Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics. It's online, btw. Hard to read, but well worth the effort. I have been reading it since I first got it, a couple decades ago.
Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
391–400 of 400 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#392"The Secret History of Wonder Woman." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385354045/ref=as_li_tl?ie=... It's stunning that the comic book character was created by a man who secretly lived with two wives as part of the radical women's rights/free love movement of the 1920s...
Off topic but I met a guy once that had a room dedicated in his apartment for Wonder Woman...posters, action figures. Everything.
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#393"Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen, he's a sociologist that examines the major textbooks sold in the US. The title is a little cheesy, the book is a bit more serious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies_My_Teacher_Told_Me
Agreed. Didn't read the whole thing but found his analysis of how textbooks in the US changed history over time. I believe the main example was justification for manifest destiny and how it was presented in various textbooks at different times.
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#394currently reading - Zero To One - Peter Thiel
Really enjoyed that. A major takeaway for me was that while working on machine learning projects I felt I wasn't getting good enough models...his chapter on machine + human provided great insight that it's ok, and just make it to improve human ability.
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#395Started Flatland on the train yesterday - lots of fun so far. I'm looking for more Sci-fi if HN can recommend anything! I've been reading a lot of historical non-fiction over the years, but recently finished Snow Crash and the Diamond Age. Love the genre, but don't know much about it.
Anathem and Cryptonomicon are both must-reads by Stephenson too.
The two books I've read by Stephenson and really enjoyed. Never really got into the Baroque cycle because it's so long winded, but that should also be good.
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#396"Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others who Heat Treat and Forge Steel" by John Verhoeven http://www.feine-klingen.de/PDFs/verhoeven.pdf An interesting technical introduction to metallurgy, without being overly tedious. Congratulations to the author, for what sounds like it could be a dry subject. I am pleasantly surprised by how ignorant I was about such a common everyday material, and about the fascinating ch…
Thanks, looks interesting.
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#397May I suggest the War of Art. It's actually a great book.
http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Art-Through-Creative/dp/193689...
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#398I'm a huge believer in going back to primary texts, and understanding where ideas came from. If you've liked a book, read the books it references (repeat). I also feel like book recommendations often oversample recent writings, which are probably great, but it's easy to forget about the generations of books that have come before that may be just as relevant today (The Mythical Man Month is a ready example). I approac…
Your list of primary sources ends at 2001 :) No classics beyond that date?
The top was, "choose your own adventure" advice, the bottom was, "here's some clickable immediate gratification" advice. But point well taken, haha.
Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#399Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?
#400I have this weird habit where if I sit and read too much about the same topic, I have trouble retaining all of the information I just read. So, I find I can retain everything better if I read small amounts from multiple books. I sit with a stack of a few books and read chapter out of each. Weird, I know. Here's my current stack: * The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition (Bjarne Stroustrup) * Effective Modern C++: 4…
Masters of Doom I read recently and devoured it in about two days. I am apparently starved for stories like that. I don't even like video games!
Exactly like me! :) I couldn't put it down to save my life.