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Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

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21–30 of 58 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#25
post #23
post #21

Gödel Escher Bach? Or maybe that’s just me! Gonna get through it one of these days…

no, it's not just you. I only made it about 1/4 of the way through

i didn't make it to the first 10 pages.

that's just next level nerd to me. i was in awe though to learn they are peers of einstein and oppenheimer.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#26
post #21

Gödel Escher Bach? Or maybe that’s just me! Gonna get through it one of these days…

I suspect this may be a first contact with deeper philosophy for many, which accounts for its popularity on HN. Its doubtful that it breaks any new Philosophical ground, and interested parties may be better advised to just read a history of philosophy a an approachable introduction such as Bertrand Russell's work.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#27
post #14

The Elements of Statistical Learning

Well, it is a textbook -- one doesn't necessarily read a textbook from cover to cover. However, over the years I've certainly covered and re-covered large swathes of it. It is largely irrelevant for deep learning but its still the best reference I know of for the classic methods.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please add double line breaks between each point or question as your comment just renders as a big block of text.

In Computers? The Mythical Man Month Fred Brooks In Management? Turn the Ship Around David Marquet In literature? Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad In Philosophy? The Republic Plato In Religion? The Confessions St. Augustine In Mathematics? The Elements Euclid In History? Parallel lives Plutarch In Physics? Principia Isaac Newton

I read Plato's Republic -- even as a youth. It is very readable and free from fancy prose. It is also dramatic in parts and written in dialogue form.

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#29

I somehow feel everyone pretends to have read “Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman, but whenever I dig deep, most of the time I get to know they just bought the book but watched a video summary (it’s quite a biggie)

Its a short and approachable -- and turns out wrong in parts -- book, so I'm not sure why its readership is doubtful?

Re: Ask HN: What's the book that people in your field pretend to have read?

#30
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please add double line breaks between each point or question as your comment just renders as a big block of text.

In Computers? The Mythical Man Month Fred Brooks In Management? Turn the Ship Around David Marquet In literature? Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad In Philosophy? The Republic Plato In Religion? The Confessions St. Augustine In Mathematics? The Elements Euclid In History? Parallel lives Plutarch In Physics? Principia Isaac Newton

Do physicists really pretend to have read the Principia?
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