Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by zackzackzack on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @09:32AM (#3395815)

Tim Ferriss is like Wikipedia to me. It's a good place to start, but you will be mocked and humiliated if you only read that material.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by fredoliveira on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @10:08AM (#3395970)

I would hate to be involved in a community (academic or otherwise) that mocks what has been widely known to be a reliable source of information. Wikipedia, that is. Opinions on Tim Ferris vary greatly.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by phaus on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @01:09PM (#3396638)

Pretty much every university professor I've had is hell-bent on wikipedia's destruction. I've even had professors threaten to fail people for using it as a reference.

While wikipedia does have some errors, most of the mistakes seem to come in the form of someone sabotaging a disliked celebrity or organization's page. In light of this, it seems to me that most of the topics a student would be likely to write about for a term paper wouldn't be affected. Universities should always allow students to use wikipedia for one of their references, but they should also hold students accountable for the information they take from it.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by gnosis on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @03:24PM (#3397244)

"Pretty much every university professor I've had is hell-bent on wikipedia's destruction. I've even had professors threaten to fail people for using it as a reference."

I know university professors who love Wikipedia. Some even give their students the project of writing new Wikipedia articles.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by phaus on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @03:38PM (#3397298)

That's an awesome idea for a project. I'm glad to hear that my experience might not be the norm.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by austenallred on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @06:44PM (#3397940)

Using Wikipedia and using it as a reference are two very different things. I use it as a place to find great references and to get a synopsis on a topic, like an encyclopedia was meant to be used. Having lived in the former USSR and reading a lot of encyclopedias produced by the former USSR, I would never trust an encyclopedia alone, no matter who wrote it, without sources.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by jmtulloss on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @10:24AM (#3396020)

What he means (I think) is that it's only a surface understanding. You won't be able to hold your own in a serious conversation with experts on the topic.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by thebigshane on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @11:45AM (#3396298)

Why would/should one be mocked and humiliated for not being able to hold their own in a serious conversation with experts on some topic?

If I want to learn about a topic, wikipedia is great. If I need more information, I can look elsewhere but many times I don't need to. And except for maybe a handful of topics, I shouldn't expect to be able to seriously converse with an expert. Why should that be the goal? I think the goal is to find the answer to your questions, and that's it.

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Re:Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 by KleinmanB on Tuesday December 27, 2011 @11:42AM (#3396290)

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