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I read over 40 nonfiction books this year. Here are some favorites. Life-changing: Why We Sleep Page-turner: How to Change Your Mind Most useful: The Consolations of Philosophy On startups: Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age Random but amazing: Shadow Divers (true story about deep sea diving - think Into Thin Air)
This book is a treatise against the notion that some important things can’t be measured. Full of information about how to figure what should be measured and then how to measure it. Very thorough and he managed to answer every objection I could come up with throughout.
Deep Work - Cal Newport
Starts with the thesis that a generation of workers have forgotten how to concentrate on mentally challenging tasks. Full of ideas and inspiration for rebuilding your stamina for intense focused thought.
Thinking, Fast and Slow: Really should have been subtitled The Ludic Fallacy Run Amok. Filled with grand generalisations based on dubious conclusions from small under-powered behavioural experiments. Read if you want further evidence that Behavioural Economics, that bastard child of psychology is an edifice built on bullshit.
Masters of DOOM: A homage from a fanboy meant for other fanboys. It definitely has its bits of brilliance but it is still a chore to finish.
The Inner Game of Tennis: At 161 pages it might seem short but is in fact 160 pages too long. I bought it after someone on HN said its advice wasn't really about tennis but about life. I wonder what that person was smoking at the time.
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson.
Don’t dismiss this because you think you disagree with the politics. 12 rules is life changing.
Self-help advice is mostly the author's opinion. It's very hard to prove or disprove any of it scientifically. So readers have to make a decision on whether it's good or not for themselves.
Why is politics an issue? I ask because I was surprised it even came up.
Anyhow, the book is worth reading. It gives very practical advice. Especially if you are just starting out in your career or the rest of your life for that matter.
"An insider's groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to 'change the world' preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve."
https://www.amazon.com/Winners-Take-All-Charade-Changing/dp/...
How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big - Scott Adams (2013) One of my favorite quotes: “I put myself in a position where luck was more likely to happen. I tried a lot of different ventures, stayed optimistic, put in the energy, prepared myself by learning as much as I could, and stayed in the game long enough for luck to find me.” pg - 158 My top ten list for the year: https://www.gregkamradt.com/gregkamr…
Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…
Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…
I also enjoyed Longitude when I read it, but it's been described as "suffer[ing] however from a major flaw, it is a distortion of the real history it is claiming to relate." https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/dava-sobel-tries-her...
I'll have to do more research, but at first glance I don't see any criticism (yet?) on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book).
I'd like to see a breakdown of the facts vs. what Sobel wrote. I read the book because I'm a mechanical watch enthusiast, and I was not disappointed in any of the descriptions of the Harrison timepieces or what made them work. I plan to go see them next time I'm in London.
I still recommend the book, especially to watch enthusiasts.
I see loads of great suggestions in this thread, let me just add three of my LEAST favourite nonfiction books: Thinking, Fast and Slow: Really should have been subtitled The Ludic Fallacy Run Amok . Filled with grand generalisations based on dubious conclusions from small under-powered behavioural experiments. Read if you want further evidence that Behavioural Economics , that bastard child of psychology is an edific…