Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012 • Hacker News Board

diego wrote: post #7

Here's a list of books that I read this year and liked. My favorite was Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The rest are all worth reading. I hesitated to put "The Joy of Clojure" on that list because it's too narrow, but it's one of the best programming books I've seen. http://diegobasch.com/books

I have both of those on my list as well, but didn't get to them this year. Hopefully early 2013!

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#37

Post by w1ntermute » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 6:27 PM UTC

Who Stole the American Dream? - Hedrick Smith: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13331153-who-stole-the-am...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#38

Post by davidwparker » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

I really enjoyed Running Lean by Ash Maurya. It's basically Lean Startup + Business Model Generation + Applied exercise.

I liked it a lot better than Lean Startup because it's actionable.

I also really enjoyed Logicomix which I thought was an excellent and entertaining throughout.

I read many others which were also good +/-, but those two were definitely the best.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#39

Post by jmilloy » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 6:39 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #16

stiff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this the worst book from those three, time after time he describes an idea that sounds somewhat interesting and then every single concrete example he gives seems completely wrong, the more so the more real-world experience I have in a topic he describes. For example he goes on and on about how "random tinkering" beats science when it comes to engineering - I would love to see an engineer that would agree with…

I'm only about 1/6th of the way through (listening in the car). I did have some disagreement on the specific examples, but they seemed to just be badly chosen examples (since he only really understands finance and some liberal arts, not engineering). So he's a bad writer, but not in a way which directly detracts from his philosophical argument. (and yes, the evolution parts sounded whacko too, but I think he was quot…

Why would you include examples if they aren't necessary to understand the argument, or arguments that aren't required to make your point? That sounds confusing and tedious.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#40

Post by pathdependent » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 6:45 PM UTC

stiff wrote: post #11

rdl wrote: post #9

I'm pretty happy with Nassim Taleb's _Antifragile_. http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Disorder-ebook... It's essentially the culmination of Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan.

I found this the worst book from those three, time after time he describes an idea that sounds somewhat interesting and then every single concrete example he gives seems completely wrong, the more so the more real-world experience I have in a topic he describes. For example he goes on and on about how "random tinkering" beats science when it comes to engineering - I would love to see an engineer that would agree with…

I like Taleb's books. His ideas are far from novel -- especially to people who work with complex systems -- but his books are engaging. When I read them, I rarely find that I'm impressed by anything he said, yet I'm _always_ inspired to explore some tangent, which I think is very valuable. However, you have to take him with a grain of salt. The arrogance is a bit much.