Visiting an old book store and reading random old books on topis is a horrible idea and I disrecommend it whole-heartedly. The vast majority of random books are crap, and old books are on average maybe even more crap (caveat that the good ones are the ones we still hear about more) since even more from them has been disproven/has been added to by now.
I doubt that most people would know who to look for that authored books written in the late 20th Century in those fields that I listed, particularly when the theory remains unchanged now, or as in the case of Ashby’s book, is not available in any modern textbook.
I believe that:
good material from decades ago doesn’t appear in new texts, necessarily.
new material isn’t always an improvement, particularly if it reflects “the internet era”.
what is offered as “new material” isn’t always so new.
One concern with modern textbooks is pedagogical fads (for example, teaching formal logic with a software program or math with a TI calculator). I support pen and paper approaches for basic learning over TI calculators and software packages. Older textbooks offer more theory than current ones. Older textbooks are usually harder. Dover math books are one example where unchanged theory written up in older texts is still appreciated now.
It doesn’t take a lot of learning to find useful 20th Century books about linguistics, scientific reasoning, rhetoric, informal logic, formal logic, and even artificial intelligence. Yes, there was AI material before neural networks and machine learning, and it still has utility.
For most people, a random search at a decent used bookstore can turn up popular titles with good information. A random search by topic in an academic library or in a used bookstore that accepts used academic titles, (which used to be common, but is becoming more rare), can turn up some amazing finds. I do recommend all those approaches, if you like books and are patient enough to to try it. Otherwise, I suggest you look into older journal articles available in PDF format online.
It’s just one approach, and takes some trial and error. You need to examine the books, read the recommendations, figure out who published it and why and get to know the author, read the preface and forward, so it takes some patience. It can help to start with an older book and then visit the new material. When I started doing that is when I noticed that the new material was sometimes lesser quality, derivative, or the same content as older material.
The most precious finds are the ones that are nowhere to be found now. Yes, sometimes that’s because they’re crap, but sometimes that’s because they’re really good and people ignored them in spite or, or because of, that.
EDIT: I also find that reading from a book offers a visceral experience and steadier pace that digital reading can lack.
Visiting an old book store and reading random old books on topis is a horrible idea and I disrecommend it whole-heartedly. The vast majority of random books are crap, and old books are on average maybe even more crap (caveat that the good ones are the ones we still hear about more) since even more from them has been disproven/has been added to by now.
I doubt that most people would know who to look for that authored books written in the late 20th Century in those fields that I listed, particularly when the theory remains unchanged now, or as in the case of Ashby’s book, is not available in any modern textbook.
I believe that:
good material from decades ago doesn’t appear in new texts, necessarily.
new material isn’t always an improvement, particularly if it reflects “the internet era”.
what is offered as “new material” isn’t always so new.
One concern with modern textbooks is pedagogical fads (for example, teaching formal logic with a software program or math with a TI calculator). I support pen and paper approaches for basic learning over TI calculators and software packages. Older textbooks offer more theory than current ones. Older textbooks are usually harder. Dover math books are one example where unchanged theory written up in older texts is still appreciated now.
It doesn’t take a lot of learning to find useful 20th Century books about linguistics, scientific reasoning, rhetoric, informal logic, formal logic, and even artificial intelligence. Yes, there was AI material before neural networks and machine learning, and it still has utility.
For most people, a random search at a decent used bookstore can turn up popular titles with good information. A random search by topic in an academic library or in a used bookstore that accepts used academic titles, (which used to be common, but is becoming more rare), can turn up some amazing finds. I do recommend all those approaches, if you like books and are patient enough to to try it. Otherwise, I suggest you look into older journal articles available in PDF format online.
It’s just one approach, and takes some trial and error. You need to examine the books, read the recommendations, figure out who published it and why and get to know the author, read the preface and forward, so it takes some patience. It can help to start with an older book and then visit the new material. When I started doing that is when I noticed that the new material was sometimes lesser quality, derivative, or the same content as older material.
The most precious finds are the ones that are nowhere to be found now. Yes, sometimes that’s because they’re crap, but sometimes that’s because they’re really good and people ignored them in spite or, or because of, that.
EDIT: I also find that reading from a book offers a visceral experience and steadier pace that digital reading can lack.