Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#201

Post by unnah » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 7:24 AM UTC

Errancer wrote: post #29

I would go with "Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical" by Lakatos, its a dialog-form history of defining Euler's formula and it shows the human side of mathematics as a science. I think its great as math has this unique status as providing with undoubtable knowledge but history shows that human error is possible even in this field. Alternately "The Unreality of Time" by McTaggart, it has less than 20 pag…

The Lakatos book is a great introduction to mathematical thinking in that it shows the importance of definitions - how even simple definitions are malleable and can be changed to properly handle special cases. All the details are discussed in human-readable prose without formulas more complicated than simple addition.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#202

Post by rizzaxc » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 7:36 AM UTC

ghostpepper wrote: post #43

I am not a cryptographer but I do work in security and The Code Book by Simon Singh is an excellent history of the history of cryptography/cryptanalysis presented as periods through history where the pendulum swung between giving the edge to the code makers or breakers. The code makers have been ahead since about the 1970s.

I was a middle schooler when I read it. Definitely written for the general public and written well. I remember being stoked when I encountered those concepts again in college and ended up with an extra major in network/ security

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#203

Post by tokujin » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 7:39 AM UTC

Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks. I'm a chemist trying to turn physicist and the childish enthusiasm of little Oliver (he's around 11--13 in the book) for “the lovingly detailed, naturalistic, descriptive chemistry of the nineteenth century” makes me feel less remorseful about my choice.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#204

Post by yourdeadneopet » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 7:41 AM UTC

The Phoenix Project is a fiction novel about an IT department for a large car company that experiences management dysfunction and battles frequent technical debt, but ultimately overcomes it by adopting the best practices of DevOps.

I first read its non-fiction companion book, the DevOps Handbook, which got me drinking the Kool-Aid, but this is also a wonderful, breezy read (no small feat for such a technical topic) that is an even more gentle introduction.

Not only did these two books make me come to appreciate DevOps, they also taught me about Kaizen and Toyota Production Model, which DevOps began as a software translation of. Subsequently, I have also applied these principles to the field of screenwriting.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#205

Post by mdp2021 » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 7:41 AM UTC

rajansaini wrote: post #142

I am surprised that Algorithms to Live By has not been mentioned. (Disclaimer: I am still reading it.) That book is both accessible and practical for any layman. However, just enough hints at variations of the discussed algorithms are given that even a non-technical reader might be motivated to dive further into theoretical CS and read a paper or two.

> I am surprised that Algorithms to Live By has not been mentioned

That's just because the solution space is (fortunately) still rich... But

Brian Christian; Tom Griffiths - Algorithms to Live By - The Computer Science of Human Decisions

is an unmissable work in Computer Science and *Economics*. Surely some of us have been drawn to Economics, as then patently a "Science of optimization", after having read this jewel (and after the further focus on the theory of optimization that CS gained with the boom on function automation, e.g. ANNs. Even this is part of the book, e.g. the paragraphs on "simulated annealing"). Tom Griffith (Princeton, dept. of Psychology) also gave a "TED talk" - a tiny fraction of the book, but a good appetizer for some.

By the way: I just found Tom Griffith also published a

Griffiths, T. L., Lieder, F., & Goodman, N. D. (2015). Rational use of cognitive resources: Levels of analysis between the computational and the algorithmic. Topics in Cognitive Science, 7, 217-229

...given his masterpiece divulgational book, this article could be another gem...

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#206

Post by mdp2021 » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 7:52 AM UTC

CyanBird wrote: post #10

Kicking away the ladder by Ha-Joon Chang Industrial development and political economy, it really is a must read for anyone even mildly interested on the field, then you could go to Joan Robinson's criticism of Ricardian economics, but these are slightly more in depth topics

We should also add that

Ha-Joon Chang - Economics: The User's Guide

is a very, very good primer.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#207

Post by biofox » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 8:02 AM UTC

ipnon wrote: post #83

PiHKAL by Alexander and Ann Shulgin is on its face a book about love and chemistry. Taken together it becomes more of a treatise on how psychopharmacology is a method of personal and sociological analysis. Drug use becomes a psychological tool to manifest the phenomena of the mind that are normally hidden, and novel synthesis becomes a tool to then access the areas of the mind unexplored throughout history. Aside of…

Shulgin was a gateway into psychedelics and the study of consciousness for me, however my overconfident use of psychoactive drugs ended up giving me PTSD. I'd advise anyone interested in this area to be cautious, and only work with experienced people you'd trust with your life.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#208

Post by biofox » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 8:04 AM UTC

marttt wrote: post #191

(I'm in my late 30s, but I always try to look for "time-tested" books first. Books that seem to hold their value after decades; see also: Lindy effect.) Language and linguistics: "Metaphors We Live By" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphors_We_Live_By Systems thinking: "An Introduction to General Systems Thinking" by Gerald M. Weinberg (1975): https://geraldmweinberg.com/Sit…

Weinberg's book should be required reading for all scientists and engineers.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#209

Post by mdp2021 » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 8:05 AM UTC

Chemistry: I have only started it, but knowing the author and from the few pages I could yet read I have good reasons to believe that the following will fit:

Lowe, Derek B. (2016). The Chemistry Book: From Gunpowder to Graphene, 250 Milestones in the History of Chemistry.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#210

Post by rocgf » Mon, Mar 28, 2022, 8:07 AM UTC

pxska wrote: post #4

A very tough question. I feel that it might be quite hard to lure a curious person into Computer Science, who doesn't know anything about the field yet. One of the books I liked (since I actually studied Linguistics in my Bachelor's) and what drew me towards CS was "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold.

This was the book I thought of when I saw the title of this post.