4 ms·

Life is too short for poor books :) I couldn't vouch for the other topics but I can say that the section on Philosophy made me raise an eyebrow! Well, that and

Life is too short for poor books :) I couldn't vouch for the other topics but I can say that the section on Philosophy made me raise an eyebrow! Well, that and the section on Politics & Economy is obviously US/capitalist -centric but you know that. No Communist Manifesto? Really? :) In case anyone happens to read the list you gave and also reads here, the following are not considered primary philosophical works: The Passion of the Western Mind by RICHARD TARNAS Ascent of Man by JACOB BRONOWSKI Science and Sanity by COUNT KORZYBSKI Science is not Enough by VANNEVAR BUSH What I Believe by MARK BOOTH (Ed) Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind by SHUNRYU SUZUKI Also. While Plato's Republic is a master-work his Symposium far exceeds the Timeaus. Symposium (not Timeaus) is included in the brilliant _The Classics of Western Philosophy_ which is a decent source and one stop shop of Western Philosophical Works: http://www.hackettpublishing.com/classics-of-western-philosophy-eighth-edition http://www.hackettpublishing.com/classics-of-western-philoso....

alankay1 10y ago
Life is too short period! Just to remind again that the list was for people in business -- they were quite intelligent, had college degrees, but were not well read or "broad". They were very goal-oriented, and I think they did not use school or college for "general education". I tried to pick books that would be assessable and useful for them. So no "Das Kapital" or other political tracts. I would have put in Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention, and many other political writings for a different audience. I didn't really include much if anything primary about Philosophy (again, that wasn't the point for this group). And, now that we are discussing this, I now recall that the original list (it was an email) was not just expanded by I know not whom into the pictorial form on the web, but has also been edited a bit. The most important changes are from sentences like "Anything by Bertrand Russell" and "Anything by Jerome Bruner" etc. to the individual books (as subsets). However, I don't recall what I did say about Plato ...
- lintiness 10y ago
  any updated misses? i'd have to say, for that audience (or any really), "fooled by randomness" taleb is required.
  - alankay1 10y ago
    There have been quite a few books since that would be good for this group to look at (I will avoid the trap of mentioning any). Why don't you have a crack at it?
    - lintiness 10y ago
      free to choose (friedman), guns germs and steel (diamond), fooled by randomness (taleb). essential contemporary fiction: the road or blood meridian (mccarthy). everybody should read the widely read religious texts that have been circulating for millenia.
      - theoh 10y ago
        On the last point, as Sussmann says: "Bible, Talmud, Koran Read them whether or not you believe them! Be sure to read between the lines, and you can discover what people were actually thinking back then. Very interesting documents! Bava Metzia 59b is an interesting story!" http://aurellem.org/thoughts/html/sussman-reading-list.html http://aurellem.org/thoughts/html/sussman-reading-list.html

alankay1 10y ago

Life is too short period! Just to remind again that the list was for people in business -- they were quite intelligent, had college degrees, but were not well read or "broad". They were very goal-oriented, and I think they did not use school or college for "general education". I tried to pick books that would be assessable and useful for them. So no "Das Kapital" or other political tracts. I would have put in Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention, and many other political writings for a different audience. I didn't really include much if anything primary about Philosophy (again, that wasn't the point for this group). And, now that we are discussing this, I now recall that the original list (it was an email) was not just expanded by I know not whom into the pictorial form on the web, but has also been edited a bit. The most important changes are from sentences like "Anything by Bertrand Russell" and "Anything by Jerome Bruner" etc. to the individual books (as subsets). However, I don't recall what I did say about Plato ...

lintiness 10y ago
any updated misses? i'd have to say, for that audience (or any really), "fooled by randomness" taleb is required.
- alankay1 10y ago
  There have been quite a few books since that would be good for this group to look at (I will avoid the trap of mentioning any). Why don't you have a crack at it?
  - lintiness 10y ago
    free to choose (friedman), guns germs and steel (diamond), fooled by randomness (taleb). essential contemporary fiction: the road or blood meridian (mccarthy). everybody should read the widely read religious texts that have been circulating for millenia.
    - theoh 10y ago
      On the last point, as Sussmann says: "Bible, Talmud, Koran Read them whether or not you believe them! Be sure to read between the lines, and you can discover what people were actually thinking back then. Very interesting documents! Bava Metzia 59b is an interesting story!" http://aurellem.org/thoughts/html/sussman-reading-list.html http://aurellem.org/thoughts/html/sussman-reading-list.html