If you’re looking for something less directly related to things like AI, I like Siddhartha Mukerjee’s books (The Emperor of all Maladies, The Gene), Charles C. Mann’s The Wizard and the Prophet, and Andrew Roberts’ Napoleon the Great
I’d held off on Chip Wars because I had assumed it’d be too surface level for the average EA who listens to 80k and follows AI progress (e.g. me) but your endorsement definitely has me reconsidering that
Here are some of the non-fiction books I’ve enjoyed most this year:
The Soul of a Woman, by Isabel Allende
The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty, by Nina Munk
I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, by Malcolm Gladwell (from what I can tell it is several podcast episodes compiled into an audiobook, but it was good)
What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins, by Jonathan Balcombe
Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley, by Emily Chang
Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth, by Stuart Ritchie (I think that this one is particularly appropriate for EAs, considering how we are trying to figure out what actually works)
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question, by Michael Schur (the most lighthearted and playful moral philosophy book I’ve ever encountered)
Some non-fiction books I enjoyed this year were James Gleick’s The Information (a sprawling book about information theory, communication, and much else), Wealth and Power by Orville Schell & John Delury (about the intellectual history of modern China), Fawn M. Brodie’s No Man Knows My History (about Joseph Smith and the early days of the LDS Church, or Mormonism), and David Stove’s The Plato Cult (polemics against Popper, Nozick, idealism, and more). Some of these are obviously rather narrow, and you probably would not enjoy them if you are not at all interested in the subject matters.
I’d strongly recommend Nudge, Thinking Fast and Slow, and Noise. They all fall in the same realm for me of being full of both fun psychology and practical applications.
Looking for non-fiction book recommendations: what’ve you enjoyed reading recently ?
I loved Chris Miller’s Chip War.
If you’re looking for something less directly related to things like AI, I like Siddhartha Mukerjee’s books (The Emperor of all Maladies, The Gene), Charles C. Mann’s The Wizard and the Prophet, and Andrew Roberts’ Napoleon the Great
+1 to The Emperor of all Maladies
I enjoyed this a lot, thanks !
I’d held off on Chip Wars because I had assumed it’d be too surface level for the average EA who listens to 80k and follows AI progress (e.g. me) but your endorsement definitely has me reconsidering that
Thanks !
Finished reading it (Chip Wars): I enjoyed it a lot, thanks !
Here are some of the non-fiction books I’ve enjoyed most this year:
The Soul of a Woman, by Isabel Allende
The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty, by Nina Munk
I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, by Malcolm Gladwell (from what I can tell it is several podcast episodes compiled into an audiobook, but it was good)
What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins, by Jonathan Balcombe
Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley, by Emily Chang
Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth, by Stuart Ritchie (I think that this one is particularly appropriate for EAs, considering how we are trying to figure out what actually works)
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question, by Michael Schur (the most lighthearted and playful moral philosophy book I’ve ever encountered)
Thank you :)
Some non-fiction books I enjoyed this year were James Gleick’s The Information (a sprawling book about information theory, communication, and much else), Wealth and Power by Orville Schell & John Delury (about the intellectual history of modern China), Fawn M. Brodie’s No Man Knows My History (about Joseph Smith and the early days of the LDS Church, or Mormonism), and David Stove’s The Plato Cult (polemics against Popper, Nozick, idealism, and more). Some of these are obviously rather narrow, and you probably would not enjoy them if you are not at all interested in the subject matters.
Thanks ! :)
I’d strongly recommend Nudge, Thinking Fast and Slow, and Noise. They all fall in the same realm for me of being full of both fun psychology and practical applications.