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Good Books for a Lousy Year

gatesnotes.com

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Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#41

Post by allie1 »

happy_path wrote: post #3

When I see this kind of lists I always think of getting some of these books and reading them. However, I feel like reading books that have no relationship with my job (software engineer) is a waste. Do any feel the same? Is this a harmful mindset and should stop worrying about "wasting" my free time?

Read "poor charlie's almanack" - it will illuminate you on why you should read across different topics. In short, if you only have one mental model (way of thinking) through which you're viewing the world, you will incorrectly apply it to everything around you. As you read more broadly and learn different ways of thinking and will apply the appropriate one to each situation.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#42

Post by hue3 »

apples_oranges wrote: post #15

I have read "Range" and was underwhelmed. I feel like the idea in it can be summarised in a 5-15 minute blog post. I also think that this year was probably not lousy for many people, me included, and I'm a bit tired of giving 2020 negative adjectives.

Most books could be summarized in an article.

And while I think attributing negative adjectives to 2020 is arbitrary, since the bad things happening now are not bound to the calendar, this year was particularly bad for an even bigger number of people than the average year. It may not have been bad for you, but passing off the year as remotely good is disrespectful and shows a lack of empathy to the millions who had it bad because of covid, racial conflicts, natural disasters, terrorism, increased poverty etc etc.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#43

Post by hue3 »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #24
badjeans wrote: post #4

Was it a tough year for Bill Gates? How? Net worth US$ 119 billion

His father died in 2020. Most people that are being a jerk on the internet would say that counts.

People here seem to know only one metric to quantify well-being: money! It says a lot about current times and the community around HN

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#44

Post by thr0w3345 »

happy_path wrote: post #31
1e-9 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading immersive fiction makes me significantly more productive. I believe there are two main benefits: 1) It hones my ability to stay focused, and 2) It exercises the world-simulation part of my brain, which I use heavily for understanding problems and visualizing solutions. Whenever I go more than a few weeks or so without reading fiction, I tend to notice a drop in my productivity and problem-solving ability. Bin…

Could you recommend any fiction books?

I really enjoyed salvation by peter f Hamilton lately if you’re into sci-fi :)

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#45

Post by xenocratus »

happy_path wrote: post #11
jcynix wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your free time should be the time when you do things unrelated to your professional work. A healthy advise I got from Usenet a long time ago is that one should have a hobby unrelated to computers. That advise was given when there where no eBook readers, Smartphones or other mobile stuff. But it's still a good advise IMO as long as you use these tools for mainly recreational activities. So long note, short answer: rea…

Well, my native language is not English, so I could think that reading in English improve that language skill. What about if I feel I'm not a good software engineer?

A lot of the time I feel the same way, just a bit more broadly, that everything I do must improve me in some way, especially in the technical realm (I'm a software engineer as well). Even when I do stuff for "fun", I try to be strict about it and sort of analyse the fun to make sure I'm getting my time's worth.

But then reading your message made me think: this sounds a lot like Sartre's waiter [1]. I don't think I can change the way I feel and approach life, and I'm quite comfortable with my approach, but if you're not and you want to make a change, you might want to dig into why that's the case.

[1] https://existentialcomics.com/comic/101

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#46

Post by rorykoehler »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #20

Every year, I add Gates' recommended books to my reading list. This year, 2020, when the Pandemic hit and our prospective Investor walked off, leaving me with a team I cannot support; I turn to extra reading for support. In early 2020, when I realized I read over 50+ books in 2019, I had decided to read slower, and more picky to digest the books better. Unfortunately, I ended up reading lot more this year. By GoodRea…

Can you share a little about how you read a book? Do you do it cover to cover or do you skim it and then read the sections you find especially compelling?

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#47

Post by sradman »

apples_oranges wrote: post #15

I have read "Range" and was underwhelmed. I feel like the idea in it can be summarised in a 5-15 minute blog post. I also think that this year was probably not lousy for many people, me included, and I'm a bit tired of giving 2020 negative adjectives.

Or a wiki page [1]. The question then turns to what value the long form book adds. I think one aspect is that consuming content over multiple days approximates the first few cycles of a Spaced Repetition system [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range:_Why_Generalists_Triumph...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#48

Post by Brajeshwar »

rorykoehler wrote: post #46
Brajeshwar wrote: post #20

Every year, I add Gates' recommended books to my reading list. This year, 2020, when the Pandemic hit and our prospective Investor walked off, leaving me with a team I cannot support; I turn to extra reading for support. In early 2020, when I realized I read over 50+ books in 2019, I had decided to read slower, and more picky to digest the books better. Unfortunately, I ended up reading lot more this year. By GoodRea…

Can you share a little about how you read a book? Do you do it cover to cover or do you skim it and then read the sections you find especially compelling?

I don't have strict rules, methods, or patterns. However, I follow common themes such as skimming (or speed-reading) boring/mundane sections, change books and come back later, read multiple books at a time.

Personally, I feel something missing if I totally skip something, so I tend to or try to finish what I read. I was known to be that kid who read Newspapers top to bottom of all pages, so that is that.

My tricks;

- Don't drive, get an Uber and read. I have finished so many books inside an Uber car.

- If I'm flying, I finish about 2 typical books per leg of the flight.

- Always have your Kindle or a Book with you. Read instead of looking at your phone. ;-)

- If you have kids, read to show them that you read, they will follow.

Here is from our family's collective https://oinam.fyi/books/ (WIP).

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#49

Post by st1x7 »

apples_oranges wrote: post #15

I have read "Range" and was underwhelmed. I feel like the idea in it can be summarised in a 5-15 minute blog post. I also think that this year was probably not lousy for many people, me included, and I'm a bit tired of giving 2020 negative adjectives.

This is the case for most non-fiction life/business advice books that come out these days. Many of them actually start out as articles/talks. The author then gets contacted by a publisher who proposes to stretch things out into a book.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#50

Post by PlugTunin »

happy_path wrote: post #3

When I see this kind of lists I always think of getting some of these books and reading them. However, I feel like reading books that have no relationship with my job (software engineer) is a waste. Do any feel the same? Is this a harmful mindset and should stop worrying about "wasting" my free time?

I understand where you're coming from. What you might consider is that many ideas can be abstracted out and applied to aspects of life that, on the surface, aren't closely related.

For instance, Range, one of the books that Gates recommends, isn't specific to any occupation, but can inform one's general perspective on the hazards (or benefits) of taking a software job that is more specialized, and whether it's the best thing for your career in the long-term.

Relatedly, I can't tell you exactly what genre the You're Not So Smart or Freakonomics podcasts fit into, but like a lot of good books, each fleshes out all sorts of high-level ideas that can relate to day-to-day life.

I really enjoy learning about behavioral psychology/economics-type stuff.

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