In addition to what you’ve cited, here are some methods I’ve used and liked:
Email professors to ask for recommendations. Be polite, concise, and specific (e.g., why exactly do you want to learn more about x?).
David Frum says he used to pick a random book on his chosen topic, check which books kept showing up in the footnotes, then repeat with those books. A couple rounds yielded a good picture of who the recognized authorities were. (I pointed this out in a Rationality Quotes thread in 2015. Link: http://lesswrong.com/lw/lzn/rationality_quotes_thread_april_2015/c7qp.) Cons: This is time-consuming, sometimes requires physical access to many books you don’t yet own, and tends to omit recent books.
1a. If a professor is a suitable source for a recommendation, they’ve probably taught a course on the topic, and that course’s syllabus may be available on the open web without emailing the professor.
In addition to what you’ve cited, here are some methods I’ve used and liked:
Email professors to ask for recommendations. Be polite, concise, and specific (e.g., why exactly do you want to learn more about x?).
David Frum says he used to pick a random book on his chosen topic, check which books kept showing up in the footnotes, then repeat with those books. A couple rounds yielded a good picture of who the recognized authorities were. (I pointed this out in a Rationality Quotes thread in 2015. Link: http://lesswrong.com/lw/lzn/rationality_quotes_thread_april_2015/c7qp.) Cons: This is time-consuming, sometimes requires physical access to many books you don’t yet own, and tends to omit recent books.
This is literally doing PageRank, by hand, on books. There’s got to be a better way
True. I think Frum did this in law school, which he finished in 1987.
This might take a few hours, but selecting a good book might save you significantly more time.
I agree it might be locally optimal, globally very suboptimal
I don’t think a global optimum exists. People are different their optimums are different as well.
Sorry did not quite mean that. Meant it would be nice for everyone if there was a service to do this :)
1a. If a professor is a suitable source for a recommendation, they’ve probably taught a course on the topic, and that course’s syllabus may be available on the open web without emailing the professor.