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I find it very disturbing and revealing that such a high level and respected guy did read no real book, I mean real books that will be read in 50 years, literat
by gbog 14y ago
I find it very disturbing and revealing that such a high level and respected guy did read no real book, I mean real books that will be read in 50 years, literature or philosophy, or classics like Seneque, Proust, Montaigne, Austeen.
It maybe he read them all already? Probably not, because if you read Austeen you probably can't spend all your holidays reading self motivation books.
- elteto 14y ago> ...read no real book... Your post just lost all credibility from that point on. What are "real" books? Can you define it? I'm pretty sure you can't, because there is no thing such as "real" books. Do they have to be pre-1900? Do they have to be written in dense prose or the author from the Victorian era? I just finished reading Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman for the second time and in all honesty is one of the most simply written books I have ever read, and yet is deep, thoughtful, fun and I can probably say is more enjoyable than some of those you call classics. Where do we draw the line?
- dkersten 14y agoSurely You're Joking Mr. Feynman I love this book! Its entertaining, interesting and inspiring.
- elteto 14y agoI am a big time Feynman fan, sure we've had our share of great thinkers and awe inspiring intellects, but Feynman is just the perfect combination of that and a likable character that remains human for the rest of us. Einstein was also like that in many ways but he was the child of another time and while he was always humane and simple, Feynman was much more likable, full of funny and witty anecdotes that connect with people. Also if you have not seen Feynman lecturing on Physics then you haven't seen a great educator, see [1] and [2], just plain wonderful. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pYRn5j7oI [2] http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/ http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/
- gbog 14y agoThere are ways to tell which books are classics, but sadly you need to wait for a few centuries: if some people still feel the need to read a book after some centuries, it is an indicator that this book is a classic.
- doktrin 14y agoAre you referring to Jane Austen? As influential and ubiquitous as her books are, I rarely find myself considering her one of the great classic authors. Either way, I'm sure he's read his share of the classics. The entire notion of "classics" is a fluid concept anyhow. The past, after all, doesn't have an exclusive monopoly on great and meaningful literary work. 100 years from now there will hopefully have been new texts added to our collective repertoire.
- gbog 14y agoYes, some books written today will be considered classics in 100 years but I'd bet none will be of the kind Gates read during his vacations.
- BenderLovesUs 14y agoShouldn't the fact that one of the most accomplished and driven persons of this era isn't reading "real books" be a bit telling about "real books" themselves? Edit: thanks for the downvote, ...
- gbog 14y agoThat's an interesting question, but I fear this fact is more telling about our era. In other times any great person would have read and read again Plato, Aristotle and the like. I don't think it is very likely that those classics which have been considered useful for so many people during such a long period are magically not useful anymore. Maybe it's just because what we consider important people are not that important. Side note, Paul Graham is likely to be more interested in philosophy and "real books" than in those ego building books you find in airports.
- hpguy 14y agoWhy are you so sure he hadn't have read all those in his 20's? And didn't it occur to you that those "real" books may just be real for you only?
- onetimeuse001 14y agoFirst no one appointed you as a judge of "real books" or not, but he read FIVE books on a vacation. Four of them are related to today's world and highly relevant for us and especially for him
- ramblerman 14y agoI bet he doesn't even listen to classical music either. What a pleb.
- mturmon 14y agoDisturbing -- I hope not! But revealing, sure. Gates is a genius, but he is not in the cultural vanguard. He hired Ballmer, for chrissake.
- B-Con 14y agoThe point of reading anything is to ingest a certain type of content. He chose the desired content and read it. The books he read were educational. Why should he ensure that a certain percentage of his books are "classics"? He could have gotten a lot (most? all?) of that information from various resources online, but the authors bundled it together into a book. Maybe the books won't be classics in 100 years, but the information in them will either still be relevant then or will have shaped what society looks like by then.
- gbog 14y ago> The point of reading anything is to ingest a certain type of content. What an awful definition of reading. I do occasionally read books on this purely utilitarian basis, but reading is also done for other reasons, for example because you are completely engrossed in the story and just can't stop reading.
- B-Con 14y agoI'm using a more formal definition of "information". I don't mean trivia, facts, or geeky stuff, I mean "content". You read because you want to take in a certain type of content, be it a fantasy story, geek trivia, math, or tear-jerking romance. The definition is true pretty much by definition so long as the reading is self-motivated. In that light it may seem like a silly-obvious thing to point out, but the statement I was replying to was implying a more narrow motivation for reading.
- irahul 14y ago> I find it very disturbing and revealing that such a high level and respected guy did read no real book, I mean real books that will be read in 50 years, literature or philosophy, or classics like Seneque, Proust, Montaigne, Austeen. Bill Gates is reading about how much college students learn in college instead of reading Kant and sipping wine by his fireplace and being a pretentious douche-bag. Oh, the horror. What has the world come to. EDIT: If it didn't occur to you, the definitions of real, classic and important are different for a random punk on an internet forum and Bill Gates. Also, Bill Gates doesn't seem like a guy who would read classics so that he can make blog posts about it.
- keithpeter 14y ago"Bill Gates is reading about how much college students learn in college instead of reading Kant and sipping wine by his fireplace and being a pretentious douche-bag." I understand your point, but, I can't help recognising the irony given the key findings of the book mentioned.
- gadders 14y agoI take your point, but there books that are hundreds or thousands of years old that still help to illuminate the human condition and that people can learn from - Shakespeare, Plutarch, Herodotus etc. I'd take those over some buzzword laden piece of Gladwell-lite that will be irrelevant in five years.
- irahul 14y ago> I take your point, but there books that are hundreds or thousands of years old that still help to illuminate the human condition and that people can learn from - Shakespeare, Plutarch, Herodotus etc. I don't know what you are responding to. I didn't claim there aren't old books which are useful. I am taking exception to the unfounded claim about old classics being the real books. Personally, I find Shakespeare trash. I would rather re-read "Lord of the flies" or "To kill a mockinbird" than subjecting myself to the Shakespearean torture. > I'd take those over some buzzword laden piece of Gladwell-lite that will be irrelevant in five years. Tell me how Bill Gates reading about college students not getting much out of education(and actually acting on it) is not better by eons to Bill Gates reading Hamlet. How does it matter no one will remember about "state of education in the 21st century" 100 years down the road?
- willvarfar 14y agoIs "how to win friends and influence people" a classic book by your definition? I think the key thing I takr from his reading list is reading about big current issues. At least he wants to fix things.
- mickeyp 14y agoIt certainly is a classic book. That book has changed more lives than Kant ever had. Everyone should read it, especially people with un/under-developed social skills. It's that great.
- gbog 14y agoAre you serious? Or maybe you mean "directly"? Because Kant certainly changed the life of much more people, but indirectly.