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Ask HN: Book Recommendations?
16 points by smarm52 8 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 15 comments
I like to read on scientific topics. Some of my favorites include:

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century. Harvard University Press.

De Mesquita, B. B., Smith, A., Siverson, R. M., & Morrow, J. D. (2005). The logic of political survival. MIT press.

Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W. D. (1981). The evolution of cooperation. science, 211(4489), 1390-1396.

Tetlock, P. E. (2017). Expert political judgment: How good is it? How can we know?-New edition. In Expert Political Judgment. Princeton University Press.

Diamond, J., & Renfrew, C. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. Nature, 386(6623), 339-339.

McGillivray, F., & Smith, A. (2008). Punishing the prince: a theory of interstate relations, political institutions, and leader change. Princeton University Press.

Kuhn, T. S. (1997). The structure of scientific revolutions (Vol. 962). Chicago: University of Chicago press.

Lietaer, B., & Dunne, J. (2013). Rethinking money: How new currencies turn scarcity into prosperity. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Fulcher, J. (2015). Capitalism: A very short introduction (Vol. 108). Oxford University Press, USA.

Wiseman, R. (2016). Queen bees and wannabes: Helping your daughter survive cliques, gossip, boys, and the new realities of girl world. Harmony.

Any recommendations are appreciated. =)




Watzlawick, P. (1993): The Situation is Hopeless, But Not Serious: The Pursuit of Unhappiness

This book explained to me how self-fulfilling prophecies work. ps. If you know German, I recommend you read it in the original language.


Cialdini, R. (2021) Influence: The psychology of persuasion. Harper Business.

It is a great read!!

I’m also currently reading: Kahneman, D. (2011) Thinking fast and slow. Penguin.

So far I’m liking it.


Great! Thanks.

Then this one:

Cialdini, R. B., & Cialdini, R. B. B. (2007) and it is (2007). Influence: The psychology of persuasion (Vol. 55, p., p. 339) and 33. New York City: Collins.

Might as well call it: The psychology of fairness. Cool.

Then for this one:

Harari, Y. N. (2014). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Random House.

This quote caught my attention: "Harari surveys the history of humankind from the Stone Age up to the 21st century ..."

O_O


Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.


This book is a fascinating but long read. If it's too much for you to want to digest, check out the excellent graphic novel version of Sapiens:

https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Graphic-History-Birth-Humanki...

I got it for my kids, but enjoyed reading it myself.


I'm going to give that one special attention, that's two recommendations.

Thanks again. =)


I love reading biographies of famous people. I especially liked "My Life and Work: An Autobiography of Henry Ford." I also enjoy books by Paul Ekman.


For insight into Ford's philosophy of business operations, you might find his "Today and Tomorrow" interesting.

Ford, H. (2019). Today and Tomorrow: Commemorative Edition of Ford's 1926 Classic. CRC Press (Taylor & Francis)

https://archive.org/details/todaytomorrow0000ford


I'll read it, thanks!


I write reading recommendations for books and articles at the end of each year and have some overlap in interests. Here's my books list from last year (with links to others therein): https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2023/.

Here's a few books I think you'd be interested in:

Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (2022) by Brad DeLong

The Open Society and Its Complexities (2021) by Jerry Gaus

Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism (2003) by S. M. Amadae


The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a life changer. It’s more spiritual than scientific but I highly recommend it.


- The Dream Machine, M. Mitchell Waldrop

- Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith

- The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham

- A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander

- Tragedies, William Shakespeare


Here's a bunch that are on the bookshelf at the moment:

- Information Rules - Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian

- Normal Accidents - Charles Perrow

- Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture - Mario Salvadori

- Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief - Jordan Peterson

- The Power Broker - Robert Caro

- Political Order and Political Decay - Francis Fukuyama

- The Creators - Daniel Boorstin

- The Square and the Tower - Niall Ferguson


Great! Thanks for the recommendations.

Then, a note on "The Creators - Daniel Boorstin" for others, as I had a little trouble finding it:

Boorstin, D. J. (1993). The creators: A history of heroes of the imagination (Vol. 1). Vintage.


Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher.




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