4 ms·

I agree with what you're trying to say, but your example of Dan Brown bothers the hell out of me. Partially because he's a hack writer, but mostly because his b

I agree with what you're trying to say, but your example of Dan Brown bothers the hell out of me. Partially because he's a hack writer, but mostly because his books are full of bullshit.

ErrantX 17y ago
It highlights the potential danger of learning from fiction books; you have to watch out for the actual fiction :) However I think the Dan Brown books are a great example - you have to side step the made up crap particularly in the lost symbol. But his earlier books have a lot of excellently researched information.
- riffraff 17y ago
  what earlier books? I lived in rome for about 20 years and trust me, "angels & daemons" is way far from 'researched' even at the obvious geographical details. Though I agree his works do have a lot of crumbs of informations to put someone on a long wikipedia spree :)
  - ErrantX 17y ago
    Hmm, yes, geographical was perhaps a bit of a stretch for Brown novels. But I did learn a lot about the Vatican, for example, from that novel.
- sketerpot 17y ago
  Counterexample: if you know anything about cryptography -- anything at all -- then Dan Brown's earlier book Digital Fortress is downright painful.
  - trafficlight 17y ago
    Digital Fortress is so awful, I couldn't even get through the first 10 pages.
    - ErrantX 17y ago
      Err yeh. In retrospect Dan brown isn't as good an example as I'd hoped :-)
      - sketerpot 17y ago
        Try Robert Heinlein; I learned a lot from the books he wrote in the 1950s. And he actually cared about technical details, as far as the science of the time allowed; he spent hours calculating orbits just to get the timing in Space Cadet right.
- vimalg2 17y ago
  Come to think of it, I read a lot of fiction and sub-consciously engage in filtering out the fictional content from the real-world facts in the text. I'm inclined to believe, that this has helped me become a better filter for the noise/B.S from the real-world too. :)

I agree with what you're trying to say, but your example of Dan Brown bothers the hell out of me. Partially because he's a hack writer, but mostly because his books are full of bullshit.

ErrantX 17y ago

It highlights the potential danger of learning from fiction books; you have to watch out for the actual fiction :) However I think the Dan Brown books are a great example - you have to side step the made up crap particularly in the lost symbol. But his earlier books have a lot of excellently researched information.

riffraff 17y ago
what earlier books? I lived in rome for about 20 years and trust me, "angels & daemons" is way far from 'researched' even at the obvious geographical details. Though I agree his works do have a lot of crumbs of informations to put someone on a long wikipedia spree :)
- ErrantX 17y ago
  Hmm, yes, geographical was perhaps a bit of a stretch for Brown novels. But I did learn a lot about the Vatican, for example, from that novel.
sketerpot 17y ago
Counterexample: if you know anything about cryptography -- anything at all -- then Dan Brown's earlier book Digital Fortress is downright painful.
- trafficlight 17y ago
  Digital Fortress is so awful, I couldn't even get through the first 10 pages.
  - ErrantX 17y ago
    Err yeh. In retrospect Dan brown isn't as good an example as I'd hoped :-)
    - sketerpot 17y ago
      Try Robert Heinlein; I learned a lot from the books he wrote in the 1950s. And he actually cared about technical details, as far as the science of the time allowed; he spent hours calculating orbits just to get the timing in Space Cadet right.
vimalg2 17y ago
Come to think of it, I read a lot of fiction and sub-consciously engage in filtering out the fictional content from the real-world facts in the text. I'm inclined to believe, that this has helped me become a better filter for the noise/B.S from the real-world too. :)