Ask HN: What are young technically minded people reading?

18 pointsposted 3 days ago
by drdec

Item id: 46208098

27 Comments

andrei_says_

a day ago

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

19 hours ago

Good premise. The stereotypes he wrote about Spain were atrocious.

toomuchtodo

3 days ago

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

mghackerlady

a day ago

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

andyjohnson0

3 days ago

I'm pretty technically minded, but first I should probably ask: what's the age cut-off for "young"?

drdec

3 days ago

My secret agenda is to get gift ideas for my college aged child

sloaken

2 days ago

Ah good plan, I like it.

I will be following your lead.

closetkantian

a day ago

I'd recommend Careless People, if you haven't read it.

chasenjohnson

3 days ago

I just got through Abundance by Ezra Klein and thoroughly enjoyed it.

antinomicus

3 days ago

Do you believe in his ideas? I think the abundist philosophy is a fake moustache and a coat of paint on third way neoliberalism, which has proven time and again to have utterly failed as a political strategy in our current era. Ezra Klein’s ideas mostly feel tired, recycled, boring, outdated, and rudderless. We need true labor reform in this country, not less regulations and more trust in “altruistic developers”.

tptacek

3 days ago

Pretty rude response, right?

sloaken

2 days ago

It is an opinion. Interestingly because of that opinion I am actually looking at the book. At least reading the Wiki summary.

tptacek

2 days ago

The original commenter answered the question of the thread: "here's a book I'm reading". They got in response a screed about "neoliberal" politics. That the response is wrong is besides the point: it was a really rude way to respond to someone recommending a book. The civil and productive way to write that response would have been to recommend in addition another, countervailing book.

worldsavior

a day ago

He's trying to have discussion, who are you to tell people how to communicate?

tptacek

a day ago

Sure, it's just a totally different conversation than what the thread's about, and a super rude one. I'm not the boss of him, but I guess I get to have off-topic conversations too. "Next time, on book recommendation threas, recommend another book, instead of writing a screed about how bad the politics of some other book are."

worldsavior

a day ago

It's an opportunity to discuss, should he create a new thread to discuss this book and maybe the same person will see this thread? Kinda weird, especially when this doesn't hurt anyone.

s1mplicissimus

a day ago

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

coolfox

2 days ago

Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz

operatorius

2 days ago

At the moment I'm reading:

* Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential

* Bessel van der Kolk - The Body Keeps the Score

segmondy

a day ago

anything and everything that piques their interest

bcx76

3 days ago

Mostly the Kardashian book club recos. Learn video editing in 3 days etc.