HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are young technically minded people reading?

18 points by drdec ↗ HN
When I was young we read books like Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman, Neuromancer by William Gibson and So You Want to be a Mathematician by Paul Halmos. What books are popular with young technically minded people today?

18 comments

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chasenjohnson
I just got through Abundance by Ezra Klein and thoroughly enjoyed it.
bcx76
Mostly the Kardashian book club recos. Learn video editing in 3 days etc.
andyjohnson0
I'm pretty technically minded, but first I should probably ask: what's the age cut-off for "young"?
drdec
My secret agenda is to get gift ideas for my college aged child
sloaken
Ah good plan, I like it.

I will be following your lead.

toomuchtodo
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel

The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World

operatorius
At the moment I'm reading:

* Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential

* Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score

coolfox
Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz
s1mplicissimus
It's not very current, but I remember this being one of my favorite books back in college:

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

by Carl Sagan

andrei_says_
The ministry for the future by Kim Stanley Robinson explores technological and societal solutions to climate collapse in a novel form.

Starts in somewhat current time and follows humanity’s trajectory for the next 30-ish years.

I found it especially interesting because it does expose and address the socioeconomic issues preventing us from taking action on climate.

elnatro
Good premise. The stereotypes he wrote about Spain were atrocious.
closetkantian
I'd recommend Careless People, if you haven't read it.
mghackerlady
I can't speak for every young person, but for me mostly the same things older technically minded people were reading. Currently I've been reading Tanenbaums Operating Systems: Design and Implementation
segmondy
anything and everything that piques their interest
firefax
I feel like what's interesting to the technically minded will stay evergreen? (You mentioned Neuromancer for example)

"A Brief History of Time" was one of my favorite books as a pre-teen beginning to wonder how the world works.

On the fiction side I've heard good things about Cory Doctorow's works -- I purchased a copy of "Little Brother" a while back and enjoyed it. Maybe not as high literature as 1984 or Catch 22 but it was engaging and if I had kids I'd gift it to them when they were the right age.