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YC's Winter Reading List

blog.ycombinator.com

21–30 of 30 posts

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#21
post #13

In light of HN's (edit: temporary) ban on political content, I find it interesting that so many of YC's favorite books relate to: - religion (Going Clear, Zealot, Finding God in the Waves) - war and oppressive policy (War in a Time of Peace, Silence Once Begun) - conservative lifestyle (Strangers in Their Own Land, Hillbilly Elegy) The first two are explicitly prohibited topics of discussion on this site, and the thi…

Compartmentalization is the name of the game.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#23
post #22

Flagged, as there is clearly political content here that doesn't comport with new Hacker News rules.

If you read the guidelines, politics has always been considered off-topic.

What it says is "most stories about politics", which is deliberately vague, but not the same as the current experiment.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#24
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the guidelines, politics has always been considered off-topic.

What it says is "most stories about politics", which is deliberately vague, but not the same as the current experiment.

People seem to think that previously, politics was an ok thing to post. Mostly, it was not.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#25
post #4

If you like "The Rent is Too Damn High" and really want to dig in, I've been reading this: Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation - http://amzn.to/2gZQtqg It's pretty dry, but very thorough. Some groups that are good for people who want to get into this stuff more: * http://www.strongtowns.org/ * http://marketurbanism.com/ It's an area where people can really make a difference: I've managed to chat with…

Have you read Marohn's two books? I keep putting them off, but I haven't gotten a recommendation yet.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#26
post #4

If you like "The Rent is Too Damn High" and really want to dig in, I've been reading this: Zoning Rules!: The Economics of Land Use Regulation - http://amzn.to/2gZQtqg It's pretty dry, but very thorough. Some groups that are good for people who want to get into this stuff more: * http://www.strongtowns.org/ * http://marketurbanism.com/ It's an area where people can really make a difference: I've managed to chat with…

Have you read Marohn's two books? I keep putting them off, but I haven't gotten a recommendation yet.

No, I haven't. They look like "the blog's greatest hits" and I tend to be less enthusiastic about books like that. I'm curious too, because they might be good to recommend to people. Maybe I'll see if I can get the library to get them.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#27
post #13

In light of HN's (edit: temporary) ban on political content, I find it interesting that so many of YC's favorite books relate to: - religion (Going Clear, Zealot, Finding God in the Waves) - war and oppressive policy (War in a Time of Peace, Silence Once Begun) - conservative lifestyle (Strangers in Their Own Land, Hillbilly Elegy) The first two are explicitly prohibited topics of discussion on this site, and the thi…

If you want a list of fiction and textbooks, I think you could reasonably expect that this was the wrong list for you. If you want contemporary nonfiction, you will find yourself wading into something at least moderately political. We argue about them for the same reasons we read and write books about these things: they're important.

Unlike this forum, a book is a really good length for experiencing those political arguments. So read a book to understand why someone would support something so backwards, to see if their thinking stands up to scrutiny, or read it just to 'know thy enemy.' But if the book is good, you'll probably get something out of it. If it's bad, it'll be slow and painful. Arguably the recommendation is twice as valuable when you disagree with the author's thesis: far better to hear only the best counterarguments to one's own perspectives, given limited time.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#28
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the guidelines, politics has always been considered off-topic.

What it says is "most stories about politics", which is deliberately vague, but not the same as the current experiment.

No, the current experiment is just a reminder of the existing rules with added encouragement to flag.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#29
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What it says is "most stories about politics", which is deliberately vague, but not the same as the current experiment.

No, the current experiment is just a reminder of the existing rules with added encouragement to flag.

Compare the announcement (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404) and the guidelines. It seems completely obvious to me that they're saying different things.

Re: YC's Winter Reading List

#30
post #20
post #13

In light of HN's (edit: temporary) ban on political content, I find it interesting that so many of YC's favorite books relate to: - religion (Going Clear, Zealot, Finding God in the Waves) - war and oppressive policy (War in a Time of Peace, Silence Once Begun) - conservative lifestyle (Strangers in Their Own Land, Hillbilly Elegy) The first two are explicitly prohibited topics of discussion on this site, and the thi…

> In light of HN's ban on political content Please don't forget to mention this is just for one week. The intention is not "ban political content". It's to take a one-week breather from political stories that tend to result in flamewars.

I'd add this permanent reputation loss to the cost of the "experiment". It's useless to say it's temporary since it could at any time be imposed again. The users clearly don't get a vote here.

Transparency at HN seems like an absolute necessity at this point, if there's any desire to maintain the nature of this place. Every mod action on this very public forum should be very public on a special page people can watch. Short of something like this the conversation is just going to start slowly migrating to a new host(s).

I think reddit needs the same upgrade. It's like a missing component of a 2016 social site.

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