Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#311

Post by rchaud » Mon, Dec 24, 2018, 3:37 PM UTC

staktrace wrote: post #222

amorphous wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this book was quite good. I also used to enjoy Scott Adam's blog and ideas, that's why it was quite shocking to me when I revisited his site and found out what he has turned into. I can't take him seriously anymore.

"what he has turned into" is roughly "a Trump fanboy" for those who don't want to go trawling through his blog. I also used to really enjoy his blog for his unconventional but mind-opening ideas before he started blogging about Trump in the pre-election runup.

That Adams would join the Trump train isn't all that surprising when you read the book. Right from the beginning, he mentions that he didn't get a promotion at work because of upper management's 'minority hiring' policies (this was in the '80s, I believe). He doesn't provide much information about this policy, only that he perceived himself to have been left behind because of it.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#312

Post by rchaud » Mon, Dec 24, 2018, 3:48 PM UTC

unmole wrote: post #119

phaus wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I admired his accomplishments before I even read this book (which is an amazing read), but it kind of makes him seem like a sociopath.

The book keeps getting recommend on HN presumably by true fans of DOOM. Apart from a few brilliant bits scattered throughout, it was a disappointing read for me.

I liked the book because it was pretty fast paced and gave insights into the PC game industry of the '80s and '90s, which I didn't know anything about. The rest of it I feel like I enjoyed because I was a kid in the '90s who loved Doom and Quake.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#313

Post by koolhead17 » Mon, Dec 24, 2018, 5:59 PM UTC

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Principle by Ray Dalio.

When Coffee and Kale Compete by Alan Klement.

Spark by Dr John J. Ratey, Eric Hagerman, John Ratey.

The One Thing by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan.

The Mythical Man Month by Frederick P. Brooks.

A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs by Tren Griffin.

Software Project Survival Guide by Steve Mcconnell.

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis.

I Wonder What I'm Thinking About? by Moose Allain.

Truth, Lies & Statistics by Lee Baker.

On shortness of life by Seneca.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#314

Post by Insanity » Mon, Dec 24, 2018, 7:03 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #312

unmole wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book keeps getting recommend on HN presumably by true fans of DOOM. Apart from a few brilliant bits scattered throughout, it was a disappointing read for me.

I liked the book because it was pretty fast paced and gave insights into the PC game industry of the '80s and '90s, which I didn't know anything about. The rest of it I feel like I enjoyed because I was a kid in the '90s who loved Doom and Quake.

As for me, I was quite a 'hardcore' gamer in the late 90s early 2000s. So it was interesting to read where the games that I've played came from, because they owe a lot to DOOM.

The first game I remember playing was Wolfenstein 3-D. Or well, my father played it mainly and I watched, and only occasionally dared to play it myself. So perhaps for me it was more the nostalgia of Wolfenstein rather than DOOM that did it :)

I always admired Carmack, even before reading the book. I could agree with the 'sociopath' sentiment though, but that doesn't diminish his genius in my opinion :)

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#315

Post by plahteenlahti » Mon, Dec 24, 2018, 9:14 PM UTC

Favourites of 2018:

Lost and Founder: The Mostly Awful, Sometimes Awesome Truth about Building a Tech Startup by Rand Fishkin https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35957156

Transforming NOKIA: The Power of Paranoid Optimism to Lead Through Colossal Change by Risto Siilasmaa https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39850907

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222146

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25870385

How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34964879

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters by Richard P. Rumelt https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36658033

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#316

Post by madrafi » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 12:21 AM UTC

- Rationality From AI to Zombies (huge collection of essays about (rationality,intelligence,quantum physics,bayesian probability,philosophy...) that can be read on lesswrong.com)

-Intuition Pumps and other Thinking Tools

-Sapiens

-Edward.O Wilson Letters to a young scientist

-Cédric Villani Birth of a Theorem

-Emanuel Derman Models Behaving Badly

-Letters From A Stoic by Seneca

-Mathematics it's contents methods 3 Volumes (Aleksandrov et al.)

-Nick Bostrom Superinteligence

-The Moral Animal by Robert Wright

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#317

Post by gadders » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 2:07 AM UTC

Rise and Kill First - about the Mossad/Shin Bets operations against Muslim terror groups.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#318

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 2:42 AM UTC

james_s_tayler wrote: post #305

throwaway19743 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Primarily fiction meaning most of it didn't happen??? Exactly. I'm definitely not the most informed person on this topic, but if you're really into it, you can find a lot of materials disproving his claims. Probably most of them are in Russian though, I don't know. > KGB couldn't discredit it. Try as you might. There's no point in discrediting someone's beliefs. I just want you to look at his books critically. At l…

Upon investigation it seems they are likely of enough accuracy to get you into the right ballpark of understanding what life in the Gulag was like. If you want to debate specifics of how many million vs how many 10s of millions, you're missing the point.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#319

Post by prashant10 » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 7:14 AM UTC

jacobkg wrote: post #132

How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard This book is a treatise against the notion that some important things can’t be measured. Full of information about how to figure what should be measured and then how to measure it. Very thorough and he managed to answer every objection I could come up with throughout. Deep Work - Cal Newport Starts with the thesis that a generation of workers have forgotten how to concentrate…

Have you actually used the techniques mentioned in Deep work in your real life? Just curious. Thanks

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#320

Post by hemling » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 11:21 AM UTC

softwaredoug wrote: post #53

shawnps wrote: post #37

Favorites that I read in 2018: * Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep ) * Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude ) * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss (…

If you like “Why We Sleep” I recommend “The Sleep Solution” as a companion. Why We Sleep is heavy on interesting sleep science but light on practical tips for improving sleep (The Sleep Solution is the opposite...)

I actually fixed my insomnia in 2018.

In the past, I could always rely on the fact that I was able to sleep well the night following a bad night. After I couldn't sleep two nights in a row I started to get very worried.

I changed three things:

1. Before going to bed I meditate (I usually listen to the app from Sam Harris)

2. No more caffeine after 11 am

3. 100% of what is called in books "bed hygiene", meaning: when I go to bed I immediately switch off the lights and sleep. I do nothing else. Also, I try to always sleep around the same time, even on weekends.

I believe 3) has been the biggest change. I used to read and even sometimes watch Netflix in bed. I miss reading in bed but since I stopped doing that and only focus on sleeping I have never had problems to fall asleep anymore, despite going through some stressful times.

I do sometimes still wake up early, but since I sleep well before I can handle those days pretty well. My life has changed a lot for the better, one of the best things I have done recently