21–30 of 78 posts
I cannot recommend 'The Society of Mind' enough. This was my first book before diving into Cognitive Science. Although it is mostly psychology(i.e.speculation), it is a brilliant book with insights and ideas.
I cannot recommend 'The Society of Mind' enough. This was my first book before diving into Cognitive Science. Although it is mostly psychology(i.e.speculation), it is a brilliant book with insights and ideas.
Why do find psychology to be speculation? Do they not use empiricism in their studies (maybe not all of them)?
Alan Kay's reading list: http://www.squeakland.org/resources/books/readingList.jsp
Bret Victor's reading list: http://worrydream.com/#!/Links
I don't understand: is data-parallel computing on a GPU much worse somehow? Or is it that there are better sources to read about data-parallel algorithms?
Quantum Computing since Democritus in high school reading list is very heavy. I have had Theory of Computation class in college and I can't read 20 pages of that book.
I'm a current HS senior who took a Theory of Computation class the year prior, and I got a few chapters into QCSD before realizing that I needed to learn some more about complexity theory before I read that book. I'm planning on trying again once the summer begins. Now I'm about half-way through Godel, Esher, Bach, and I have to say that GEB and QCSD feel similar, with an overlap not only in theme but also in genre a…
It might be a bit overkill, but if you go over the main chapters of Arora and Barak you should have more than enough background in complexity theory for your purposes.
Interesting to see Stranger in a Strange Land on his list. It shows up quite often on top lists of sci-fi books and Heinlein books. I'm halfway through it, after reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Stranger in a Strange Land is certainly the weaker book so far in my opinion.
Interesting to see Stranger in a Strange Land on his list. It shows up quite often on top lists of sci-fi books and Heinlein books. I'm halfway through it, after reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Stranger in a Strange Land is certainly the weaker book so far in my opinion.
Don't hurry, wait and you will grok it in time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, if you treat each page, each statement as something you have to completely internalize before moving onto the next page—including looking up all the prerequisite topics recursively on Wikipedia or in other texts—you might just end up teaching yourself up to college-level math while still in high school. (I didn't do this myself with QCD, but I very nearly did it with SICP in middle school.)
I wish I can manage that level of self motivation while in high school.
Do people actually read all the books they recommend? I often tell people books are good, esp. books on some mathematical topic, without having read the entire thing myself, just selected parts as my inclination takes me. In fact, there are almost no textbooks I've read straight through.
I don't read whatever people recommend to me; I prioritize what's available based on what I think will have the greatest impact on me. But whatever I do read, I try to read it all the way through. Books have layers, like an onion. Each time you read a book, you peel back another layer of meaning. The first time I read a book, I don't let myself get hung up on what I don't understand; I just keep reading until I've re…