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isovector's reviews
410 reviews
Thinking Strategically by Avinash K. Dixit, Barry J. Nalebuff
5.0
Fantastic introduction to game theory. I would highly recommend this book to everyone I've ever met.
How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport
4.0
Super actionable book on how to better structure your university life. Lots of filler so you can read it in an hour or two, but definitely has enough useful concepts to be worth your time/money.
Quantum Computing since Democritus by Scott Aaronson
3.0
This book had the interesting property of making me think bigger thoughts without making me think about any big thoughts in particular. There is notably no central theme, and large, seemingly inconsequential mathematical tangents, but it was a useful study in watching the author constantly generalize over concepts.
I can't say I enjoyed it, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone, but it definitely improved my understanding of computation. There are probably better and faster ways of doing that, but this is what I had to work with.
I can't say I enjoyed it, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone, but it definitely improved my understanding of computation. There are probably better and faster ways of doing that, but this is what I had to work with.
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking by Daniel C. Dennett
3.0
I'm very critical of philosophy in general, but Dennett seems to be one of the few philosophers doing it (mostly) right. The book consists of a vast collection of small thinking tools for sousing out comprehension from complex concepts -- most of them are silly, but it's likely beneficial to skim through the first half of the book to see if any of them work for you.
What I found most fascinating, however, were the last few chapters. One was on "what is it like to be a philosopher" (apparently very circle-jerky; no big surprises there), and the other on "use the [thinking] tools; try harder" which is a good call to action for finding a use for critical thinking in ways which turn out to actually be useful.
I'd recommend this book to people with philosophical inklings but who distrust the field, and then I'd tell them to head over to lesswrong.com and see if any of it sticks. The rest of you -- those on-board with Dennett and those with no interest in philosophy -- stay away and go read Kahneman; it'll be a better use of your time.
What I found most fascinating, however, were the last few chapters. One was on "what is it like to be a philosopher" (apparently very circle-jerky; no big surprises there), and the other on "use the [thinking] tools; try harder" which is a good call to action for finding a use for critical thinking in ways which turn out to actually be useful.
I'd recommend this book to people with philosophical inklings but who distrust the field, and then I'd tell them to head over to lesswrong.com and see if any of it sticks. The rest of you -- those on-board with Dennett and those with no interest in philosophy -- stay away and go read Kahneman; it'll be a better use of your time.
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! by Miran Lipovača
4.0
Haskell reinvigorated my love for programming, lifting it up a meta-level and forcing me to reevaluate the way I look at the world.
Measurement by Paul Lockhart
2.0
I stopped reading around 40%. Being a math major, it wasn't providing enough insight-density to warrant further reading. Others with less math experience would likely get a lot out of it, however.
Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
4.0
I think I preferred Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual as a refresher on algorithms/interview prep, but this book is also very good (and easier to find!). Let's see if it gets me the job!