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The Best Books I Read in 2013

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Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#81

Post by mujunto »

Negitivefrags wrote: post #57
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

Why does reading have to be about learning? Can we not just read to have fun. I don't know how we got to the point where so many see entertainment for it's own sake as a negative thing.

It seems to me that entertainment without learning isn't possible. Indeed, the pleasure that entertainment affords is a straightforward signal that the brain is learning, without exception. Take humour. What was funny in the past is usually not funny now, because humour depends on our current state of knowledge and is a means of opening our minds to new ideas.

Even the pleasure that comes from addiction and drug use indicates that learning is taking place -- learning the context of the 'high' (more and more subtle detail concerning the smell of the coffee, the crackle of the cigarette paper, the label of the wine being poured, the faces of one's fellow drinkers, etc, and linking this information to the pleasure itself).

Contrariwise, if one is not entertained, if one cannot find some pleasurable feature in the situation, then one is learning nothing. So learning without entertainment is not possible either!

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#82

Post by alan_cx »

oskarth wrote: post #14
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

This is a very common viewpoint among technical people, sadly. Kind of like how humanists think math is about counting things. I'm not implying Gates is of that variety, but, you know, his kind, our kind. Not that there's much point in reading Shakespeare nowadays, anyway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_cultures

"This is a very common viewpoint among technical people, sadly"

Really? The usual image is that techie geek types lap up scifi and fantasy, which when done properly are all about the human condition.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#83

Post by kevinkyyro »

Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

In defense of non-fiction readers, it seems that one could make the statement quoted above in order to say "this is my intent in reading, so it leads me to read these types of books because they aim to serve that purpose"; it does not necessarily deny fiction the ability to teach one about the world and more than a good non-fictional work.

However, choosing to read fiction puts no lower bound on the amount of real information you will get nor the amount you will learn about the world, yourself, or humanity. Meanwhile, a non-fictional piece will at least have a reasonable guarantee to contain information of some kind.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#84

Post by ternaryoperator »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #16
untitledly wrote: post #4

Top comment on the blog post. "Bill, you are really inspiring me to increase my concern for the critical issues of economy and technology. You are a gift to the world. thank u." Wow, Gates has really cleaned up his public perception.

No offence, but where have you been getting news on his perception in the last few years? He's proven probably the most significant philanthropist in history, this isn't new.

Let's say one of the most significant philanthropists. Carnegie and Rockefeller were extraordinary philanthropists and in inflation-adjusted dollars, Rockefeller gave away more.

What Gates has done that's unique is to pressure/induce other super-wealthy individuals to also donate their wealth to charity.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#85

Post by learningram »

ashearer wrote: post #48
sho_hn wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading fiction tends to be the best way to train the habit of seeing the world through someone else's eyes, and a little empathy goes a long way in many life situations indeed.

There's an associated danger with fiction: though it reflects how the author sees the world, it may not match how the world really is. Fiction can intentionally or unintentionally invite readers to draw universal lessons which are misleading. I'd even suggest that some authors, particularly those with strong political views, may be motivated to write fiction in order to give support to their own ideas. It's a blank c…

Ayn Rand comes to mind

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#86

Post by WA »

baby wrote: post #66
onedev wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some books you deem as good based on that criteria?

Personally here's a book that changed my life : The Game. But I think it's gonna be frowned upon here. I don't see the world or even myself in the same way since.

It's simply a good book that gives a model/framework for self-improvement and how attraction between men and women work. It's still a model, it doesn't apply all the time, but it gives a certain insight and lets one see patterns whereas before, one sees only this behavior and that behavior and has problems to connect the dots. It is a model to unlearn (or at least: put into perspective) all the other models you learned about flirting in the past (mainly bullshit flirt guides, advice from girls, and Hollywood movies).

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#87

Post by skriticos2 »

I have an awfully long commute each day (around 3 hours) and spend most of the time reading fiction (scifi and fantasy).

I do this for two reasons:

1. It's fun.

2. In fiction authors have the liberty to go dip shit crazy with their possibilities. They can even change the inertia of the universe they are in.

I also think reading this kind of books helps to think outside the box and often helps to get a fresh view on problems I'm working on.

It also helps me relax my mind while reading, which I feel is a prerequisite for it to work properly.

PS: here are some of the works I particularly enjoyed lately:

Howey, Hugh.: Wool (and the entire Silo saga, very good read); Sanderson, Brandon: Mistborn: The Final Empire and the sequels (Sanderson is a genius when it comes to creating consistent universes); Phillips, Richard: The second ship (trilogy, contemporary argumented with alien technology); Corey, James S. A.: Leviathan Awakes (expanse series)

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#90

Post by andyjohnson0 »

gnaritas wrote: post #41
baby wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, fiction is fiction. It's like all those questions : would you rather do this, or live all your life with this. They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination. Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life. e.g. Are you gonna learn…

You need to read better fiction. Look around you, speculative science fiction is what inspired the world you live in; it created this reality. You have global communications via satellite because Author C Clark wrote a piece of fiction that sprung the idea upon the world. Fiction generates ideas, to think that somehow doesn't matter because it hasn't happened yet is massively missing the point.

Not disputing your general point, by Clark's original description of geostationary comsats was in a letter to Wireless World magazine, followed by a paper in the same publication [1]. It wasn't popularised via fiction, although later he did write some fiction that used the idea.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_Geostation...

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