Books that solve problems vs books that create them 🤔
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Actually my favorite category is probably books that are largely unrelated to problems altogether
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Some interesting suggestions here. I feel like we're all (as in, this corner of twitter) in a bit of a local minimum/rut of reading the same things. Needs a somewhat random re-seed, but not entirely idiosyncratic personal picks.
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What’s a good general interest non-fiction book you’ve read in the last few months?
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Like if you had to swap out some sophomore portal basics from the last 10 years, what would they be?
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“Sophomore portal” books: You’re likely to read them 17-21, with median at ~19
— Ayn Rand
— GEB
— HHG
— Alchemist
— Pirsig
They seem optimized to have a profound effect in that range, be inaccessible if you’re younger (unless you’re precocious) and underwhelming if you’re older
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That's not quite the right question, more like shifting the chatterati schelling points.
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Like in certain conversations, Taleb is the Schelling point. Where could that conversation get reset? Not a different view of what Taleb thinks is important (that would be Cosma Shalizi) but a different view of what's important. Like, Taleb's got us in a derpy rut of sorts.
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Another example is what I think of as the Bildungsroman discourse space. It no longer interests me except as a spectator sport, but is obviously of evergreen interest to the 20-35 set. But ca we get out of the damn Charlie Munger/Cal Newport/Adam Grant type rut there?
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Other, more mainstream-normie Schelling points that need shifting: Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Pinker, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Harari...
More subculturey Schelling points that need shifting: Christopher Alexander, Ivan Illich, Don Norman, Tainter, James Carse, James Scott...
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Not quite sure what I'm getting at, but something like, the conversational equilibrium needs to shift... post-Weirding/Covid zeitgeist deserves a fresh start. Nothing against these lighthouse writers that guided conversations for a couple of decades before, but time to reboot
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