21–30 of 155 posts
1. Constant self-questioning while reading - "Is this obvious? did I already know this?"
2. Lots of examples or stories
3. Try to turn a simple metaphor/slogan into a complete philosophy for life - i.e "skin in the game"
I very much agree with this premise. My skills fall into three camps: That which I have invented myself, from first principles; That which I have read one book on; and That which I am bad at. One of the things I am bad at is finding books. Books are everywhere, most books are rubbish, and yet every book I've had recommended has been amazing . So, does anyone have a good book on finding good books?
Gnod is the classic reccomendation engine that works great and doesn’t harvest your data. It has a search for books: https://www.gnooks.com/faves.php General Gnod: gnod.com
I love finding stuff like this that have been going for so long.
It's not the reading books, it's the wanting to read books.
School is not cool and that’s a problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gnod is the classic reccomendation engine that works great and doesn’t harvest your data. It has a search for books: https://www.gnooks.com/faves.php General Gnod: gnod.com
Wow, this has existed for at least 10 years, although the domain has had some wayback machine snapshots since like 2002 but I was too lazy to pinpoint where the project started. I love finding stuff like this that have been going for so long.
Beyond that I find just asking someone also interested or finding a forum about the topic to be a good place to jump into the basics. Usually someone has already asked the question, “what else like this?” somewhere online.
I have a weekly meetup for an unrelated hobby but I find asking “anyone see any good movies lately” to be a great way to talk about both old and new movies and break the ice during the social portion. Sometimes someone drops something I haven’t heard of related to the old or new movie.
It's not the reading books, it's the wanting to read books.
The key is to learn not to ignore/suppress your internal drive.
Prefacing that I agree - The returns probably manifest at a senior level, where job security is already a non-issue and one has the privileges and power to make this knowledge actionable. This could be why the readers find it redundant and stick to coasting. I'd like to finish reading the Algorithm Design Manual, SICP and others, but it won't get me my next job, because I won't even be in the same room as someone who…
And as a thought exercise: How would you yourself like to be found / hired? What would you do to show the company that you are indeed great / knowledgeable? Is it Leetcode, or is that too much to ask? Is it a take-home project? Is it a lengthy interview that shows off your skills? A lengthy probationary period? What would you be willing to do to make up for your lack of "bs"?
I very much agree with this premise. My skills fall into three camps: That which I have invented myself, from first principles; That which I have read one book on; and That which I am bad at. One of the things I am bad at is finding books. Books are everywhere, most books are rubbish, and yet every book I've had recommended has been amazing . So, does anyone have a good book on finding good books?
I have started using large language models for book recommendations. I can be very specific about what I am looking for and the recommendations are hyper personalized. If you use some sort of tool that pairs LLMs with realtime data like Gemini the results are even better.
I very much agree with this premise. My skills fall into three camps: That which I have invented myself, from first principles; That which I have read one book on; and That which I am bad at. One of the things I am bad at is finding books. Books are everywhere, most books are rubbish, and yet every book I've had recommended has been amazing . So, does anyone have a good book on finding good books?
1) recommendations/references in books you've read and liked
2) other books by an author you've read and liked
3) other books in a series (be it a novel, or some set of technical books on a particular theme for example) you've read one of and liked
To build up that empathy, being around children or the elderly probably helps. Also, helping a relative who is struggling but you're on their side.
Also consider the difference between a native speaker of a language who just kind of knows how to say what they want to say, versus someone struggling to learn the language.