A Brief History of Time

a brief history of time

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I thought it would be a good time investment to read this book than to watch random Youtube videos about topics related to the cosmos. Another, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. Probably the podcast or the free PDF versions.

Best business books: -Secrets of Sandhill Road -Hackers and Painters -The Great CEO within -Venture Deals -Predictable Revenue -Zero to One -The Hard Thing About Hard Things -Lean customer development -Lost and founder -Lean B2B -From Impossible to Inevitable -Traction Best computer science books: -Competitive programming 3 -Structure and interpretation of computer programs Best for fun (non-fiction): -Meditations -Sapiens -How to win friends and influence people -A brief history of time -Self-reliance -Frente a la estrella polar

I listened to the Selfish Gene on Audible recently and was blown away by it. All through school I never had much of an interest in biology or genetics. I think if I’d read this earlier it may have changed my mind. Planning on reading the Blind Watchmaker at some point. Spurred on by reading the former I thought I’d listen to A Brief History of Time. Wow that is a whole different kettle of fish. I had to stop because I realized it wasn’t the right format (Audiobook), for me at least.

"A Brief History of Time" and "Universe in a nutshell" are always there. I never get tired of reading a random page from those books. I have nothing programming related on my desk; we have Google to thanks for that.

This is embarrassing. I grew up with sorta fundie parents (they got better) and dropped out of school early (religious schools...), so it might be different for HNers that had a solid mental upbringing. A Brief History of Time because it pretty much slapped any thoughts I had of a supernatural universe/god right out of my mind. I know it's not highly regarded, but for a rather ignorant guy, it woke me up. The Selfish Gene (inc The Extended Phenotype). This is one I think is the most powerful, even for people that had OK education. Showing how life could possibly evolve, just with random mutations and non-random survival made it real to me that we live in a natural world. And not just that, but that since it's so obviously a natural world, it's up to us to decide what is right, what our purpose is. The earth and nature aren't going to help us there - it's our call, full stop. That is huge, and many otherwise seemingly well educated people don't seem to get it.…

I like understanding where I am located in space and time, that is why I love reading about science & science fiction ; it is indirectly related to religion in the sense that it makes you think about your world, about yourself. Buddhism / Religion / ... : - Siddartha - Hermann Hesse - The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Science: - A brief history of time - Stephen Hawking (space, time) - The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins (evolution) - Le cerveau intime - Marc Jeannerod (in french only) Science-fiction: - The Road - Cormack Mc Carthy - City - Clifford D. Simack - Time is the simplest thing - Clifford D. Simack - Ringworld - Larry Niven

Certainly most of you have already read but next time you read "A Brief History of Time" focus more on how Stephen thinks and how he deals with uncertainty, it's like reading a new book.

Brief History of Time Fooled by Randomness

On my desk: Getting Real (37Signals), Hardball (Chris Mathews), Prioritizing Web Usability (Jakob Nielsen) Nearby shelf: The Design of Everyday Things, Maverick, Founders at work, A Brief History of Time, A Pattern Language, Peopleware, Made to stick, Web Standards Solutions, Designing Interactions, The Pragmatic Programmer, The Mythical Man-Month, Oh, the Places You'll Go! Other good reads: Blink, Tipping Point, Long Tail, Freakonomics