"Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi" by Mark Boyle. It widened my perspective on the systemic violence of our society. Few books really change my perspective, but this one did.
Feynman Lectures on Physics books. It might just be the right timing for me as I've only recently really started to grasp calculus and linear algebra, but a lot of things are clicking into place as I read.
Turns out he never wrote any books in his life, so merry Christmas everyone, you’ve all read all books written by Feynman. The video puts a pretty convincing argument that most of the stories about him are made up dinner-table entertainment and didn’t happen.
Yuo. Collier claims Robert Leighton wrote The Feynman Lectures on Physics, but all he did was edit Feynman's lectures in Volume I, as she (or you) could ascertain by listening to the lecture recordings and reading along with the text, both of which are available online (free) at The Feynman Lectures Website, https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu. Collier completely fails to mention Matthew Sands who edited Volumes II and III. So Collier is full of it. And not only with regard to FLP. She claims, for example, that Feynman's stories in Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman and What Do You Care What Other People Think are lies which is itself a lie (for which she offers no proof - because there is none) and that Ralph Leighton, who edited those books, by admiring Feynman as a physicist, was intentionally insulting his father Robert Leighton, which is complete bullsh*t, as I can tell you for a fact because I know them personally. Collier, in fact, defames Feynman and Leighton, not only in this video, but in others, and that is to attract views from ignoramuses, through hate-mongering. Let me mention also that Collier is just some poorly paid junior postdoc who makes money from her YouTube videos. And let me also mention that Feynman is greatly admired, as a physcist, a teacher, and as a human being, by millions of people, including many great physicists, physics teachers, and physics students. Finally, in closing I will mention that Feynman's books, including his autographical books (edited by Ralph Leighton) and The Feynman Lectures on Physics (edited by Robert Leighton and Matthew Sands) are best sellers, have been for a long time, and will continue to be, despite hate-mongering YouTubers like Collier, and the idiots who parrot them.
I agree, Collier's videos are usually light on facts and nuance and seem to stroke the rage of her viewers. There are many who knew Feynman as a person, attended his lectures, etc. who are still alive today and could have been consulted if she were serious about her journalism.
If you watch the video she explicitly says that the Feynman lectures were written by Feynman, the actual lectures, but were edited into book form by the other guy. She says exactly that, so she is not lying about that.
Your other claims that she is lying are backed up with as little factual information as her assertions, but having read about the man i would seriously consider that a great many of his stories are seriously exaggerated for effect. Again, she states that stories about the challenger hearings and his wife and various other occurrences for which we have evidence are completely factual. But it is rather obvious, dick being a rather hammy storyteller, that many fun details in his stories could have been tweaked to make them fun, and are kinda strange when you imagine what the other side of the conversation must've been like.
I don't blame you if you did not watch the video because it was long, but i will blame you for lying in this chat. I understand, i worshiped Feynman for a very long time but we have to understand that the man is not the legend.
yes, author does explain multiple factors, which impacts a nation's success. Such as institutions, culture, politics, historical events, vicious or virtuous cycles. Etc. It's good book overall.
Ukridge by PG Wodehouse. I hadn't really ventured out the Blandings/Jeeves/Psmith collections that much. Ukridge may be the funniest book I've ever read. He's also featured in another book 'Love Among the Chickens' - absolutely hilarious.
I am so glad to read this comment. Wodehouse is sublime in all what he wrote - if you end up reading Jeeves series, I would recommend Right Ho, Jeeves and Code of Woosters
I really liked "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder". It's very well researched and pieced together from conflicting accounts.
After I was finished I decided to look up the author and found out he wrote "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "The Lost City of Z", both of which I really enjoyed! If you like books like Endurance, Unbroken, or A Land So Strange, you'll dig this one.
o the follet valley mysteries by Ian Moore. (Fun crime procedural, with the protagonist being a rather ineffectual unemployed film studies lecturer in france , and a cast of domineering supporting actors)
o Uruly by David Mitchell (A "rollock" through early english monarchy, pointing out the luck, or lack of it, of all the kings and queens)
It's by the better-known-as-an-actor David Mitchell. There's another David Mitchell, whose main profession is author, he must be annoyed that the actor is writing books now..
Among all ML books, it’s a really good overview of many concepts connected one to another and spelled out in easy to grasp way
Also „Designing Machine Learning Systems” by Chip Huyen looks really promising and very hands-on (lessons learned by very committed practitioner). It gives actionable tips and provides real life insights. I haven’t finished reading it yet though
"The latest findings from the World Wide Fund for the Nature’s Living Planet Report come with a stark warning that we may be closing in on a point of no return for nature. Over the last 50 years, wildlife populations have experienced a staggering 73% decline."
The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets by Thomas R. Cech — This is a standout for me. Spotlight on RNA with interesting historical context of the field.
I put The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in that category, a pleasure to read from front to back. The association with work made it take me decades to get to some of the books assigned for class in high school, like these. A few were so good that I tried to read Anna Karenina again. Maybe in a few decades more I'll like that one too.
I read Hunchback of Notre Dame around 20 years ago. The ending is until today the only book ever to make me cry. Don't remember much else, probably a good time to pick it up again.
I would highly recommend pairing that with _The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo_ by Tom Reiss --- it's a fascinating look at that period of history.
For fun, if you like fantasy, Steven Brust's _The Baron of Magister Valley_ is delightful, one of his "Paarfi Romances" it is TCoMC w/ the names changed and serial numbers filed off in a fantasy world (which is actually a science-fictional one as noted on Penny Arcade).
Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Kid only lived till 26 and changed the disciplines of Philosophy, Mathematics, and Economics. Ludwig Wittgenstein was reported to have said Ramsey was his only contemporary.
Here's an interesting BBC radio program [0] from 1978 on Ramsey. I came across this years ago and felt inspired to go into research. Of course, this program is a bit out of date and doesn't touch on his pragmatist turn much at all!
Two weeks ago I found John Maynard Keynes's 1951 volume Essays in Biography at Calico Books in Ventura (bookhounds like myself enjoy provenance details like that). He knew Ramsay personally, and one of the essays in the book is dedicated to him. I especially enjoyed the following passage by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson that Keynes quotes. Dickinson wrote this about Ramsay and also about C P Sanger, an older man who died about the same time:
It does not become a Cambridge man to claim too much for his university, nor am I much tempted to do so. But there is, I think, a certain type, rare, like all good things, which seems associated in some peculiar way with my alma mater. I am thinking of men like Leslie Stephen (the original of Meredith's Vernon Whitford), like Henry Sidgwick, like Maitland, like one who died but the other day with all his promise unfulfilled. It is a type unworldly without being saintly, unambitious without being inactive, warmhearted without being sentimental. Through good report and ill such men work on, following the light of truth as they see it; able to be sceptical without being paralyzed; content to know what is knowable and to reserve judgment on what is not. The world could never be driven by such men, for the springs of action lie deep in ignorance and madness. But it is they who are the beacon in the tempest, and they are more, not less, needed now than ever before. May their succession never fail!
137 comments
[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 194 ms ] threadTurns out he never wrote any books in his life, so merry Christmas everyone, you’ve all read all books written by Feynman. The video puts a pretty convincing argument that most of the stories about him are made up dinner-table entertainment and didn’t happen.
Your other claims that she is lying are backed up with as little factual information as her assertions, but having read about the man i would seriously consider that a great many of his stories are seriously exaggerated for effect. Again, she states that stories about the challenger hearings and his wife and various other occurrences for which we have evidence are completely factual. But it is rather obvious, dick being a rather hammy storyteller, that many fun details in his stories could have been tweaked to make them fun, and are kinda strange when you imagine what the other side of the conversation must've been like.
I don't blame you if you did not watch the video because it was long, but i will blame you for lying in this chat. I understand, i worshiped Feynman for a very long time but we have to understand that the man is not the legend.
-- William Cowper
When the level of exploitation by those on top becomes too extreme, that's what does it?
Does that adequately explain other factors like disease, religion, natural disaster, incompetence, corruption, conquest and civil war?
Yes, Author calls them "Extractive Institutions"
After I was finished I decided to look up the author and found out he wrote "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "The Lost City of Z", both of which I really enjoyed! If you like books like Endurance, Unbroken, or A Land So Strange, you'll dig this one.
Project Hail Mary is very good. All of Weir’s stuff is good.
o the follet valley mysteries by Ian Moore. (Fun crime procedural, with the protagonist being a rather ineffectual unemployed film studies lecturer in france , and a cast of domineering supporting actors)
o Uruly by David Mitchell (A "rollock" through early english monarchy, pointing out the luck, or lack of it, of all the kings and queens)
I did Not understand my work Environment anymore but this blogpost perfectly explained it
Among all ML books, it’s a really good overview of many concepts connected one to another and spelled out in easy to grasp way
Also „Designing Machine Learning Systems” by Chip Huyen looks really promising and very hands-on (lessons learned by very committed practitioner). It gives actionable tips and provides real life insights. I haven’t finished reading it yet though
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2024/october/wildlife-po...
"Livestock make up 62% of the world’s mammal biomass; humans account for 34%; and wild mammals are just 4%."
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
... We're deep into an apocalypse, and I really hope we start acting like it.
I didn't realise how simple it can be to design a simple programming language. I'm having a lot of fun doing it.
https://craftinginterpreters.com/
This was recommended by the delightful and talented Tibees YouTuber.
A few pages in and I was absolutely hooked and ready to start proving geometric conjectures…
A truly amazing communicator and educator.
When worlds were conquered through brute force and wooden ships, it is crazy to imagine how pivotal vitamin C was.
Also read a lot of Arabian fantasy (?). Fantasy with djinn etc. Favourites were Master of Djinn and the City of Brass series.
For fun, if you like fantasy, Steven Brust's _The Baron of Magister Valley_ is delightful, one of his "Paarfi Romances" it is TCoMC w/ the names changed and serial numbers filed off in a fantasy world (which is actually a science-fictional one as noted on Penny Arcade).
[0] https://sms.csx.cam.ac.uk/media/20145
It does not become a Cambridge man to claim too much for his university, nor am I much tempted to do so. But there is, I think, a certain type, rare, like all good things, which seems associated in some peculiar way with my alma mater. I am thinking of men like Leslie Stephen (the original of Meredith's Vernon Whitford), like Henry Sidgwick, like Maitland, like one who died but the other day with all his promise unfulfilled. It is a type unworldly without being saintly, unambitious without being inactive, warmhearted without being sentimental. Through good report and ill such men work on, following the light of truth as they see it; able to be sceptical without being paralyzed; content to know what is knowable and to reserve judgment on what is not. The world could never be driven by such men, for the springs of action lie deep in ignorance and madness. But it is they who are the beacon in the tempest, and they are more, not less, needed now than ever before. May their succession never fail!
Just a wonderful book.