson's S…

I am reading Crafting Interpreters right now. It seems to be a solid book but I am curious how others read it?

Do you reproduce all, or most, the code yourself? That’d be a great way to make everything stick but makes progress terribly slow.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#239
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All religions are essentially different paths to the same destination Just to be clear, many religions and religious viewpoints would vehemently disagree with you. The idea that all religions lead to the same place is really just one variety of religious belief. There are many others. Reading the Tao Te Ching is great, but I'm not sure it's going to give you much insight into what Roman Catholics or Sunni Muslims a…

Well of course they'd vehemently disagree, they're on a different path and they believe that path goes to a different destination, while in reality necessarily all those path lead to the same destination. A Hindu might believe they're on a path that leads to reincarnation, a Muslim might believe they're on a path that leads to heaven or hell. At the end of their path though, necessarily something real is going to hap…

The Roman Catholic Church openly claims to be the one true religion, and that all other religions might have elements of the truth, but not the fullness of the Truth. So Catholicism doesn't fit into this framework.

Re: Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?

#240
post #97

I know this is a little out of left field but I couldn't understand why anyone was Atheist until I read The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan... quickly followed by The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Those two books together crystallized in me what it could mean to have a world view absent of supernatural forces.

Being somewhat skeptic myself in my younger years and coming closer to God through my relationship with my girlfriend (who isn't even a believer herself)... I just recently came up with a hypothesis why so many Math and CS people were famously Atheist. I grew closer to God through just observing the natural world, and my natural relationship (affection, friendship, etc.). My hypothesis is that so many of these (incre…

Most of the great mathematicians were religious. As to why is that, we can only speculate. I personally think that while exploring the beautiful worlds of numbers they discovered order and perfection and that got them thinking about Divinity.
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