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The Best Books I Read in 2013
- auctiontheory 13y agoAt least no Malcolm Gladwell. Bill Gates the voice of sanity - who woulda thunk it.
- Anon84 13y agoAfter the Microsoft years he has proven to be a brilliant individual with a genuine interest I. Using his fame and fortune (and everything that goes with it) to try to improve the world.
- mixmastamyk 13y agoWhy is this Gladwell character brought up so often? I'd never had known he exists if it wasn't for his detractors.
- rgrieselhuber 13y agoYou're not missing anything.
- spenuke 13y agoHow many college-educated liberal folks with a non-engineering background do you know? It's all but impossible to avoid him in these circles. (I say this as a philosophy degree-holding liberal pinko who is is exasperated by Gladwell. To be fair, I'm more exasperated with the culture of cherry-picking near-banalities wrapped in an engaging narrative that he and the TED folks have propagated rather than their work itself.)
- mixmastamyk 13y agoI know a few, but perhaps they're not close enough to New York? Sounds like you're complaining about style over substance... I suppose I'd find it annoying as well.
- untitledly 13y agoTop comment on the blog post. "Bill, you are really inspiring me to increase my concern for the critical issues of economy and technology. You are a gift to the world. thank u." Wow, Gates has really cleaned up his public perception.
- mcintyre1994 13y agoNo offence, but where have you been getting news on his perception in the last few years? He's proven probably the most significant philanthropist in history, this isn't new.
- ternaryoperator 13y agoLet's say one of the most significant philanthropists. Carnegie and Rockefeller were extraordinary philanthropists and in inflation-adjusted dollars, Rockefeller gave away more. What Gates has done that's unique is to pressure/induce other super-wealthy individuals to also donate their wealth to charity.
- ghshephard 13y agoGates isn't being measured as the most significant philanthropist because of how much money he is giving away, inflation adjusted or otherwise. He isn't even measured that way because he's also directing much of Warren Buffet's (and others) wealth towards philanthropy; those those are significant accomplishments. Rather, he's being measured as the most significant philanthropist, because his underlying belief systems, is so all encompassing: From: [1] Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. [1] http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Foundation-Factsheet http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Informatio...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- Jun8 13y ago"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course debatable if such a neat classification even can be done). What these people do not realize is that great fiction can provide more information about the world, humanity in general, and what's even more important, yourself, then you can ever glimpse by reading another Gladwell book.
- baby 13y agoStill, fiction is fiction. It's like all those questions : would you rather do this, or live all your life with this. They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination. Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life. e.g. Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?
- a_bonobo 13y ago>Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life. And what is fiction based on, if not real life? Fiction is the number one way to learn how to see the world from the point of view of a completely different person, only in fiction can you leave your own shoes. I'm pretty sure that reading fiction makes you a better person, and it's proven that reading fiction improves a person's empathy [1]. Increased empathy means that you can put yourself into other leaders' heads and guess what made them make their decisions, thereby learning how the world works. And yes, you can learn about dating from a romance novel, except that about 99% of them are not about real life. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/liter...
- JamesArgo 13y ago
- mcdowall 13y agoI find lists like this and Sivers.org/book very useful for finding new reading material, some good ones I've read this year (in no particular order); Who owns the future - Jaron Lanier Canoeing the Congo - Phil Harwood Margaret Thatcher - The Authorized Biography Venture Deals - Brad Feld / Jason Mendelson 1000 Ultimate Experiences - Lonely Planet
- bigsparky 13y agoif you like those lists check out http://www.sparkened.com http://www.sparkened.com we are collecting lists of influential peoples favorite stuff we have warren buffett, bill gates, elon musk, heaps more
- swanson 13y agoWell, I'm no Bill Gates, but here are the best books I read in 2013: * So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport). If you've ever daydreamed about how much better your life would be if you were only working at that cool company, you should seriously read this book. By not focusing on just getting a cool job, but instead doing deliberate practice and being "so good they can't ignore you" you can increase aspects of any job that are scientifically-proven to make you happier (control, autonomy, and expertise). * The Making of a Chef (Ruhlman). If you have any interest in cooking (even if you just watch Top Chef) you will like this book. A major theme of the book is discipline which aligns well with software; code quality, good design, maintaining a test suite — all of these things are signs of a true craftsmen, but they are easy to shrug off without discipline. * Are Your Light's On? (Gause, Weinberg). I would recommend it to anyone dealing with arguments about solutions or confusion about problems, especially when non-technical folks are involved. The biggest win for me was making a mental shift from "Problem Solver" to "Solver of Problems", which allows us to focus on finding who is impacted by a problem and identifying the real story behind the problem. I'm currently reading Punished By Rewards (only halfway through) but it is pretty interesting so far and will probably make the cut on my final list :)
- gammarator 13y agoMe either! I've also been writing similar lists for a few years now. Here's my list for 2013: http://bellm.org/blog/2013/11/29/the-best-books-i-read-in-2013/ http://bellm.org/blog/2013/11/29/the-best-books-i-read-in-20...
- vowelless 13y agoI'm a huge fan of Cal Newport. I've been following his blog for years and I love his methodical approach towards deconstructing and demystifying various career related things. Some books I read this year that stand out: * Emperor of All Maladies (Mukherjee): Beautiful look into the most elusive disease of our generation. Mukherjee provides a biography of cancer. * The Art of Learning (Waitzkin): I've been following Josh Waitzkin since I was a little kid. I fell in love with his Chessmaster series. Waitzkin was the inspiration for (and child actor in) Searching for Bobby Fischer. A chess prodigy and former IM, Waitzkin deconstructs his learning style and how it allowed him to become a leading Tai Chi martial artist. * Humble Pie: Autobiography of Gordon Ramsay. I am a fan and found it pretty honest (although his cockiness leaks in a bit). It's a very quick read.
- imrehg 13y agoThe Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch (enhanced my critical thinking) The Wide Lens - Ron Adner (a more complete view for developing projects, foreseeing the inevitable problems beyond your immediate reach) Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami (just awesome) Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (tomorrow's world, written the day before yesterday) And here's all the 40-something book I've read this year: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/562634 https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/562634
- contextual 13y agoCurrently reading Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath and it's easily one of my favorites of 2013. The introduction - Gladwell explains what actually happened in the epic biblical battle of the same name - is revelatory and an unforgettable piece of literature. Malcolm Gladwell may be too popular to be 'cool', but he's a master storyteller. Haters gonna hate.
- nekopa 13y agoI enjoy reading Gladwell's books, but recently I have seen information that means I need to stop regarding his books as non-fiction. Maybe a lot of his books should be sub-titled "Inspired by true events".
- tokenadult 13y agoGladwell comes up so often here on Hacker News that I have a FAQ about him: Malcolm Gladwell, who has said in an interview[1] that he writes to try out ideas, is good, while trying out ideas, at crediting his sources. Any reader of a Malcolm Gladwell book (as I know, from being a reader of the book Outliers) can check the sources, and decide from there what other sources to check and what other ideas to play with. Gladwell doesn't purport to write textbooks, but I give him a lot of credit for finding interesting scholarly sources that haven't had enough attention in the popular literature. He is equaled by very few authors as a story-teller who can tie ideas together in a thought-provoking assembly. [1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122671211614230261.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122671211614230261.html "Q: Do you worry that you extrapolate too much from too little? "A: No. It's better to err on the side of over-extrapolation. These books are playful in the sense that they regard ideas as things to experiment with. I'm happy if somebody reads my books and reaches a conclusion that is different from mine, as long as the ideas in the book cause them to think. You have to be willing to put pressure on theories, to push the envelope. That's the fun part, the exciting part. If you are writing an intellectual adventure story, why play it safe? I'm not out to convert people. I want to inspire and provoke them."
- contextual 13y agoThe BS on HN is much worse than anything I've read from Gladwell. Where's your FAQ for that?
- dylanz 13y agoI just took a road trip and looked at one of Bill Gates previous favorite books list, and picked "Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012". I've always wanted to know more about Mr. Buffet, so I thought this would be a great choice. I almost drove off the road listening to him talking about bonds vs stocks and percentages. It was interesting, but definitely not a road trip book. That said, I finished Snow Crash on the trip, and it was a great book. I think I preferred Cryptonomicon a bit more, but some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time. Hiro Protagonist and YT are also awesome characters.
- maxerickson 13y agoWith "The Baroque Cycle", you can combine the experiences. (I'm mostly kidding, I enjoyed it, but some parts do go on)
- tricolon 13y agoNo kidding. Here I am 80% done after only six years!
- arethuza 13y agoTip - get the unabridged audiobook versions from Audible, I couldn't finish Quicksilver in print form but I've listened to the entire Baroque Cycle multiple times. Edit: Jack Shaftoe is probably my favourite fictional character: King of the Vagabonds, L'Emmerdeur, Half-Cocked Jack, Quicksilver, Ali Zaybak, Sword of Divine Fire, and Jack the Coiner....
- lmm 13y agoThe Baroque Cycle was fun but didn't really come together as a self-contained story with beginning and end. Which may have been his intention, but still; I much preferred Anathem.
- defen 13y ago> some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time. The namshubs from Snow Crash are pretty heavily inspired by ideas from The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It's a very interesting book. Richard Dawkins said of it "It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets."
- gbog 13y agoMine: - Jules Michelet, History of France (pg suggested somewhere to read books about history. I now fully agree, it is a way to get the best possible understanding of today's world. As much as we have to understand how a cell has grown from nothing to its current state to really understand what it is, we also have to understand how a country has been built in the long history to understand it's current issues) - Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (read it again).
- MichaelGG 13y agoI see he mentioned Catcher in the Rye. I read it after hearing so many people say how it was such an influential book for them. John Lennon was even killed by a guy supposedly inspired by this book, and it's been often banned (some of the scenes might be unsuitable for a conservative school, I suppose). Can any technical-types here explain if they found it particularly impressive? It's well written but I didn't think it very notable. Do I need to read it with a specific mindset?
- evanrich 13y agoI am in the same boat as you. People who love it are crazy about it. I started it on a plane flight and the guy next to me chatted my ear off about how it changed his life for 20 mins. My current theory is that if you read it in your childhood, it resonates with you. I was 25 when I read it and it did not.
- calbear81 13y agoIt was more interesting to me as a teenager and is normally found on the required high school reading canon. It's been so long so I'm going simply by memory here (instead of going to Wikipedia and quoting verbatim) but what's stuck after 15+ years has been the themes of individualism, independence, and desire to map out one's own destiny.
- DonGateley 13y agoI consider it the most harmful book ever written. It's impact on the mood and choices of several generations has been devastating if not catastrophic. Had he been offed in the war the U.S., at least, would be a much more optimistic and forward thinking place.
- ececconi 13y agoNonfiction still has the viewpoint of the writer. Even if the narrator is silent, their biases and worldviews infiltrate the work. At least in fiction this is explicit.
- ibsathish 13y agoNeed not have to label the Fiction genre as a non-educative one. Numerous amount of fiction books teach about the world, the cultures and provokes self-introspection. Non-fiction, agreed. Especially Biographies of successful people who made it from the scratch after a lot of struggling, like Mr. Gates himself.
- pre-show-mac 13y agoIf your dad owns private equity in starbucks and gives you money to buy software from IBM -- THAT is hardly pulling yourself up from the bootstraps yo.
- Shamanmuni 13y agoApparently he read Gates' fictional biography...
- skriticos2 13y agoI have an awfully long commute each day (around 3 hours) and spend most of the time reading fiction (scifi and fantasy). I do this for two reasons: 1. It's fun. 2. In fiction authors have the liberty to go dip shit crazy with their possibilities. They can even change the inertia of the universe they are in. I also think reading this kind of books helps to think outside the box and often helps to get a fresh view on problems I'm working on. It also helps me relax my mind while reading, which I feel is a prerequisite for it to work properly. PS: here are some of the works I particularly enjoyed lately: Howey, Hugh.: Wool (and the entire Silo saga, very good read); Sanderson, Brandon: Mistborn: The Final Empire and the sequels (Sanderson is a genius when it comes to creating consistent universes); Phillips, Richard: The second ship (trilogy, contemporary argumented with alien technology); Corey, James S. A.: Leviathan Awakes (expanse series)
- k__ 13y agoRework and Art/Fear were the best books I read this year.
- d_theorist 13y ago>I read a lot, but I don’t always choose what’s on the bestseller list. Wait. Is he saying that sometimes he does choose what's on the bestseller list?
- onebaddude 13y ago>"Is he saying that sometimes he does choose what's on the bestseller list?" Is that a problem for you? Does it make your hipster friends angry? Let's see what I read from the bestseller's list this year, off the top of my head: Quiet, Thinking Fast and Slow, Devil in the White City, Steve Jobs, and yes, 1 or 2 of the Game of Thrones books. I also read The Corrections, which wasn't on the best-seller list this year, but was definitely hyped in its day (Oprah Book Club! How mainstream!) In fact, I make an effort to read the bestsellers lists for ideas. It makes me more well-read, not less.
- d_theorist 13y agoHa. I was making as joke that Bill is so powerful that he can choose what goes on the bestseller lists (sometimes).
- gadders 13y agoI'd just like to add my annual joke that Gates really should get an Amazon affilliate account or he's never going to make any money.
- smartial_arts 13y ago1. Chaos: Making a New Science [ http://amzn.to/1fbmC73 http://amzn.to/1fbmC73 ] still makes an awesome read despite its age. 2. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers [ http://amzn.to/1kFszdH http://amzn.to/1kFszdH ] - great book on stress and its effects by Robert Sapolsky (have you seen his lectures on behavioural biology? Fascinating stuff, even if you always thought 'meh, biology' - the guy is an amazing lecturer)
- ganessh 13y ago"Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"
- amerika_blog 13y agoThese are coffee table books about interesting/ironic details of our world, not any actual reshaping. I used to read such books in the pursuit of being an "intellectual," then picked up Marcus Aurelius and realized how puerile all the coffee-table folderol really is.
- minutetominute 13y agoToo many people would rather not deal with the difficulties of reading foundational works. The task of reading coffee-table folderol is much easier than having to actually rethink what you know when you read works that have stood the test of time. I, too, am guilty of having read too many coffee-table books and have only really started to learn now that I avoid those books. Picking up a kindle and a tablet have especially helped in my newfound pursuit of knowledge because, ironically, the most valuable books/articles/essays tend to be freely available online.
- amerika_blog 13y agoThe truth is often hidden in plain sight simply because most will never go looking for it.
- dharmach 13y agoBeing a fan of some Russian authors like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorky and others, reading their books I got a glimpse of the Russian culture and society of that era. Would somebody suggest me similar type of authors from past English era?
- incision 13y agoShame this thread is dominated by that single sentence on nonfiction. Some books I enjoyed this year: * The Player of Games - http://amzn.com/0316005401 http://amzn.com/0316005401 * A Guide to Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - http://amzn.com/B0040JHNQG http://amzn.com/B0040JHNQG * The Emperors Handbook - http://amzn.com/0743233832 http://amzn.com/0743233832 * The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future - http://amzn.com/0393088693 http://amzn.com/0393088693 * Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work - http://amzn.com/B009JU6UPG http://amzn.com/B009JU6UPG * Chaos: Making a New Science - http://amzn.com/0143113453 http://amzn.com/0143113453 * Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing - http://amzn.com/0262019388 http://amzn.com/0262019388
- EnderMB 13y agoI think the top comment sums up a lot of criticisms about Hacker News quite well. On subject, I really enjoyed The Emperor's Handbook, and would definitely recommend it.
- vram22 13y agoThe Navigator - by Morris West. Not new. Has a good story along with a few implied lessons about handling yourself and others. Set in the context of a sea voyage from Hawaii, to find a remote, uncharted island where ancient Polynesian navigators go to die. Is a bit like "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Swiss Family Robinson", after they find the island, with some masala (to use an Indian term) thrown in :-) Masala: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_(film_genre) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_(film_genre) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56966.The_Navigator http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56966.The_Navigator http://www.amazon.com/The-Navigator-Morris-L-West/dp/0688030610 http://www.amazon.com/The-Navigator-Morris-L-West/dp/0688030...
- DonGateley 13y agoIf you want to completely lose your place in an HN thread, make a comment. I hate that.
- POPPACHERRY 13y agoBill Gates looks alot like Steven Hawkins. I wouldn't be suprised if gates was a clone of Hawkins. If anyone could pull it of, Stevie could.
- POPPACHERRY 13y agoMega nerd books.