Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#311

Post by shanusmagnus » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:48 PM UTC

john-radio wrote: post #202

galfarragem wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would try the original book on people pleasing: "No more Mr. Nice Guy" by Dr. Robert Glover. The title may sound lousy but is a very logical book. The author is a PhD in his 60s and he coined the concept. You can start by listening some podcasts where he was a guest. He's genuine and a great communicator. Definitely underrated.

Huh, I searched and his brand seems to be about talking to the "nice guys" who are all like "Why do women always pick jocks and not the nice guys like me?" Which is not a stereotype that I associate with compulsive people-pleasing, exactly... Compulsive self-pitying and limerence, more like.

Thank you for teaching me a new word! (limerence)

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#312

Post by donatj » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:50 PM UTC

jimmyreilly wrote: post #196

DOOM Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero was a great read. Very inspiring and gives a fresh perspective on the story of id, clarifying a few rumors.

I am about halfway through and really enjoying it. The audio book is great, it’s narrated by Romero himself and hearing it in his own words adds to the experience.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#313

Post by shanusmagnus » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:50 PM UTC

anymouse123456 wrote: post #224

koliber wrote: post #32

The Goal. It's a book from the 1980's about operational management. In particular, it focuses on physical manufacturing. It's in the form of a fictitious personal tale. A plant manager struggles to save his plant from closure, and his marriage from falling apart. The lesson is about lean management. My main takeaway is the realization that when we try to optimize something, we focus on how to do something more effici…

Great recommendation! The book is mainly credited with introducing the Theory of Constraints [1], which asserts that any manageable system's throughput is limited by exactly one bottleneck. He goes on to encourage us to instantiate operating (and thinking) processes whereby we repeatedly discover and mitigate this bottleneck as each mitigation may result in a migration of the constraint. The main observation is that…

I tried to read The Goal and bounced off due in part to the aforementioned writing style, which seemed super trite and straw-mannish. Does the fact that you keep re-reading the books suggests that you haven't found a better way to re-approach that material?

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#314

Post by 2big2fail_47 » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:50 PM UTC

Capital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse? — Mckenzie Wark

»McKenzie Wark argues that the all-pervasive presence of data in our networked society has given rise to a new mode of production, one not ruled over by capitalists and their factories but by those who own and control the flow of information. Yet, if this is not capitalism anymore, could it be something worse?«

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#315

Post by shanusmagnus » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:53 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #15

I recently read two books about industries that previously seemed dreadfully boring: property/casualty insurance, and community banking. I'm not sure what possessed me to read these books but I was curious about both industries since they are significant parts of the economy but I knew next to nothing about them. The banking book is called "The Most Fun I Never Want To Have Again: A Mid-Life Crisis in Community Banki…

This was like the perfect HN recommendation -- something I never would have thought of, with enough context to show why I should care. Will read both these, thank you.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#316

Post by paulluuk » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:53 PM UTC

galfarragem wrote: post #178

leksak wrote: post #98

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents I'm a person that struggles with boundary-setting and have spent numerous years in relationships that have left me as less-than I was before. Imagine people-pleasing to an absolute fault, and being more of a chameleon that adapts to avoid conflicts. This has led to problems of identity, and deriving my sense of worth through others which isn't healthy. Fortunately, I do…

I would try the original book on people pleasing: "No more Mr. Nice Guy" by Dr. Robert Glover. The title may sound lousy but is a very logical book. The author is a PhD in his 60s and he coined the concept. You can start by listening some podcasts where he was a guest. He's genuine and a great communicator. Definitely underrated.

After a short search for Dr. Robert Glover I'm getting all kinds of "red pill", "pickup advice", "men's rights" links etc, all of which are red flags to me for "incel" kind of stuff.

Is that also what I can expect from the book, or did I come to conclusions too quickly?

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#317

Post by __rito__ » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:55 PM UTC

Sakos wrote: post #43

The Mind Illuminated - Comprehensive meditation guide that comes at it for an non-theistic/religious/spiritual perspective. Everything you ever wanted to know about meditation without having to go through books about Buddhism or meditation which are generally very spiritual and can be difficult to read. The Attention Revolution - In-depth guide to how to meditate without too much fluff. It basically directly goes int…

I will recommend this book highly as well.

This book taught me how to meditate, and my life really changed for the better.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#318

Post by ParallelThread » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:55 PM UTC

tultra wrote: post #252

Computer Networking: a Top Down approach by James Kurose and Keith Ross. Computer Networking - a Top Down approach is a technical book, but oh boy what an awesome read it is. I've just recently obtained a BSc degree in Computer Science, and the course curriculum didn't paid much attention to computer networks. We mostly studied cryptography algos, but not really looked into networks protocols and such. This book is h…

When you read technical books for fun, do you do the exercises and projects at the end of chapters? I have found that when I read and don't actually use the concepts learned, I tend to forget after some time.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#319

Post by shanusmagnus » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:56 PM UTC

paulusthe wrote: post #292

bambax wrote: post #101

The Dawn of Everything, by Graeber and Wengrow. Refutes most of the claims made by Harari in Sapiens, and shows everything you though you knew about prehistory is plain wrong. It's a great book, very well written and well informed. Made me think that humanity's history isn't an arrow pointing in the direction of progress; we make experiments. Our current way of life is not the "best so far", it's but one arrangement…

For what it's worth, sapiens was generally hated by academic anthropologists but Dawn of everything is generally hated by everyone else. Graeber was always expressly advocating for one specific (anarchist) viewpoint in his work, and that book suffers mightily for it. Don't take anything in that book as true, because I've read lots of academics losing their minds over how much he glossed over or just ignored contrary…

I'm not the author, but obligatory "not sure why this is being down-voted." I've been wondering about Graeber for a while, since his work seems suspiciously close to "messages certain people desperately want to hear" and I have strong priors against those accounts, regardless of which "side" they come from.

Would love to hear perspective on this. The book would be a serious investment.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?

#320

Post by short_throw » Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 1:57 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #293

gsatic wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya right. Like any one in their right mind wants to have 10 wives to deal with. Dont get confuse hooking up with marriage. I think Esther Perel has written the best stuff on modern relationships. Read her.

What do you mean "to deal with"? There's a lot of misconceptions about marriage, having to "manage" your spouse is one of them. You don't, they're their own person, they can take care of themselves, and if they're dependent on you it's not a healthy marriage.

A healthy marriage of two people treating each other as equals takes a lot of communication, and that almost certainly can't be scaled 10x, nor do the same principles apply when someone is only getting 10%.

In traditional polygamy, the man with 10 wives would be the head of household for 10 wives with competing interests, so it does start to sound very managerial.