9.4 KiB
Recommending Non-Fiction
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Author: u/xamueljones My arch-enemy is entropy*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2x2wg1/recommending_nonfiction/
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Score: 18
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Created: 2015-02-25T05:02:19
Post:
On RationalReads, there are quite a number of interesting works posted already (63 so far to be exact). But there are only two stories that can be considered Non-Fiction.
Do you guys have anything to recommend that is Non-Fiction and either has some rational elements or would interest readers of Rational Fiction?
Here's a List of Non-Fiction accepted so far:
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LessWrong by Eliezer Yudkowsky
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Richard Hofstadter
EDIT: This is a list of books that I'm tentatively thinking about adding:
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Probability Theory: The Logic of Science by E.T. Jaynes
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Into The Jungle: Great Adventures in the Search for Evolution by Sean B. Carrol
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Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell
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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
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Judgement Under Uncertainty by Daniel Kahneman
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The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane (replaced The 48 Laws of Power, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli)
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The Art of War by Sun Tzu
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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman
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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
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The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language by Steven Pinker
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Language In Thought And Action by S.I. Hayakawa
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Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards Heuer
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The Strategy of Conflict, by Thomas Schelling
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Micromotives and Macrobehavior by Thomas Schelling
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The Self Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature by Philip Ball
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Robot's Rebellion by Keith Stanovich
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Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy Baumeister
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Why the West Rules--For Now by Ian Morris
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War! What is it Good For? by Ian Morris
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Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky
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Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings by Daniel J. Levitin
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This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works (Edge Question Series) by John Brockman
I'll be choosing strongly in favor of the non-fiction multiple people comment on.
EDIT: I plan on adding all of these books to RationalReads this Saturday. So there's only a few more days to argue for or against some of the books on this list.
Comments:
u/None [+7] (2 hours later)
Wouldn't it just be better to read actual science and math textbooks, or to ask someone who has which precise popularizations they'd recommend?
u/xamueljones [+2] My arch-enemy is entropy (4 hours later)
True and I would recommend that for people who are learning about a specific subject. But I think that people who go to RationalReads are more interested in interesting books that relate to cognitive science (how we think) or decision making (what habits to cultivate) with strong elements of rationality.
In this precise context, it's very unlike you'll find anyone who can recommend things relating directly to rationality. Remember that rationality is an extremely narrow range of cognitive science and there is very little about direct applications to every-day life.
u/None [+2] (5 hours later)
True and I would recommend that for people who are learning about a specific subject.
Well, it's just that even the most perfect possible decision-making algorithm still needs actual knowledge to work with. Besides which, I don't see how you can avoid trying to learn a bunch of math and science if you want to understand cognitive science or decision-making.
u/xamueljones [+1] My arch-enemy is entropy (11 hours later)
Yes but I don't want to post books just on science and mathematics, I rather post books talking about rationality where it has the directly related knowledge needed (something like Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach would be perfect). Otherwise I could just post links to all of my college textbooks right now.
u/Khaos1125 [+6] (5 hours later)
I'd recommend
- The Strategy of Conflict, by Thomas Schelling
- Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards Heuer
u/chaosmosis [+4] and with strange aeons, even death may die (a day later)
I second the recommendation for Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, and I've already recommended The Strategy of Conflict in my own comment. Good choices.
u/DaystarEld [+5] Pokémon Professor (11 hours later)
I'm honestly surprised "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman hasn't been mentioned yet. It's probably the single most useful book on cognitive psych and mental biases I've ever read.
u/somnicule [+3] (7 hours later)
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
u/raymestalez [+4] (an hour later)
Paul Graham's essays and his book "Hackers and Painters".
Autobiographies by Feynman, Mitnick, Abagnale, Wozniak, Tesla.
"On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins
"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The 48 Laws of Power, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli.
"Serious Creativity" by Edward De Bono
[I'll add more as I remember]
u/micaeked [+8] (3 hours later)
As a counterpoint, I wouldn't recommend A Brief History of Time. It basically reads like a list of conclusions without any of the supporting evidence. I couldn't just internalize the results without knowing why it was these specific results and not others.
In other words, my understanding of how reality works was not improved, which was my goal in reading that book.
u/None [+1] (2 hours later)
Hawkins pls go. He wrote an entire book "On Intelligence", and yet his algorithms can't seem to win machine-learning competitions.
u/qznc [+2] Chaos Legion (8 hours later)
Having read the first three chapters of E. T. Jaynes "Probability Theory: The Logic of Science" (amazon), the rest is on my toread list. LessWrong describes him as a "thousand-year-old vampire".
u/sweeneyrod [+2] (14 hours later)
The sequences take lots of their content from Language In Thought And Action by S.I. Hayakawa.
u/rogueman999 [+2] (a day later)
Something by Roy Baumeister (I'm tempted to say "everything", but it's not practical).
Keith Stanovich, at least Robot's Rebellion.
Marvin Minsky, Society of Mind
Hayakawa is good, but is a bit dated. I'm also very tempted to add Herbert Simon to the list but it's the same. They were waay ahead of their time, but half a century is half a century.
Many people here probably read Jared Diamond - I'm also recommending Ian Morris as a newer, arguably better alternative. (Why the West Rules etc).
If the format is acceptable, Foundations of Cognitive Psychology is awesome.
Nicholas Nassim Taleb - the whole pack, probably starting with Anti-fragile.
u/None [+1] (8 hours later)
I read a book a while ago. Borrowed it from a professor friend of mine. He's very busy, so I don't want to bother him, but I can't remember the name and it's killing me.
It was about the proofs of evolution – the experiences of Darwin and the other biologists that led them to first form evolutionary theory; the discovery of the coelacanth; the fossil discoveries in Mongolia; the dinosaur extinction; and finally (and most excitingly) the fish without blood in Antarctica.
It was a great book, really showing why we think what we think today about biology and history. Highly recommended – and I really wish I could remember the name.
ETA: It's Into the Jungle.
u/alexanderwales [+1] Time flies like an arrow (12 hours later)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks has a bunch of stuff about neurology in the form of case studies - I highly reccomend it.
Also some of Steven Pinker's stuff, notably The Language Instinct.
u/chaosmosis [+1] and with strange aeons, even death may die (a day later)
The Self Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature. Excellent book. Very detailed descriptions of some neat things in physics, but still understandable to laypersons.
The Charisma Myth. Much much better than The 48 Laws of Power.
Micromotives and Macrobehavior by Schelling. Also, The Strategy of Conflict by Schelling.
u/apotheon [+1] (a day later)
It seems to me that there should be some programming books in this list, but I'm having a devil of a time trying to think of one that actually meets the needs of this list. Have there really been no programming books that would suit these purposes?
Some symbolic logic texts might be good ideas to include, as well. I rather suspect there are quite a few LessWrong-ers and other rationality pursuers who have never actually learned the basics of the field itself, including how to construct a truth table.