Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#61

Post by jimhefferon » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:58 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #55

rsync wrote: post #52

Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means Author: William T. Vollmann It's a 7 volume set, but has a one volume abridged version which is one of the more fascinating and thought-provoking books I have ever read. I rate it very closely to GEB. Highly recommended.

GEB?

Probably Godel Escher Bach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#62

Post by wakaflockafliz » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:58 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #60

One of the most important books in my life has been The Way of Zen by Alan Watts (I listened to it as an audiobook). It changed the way I think and feel (or at least how I react to feelings). Other interesting books about philosophy/spirituality are Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle The last one is the least recommended, I'm not sure I got anythi…

+1 for Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Fantastic book, and a very very easy read to boot!

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#63

Post by sanderjd » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 3:59 PM UTC

jjuhl wrote: post #37

Since you don't say specifically what topics you are interrested in I'll just name a few of my own favorite non-fiction books that have a great signal-to-noise ratio: - Computer Organization and Design, Fourth Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface - Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment - Effective Modern C++ - SFML Game Development - Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools

Haven't done any writing of C++ since college, and not too much reading either, but just flew through Effective Modern C++, and found it to be a great, information-dense, and eye-opening read. Highly recommended.

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#64

Post by coliveira » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:01 PM UTC

Everything can be considered fluff if you're familiar with the topic already. For example, I respect Richard Dawkins and agree with his position, but if you read two or three of his books, everything else is just "fluff". Similarly, if you already know Calculus, every other book on Calculus will be just "fluff". So, this basically means that you need to be reading books on topics that you don't know. The main difference I would make here is not in terms of having fluff or not, but if the book is well written.

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#65

Post by Adam_O » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:02 PM UTC

timbuckley wrote: post #56

"Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" by Steven Pinker Bill Gates calls it one of the most important books he's read in his life. "People often ask me what is the best book I’ve read in the last year. Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined stands out as one of the most important books I’ve read – not just this year, but ever." http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-…

yes, I was impressed just thinking about how much work and information gathering must have gone into that book.

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#66

Post by s_baby » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC

Richard Dawkins is OK. Sam Harris and Steven Pinker are more relevant.

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#67

Post by blfr » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC

I recently read Intelligence: All That Matters, a short (160 pages) introduction to measuring intelligence. It covers a little history, how it's done, why it matters. Written by a working researcher so not very fluffy, and came out in June, not last century.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OGLKHDO

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#68

Post by uxcn » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC

Without going into heavily technical books, I'd recommend The Code Book by Simon Singh. There's also Fermat's Last Theorem by the same author.

On the more technical side, it's somewhat cliche but, TAOCP really is excellent.

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#69

Post by rndn » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:06 PM UTC

Bud wrote: post #31

Gödel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter.

If you consider extravagance as noise, this book will have a terrible SNR. (I think it's nonetheless worth reading. It's basically an introduction to the theory of computation with fables and plenty of illustrating examples by Escher and Bach (both of which have unknowingly used important concepts from computation in their works). It is definitely much easier to read after having attended to a theory of computation I lecture.)

Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?

#70

Post by nandemo » Sat, Aug 08, 2015, 4:06 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #55

rsync wrote: post #52

Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means Author: William T. Vollmann It's a 7 volume set, but has a one volume abridged version which is one of the more fascinating and thought-provoking books I have ever read. I rate it very closely to GEB. Highly recommended.

GEB?

Presumably, "Goedel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter.

Which, incidentally, doesn't have a particularly high "signal-to-noise ratio" but it's one of the most interesting books I've ever read.