Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free?

Re:Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are availabl... by hoopd on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @07:01PM (#9615027)

> It's like neurology. Yes, it's a terribly interesting field, but you'll learn more about the human mind from reading Proust.

I think this is a great metaphor but for very different reasons than you. Reading Proust will help somebody who sits on the sidelines take in the scene of somebody's neurological condition degrading. Studying neurology will help somebody find and (hopefully) cure the disease.

Neurologists save lives, people who sit in armchairs cherishing Proust may enrich themselves but they have no grounds to look down upon those who are getting their hands dirty.

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Re:Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are availabl... by hodwik on Thursday May 28, 2015 @09:31AM (#9617967)

> "have no grounds to look down upon those who are getting their hands dirty."

Reading Proust isn't getting your hands dirty? I don't think you've read Proust.

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Re:Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are availabl... by hoopd on Thursday May 28, 2015 @04:45PM (#9621064)

Getting hands dirty == interfacing with reality where mistakes are possible

You could hold Proust's greatest work upside down and read it backwards but nothing bad will happen. If a neurologist makes a mistake they could kill their patient, their hands are dirty because part of their job is making mistakes that hurt people.

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