Generally I hate business stuff but this book presents it really well, references modern cognitive science and avoids the bullshit management speak. Were I feeling cheesy I’d call it “a business book for rationalists” (they even quote Eleizer).
Disclaimer, since I’ve never read any other proper business books so I don’t know how someone with more domain specific knowledge would find it.
I have read a number of business books. That one is by far my favorite, and I’ve given away at least two copies to friends now. (Which reminds me, I ought to buy myself another copy.)
For all the benefits its promises, synthetic biology is potentially more dangerous than chemical or nuclear weaponry, since organisms can self-replicate, spread rapidly throughout the world, and mutate and evolve on their own...
So, how should we prioritize our research and life goals? …We could join George Mallory, who justified a huge and risky effort with the phrase “Because it’s there” — referring to Mount Everest where his body was lost, frozen in ice, for 75 years. But this is to blunder along blindly...
As a general goal I propose that, as a minimum, we ought to avoid the loss of all intelligent life in the universe.
The authors mention the singularity, and Singularity University, shortly after that, and they cite Good and Vinge and Kurzweil, but they ignore Yudkowsky and Singularity Institute.
Non Fiction Books Thread
In descending order of how much I liked them, I read in October nonfiction:
When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, Luhrmann
Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Carrier
Liars and Outliers: How Security Holds Society Together, Schneier
Walden, Thoreau
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, Murray
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, Crawford
When Prophecy Fails, Festinger
Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche
Psychiatry And The Human Condition, Charlton
I also really enjoyed When God Talks Back. I had a review copy around the same time as I was reading Thinking Fast and Slow and did two posts on Luhrmann’s book that may be of interest to LWers or, at least, give you a better idea of whether you’d be interested in the book: “What’s Hard is Simple, What’s Natural Comes Hard” and “Quasi-Transhumanist Charismatic Christians”
The Personal MBA
Generally I hate business stuff but this book presents it really well, references modern cognitive science and avoids the bullshit management speak. Were I feeling cheesy I’d call it “a business book for rationalists” (they even quote Eleizer).
Disclaimer, since I’ve never read any other proper business books so I don’t know how someone with more domain specific knowledge would find it.
Previously: the author describing it on LessWrong.
Cool, I noticed a lot of parallels but didn’t realise he was a contributor. I reiterate my endorsement.
I have read a number of business books. That one is by far my favorite, and I’ve given away at least two copies to friends now. (Which reminds me, I ought to buy myself another copy.)
ordered, thanks.
Does anyone want to share Good Read accounts? Here’s mine.
I created a group for this purpose: LessWrong on GoodReads.
Join us (me) !
Joined! and, I created an account: http://www.goodreads.com/MrEmile
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6544689-cameron
I’m at http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/11004626-gwern
Church & Regis, Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves.
Choice quote:
The authors mention the singularity, and Singularity University, shortly after that, and they cite Good and Vinge and Kurzweil, but they ignore Yudkowsky and Singularity Institute.