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Business and marketing are learned by doing. I have never heard of Jobs reading marketing books. Godin, Gladwell, etc are for the sheep. I remember reading that

by TriinT 17y ago

Business and marketing are learned by doing. I have never heard of Jobs reading marketing books. Godin, Gladwell, etc are for the sheep. I remember reading that Jurvetson read poetry and philosophy books instead of business books. Draw your own conclusions. My list is personal. I don't claim it's for everyone. It's what interests me, period. It's the stuff worth learning. There are other great books I could include there, from Byron to Vonnegut, but literature is not deep knowledge, it's art.

GHFigs 17y ago
How does any of that justify branding a whole stack of books that someone else finds interesting as "junk" and "BS", for "those who need self-help", and now "for the sheep"? I'm not talking about the quality of your selections here, or the submitter's, I'm talking about the exceptionally obtuse way you have chosen to express your opinion.
- TriinT 17y ago
  The list was supposed to be for "those who love to learn". Well, if it's learning one cares about, then anything that is not deep knowledge is suspicious. Truth be told, the OP did not sell his reading list as one for "those who love to learn". A book that can be read during a flight cannot be deep. OK, I agree that my choice of words was not the most fortunate, and that "BS" and "junk" were distasteful... but on the other hand, compared to the monumental works of Feynman and Vladimir Arnold (the kind of books that take years and years to grasp), I can't help thinking that the OP's list pales by comparison. There are books of this time, and there are books of all time. Just like Homer and Marcus Aurelius or Euclid, some great thinkers' words shall be cherished for centuries and centuries to come. As for me, I am a mere mortal. I am not of the caliber required to write such great books, but I would be very happy if I could live long enough to read all the great books I want to read. Life's too short to read bad books.

by TriinT 17y ago

GHFigs 17y ago

How does any of that justify branding a whole stack of books that someone else finds interesting as "junk" and "BS", for "those who need self-help", and now "for the sheep"? I'm not talking about the quality of your selections here, or the submitter's, I'm talking about the exceptionally obtuse way you have chosen to express your opinion.

TriinT 17y ago
The list was supposed to be for "those who love to learn". Well, if it's learning one cares about, then anything that is not deep knowledge is suspicious. Truth be told, the OP did not sell his reading list as one for "those who love to learn". A book that can be read during a flight cannot be deep. OK, I agree that my choice of words was not the most fortunate, and that "BS" and "junk" were distasteful... but on the other hand, compared to the monumental works of Feynman and Vladimir Arnold (the kind of books that take years and years to grasp), I can't help thinking that the OP's list pales by comparison. There are books of this time, and there are books of all time. Just like Homer and Marcus Aurelius or Euclid, some great thinkers' words shall be cherished for centuries and centuries to come. As for me, I am a mere mortal. I am not of the caliber required to write such great books, but I would be very happy if I could live long enough to read all the great books I want to read. Life's too short to read bad books.