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Summer Reading List

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Re: Summer Reading List

#231

Post by AnimalMuppet »

nateberkopec wrote: post #188
makmanalp wrote: post #2

Every time I see Sarno's book recommended, it's always controversial, with the "woo-woo" camp and the "it worked for me so I don't care" camp, though I think the people-who-I-respect-who-recommend-this ratio is way higher than most crank books, so it's interesting in that regard. Thoughts? (I haven't read it)

I'm in the "it worked for me so I don't care camp". I can't believe people think it's woo-woo or anti-scientific, though, after reading it. Sarno's thesis is basically "we haven't found a physical cause for most chronic pain conditions, so why not the brain?". Anxiety sufferers can fool themselves into thinking they're having a heart attack and hyperventilate. Why is it crazy or anti-scientific to think that the same…

> "we haven't found a physical cause for most chronic pain conditions, so why not the brain?"

That makes more sense than I was expecting. In particular, pain must be felt in the brain. That is, my body can be suffering some trauma, but if the nerve signals don't make it to the brain, or the brain doesn't interpret them as pain, then I don't feel pain. (This is true of third-degree burns - they don't hurt very much, because the nerves got destroyed, so you don't feel how bad the burn is.)

But if the body isn't under (known) trauma, but the patient is experiencing pain, maybe the brain is a reasonable place to look...

Re: Summer Reading List

#232

Post by StavrosK »

ambivalents wrote: post #139
iagooar wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when you realize that you can listen to a lot of books at 1.5x - 2x speed, with very little loss of comprehension. Is it enjoyable, though?

Yes, and all the more enjoyable knowing I can fit more reading in at such a clip. I've also noticed that the ability to comprehend spoken words can be trained; I started off at 1.25x speed and have gradually built up to 2x. Now when I listen to audio at 1x, it is just so slo-o-o-w. Anecdata, but I don't think my comprehension or enjoyment have gone down as I increase speed.

This is probably just me, but whenever I start a book at 1x, it sounds okay, if a bit slow. Then I increase speed to ~1.5x for a while, and, when I listen on 1x again, it seems unnaturally slow, to the point where I wonder if audiobook producers slow the recording down a bit on purpose, just to make it clearer.

However, the fact that I usually notice it after listening on 1.5x makes me think that it's really an illusion. Does anyone have any "insider" info on this?

Re: Summer Reading List

#233

Post by kentt »

mvleming wrote: post #227
kentt wrote: post #97

I'd consider Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection to be fiction as well. Too long, shouldn't read: if you believe, your back pain will go away. I'm surprised to see the anti-scientific pseudoscience promoted.

I haven't checked out Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection but if you want another book that I think speaks from a similar angle, and that I know has a scientific grounding, check out A Guide to Better Movement by Todd Hargrove[1]. The crux of some recent research into pain can be summarized in a few points: * Sometimes you'll hear patients talk about pain and look at their area of pain and find nothing in the…

Thanks! I actually did pick up Sarnos book after many recommendations. I didn't throw it out because I think it was completely invalid, but rather because it had a completely invalid basis. I'm glad to hear similar ideas are addressed elsewhere and if my pain comes back, I'll pick that up.

Re: Summer Reading List

#234

Post by engi_nerd »

filiwickers wrote: post #152
muninn_ wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, I have nothing against what you've listed here, this is great stuff. What I find interesting for me personally is that it never once crosses my mind who the author is or what their skin color is or anything like that when I'm looking at a book. I just have no idea (and perhaps no interest really, unless it's something I'm REALLY into). Anyway, it's cool that you're listing these. I'm particularly interested in Th…

Me either, and that's exactly the issue. Look at any top books list and it is mostly white males. Either men have an easier time getting published or men are inherently better writers. I believe the former is the case. By seeking out female writers and other diverse voices we can start to tip the balance. Historically, men were the only ones that had the opportunity to write, so any books from older centuries are goi…

Why do we have to have balance?

Re: Summer Reading List

#235

Post by tgb »

ThomPete wrote: post #226
axplusb wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take from this book is that: - scientific knowledge is embedded in some intellectual ether made of underlying hypotheses often not explicitly stated called paradigms - paradigms follow a Darwinian evolutionary process, i.e. better paradigms evolve out of not-so-good previous paradigms - paradigm replacements start with an epistemological crisis , i.e. facts that the current paradigms don't explain well enough. Hop…

Great summary but also important to note that Kuhn didn't believe (unlike Popper) that science moved towards some final destination or explanation. Instead he saw each paradigm as optimal for what it was trying to express.

Yeah, I think I was struggling with this aspect. I recall my professor saying something like "it's not that general relativity is correct and newtonian mechanics was wrong, it's that when a general relativist says 'mass' they are talking about something different than when a Newtonianist says 'mass' - after all, you have to measure mass differently in those two things, they behave differently, etc. It's more that general relativity doesn't say anything at all about Newtonian mass." But I never bought that (even if they were talking about different things, it seems like they were trying to talk about the same thing), so I figure I'm missing something from Kuhn's argument.

Re: Summer Reading List

#236

Post by MattGrommes »

engi_nerd wrote: post #168
filiwickers wrote: post #137

If you struggle to get diverse voices inside your field, maybe you should read from diverse voices outside your field. I understand it is hard and I also gravitate towards comfortable reading, usually meaning from people that look like me. This is the problem. Start being accountable to yourself about it. 2 of 19 the books in the list are by female authors (both recommended by women). Looking for some good books from…

...Or they just asked a number of people to recommend a favored book, and this is the list that they got. Why does everything have to be about diversity?

Because diversity of thought is important. You're missing a lot if you only read books by people with similar views and experiences. For example, if you're a white man and you ask all your white male friends for book recommendations, you're going to end up with a pretty homogeneous list.

Re: Summer Reading List

#237

Post by [deleted] »

malandrew wrote: post #225
mtalantikite wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think a person of color writing about the subprime mortgage crisis would write a different book than a white banker that worked at Bear Stearns? A crisis in which black and Latino applicants were almost 2.5 times more likely to be given a subprime rate in comparison to white applicants? [1] No one is reducing individuals to their race or gender identity, but unless we're talking about pure science and mathe…

The inherent racism in your example notwithstanding, the two examples you chose aren't even comparable. You didn't say "a person of color" and "a white person". You said "a person of color" and a "white banker that worked at Bear Sterns". That's pure apples and oranges. The relevant lived experience is being a banker at Bear Stearns, not the race of that banker. Also, how do I know the person of color isn't also a ba…

[deleted]

Re: Summer Reading List

#238

Post by dang »

kentt wrote: post #97

I'd consider Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection to be fiction as well. Too long, shouldn't read: if you believe, your back pain will go away. I'm surprised to see the anti-scientific pseudoscience promoted.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14922985 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Summer Reading List

#239

Post by dang »

malandrew wrote: post #176

> I believe the former is the case. I'm just curious why you hold that belief? I don't have an opinion either way, but I'm curious if that is an informed belief. I agree that it was a problem even more recently than a century ago. It was probably a problem as recently as 10 years ago. However, in 2017, it's not hard to be published. You can even self-publish. Unless the topic is related to the author's identity (i.e.…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14923781 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Summer Reading List

#240

Post by dang »

malandrew wrote: post #225
mtalantikite wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think a person of color writing about the subprime mortgage crisis would write a different book than a white banker that worked at Bear Stearns? A crisis in which black and Latino applicants were almost 2.5 times more likely to be given a subprime rate in comparison to white applicants? [1] No one is reducing individuals to their race or gender identity, but unless we're talking about pure science and mathe…

The inherent racism in your example notwithstanding, the two examples you chose aren't even comparable. You didn't say "a person of color" and "a white person". You said "a person of color" and a "white banker that worked at Bear Sterns". That's pure apples and oranges. The relevant lived experience is being a banker at Bear Stearns, not the race of that banker. Also, how do I know the person of color isn't also a ba…

Would you please stop? This is long past tediously off topic.
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