What are the best unknown books you read?
¹ https://twitter.com/tommycollison/status/1215008546657423361
² https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-its-systemic-phenomenological...
The basic gist of the book goes something like this: in the real world (especially in a business setting) there are many things which are hard to measure directly, but which we may care about. Take, for example, "employee morale" which matters because it may affect, say, retention, or product quality. Hubbard suggests that we can measure (many|most|all|??) of these things by using a combination of "calibrated probability assessments"[2], awareness of nth order effects, and Monte Carlo simulation.
Basically, "if something matters, it's because it affects something that can be measured". So you identify the causal chain from "thing" to "measurable thing", have people who are trained in "calibrated probability assessment" estimate the weights of the effects in the causal chain, then build a mathematical model, and use a Monte Carlo simulation to work out how inputs to the system affect the outputs.
Of course it's not perfect, since estimation is always touchy, even using the calibration stuff. And you could still commit an error like leaving an important variable out of the model completely, or sampling from the wrong distribution when doing your simulation. But generally speaking, done with care, this is a way to measure the "unmeasurable" with a level of rigor that's better than just flat out guessing, or ignoring the issue altogether.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Busi...
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibrated_probability_assessm...
Post apocalyptic novel written in a made up language (think Clockwork Orange).
Poetic and deeply moving account of a boy's journey through a world where scientific knowledge has devolved to primitive ritual and incantation; and his dawning realisation that we lost everything.
I've never read anything else like it.
My ELI5 version is... Imagine data of the form Alice > Bob (Alice beat Bob in one match). Because many matches take place, the data can be contradictory, like Alice > Bob and Alice < Bob. (Alice won the first match, but Bob won the second match).
There can be loops, like Alice > Bob > Carole > Alice.
In the face of these apparent contradictions, how do you linearize the data, or in ELI5 terms... How do you assign a score to each player?
ELO is probably the most popular methodology, but there are many kinds of linearization strategies, Bradley Terry for example is another one that ELO was in fact based upon.
The math is very well formed, and is likely a secret weapon for fantasy sports players. But it doesn't seem like many people know about this form of math at all.
I read this book as a kid, it changed how I view the world and I've never forgotten it's lessons. It shows how the ad world is working hard to persuade you. It convinced me to always question what are represented as facts by ads or the media. A healthy skepticism has served me very well.
Most people never deeply question and Packard is correct that there's an entire industry trying to persuade you. Not just what product to buy but which college to attend or which company to work for and yes even which political candidate to vote. Those very same hidden persuaders, some of the brightest minds in the world, are working on the web still trying to persuade you to click.
The closest way to bring it to HN world is PG's famous essay The Submarine that talks about recurring themes in the media such as 'suits are coming back'. The public relation professionals planting those stories are also hidden persuaders.
It also talks a lot about very early Internet history, and gives the history of many things which I have not seen others reference, like Lee Felsenstein and Community Memory.
I suspect the book might not be well-known because its author, Jacques Vallée, it mostly known for being a ufologist. I did not know this until after I read the book, though, and the book itself does not contain any references to UFOs. I can wholeheartedly recommend the book, and it’s free to read online!¹
Later books in the same vein like Hackers and Dealers of Lightning are more well-known and seem to be appreciated by many, but this book seems to have been overlooked by most people.
From the Preface:
Many of the scientific treatises of today are formulated in a half-mystical language, as though to impress the reader with the uncomfortable feeling that he is in the permanent presence of a superman. The present book is conceived in a humble spirit and is written for humble people.
From Chapter 8:
Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. -- EXODUS III, 5
We have done considerable mountain climbing. Now we are in the rarefied atmosphere of theories of excessive beauty and we are nearing a high plateau on which geometry, optics, mechanics, and wave mechanics meet on common ground. Only concentrated thinking, and a considerable amount of recreation, will reveal the full beauty of our subject in which the last word has not yet been spoken.
This book was also on Gerald Jay Sussman's must-read list of books [1]. Another great book of his is "Linear Differential Operators" -- if you've ever wanted an intuitive explanation for why d/dx is not Hermitian but d^2/dx^2 is, this is the book you need to read. A quote from the book that resonated with me when I first read it:
Since the days of antiquity it has been the privilege of the mathematician to engrave his conclusions, expressed in a rarefied and esoteric language, upon the rocks of eternity. While this method is excellent for the codification of mathematical results, it is not so acceptable to the many addicts of mathematics, for whom the science of mathematics is not a logical game, but the language in which the physical universe speaks to us, and whose mastery is inevitable for the comprehension of natural phenomena.
[1]: http://aurellem.org/thoughts/html/sussman-reading-list.html
Excerpt, brief review, and link to PDF of the full book here on Derek Lowe's excellent blog In the Pipeline:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/05/27/ma...
It attempts to codify how we should go about measuring and evaluating the somewhat fuzzy concept of "intelligence." He proposes an extension of his "Anytime Intelligence Test" which could be used to test animal and machine intelligence on a level playing field.
Measurement of task capability against a baseline is the most overlooked problem in AI and as far as I am aware Hernandez-Orallo is the only one focusing on it.
Notice that all of the major "breakthrough" moments in AI over the last half century had a human baseline that an AI was competing against. Those baselines were ones that had been already developed over years (sometimes a century) and were part of competitive games already. Go, Chess, DOTA etc... had leaderboards or international rankings.
For fuzzier things like driving, translation, strategy, trading etc... there is no generally accepted and measurable baseline test for what is considered human level, only proxies and unit specific tests. So we continue to not know when an AI system is measurably at or exceeding human level. Without this we can't definitively know how much progress we're making on Human Level Intelligence.
[1]https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/measure-of-all-minds/DC...
He's an early 1800s French Catholic monk and is possibly the greatest travel writer of all time. Not only is the trip amazing, but the way he writes about it? Incredible.
In the sequel, the Chinese empire summons him to stand trial for being a Christian, since it was mostly illegal to be so in the empire at the time. It, too, is amazing.
Trollope isn't as well known as Dickens or Austen. I think the emotional intelligence of this book makes up for the fact that nothing much happens.
There's a vicar who is old friends with the Bishop. He's made Warden of an Almshouse for old men in the community. The amount of money he's going to get to do basically nothing is embarrassingly large.
It's an extremely gentle book about controversy, conspiracy, and people taking a moral stand.
It got me hooked on Trollope. His other books are far more intricate, worldly, and entertaining. But I like this short novel very much.
"The History and Social Influence of the Potato" is a pretty good time.
"Politics of Qat: The Role of a Drug in Ruling Yemen" may sound way too niche, but it's fascinating as a study of transportation in a drug economy. Qat is a perishable leaf (like salad) and the politics of the entire region depend on who can more reliably deliver it to gunmen.
https://www.amazon.com/Cloudspotters-Guide-Science-History-C...
I found this book in the Best Books of the Year 2006 round-up by The Economist: https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2006/12/07/fighting...
Book review: https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2006/05/25/radiantl...
A book I am very fond of that I don't think is widely known (though it's not in the same league as your suggestion) is "Resisting the Virtual Life", a 1995 collection of essays on the theme of cyber-wariness published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights imprint - more often associated with poetry.
Also very obscure for a long time, though easily bought now: Mervyn Peake's self-illustrated children's book "Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor". From the author of Gormenghast, but frankly much better. Highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Semiology-Graphics-Diagrams-Networks-...
https://medium.com/@karlsluis/before-tufte-there-was-bertin-...
Interestingly another relatively unknown book I like (and bought/read 20 years ago) is also about harmony:
https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Experience-Harmony-Natural-E...
I would say there's two kinds of harmony: harmony in equal temperament, and "alternative" harmonies based on physics, and this is about the latter. I can't tell from the link what the other harmony book is about. What's good about it?
As far as computer books, I've read a lot of recommendations here over the years like "thinking forth", "Computer Lib" by Ted Nelson, etc. They are well known to some audiences but not others.
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I also enjoy reading what people though the computing future would be like. I have "Superdistribution" by Brad Cox:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21833331
And "Mirror Worlds" by Gelertner:
https://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Worlds-Software-Universe-Shoeb...
I'm pretty sure Gelertner claims that the Facebook feed is identical to his "life streams". I guess taken literally it's hard not to see the current Internet as a "mirror world" that's becoming the real world.
Jacques Ellul, Propaganda https://archive.org/details/Propaganda_201512
Thomas Ligotti The Conspiracy Against The Human Race https://archive.org/details/TheConspiracyAgainstTheHumanRace
and anything written by Peter Wessel Zapffe (an introduction to his work https://philosophynow.org/issues/45/The_Last_Messiah)
I found it to be a very interesting and deep take on the philosophical and historical origins of many contemporary political currents.
The Road to Serfdom, by F. Hayek, a liberal economist.
I found it very well written, amusing and even hilarious in how even in the 1940's supporters of communism and progressives where making the same kind of arguments that are made today. Hayek needless to say, deals brilliantly with these. As relevant today as when written. I find its ideas resonate a lot when thinking about how systems of all kind come to be and function.
MP's The Tacit Dimension (1966, ~120pp) is a good introduction to his ideas about "Tacit knowledge", i.e. 'we can know more than we can tell', e.g. facial recognition. , A quick and enjoyable read that might appeal to many in this crowd.
Akin to Hadamard's Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field.
If you've got time, MP's earlier Personal Knowledge (1958, ~400pp) might be a worthwhile deeper-dive. I recall that his style reminded me of Lewis Thomas.
This is a textbook for behavior change course, but it is 100% practical (project to pass subject is to change some kind of behavior)
Only tested information Science-based. This book can change your life but you wont find it mentioned anywhere
Travels - Michael Crichton - a number of useful life lessons I'm only just catching up on
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Travels-Vintage-Departures-Michael-...
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ragged-Trousered-Philanthropists-Wo...
Ishmael https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ishmael-Novel-Book-1-ebook/dp/B000S...
Another thought, Robert Heinlein doesn't seem well known in the UK these days but I think he might be better thought of in the UK although may be considered dated and sexist. I often see him quoted on here.
Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century by Scot MacDonald, it's purely academic but also a fantastic read. Also academic is Technoscientific Imaginaries: Conversations, Profiles, and Memoirs by George Marcus, also obscure but at least easier to find.
The 60s-80s books from City Lights are nice when you come across them. Pretty rare though.
The "Aquarium" of the title is the nickname given to GRU headquarters in Moscow by those who work there. "What sort of fish are there swimming there?" asks Suvorov of his boss when he learns about it. "There's only one kind there—piranhas." ─ Wikipedia.
Book: https://archive.org/details/ViktorSuvorovAquariumTheCareerAn...
It covers the physics, politics, motivation, cultural implications, and so much more. It's one of those books where being extremely long is a feature because it's unbelievably interesting. I highly recommend it.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691000466/th...
I read all his other books (those that were translated) after it.
Abridged English translation:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100237.Monkey
In its book form this story is basically unknown in the English-speaking world despite being considered one of four literary classics in Asia. And the 70s TV show that was based on this story was very faithful to the source material, particularly the humour.
I recommend not reading the introduction.
https://www.amazon.com/West-Night-Memoir-Beryl-Markham/dp/08...
I found it completely by accident, picking it up at random off the shelf in my university's library while procrastinating.
It raises some concerns that folks in this forum are probably interested in and could do something about. Things like forcing US companies doing business in China to transfer dual-use technologies, the lack of US suppliers for certain goods, like high tenacity polyester fiber, domestic production of PCBs, specialized glass for NVG systems, a shortage of software engineers, but also shortages in skilled trades, like welders.
The dominance of the Chinese in certain critical industries is also problematic. For example one manufacturer produces 70% of small drones, which then creates secondary attack surfaces, like lack of security on the drone’s link. Another is the Chinese takeover of solar panel manufacturing, which creates a potential energy security risk.
For those skeptical of any report from the current administration, I would refer you to Ash Carter’s Inside the Five-Sided Box (2) which raises many of the same issues.
(1) https://media.defense.gov/2018/Oct/05/2002048904/-1/-1/1/ASS...
(2) https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Five-Sided-Box-Lifetime-Leader...
A fantastic and beautifully illustrated expository work describing symmetry groups such as the 17 wallpaper groups in the plane (think Escher), and other tiling groups in for example the hyperbolic plane. Love the use of orbifold notation as opposed to crystallographic notation.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Symmetries-Things-John-H-Conway/dp/15...
An even more obscure writer would be Christopher Evans and especially his novella "Chimeras". This is set in a medieval world in which some people have the Talent, an ability to create dazzling works of art out of thin air - just pure thought-stuff. An act of mental creation which appeals to the computer programmer in me.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Sweating-Bullets-Notes-Inventing-Powe...
In that sense it gave a (comparatively) rigorous argument for the nebulous eastern concept of "oneness". Using this foundation he then makes a logical argument (given his axiomatisation of emotion) for why we should be happy.
It's also the book that made me realise that, even if the jealous Abrahamic God exists, He is not moral. Because due to determinism every action can be traced back to the initial cause, so it doesn't make sense for Him who created the universe to punish or reward people for actions that were ultimately predictable consequences of the universe's creation, which if omniscient he should have foreseen. (And if some things are nondeterministic, this still applies, because somebody cannot gain moral responsibility through decreased determinism).
Only a few hundred people have rated it on GoodReads, but if you wanted to trace a march of technological progress from swords to the Internet, it does a good job. There are definitely other stories you could tell about this accelerating sweep of technological change, but this one was a solid rapid overview and really stuck some ideas with me about how changes compound (or completely swerve to a new goal) over time.
The original tweet is more about how domain experts would rely on books nobody outside that domain has heard of, so maybe I should be thinking more about textbooks that stuck with me. Sources of Chinese Tradition, the Tractatus, and A Mathematical Theory of Computation all left pretty lasting influences in one way or another.
Sources of Japanese Tradition discusses the origins of Tendai Zen Buddhism, with some bits on Dogen, who once wrote something like, "If you want to achieve a certain thing, you must first become a certain person. After becoming a certain person, you no longer want that certain thing."
That's a pretty good tie in to Kessler's view of the last several hundred years of human progress. We were repeatedly solving some other problem, which once we had the tools to solve that, it became nearly irrelevant compared to what else we could do now.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27208.The_Third_Policema...
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Electrons-Valence-Development-Theory-...
This is the article that introduced it to me; I don't know it counts as "unknown" if it has a Guardian story written about it.. https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/aug/05/writ...
An off-kilter, hilarious, inventive, and cutting apocalyptic sci fi novel about pop music. Writing style is like Douglas Adams meets Tom Robbins, through the lens of Top 40 radio and tabloids.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/07/20/thinking-thro... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unflattening https://www.amazon.com/Unflattening-Nick-Sousanis/dp/0674744...
Might be targeted at a teen audience, but I enjoyed it very much, as relaxing, clean, light fiction that makes the reader want to be a better person while they enjoy themselves. Very thoughtful and enjoyable, hard to put down. Shows a hard situation be resolved, from the perspective of the youths involved, and I thought it shows a lot of kind thoughtfulness over many years, by the author. (Some years ago I knew the author's husband.)
I read it in Spanish, and apparently it's not the easiest book to find in English, but if you do, it's definitely different.
Deathworld by Harry Harrison. I've been waiting for some screenplay writer to stumble across this one, and if I had to guess James Cameron probably did, but just didn't tell anyone.
SLAN by A. E. van Vogt.
The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz.
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, and Paratime by H. Beam Piper.
However the best of all, is maybe only slightly less know, since the author is certainly extremely well known: Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin. An absolutely fantastic collection of stories about an ecological engineer.
Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life (1960) by Dr Maxwell Maltz, MD.
A foundational work in the field of self-image and more generally self-growth. Sort of the missing link between Hill-Carnegie and Covey, it's the first of its kind to shatter the body/mind duality and show facts in hand the power of the whole. A positively enriching read, containing a few invaluable ideas.
If you're a Zen or Stoic like me, you'll find the traces of these roots in there, the lineage of ideas.
If you want to sample probably a different style and culture, I would highly recommend this book. This is a 2006 novel by a prolific African writer and is set in the late 1960s Biafran times in Nigeria. There is a lot in it and is richly written.
[1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18749.Half_of_a_Yellow_S...
* The Natural History of Nonsense by Bergan Evans
* Programming on Purpose, Essays on Software Design by P. J. Plauger
* Management: A Political Activity by Ted Stephenson
* The Energy of Life: The Science of What Makes Our Minds and Bodies Work by Guy Brown
* Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems: Building Reliable Applications with the 8051 Family of Microcontrollers by Michael Pont.
* UNIX Systems for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers by Curt Schimmel.
* Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi) by Francesco Guicciardini
There are a bunch more i have to root around for :-)
An eerie look into the future from before the age of computers. The number of things about our lives now he got essentially right in 1969 is frankly stunning. Twelve interwoven short stories explore various residents in the Honeydew Condomiminium: how a computer managed network of telephone based services has affected their daily lives in sometimes nefarious ways. The novella's availability is limited in English, but there's a link to the Kindle store from the late author's webpage[1].
Non-Fiction: The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer
I think this book remains the most useful and concise guide to understanding mass movements and fanaticism I've ever read. It pairs nicely with Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. Hoffer's book is more expository and cautionary where Alinsky's book is more enthusiastic and encouraging, while both books have a healthy dose of cynicism about mass movements themselves.
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Everyone knows about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). Lila is not as well known, but it's fun to read if you really enjoyed ZMM. https://www.amazon.com/Lila-Inquiry-Robert-M-Pirsig/dp/05532...
Mordecai Roshwald, Level 7
Alexander Dewdney, The Planiverse
Joseph Heller, God Knows
Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams
Non-fiction:
Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man
Gian-Carlo Rota, Indiscrete Thoughts
C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image
Michael E. Brown, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
Robert Kegan, In Over Our Heads
Michael Harris, The Atomic Times
I may add guilty pleasures like the Legacy of the Force series, but I don't think this is what people here are looking for.
It's a first person narration of some Pleistocene hominid, somewhat educational but mostly just hilarious, in the sense of a Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett book.
I know 3 or 4 People who read it, they all loved it, but it's virtually unknown.
Accomplished its eponymous goal in a brief 110 pages, many of which are beautiful lithographic sketches.
“Reminisces of a Stock Operator” by Edwin Lefevre. Thinly veiled autobiography of Jesse Livermore, a 1920/30’s trader and his experiences, including foreseeing the crash of 1929.
1. Super Thinking - Lauren McCann and Gabriel Weinberg (DuckDuckGo)
2. Thinking Strategically - Avinash Dixit
A psychoactive book, science-based (YMMV).
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/897536.Neurospeak
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Gurdjieff's "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson"
Impossible to categorize, incredibly challenging. Gurdjieff was a genius on the level of Leonardo da Vinci, but where Leonardo studied the outer world, Gurdjieff studied the inner world. This three-volume tome is his effort to encode and transmit his particular school of thought.
Gurdjieff has had a deep and obscure influence on Western culture. For example, in the Monty Python's Flying Circus movie "The Meaning of Life" an abridged description of his philosophy is given in the boardroom scene about the meaning of life, right before Terry Jones asks, "What was that about hats?"
A brain reboot. If you're into design or a minimal lifestyle or want to be inspired before creating a new thing. Easy to read.
It's an NLP book unlike any other. It presents 12 (if I recall correctly) patterns of speech that are highly effective at changing people's perception of something. It's just super practical and really helped me out when I read it close to a decade ago. Never heard anyone else bring mention it.
-What Not by Rose MACAULAY (all caps just because I pasted it). It's a dystopian future book written during WW1. I've read that it's a inspiration for clockwork orange, 1984, and brave new world but much less well known. To be honest I find that it's the most relatable of all those dystopian books.
-The Story of B By Daniel Quinn (also My Ishmael and Ishmael but less well known then those). They represent a fundamentally different way of viewing the world we inhabit.
-The Foxes Of Harrow By Frank Yerby (Idk how well known it is though). This one is like those classic English lit books but focused on an enterprising Irish charlatan who goes down to New Orleans to build a life in the years leading up to the civil war.
Make sure you get one of the older editions with mind drills in it.
Keep in mind It isn't a programming book though and it really shouldn't be read as one.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Years_of_Rice_and_Salt
Wherin the plague eliminates almost everyone in medieval Europe, thereby eliminating 'colonisation'.
Painting development of the world from there, up until around now. Showing to me how arbitrary much of the world as we know it is.
Not necessarily better, just like: 'Same shit, but different.'
(Even a little educational for real world history and geographic knowledge, because i've read it with maps and wikipedia open, and learned more of all the '*stans' that way.)
Non-fiction
Story of a guy with a dream, screwed over by the government. His cousin storms the Canadian embassy in Beirut, demanding Eddy get his day in court. He does, and prevails.
Crazy story that occurred where I grew up, however it was before my time. I had driven past this "castle" a hundred times before I found this book. Every copy is signed by the author.
Here is a recent article detailing the story: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/history/eddy-haymour-ratt...
It fundamentally changed the way I look at the world and helped me to get unstuck from some serious mental and emotional shortcomings.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/152640.Dropping_Ashes_on...
Paraphrasing what one reviewer said on GR, it's a good read if you are taking life too seriously, or, the complete opposite.
I didn't get it the first time I read it.
I do find myself going back to the riddles and the poems in the essays now and then when I feel I'm stuck, blocked, or trapped in a loop. It made me ... more humble?
Also a good read if you just want to learn more about Korean Buddhism and Kong-an's in general.
"And even when it was successfully completed, the peroxide would still decompose slowly; not enough to start a runaway chain reaction, but enough to build up an oxygen pressure in a sealed tank, and make packaging impossible. And it is a nerve-wracking experience to put your ear against a propellant tank and hear it go "glub" —long pause — "glub" and so on. After such an experience many people, myself (particularly) included, tended to look dubiously at peroxide and to pass it by on the other side."
The Manual by Cauty & Drummond. Funny, short, surprisingly insightful. A step-by-step method on making a #1 hit song. The authors had a #1 shortly before writing this book, and a few years afterwards. Can be found on archive.org.
The Snow Geese by William Fiennes....just for the sheer perfection of the prose.
Did Monetary Forces Cause the Great Depression? - Peter Termin, 1975
Termin is still going strong at MIT. His 1975 book was foundational for challenging Friedman on the cause of the Great Depression. Given what was to come in the 1980s this book quickly became overshadowed and destined for obscurity. However, it still provides an appropriate, timely lens to analyze monetary theory without the abstraction that has engrossed economics as of late.
The Supreme Court in the American System of Government - Robert Jackson, 1955
A series of lectures created for a Harvard lecture series in 1954-55 by Justice Jackson. He suddenly died before being able to deliver them, but they were compiled in a book now out of print. Justice Jackson is widely regarded - across the aisle - as one of the most brilliant legal writers of our time (or perhaps of any time). While this book doesn't set out his entire judicial philosophy, or even do what the title says due to his untimely death, it does lay a valuable conception of the proper role of the SCOTUS within the Republic. Also recommended, to see both his pen and intellect in action, are his opinions in Korematsu v. United States and West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.
The Opium of the Intellectuals - Aron, 1955
Amazon does a better job of summarizing than I could off the top of my head, so here you go: "Raymond Aron's 1955 masterpiece The Opium of the Intellectuals, is one of the great works of twentieth- century political reflection. Aron shows how noble ideas can slide into the tyranny of "secular religion" and emphasizes how political thought has the profound responsibility of telling the truth about social and political reality-in all its mundane imperfections and tragic complexities."
An incredibly difficult read that is worth trying to get through. Brimming with ideas and not without its own pitfalls. Tells the story of 20th Century intellectual history and thought as well as any could, although in a rather indirect way.
The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America (Aristocracy & Caste in America) - Baltzell, 1987
I'll let Amazon summarize again: "This classic account of the traditional upper class in America traces its origins, lifestyles, and political and social attitudes from the time of Theodore Roosevelt to that of John F. Kennedy. Sociologist E. Digby Baltzell describes the problems of exclusion and prejudice within the community of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (or WASPs, an acronym he coined) and predicts with amazing accuracy what will happen when this inbred group is forced to share privilege and power with talented members of minority groups."
My summary would be: what will happen (hypothetically, remember the date of publication) when an ephemeral class (WASPs) suddenly disappear from their previous pedestal of influence? Prescient, widely applicable to other countries with their own quasi-classes, and deeply interesting for those less familiar with the subject.
I've posted this repeatedly to these lists, but no one else is as enthused by it.
From the GoodReads page:
"Can the structures that animals build--from the humble burrows of earthworms to towering termite mounds to the Great Barrier Reef--be said to live? However counterintuitive the idea might first seem, physiological ecologist Scott Turner demonstrates in this book that many animals construct and use structures to harness and control the flow of energy from their environment to their own advantage."
If you think it’s “obvious” that progressive taxes are better/worse than flat taxes this is an excellent look at the evidence which may make you less confident.
It had so many implications, especially about the future emergence and dominance of the "market state" that I couldn't stop thinking about Neuromancer et al.
Another gem I have found myself rereading more than once, is Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic by Matthew Stewart.
Book: https://web.archive.org/web/20151123024834/http://www.geenst...
A small cult is growing around a woman who claims that the world will end at a specific date and that some will be saved in a specific way. When the date comes and there's neither end of the world nor saving, how will the group react?
“The Science of The Artificial” by Herbert Simon, a multi-disciplinary treatise on the goals of design by practitioners in the physical sciences (physics, bio. etc), non-physical sciences (math, comp. sci, etc) and humanities (econs., psych., etc).
“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Thomas Kuhn, coined the concept of paradigm shift and used it to revisit the history of science that was previously thought to be cumulative and linear.
Available online: http://www.opalonline.org/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opal_Whiteley
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Objectivist-Epistemology...
This book literally changed my life and set it on a very different course a few years ago.
It builds upon the 8 circuit-brain model of Timothy Leary, to provide both a map (which is presented as such and not expounded so as to confuse it with the reality it describes), and a practice that is derived from classic, western-compliant core shamanism, as formulated by the anthropologist Michael Harner who created the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS) in the 80's, practice which makes testable the framework presented in the book (so it remains quite pragmatic and not only theoretical), and provides the absolutely delightful properties of:
- not rejecting any part or aspect of reality as we know it, so that biology, emotions, the intellect, social life, sex, drugs, sports, science, religions, yoga, meditation, nutrition, arts, quantum probabilities etc. all have their place in this story;
- doesn't paint itself as THE ONE AND ONLY valid view of reality, but instead offers (and strongly recommend) to integrate and make your own life experiences first class citizens and to adapt the discourse according to them, thus completely reversing the usual pattern of those kind of "revelation" books;
- offers a very coherent and inclusive perspective on reality, borrowing concepts from the science of cybernetics to paint a picture of it in terms of feedback loops that develops a new approach of the mind and its harmony, relying on eight broadly defined "circuits" or "tracks" (like in a car engine) and their interactive and dynamic play to provide fulfillment and as the source to real life creativity...
It is not long but it is dense in content; there is no fluff, and I am fairly certain that any competent hacker (in the broadest sense) with an open mind will find a many very precious tools and ideas in it.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Shamanic-Path-Quantum-Consciousness-C... Official website: http://8circuits.org/ENGLISH/index_ENG.html
Quoting Wikipedia, this book describes the "intellectual divide" between the East and West, and the peculiar nature, according to him, of modern civilization." [1]
> LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
> SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one's self and to nobody else.
Not exactly unknown but Bergson isn't as fashionable as he used to be and often derided for his belief in spiritualism and failure to understand Einstein's relativity.
Yet I've always found his core argument about duration and science (that science only measure discrete moments but never the full motion) has always fascinated me.
(1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072KDDXC8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...
In it he explains the emergence of genetic layers, provides a theory on the emergence of sex and lays out the best argument against gene editing to this date. After reading this book I consider all of the major questions of evolution answered.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3183562-ammi
I read this back in 2009 and remember it as a really interesting and important book especially with the troubling political climate in India over the last decade.
Fantastic historical fiction and the series is mind-blowing. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GVFY6BM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...
The book is a look at the way ingredients to everyday products are created. It's both entertaining and eye-opening.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2440
Not exactly unkown since it has its own wikipedia article but definitely worth reading, especially if you follow his journeys on Google maps.
https://www.amazon.com/Calculated-Bets-Computers-Gambling-Ma...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Grand-Voyage-Ldp-Litterature/...
Of Captain Misson by Daniel Defoe (1728) -- about Libertatia
Drugs and Rights by Douglas N. Husak (1992)
Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World by David T. Courtwright (2002)
1. Grammatical Man, by Jeremy Campbell (1982)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/grammatical-man-information-e...
My introduction to information theory and its diverse set of interrelated applications and phenomena.
2. Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity, by William Ophuls (1977)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/ecology-and-the-politics-of-s...
Distills the Limits to Growth issue to its essence, and looks at the political implications, with a set of estimates of political developments which have played out closely.
3. An Inquiry to the Nature and Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (1776)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/inquiry-into-the-nature-and-c...
The best-known, but least-read, and most mis-read book on this list. Smith isn't perfect and has flaws. But his message is extraordinarily misunderstood and misrepresented. Even where he is wrong, he is instructive.
4. Commercialism and Journalism, by Hamilton Holt (1909)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/commercialism-and-journalism/...
A short but extraordinarily illuminating read on the influence of money and advertising on the press, coming near the beginning of the era of mass media.
5. Unix Power Tools, by Mike Loukides et al (1997)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-power-tools/oclc/2584502...
The book that really got me "over the hump" in understanding the Unix environment and tools. Now somewhat dated, though still highly useful.
6. A Short History of Progress, by Ronald Wright (2004)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/short-history-of-progress/ocl...
An exploration of the story, question, and future, of progress.
7. Entropy and the Economic Process, by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1971)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/entropy-law-and-the-economic-...
A re-thinking of economics taking thermodynamics into account. Famously difficult to read, but well worth the effort.
8. On the Damned Human Race, by Mark Twain (1962)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/mark-twain-on-the-damned-huma...
A darker, angrier, more bitter side of Twain, cracking open the sanitised version those familiar with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn will know, and giving an insight to the darker side of late 19th and early 20th century America.
9. Energy and Civilization, by Vaclav Smil (2017)
https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-and-civilization-a-his...
A re-casting of history, not according to spiritual or cultural progress, Great Men, or social dynamics, but the access to and utilisation of energy sources.
10. Resistances to the Adoption of Technological Innovations, by Bernhard J. Stern (1937)
https://archive.org/details/technologicaltre1937unitrich/pag...
A fascinating exploration of the organised opposition to numerous significant technological innovations through the ages, contrary to the conventional story told by mainstream economic and innovation models and stories. Stern's research assistant at the time he was working on this topic went on to become known as a science fiction author, and based one of his first works on this notion: Isaac Asimov.
On the question of compiling such lists: I've recently started keeping a research journal in which I'm trying to capture works of significance that I've read, vaguely inspired by both index-card methods (such as Zettelkasten or POIC) and bullet journals.
The organisation is "BOTI" -- best of the interval.
I will start a two-page spread, dated, of a specific class of entries -- works, videos, authors, ideas, etc. -- and when that closes, start another. Periodically (about every month, for now) I'll select the best of those works for a BOTM list, and at the end of a year, a BOTY list.
Or at least that's the idea.
This may address the question of keeping track of the most significant works (or authors, concepts, ideas, etc.) over time, which otherwise tend to become a bit of a jumble.
The BOTI list and periodic aggregations themselves resemble round-robin databases, or ring or circular buffers or files, though without actually rewriting each specific list. The initial capture levels remain accessible (in the journal) for revisiting, should something prove to have been more significant on subsequent reflection than initially appeared.
A collection of interviews with a hundred ordinary Chinese people in 1984
https://www.amazon.com/Maze-Bummer-Parody-Runner-ebook/dp/B0...
that's the kind of work i have in mind. simple and refreshing.
From '89, somewhat dated now, but still interesting.
The results were unexpected!
> As soon as I began to study my perception, to look at my own experience, I found that there were different ways of perceiving and that the different ways provided me with different facts. There was a narrow focus which meant seeing life as if from blinkers and with the centre of awareness in my head; and there was a wide focus which meant knowing with the whole of my body, a way of looking which quite altered my perception of whatever I saw. And I found that the narrow focus way was the way of reason. If one was in the habit of arguing about life it was very difficult not to approach sensation with the same concentrated attention and so shut out its width and depth and height. But it was the wide focus way that made me happy.
The book is full of arresting and innovative insights on awareness and perception. For example, the spotlight analogy for "covert attention" is often attributed to Francis Crick writing in 1984[2], but fifty years earlier Milner writes:
> At any moment there exist in the fringes of my thought faint patternings which can be brought to distinction when I look at them. Like a policeman with a flash-light I can throw the bright circle of my awareness where I choose; if any shadow or movement in the dim outer circle of its rays arouses my suspicion, I can make it come into the circle of brightness and show itself for what it is. But the beam of my attention is not of fixed width, I can widen or narrow it as I choose.[3]
On the topic of first person recountings of mental journeys, but from the other side of the analyst's couch, it's also worth mentioning Operators and Things: The inner life of a schizophrenic[4] a powerful first person account of schizophrenic hallucination and ideation which comes across a little more like a novel than an objective account but is fascinating nonetheless.
1: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/10/11/a-life-of-ones-own-...
2: e.g. "(The analogy was first suggested by Francis Crick, the geneticist.)" - https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/06/how-cons...
3: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ntg6OE7haSgC&pg=PA77
4: Online at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/13476 it seems - I read it in paperback in the 80s and only turned that site up with google just now, so ... but the PDF seems to work.
It explains the Ether (EPOLA, Electron-Positron Lattice) and states the many proofs for that, as well as explains many hitherto unexplained physics phenomena such as Mass Inertia, the speed of light c, Gravity and the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
You'd think the concept of "Ether" is debunked but after reading the book you'll be convinced it is real.
Eddie Rickenbacker's autobiography is a pretty good story, too - it's hard to believe one man could be so impactful in so many ways - he really had to fend off people who wanted him to be president, and there's little doubt he would have won if he'd run...
Awesome scifi book, it will blow your mind.
Mikhail Bulgakov
And unusual combination of start up story and Holocaust survivor story.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805241280/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8V...
You Can’t Do Business With Hitler - contemporary analysis of the downfall of German economy before WWII.
Planiverse - think Flatland with a deeper plot and a computer interface.
Most people here may have scraped work on decision theory. But Hubbard turns the field into a coherent skillset. Otherwise you're just sitting around talking about decision models instead of using and practicing with them, for everyday living. This is what Hubbard gives you.
"Smart Choices" is a book which may be better known but complements FoDA nicely as an entry-level supplement.
She comes up with an elegant social theory behind the nature of corruption.
We know on a certain level why people can be seduced by corruption, but she introduces a higher level concept that describes why entire civilizations can be corrupt.
The book is really short as her theory is quite elegantly explained in a short dialogue between intellectuals.
https://writersnoonereads.tumblr.com/
The best publishing house for this kind of work is Wakefield Press:
https://www.wakefieldpress.com/
Personal recommendations:
“The Tanners” by Robert Walser or “The Book of Monelle” by Marcel Schwob
My contribution:
Richard Dawkins called Julian Jaynes's 1976 book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, “either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius”
It's a science based look at human behaviour. It's not light reading but it's not a textbook either, it's in-between.
This book will remain unknown just by the virtue of it's weight - this is not 'how to feel better by meditating 10 minutes a day' pop psychology pamphlet, this will take some work to get through :)