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Books I loved reading this year

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Re: Books I loved reading this year

#21

Post by mikepurvis »

joconde wrote: post #7

So I was excited about Project Hail Mary and went to the Wikipedia page [1]. Can someone who has read the book tell me if the current intro is a spoiler, or something we learn in the book's first third? ("He gradually remembers that...") I know Wikipedia doesn't put spoiler tags, but they are usually confined to the "Plot" section. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Project_Hail_Mary...

I loved PHM and was particularly relieved that it was great after the letdown that Artemis was. It's definitely a much more fanciful story than The Martian (you know what I mean if you've read it), but I think it's a good balance of still being totally believable and plausible.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#22

Post by azinman2 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #20

I've mislaid my copy of Bill's "How I put a computer on every desk while totally fucking up everyone's idea of what software is, how it could be developed and how it might be used". To be honest, it was a riveting read but I don't really want to get into the sequel "How I became a nice guy and everyone forgot about the terrible things I did in business".

Would you rather Gates just takes his billions and spend it on private planes and yachts, retreated away from the world?

I’m glad he’s taking his acumen and treasure to things that are intended to positively benefit the entire world, personally. There’s a lot of great things he can still achieve in this lifetime regardless of his past. Computing has largely moved on from his Microsoft days and it’s control of the world and business.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#23

Post by TickCount »

Is Bill Gates still programming nowadays? He seems to have completely abandoned it. Which seems a little sad, because if he really liked doing it you'd expect him to at least work on a utility app or something in his spare time.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#24

Post by chestertn »

> The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson.

The Nobel prize should have gone to Francis Mojica. Of course, he does not have all the PR machine that Doudna has, the futuristic TED talks and all.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#25

Post by rememberlenny »

- List for the lazy -

A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins.

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson.

Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell.

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#26

Post by jjordan »

I recently read Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life, by Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard. Written during the 2008 recession, it's so much more than a business book. It highlights in detail how the financial industry at large leeches so much wealth for itself while creating so little, and offers insights from someone truly introspective of life, business, finance, and the future of the country. Highly recommend a read/listen.

https://amazon.com/John-C-Bogle/e/B001H6NWEM

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#27

Post by rococode »

TickCount wrote: post #23

Is Bill Gates still programming nowadays? He seems to have completely abandoned it. Which seems a little sad, because if he really liked doing it you'd expect him to at least work on a utility app or something in his spare time.

He said in a fairly recent AMA:

> My code no longer goes into shipping products so I am rusty. I do like to try the new tools to understand how they help. I just did a review of the low-code tools where there is a lot of great innovation.

https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/m8n4vt/im_bill_gates_...

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#28

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

azinman2 wrote: post #22
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #20

I've mislaid my copy of Bill's "How I put a computer on every desk while totally fucking up everyone's idea of what software is, how it could be developed and how it might be used". To be honest, it was a riveting read but I don't really want to get into the sequel "How I became a nice guy and everyone forgot about the terrible things I did in business".

Would you rather Gates just takes his billions and spend it on private planes and yachts, retreated away from the world? I’m glad he’s taking his acumen and treasure to things that are intended to positively benefit the entire world, personally. There’s a lot of great things he can still achieve in this lifetime regardless of his past. Computing has largely moved on from his Microsoft days and it’s control of the wor…

Oh, he's a great guy now (mostly). I fully applaud 99% of everything he's tried do with the Gates Foundation.

But what he did to the future of computing lingers on, and will do so for another decade or threee.

Re: Books I loved reading this year

#30

Post by adamgordonbell »

rememberlenny wrote: post #25

- List for the lazy - A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by Jeff Hawkins. The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson. Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir.

Project Hail Mary was so good. I loved The Martian but Artemis not as much. By that measure Project Hail Mary was a return to form.

It was just a fun, breezy read that hit the problem solving part of my brain in just the right way, but with a different angle on things than "The Martian".

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