I Am a Strange Loop

In general the Incerto series by Nassim Taleb (Black Swan, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) was worth it. The Selfish Gene, System thinking A primer, I am a strange loop, Sapiens are some books that I read recently that had a lasting impression.

I Am a Strange Loop, by Hofstadter. I thought his idea of consciousness as a gradient was really interesting. Hofstadter said this idea made him a vegan. It did the opposite for me, eating a person has more or less the same moral perils as eating a cow. It didn't change my mind about eating animals, but eating people seems more or less okay.

Most of mine are going to be books by philosophers or scientists (about philosophy or other things). - The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell was a pretty good one. He has a lot of ideas that were ahead of their time (positive psychology, etc). You can see a lot of parallels between his ideas and modern Stoicism (although Russell criticized it elsewhere, I think he came to some of the same conclusions). - Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. Another Russell one. I think this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand explanation I've ever read of the underpinnings of mathematical foundations. It's written in a style that should be accessible to almost anyone with a high school education. He wrote it while he was in prison (for refusing to be drafted) during WW1. Apparently he left a copy of it to the prison warden. - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. This is worth reading because it is the motivation for basically all of modern philosophy of science (at least in the west). It's also pretty easy to read and if you read it you'll be able to more easily understand other books and papers that are responses to it.…

I would suggest "I Am A Strange Loop". Same author.

- "Rationality: From AI to Zombies" - probably the most influential book I've read in my life, profoundly changed the way I think. It's a collection of LessWrong essays on science and rationality. - "On Intelligence" and "I am a Strange Loop" - how mind works. - "Rework", "Zero to One", "Start Small, Stay Small" - insightful startup advice. - Fun autobiographies: Ghost in the Wires (Kevin Mitnick), iWoz (Steve Wozniak), Catch me if you can (Frank Abagnale), Just for Fun (Linus Torvalds), Elon Musk, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - How companies work: Creativity Inc (Pixar), In the Plex (Google) - On writing: Art of fiction/nonfiction by Ayn Rand, Story by Robert McKee, Save the Cat, Step by Step to Standup Comedy. - Other: The Selfish Gene, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Serious Creativity, Hackers & Painters, Hacking Growth, Angel (on angel investing, by Jason Calacanis). Also collections of essays by Paul Graham [1] and Scott Alexander [2]: [1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/2no0sqybnxurpcd/Paul%20Graham%20-%... (https://www.dropbox.com/s/2no0sqybnxurpcd/Paul%20Graham%20-%20Complete%20Essays.epub?dl=0)…

It is difficult for me to imagine its utility as a desk reference, but it is certainly just as rich and unusual a piece of literature as its reputation suggests. Hofstadter's 2007 book "I Am A Strange Loop" develops one of GEB's themes in more depth. It's written in a more straightforward style than GEB, so it's less remarkable as a reading experience, but its perspective has stuck with me in a pretty fundamental way, so I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed GEB and wants to dig further into the puzzle of consciousness.

I might try out "I am a strange loop". It's more approachable.

"Godel Escher Bach" and "I am a strange loop". I only made it half way through GEB, however the latter is a bit easier to get through. For me, these books marked the beginning of a lifelong journey of "self" contemplation and intellectual/philosophical exploration.

That's a great book. I've just started reading I Am A Strange Loop by Hofstadter and it's promising. Also by Hofstadter: Le Ton beau de Marot was a good read. GEB is the big one, but if you like his style - probably worth checking out some of the others. Best to get print books for this particular author though.

While not strictly a CS book, "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter definitely has strong roots in the area. It's not a text book, nor anything even close, however, there is a reasonable amount of mathematics and programming language design which make it educational as well as inspirational (particularly formal logic systems, around which the premise of the book is built). The book is somewhat life changing, in the questions that it asks. You might find yourself thinking about things differently, such as what it is to be conscious, can we ever achieve artificial intelligence, is there such a thing as fate, how was J.S. Bach able to produce such stunning compositions, etc. It's quite heavy going however, but there's a slightly more succinct, terse version which he wrote a few years ago, called "I Am a Strange Loop". This book takes the point he was trying to make in the first book, and expands on it while adding clarification. It does lack a lot of story that the original contained, so it's not a complete replacement however.…

I am a strange loop by Douglas Hofstadter - fascinating exercise in 'thinking about thinking' that radically changed my perspective on the concept of 'self'. Lots of mathsy and techy overtones, great stuff.