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Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#151

Post by alfor »

Bible as an atheist (with Jordan Peterson biblical lecture on youtube as an introduction)

We live a story and to make society work that story has to be shared.

The goal of life would be to be in self-sacrifice in service of truth and love, in a sense it’s similar to the stoic philosophy but with more dept.

So much of our humans problems and pitfalls are outlined perfectly, but we have to find a way to read it without prejudice, with the intention of discovering what we don’t know.

There is a deeper meaning than the bearded magician in the sky, but it’s a process for a scientifically minded person to be open to what is there (we have been taught that it’s a bunch of lies and superstitions)

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#152

Post by kbrkbr »

If you’re into probability, statistics and/or ML, Judea Pearl‘s The Book Of Why enlighted me kind of.

While reading and applying, the suspicion had grown in me that probability is embedded in causality. Specifically when using Bayes theorem I had tweaked notation for me, so P[X|Y] would mean that X depends causally on Y. Then

P(Y|X)=P[X|Y]P(Y)/P(X)

would clearly show the reverse problem character, and how evidential reasoning is built on causal reasoning.

Thus what Pearl and a lot of contributors built fell on fertile ground with me. I think it is an amazing addition to reasoning tools.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#153

Post by slothtrop »

svieira wrote: post #129
lanfeust6 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> common-sense appeal that practically bridges the gap between "is" and "ought." That intrigues me, because if there's one thing that is particularly tiresome about Socialists it's that they invoke Hegel to rationalize everything they want and propose.

There is no necessity of a gap between "is" and "ought" - the assumption that there is presumes that either things are not ordered towards an end or that we cannot known that end. But that's clearly wrong. See Socrates' discourse with the slave boy in Meno and the universal desire for justice and happiness that all human beings posses.

> But that's clearly wrong.

Woefully lacking in details here.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#154

Post by lukas099 »

JackMorgan wrote: post #8

From a software engineering standpoint: - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (doing all the exercises is key). This book helped me think about how programs run, how state is stored, how you can build out asynchronous computation, and how you can build your own languages. - Designing Data Intensive Applications. This book profoundly changed how I think about application performance and data. It describe…

> Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (doing all the exercises is key).

I tried this, but got stuck on the first exercise that had you prove some mathematical thing. I concluded that I was too stupid for the book.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#155

Post by kingant »

curious16 wrote: post #119
kingant wrote: post #88

Bit of a generic answer. Doing the problem sets from a good university course. Some problems might take you hours to solve, but it will develop your stamina for thinking hard.

Any particular set of courses you have in mind?

Sure for mathematical problem solving skills, here is a good one: http://people.csail.mit.edu/moitra/854.html.

It requires minimal mathematical background (undergraduate level discrete math). But you will learn a bunch of relevant algorithmic concepts. And the problem sets are hard!

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#156

Post by lukas099 »

treeman79 wrote: post #18

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Spent a few years trying to figure out how Help people without trying to force businesses to do what’s right. Anytime I hear a new fiscal policy or laws idea I can usually figure out if it’s going to work or cause problems https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...

Knowledge and Decisions by the same is also a great book.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#157

Post by tizio13 »

kaiju0 wrote: post #141
tizio13 wrote: post #106

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The private thoughts of a person with terrible power. An emperor who could put to death anyone he chose. Create the law by speaking it. Command any one to his bed if the mood took him. These pages are filled with Aurelius’ private struggles to be a good man, despite the frustrations of the world. His words helped me become a more social thinker.

Totally agree. But the language and wording structure is a slog to get through.

I highly recommend the version published by Penguin Classics: ISBN-10: 0140449337

This version is translated by Martin Hammond. He does a fantastic job at making this a comfortable read. And another bonus, this version is Narrated by Richard Armitage. His voice filled the book with life.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#158

Post by anyoneworks »

quacked wrote: post #149
anyoneworks wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly is being cringey and full of itself fine as a criticism, but being sexist needs its special little carveout "for those who care?"

Using a special little carveout theoretically satisfies two groups of people: 1) Those who won't engage with material if it's sexist 2) Those who think other people are stupid for not engaging with material if it's sexist As an example, I could write: > Because the book is very cringey at times and full of itself. I've said this before, and the response was multiple times "who cares about that, what about how sexist…

Honestly, fair enough. I didn't initially get that out of that comment, but I can see how you meant it.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#159

Post by dottedmag »

sasha_fishter wrote: post #75

Interesting fact is I noticed that not many book titles are repeating in this thread. This means there is no single book that can change your thinking, I think one have to find it on their own. Most of the time the best book for you is the one that you don't know will be the best book. You just figure it out months or years later.

Or maybe people read comments before posting. There's a dozen of books I'd mention if they weren't mentioned already.

Re: Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?

#160

Post by soupfordummies »

FedorinoGore wrote: post #77

My top 3 (with a recency bias of course): 1. The Field Guide to Understanding 'Human Error' - most of the book I thought "but it's obvious", but it still made me actively think about system design choices not from the standpoint "how it should be used" but "how can it be misused" 2. Thinking fast and slow - just another reminder that my brain is a lazy bastard and information/awareness hygiene is very important 3. Ho…

RE: Thinking Fast and Slow - I seem to remember a few times where that's been posted here that some say some of the concepts have been disproven/aren't rooted in science. I'm not sure if I'm thinking about the same thing. I've always been intrigued by that book.

Also, do you mind explaining a bit about what you mean by "information/awareness hygiene"? I'm intrigued by that as well.

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