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You must read at least one book to ride

ludic.mataroa.blog

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Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#91

Post by kelseyfrog »

Unlisted6446 wrote: post #88
kelseyfrog wrote: post #70

> This led me to Betty Edward's Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, a book whose title profoundly upsets me as someone that left psychology due to the field's horrendous epistemology. I was hoping that the author revisited this at the end of the piece. We see this line of thinking on HN all the time. Perhaps judging an entire field solely on epistemic grounds is a form of all or nothing thinking?

Well, there's a couple of things going on, right? One is whether we it's a bad idea to judge an entire mass of literature because of its epistemology and the second is whether the OP's claim that psychology has horrendous epistemology is valid. I'd say that judging an entire mass of literature because of its epistemology makes logical sense. However, in practice, it's not possible to make a judgment as to 'what the e…

We can start by asking, "What are the epistemologies that exist within psychology?"

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#92

Post by reshlo »

MinimalAction wrote: post #34

This resonated with me so many of my thoughts recently. This inherent lack of skills that could never make up to the best of the best, even with garangutan amount of efforts, is a depressing thought. On the other hand, one can be sufficiently ahead of the competition if they find that one resource and master it well. How does one go about finding them? I often resort to asking real folks via email, recommendations on…

Which topics are you looking for resources on?

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#93

Post by slothtrop »

pocketarc wrote: post #26
slothtrop wrote: post #14

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…

I always think about this - how many great engineers might be out there that are hard to spot/hire because there's no indication anywhere that they're great? And simultaneously, how many crap engineers out there are hired simply because they know how to play the "thought leader" game? 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…

I think the canned answer will be that drive and determination will lead to results if the innate talent is there. Their heuristic then will be that if they're hard to spot, they can't be that great to begin with, because aspiration would lead to great outcomes. I think this is an unfair view.

I've jumped through all those hoops to get hired. It would be nice if the years and proof of experience on paper were enough - that's how I'd like to be hired - but it's not enough, apparently.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#94

Post by skybrian »

anal_reactor wrote: post #79
skybrian wrote: post #29

He's a good writer, but I think he underestimates the implicit skills that an experienced engineer has that beginners don't have. Sometimes it just seems like common sense, but it isn't, and the result is often a lack of empathy. 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 na…

How can I build this empathy? I feel extremely frustrated when spending time with people less educated than myself

I don't know how to avoid frustration because it often is a frustrating situation, for everyone. I think you have to accept that.

But after a while I learned to stop blaming people who are in over their heads. Ideally there would be a gentle learning curve with a gradual ramp-up in difficulty, but often real life doesn't work like a video game.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#95

Post by HKH2 »

righthand wrote: post #84
HKH2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, when students are not kept back for failing, they are given an incentive to fail.

Students probably fail because of external factors (depression, anxiety from poor home life) not because they’re a dumb-dumb. When the course work requires you to understand subjects that have no real world use or your curriculum doesn’t teach you how to apply the education, you’re incentivized to fail as well.

> Students probably fail because of external factors (depression, anxiety from poor home life) not because they’re a dumb-dumb.

Standards may seem harsh, but eventually it's way harsher to have no effective standards at all.

> When the course work requires you to understand subjects that have no real world use or your curriculum doesn’t teach you how to apply the education, you’re incentivized to fail as well.

True. If students are not interested in learning, they should have a pragmatic curriculum.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#96

Post by ludicity »

skybrian wrote: post #29

He's a good writer, but I think he underestimates the implicit skills that an experienced engineer has that beginners don't have. Sometimes it just seems like common sense, but it isn't, and the result is often a lack of empathy. 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 na…

Thank you for the kind words on the writing! And the implicit skills are important, it's just that reading a book is, broadly speaking, a very strong indicator of ability and a great starting point. The best engineer at my consultancy doesn't really read books due to S-tier ADHD, but has a massive amount of lived experience and has read enough documentation/high-tier blog posts that there's probably some equivalency.

One of the funniest emails I ever received was from someone extremely talented that said that reading books never felt that helpful, then they reeled off the five books they had read that year. I think they accurately self-assessed that the books actually weren't that good for them, but the fact they still opened five is the discipline that brought them to the top.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#97

Post by ludicity »

yellow_lead wrote: post #21

The section about reading "the right books" is important. I tried reading some self-help books in high school, but after reading a few, you'll realize they are mostly "fanfic" as the author says. I noticed some other patterns in these books. 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 ph…

(I'm the author)

Starting with Taleb at a young age was helpful for me, as he introduced me to the Narrative Fallacy. I.e, the easiest way to convince anyone of anything is to posit a causal chain with some neat story, and 95% of the population will absorb it uncritically (including me, at the time).

I'm asked if I read Cal Newport a lot, and I can't stand him because he makes some good points, some trite points, then relies on the examples and stories. There's a place for them, but he does it in a way that I don't find compelling.

I'm a bit sad that I didn't think of those three bullet points as I was writing this piece, as that's a great short list. It's also super funny that "Skin In The Game" is explicitly one of Taleb's books, the same author who inoculated me from the rest of the list, hah. Not that I think Skin In The Game is bad or anything, just a funny example.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#98

Post by ludicity »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #75

Damn, it feel like you either have to read a book or you’re a looser. I do read book but at the end I would still do things my own way and not follow someone else ‘Best practice’ because life is made of trial and errors. There is value in failing something and getting back to it. It reads like this author is a nerd, for lack of a better word, not someone I would enjoy talking to for extended period of time.

I probably am a nerd, hah.

But it sounds like you're doing exactly what I'd do anyway. Read a book to load the brain with some useful concepts and philosophies, then go get lived experience.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#99

Post by ludicity »

pfoof wrote: post #55

I try to read at least 16 books a year (usually it turns out to be more). I cannot stress enough how much this helped me increase my skills. One example: The Go Programming Language. I tried using Go several years back after using Java for years and my experience was horrible. Then I read this book and I understood the philosophy behind Go, followed all exercises. Am I Go expert? Far from it. But I am proficient enou…

I never realized how bad I was at Python until reading Fluent Python, hah.

Re: You must read at least one book to ride

#100

Post by ludicity »

fancyfredbot wrote: post #5

It's not the reading books, it's the wanting to read books.

Yeah, basically. Although the reason I venerate books specifically is that a great book is just amazing for personal growth. That's true for any great learning resource, but there are things about books specifically that I love, and some of that might just be sentimentality about the role that books have played in my own life. A great YouTube course just wouldn't hit the same.
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