I can fully recommend "The making of the atomic bomb" by Richard Rhodes[0]. The book begins with Rutherford's experiments that first indicated that an atom might have most of its mass concentrated in a tiny nucleus.

From there, it follows the intense period of scientific discovery that captivated that era. It's a fantastic portrayal of the science and the lives of people behind the discoveries.

I learnt in highschool that electrons orbit around a nucleus of protons and neutrons. I had taken these facts for granted. This book opened up the world of technical innovations, leaps of imagination and the really amazing discoveries that the smartest people of the era had to grapple with in order to come up with that model of the atom.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/...

The amazon link is not working. One that works. [1]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Richard-Rhodes-1987-02-...

For the last few years I've had the Feynman Lectures [1,2] sitting in my queue, and I've finally gotten around to starting them in the last week. It's been a fun ride so far, and it's been nice to have the time to digest the lessons without having to run off somewhere. It's also helped to have the MIT OCW lectures as a reference [3], in which I found a book title "Quantum Mechanics and Experience" [4] that I started reading as well and so far has been the most down-to-earth introduction to Quantum Mechanics that I've found. I highly recommend it.

[1] https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Lectures-Physics-boxed-set/dp...

[3] https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-04-quantum-physics-i-s...

[4] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674741137/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

I always thought Feynman's treatment of electrodynamics wasn't very original, that it was just the standard approach you could find in other textbooks. It turns out, Feynman thought so to, but later came up with a much better way of teaching electrodynamics: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/100951/what-was-...

I'm re-reading these classics:

1. SICP(The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)

2. The Art and Craft of Problem Solving by Paul Zeitz

3. Tribe of Hackers: Cybersecurity Advice from the Best Hackers in the World

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[1]https://github.com/allenleein/knowledge-base/blob/gh-pages/C...

[2]https://github.com/allenleein/knowledge-base/blob/gh-pages/C...

[3]https://github.com/allenleein/knowledge-base/blob/gh-pages/C...

I'm reading "Combat Fighter Tactics and Maneuvering" by Shaw, along with the combat aviation and auto racing manuals at https://github.com/bencaddigan/esports-for-engineers

Found these amazing lecture notes [1]. Topic 3 and the review of Green's Theorem are the best I've seen anywhere. By a long shot.

I read somewhere that Omar Bradley solved integrals to clear his mind during the darkest days of WW2.

[1] https://math.mit.edu/~jorloff/18.04/notes/

Not technical but I started reading Taleb (Black Swan).

I think that it's in the category of soft technical or pop-technical. Similar to something like "Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow," or "How not to be wrong," or even "Mythical Man Month." They're great books to read if you already have some level of technical background to understand the limitations of how they're translating to a more digestible format, but fall into the category of "be afraid of an idiot with a little knowledge" if you don't. Essentially they're wonderful books but can amplify the dunning-kreuger effect.

Gardening for pleasure, Allan Seale.

Reworking through "Linear Algebra Done Right", and reading through "The Joy of X".

causality, by judea pearl

a pattern language, by christopher alexander

maps of meaning, by jordan peterson

on intelligence, by jeff hawkins

the fractal geometry of nature, by benoit mandelbrot

^^^ a crash course in cognitive architecture for AI folks