What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old? • Hacker News Board

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#101

Post by afarrell » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 8:52 PM UTC

NhanH wrote: post #97

doctorpangloss wrote: post #53

I wish when I was 14 I was exposed to more contemporary literature, instead of great classics. And I have no regrets about missing out on math books—most of my friends went to math camp for that kind of knowledge. I'd recommend David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest; Junot Diaz's This is How You Lose Her; The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis; Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I wis…

I'm 25 and I have no understanding of human, sexuality, rich people, old people etc... How do I catch up?

Read stories. Start with short stories and blog posts. Also audiobooks are great for when you are walking around. Take walks where you talk to yourself or a friend about those stories and thereby think about them more clearly via the same mechanism that makes rubber-duck debugging a good way to solve technical problems.

This YouTube series is a good start to how to think about stories: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTf... Actually, John Green's works in general aren't bad for what you are after, but don't restrict yourself to one author.

Accept that not only are all these things maddeningly complex, but that you will never be comfortable with their ambiguity.

Also, go out into the world. Learn to be a good listener so those who are tired, scared, lonely, or otherwise vulnerable will come to you for comfort.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#102

Post by dysfunction » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:07 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #10

Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World Also perhaps Bill Bryon's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" for an entertaining broad view of a variety of scientific areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Every...

The Demon-Haunted World was incredibly formative for me, and I was around 14 when I first read it. Prior to reading it, I believed wholeheartedly that UFOs were alien spaceships, and despite already being fairly certain I was an atheist, I was still on the fence about ghosts. The most important thing about that book was that it didn't teach me that things I believed weren't true because a distinguished scientist said so; rather it taught me how to decide whether the things I believed were likely to be true, and how to examine why I believed them.

Of course I didn't immediately transform into a perfect 14-year-old skeptic by reading this book (I'm twice that age now and I'm sure I still believe all manner of things that aren't true), but this was the first time I truly realized that I even needed to be skeptical about what I believed.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#103

Post by crazy1van » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

astrange wrote: post #79

crazy1van wrote: post #60

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card The story of a genius child training to battle an alien species. Not only very entertaining but also critically acclaimed. It won the Hugo and Nebula and has been on several military leadership reading lists. [0] I loved it as a teenager and recently reread it and still loved it. [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game#Critical_respons...

He wrote himself into a corner within two sequels, so try not to read any of his other books afterward.

Personally, I also loved Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide even though they are very different from Ender's Game. The ones that came later I also enjoyed but not nearly as much as the first three.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#104

Post by bitwize » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:10 PM UTC

For skill building:

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

The Little Schemer by Friedman and Felleisen

Literature, for starters:

Heinlein's earlier works

Anything by Asimov

1984 and The Animal Farm by Orwell

Detective novels by Doyle or Christie

Hackers by Steven Levy

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#105

Post by myth_buster » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:12 PM UTC

rayalez wrote: post #64

"Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky - the most brilliant book I've read this year. I wish I'd read it 10 years ago. And Atlas Shrugged - controversial, I know, a lot of people here hate it for some reason, but it was incredibly influential on me, inspired my passion for entrepreneurship and science and philosophy. Still is one of the best books I am aware of. If I could send 2 books bac…

I second Atlas Shrugged. It resonates best when you are in your teens. As you grow older, you see the fallacies in it. But these don't surface much when you are young and it acts as a good motivator for the entrepreneurial mind to go out there and work hard.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#106

Post by danielvinson » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:16 PM UTC

I think people have a tendency to recommend books relating to things that are currently important to them, like math, programming, technology. While I wouldn't shy away from these, my first inclination would be to recommend books that will influence positive personal growth. There is no guarantee that any particular topic will be crucial in 10 years.

I can't recommend a specific book in these categories (since I have learned mostly independently), but I would look for good books which cover: Music Appreciation and low-level Theory, Philosophy (especially Eastern), and Argumentation and Logic.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#107

Post by jeremyis » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:17 PM UTC

Work really hard in high school and get into a great college (NB: this takes more than just grades - extracurriculars, etc). Study a subject that you like and will lead to a career that enables you to satisfies the base of Maslows pyramid (i.e. you can earn money. STEM is generally good for this). This is a unique opportunity to spend a short while investing in something that will pay huge dividends later - an opportunity that you only get once.

When in college, try to do at least a semester abroad. Travel. If you can, join a fraternity (especially if you go to a nerd / smart school. 60+% of guys at MIT are in fraternities and they are really fantastic). Think hard about what you want to do after college and try different internships.

Work out. In high school, get into a sport - preferably Soccer or basketball (one that you can keep playing throughout your life and that is inherently social). Do it until you love it, then you'll want to keep doing it.

Learn to lift. In high school, there are likely coaches or gym class instructors offering these lessons.

Read the Dale Carengie book people mention here and try to socialize as much as possible and make friends.

Reference: I'm a guy in his late twenties, so take my advice in that frame.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#108

Post by myth_buster » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:18 PM UTC

Surely you are joking Mr Feynman - for a glimpse into a great mind and their outlook towards life & nature.

Gun, Germs, and Steel - For the valuable history of our culture and society.

Atlas Shrugged - for showing the entrepreneurial way and the necessity for hard work

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#109

Post by slowhead » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:21 PM UTC

saulrh wrote: post #98

Permutation City by Greg Egan. Accelerando by Charles Stross. They'll guide you to shape your though processes in strange ways that are probably useful for logical thinking.

I read Permutation City in High School. It's my favorite book and arguably the best science fiction book about computer science. Greg Egan's books really go deep in a way that I enjoyed a lot. I really crave to read more books like that. Would you have other recommendations ?

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#110

Post by nashashmi » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 9:35 PM UTC

Love every opportunity you get. Because opportunities are not guaranteed. Love every opportunity you are given to learn, for they probably won't ever come again. Take pride in the opportunities you are given. Take pride in what those opportunities give you.

Don't hate things simply because of how you perform. Love it even when you suck at them.

Don't criticize more than you praise ... others. Don't praise more than you critique ... yourself.

Don't judge the ability of others in comparison to yourself. You were lucky to have the opportunity they probably were not. And they probably were lucky to have the opportunities that you were not.

Everyone is bright. Everyone is smart. Few have the opportunity to show it. Few have the opportunity to feel it.

The only true differentiator between people: how hard you work and how long you hope.