Re:Ask HN: What book(s) did you love reading this year?
by atmosx on Wednesday November 24, 2021 @02:23PM
(#29334033)
I'd like to share the following:
- "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
I believe it is a pretty common book amongst the HN crowd, no need to expand over it.
- "The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?" by Michael Sandel
Currently reading this book. I find this book amazing. The arguments are well thought and the language is easy. I think Sandel is one of the top Philosophers of our time. Sandel, it seems, has a level of empathy that most well educated people are lacking. The topic of meritocracy interests me particularly, so I bought another book which is a meritocratic proponent "The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World" by Adrian Wooldridge. The two held a really interesting debate at intelligence squared ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOpdahGGoxE ) not long time ago.
- "The Burnout Society" by Byung-Chul Han
This book is hard, as most books by Mr Han. To a large extend the book is like a thesis: dense, technical vocabulary, etc. Those not too deep in modern psychology and philosophy, like myself, will find following through challenging but IMO the idea of the "self-slave" is extremely prominent in the tech industry.
- "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
I believe it is a pretty common book amongst the HN crowd, no need to expand over it.
- "The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?" by Michael Sandel
Currently reading this book. I find this book amazing. The arguments are well thought and the language is easy. I think Sandel is one of the top Philosophers of our time. Sandel, it seems, has a level of empathy that most well educated people are lacking. The topic of meritocracy interests me particularly, so I bought another book which is a meritocratic proponent "The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World" by Adrian Wooldridge. The two held a really interesting debate at intelligence squared ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOpdahGGoxE ) not long time ago.
- "The Burnout Society" by Byung-Chul Han
This book is hard, as most books by Mr Han. To a large extend the book is like a thesis: dense, technical vocabulary, etc. Those not too deep in modern psychology and philosophy, like myself, will find following through challenging but IMO the idea of the "self-slave" is extremely prominent in the tech industry.