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Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

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Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#51

Post by unmole »

lkrych wrote: post #44
gallerdude wrote: post #16

Rediscovering nonfiction a few years ago was really cool, but unfortunately I think I’m out of books. I’ve noticed nowadays that most non-fiction books are basically “pop non-fiction,” is high basically entail a giant collection of studies and anecdotal stories all around a central theme, in easy to read language. There’s nothing wrong with this, just they don’t do a lot of synthesis of their own. The problem is, the…

I'm going to plug a few great non-fiction books that are easy(ish) to read and deep on content. I'm sure there are a lot more out there. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Coming Into the Country - John McPhee The Unwinding - George Packer Anything by James C Scott (Thinking Like a State, The Art of Not Being Governed) The Righteous Mind - John Haidt The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (Regardless of how you fe…

> Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

Doesn't "giant collection of studies and anecdotal stories all around a central theme, in easy to read language" perfectly describe it? I know I am very much in the minority but I absolotely hated Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#53

Post by lihaciudaniel »

monadgonad wrote: post #28
twoquestions wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time reading novels (or doing anything else for fun) is time not spent improving, which in this all-against-all knife fight world is foolish.

HN being what it is, I can't tell if this is intended as satire.

It applies to me too. I can't afford books so I pirate them. But I can't enjoy fiction without physical books so I never read any lately.

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#54

Post by lihaciudaniel »

douglaswlance wrote: post #41
gallerdude wrote: post #16

Rediscovering nonfiction a few years ago was really cool, but unfortunately I think I’m out of books. I’ve noticed nowadays that most non-fiction books are basically “pop non-fiction,” is high basically entail a giant collection of studies and anecdotal stories all around a central theme, in easy to read language. There’s nothing wrong with this, just they don’t do a lot of synthesis of their own. The problem is, the…

There's more than a thousand years worth of books for you to read. The more recent a book, the worse you should expect its content to be. Get outside of the bubble of immediacy and read the classics.

Can you elaborate on some names (expect Franklin's autobiography and Marcus Aurelius meditations)

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#55

Post by IndrekR »

lihaciudaniel wrote: post #53
monadgonad wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN being what it is, I can't tell if this is intended as satire.

It applies to me too. I can't afford books so I pirate them. But I can't enjoy fiction without physical books so I never read any lately.

No public libraries where you live?

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#56

Post by qnsi »

joshgachnang wrote: post #8
therobot24 wrote: post #2

- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon by Valley John Carreyrou - Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep by Matthew Walker - The Magicians by Lev Grossman - Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight - How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World by Hans Rosling - Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl - Deep Work by Cal Newport - Homo De…

The Three Body Problem series is probably my favorite fiction I've listened to in the past couple years.

For me it was dissapointing. I dont read scifi that much, but Blindsight was way better

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#57

Post by splittingTimes »

therobot24 wrote: post #2

- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon by Valley John Carreyrou - Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep by Matthew Walker - The Magicians by Lev Grossman - Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight - How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan - Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World by Hans Rosling - Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl - Deep Work by Cal Newport - Homo De…

When you are into fantasy, "The Malazan books of the fallen" are the most intricate, intense, complex, insightful, aeon-spanning series I've ever read. And the author managed to finish it. After reading Malazan, the ASOFAIs story arch and character development seemed almost trival in comparison. I envy you, that you have not read it yet and have it all still before you :).

If you are more into "novels" see this thread: "What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17381352

My suggestions where

Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities" [1] is by far the most outstanding novel i have read, as it stretches the limits of what language can express past anything i tought possible. The protagonist is a mathematician whose scientific mind applies allegorical dissections over a wide range of existential themes concerning humanity and feelings. The polarity makes it for an extraordinary read.

Hermann Broch "The Death of Virgil". The novel creates out of a dying poet a rich, profound vision both of civilization and of primal concerns of all mankind.

Austrian authors where on another level in the late 30s and 40s of the 20th century.

Finally, Victor Pelevin's "Empire V: The Prince of Hamlet" [3]. You gain instruction into the vampire life and by extension the humans which vampires feed and the nature of god and existence itself, with interesting meditations on existence, theology, matter, illusion and withering attacks on fashion, advertising, politics, the Davos elite, literature and particularly the nature of money.

Finally, Karel Čapek "War with the Newts" is just great.

===

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_Qualities

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

[3] https://www.amazon.de/Empire-Prince-Hamlet-Victor-Pelevin/dp....

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#58

Post by sabio »

swsieber wrote: post #30
smnrchrds wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have read the first 4 Artemis Fowl books. Does the quality drop after the fifth one?

I think the books are all pretty good, but the narrator of the books changes at some point for the audio books. The first several ones have a stellar narrator.

You probably mean the first 7 books narrated by Gerry O'Brien.

https://www.audible.co.uk/series?asin=B00HJB1GP6

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#59

Post by douglaswlance »

lihaciudaniel wrote: post #54
douglaswlance wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's more than a thousand years worth of books for you to read. The more recent a book, the worse you should expect its content to be. Get outside of the bubble of immediacy and read the classics.

Can you elaborate on some names (expect Franklin's autobiography and Marcus Aurelius meditations)

Depends what your interests are.

Re: Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python

#60

Post by ConfusedDog »

qnsi wrote: post #56
joshgachnang wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Three Body Problem series is probably my favorite fiction I've listened to in the past couple years.

For me it was dissapointing. I dont read scifi that much, but Blindsight was way better

They are very different. Three Body trilogy keeps humanity as-is, time morphs the society and culture, but humanity more or less the same regardless. In that regard, I think Blindsight is better at exploiting the internal conflict within the humanity.

But the Three Body trilogy has many advantages over Blindsight in terms of time (it literally takes you on a journey from 1950s to the end of universe); dimensions (very concept that I haven't seen anywhere else); society (very acute transitions).

But really, they are both good. I also recommend Bobiverse series. Though it's not as good, sorry Dennis, but it's very enjoyable, every software engineer's wet dream that is. Haha.

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