i struggle to find categories on the front page containing falsifiable assertions
where are the best five books on linear algebra, on signal processing, on control theory, on equid phylogeny, on group theory, on energy-efficient architectural design, on civil engineering?
for example, they do have a list of five books on programming. but it includes 'clean code', by that unqualified blowhard bob martin? the cs for data science list looks possibly okay
and their recommendations for philosophy of technology come from... evgeny morozov? are they deliberately trying to get terrible recommendations?
Reviewing some of the books on computer science, there's an English writing book recommended for "Computer Science for Data Scientists", "Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow" for Artificial Intelligence, for Naval History (20th Century) it's two WWI books, one inter war period, one WWII and then one on the British Submarines since then... not a good overall history, and for Ancient Rome "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" which has important significance for understanding the evolution of the study of Roman history, but is not a good source anymore.
In short, this seems to be taking some famous books related to a field without actually selection the five "best" ones.
IMHO, this list contains only BS books. Tim Ferriss? Seth Godin? Malcolm Gladwell? Please. This is a list for those who need self-help and "motivation" books. Only exception is Livingston's F@W. The rest is pretty much junk.
Please allow me to write down my personal list for those who love to learn:
- The Art of Computer Programming
- Algorithms (by Dasgupta, Papadimitriou, and Vazirani)
- Algorithm Design (by Kleinberg and Tardos)
- Feynman Lectures on Physics
- Landau & Lifschitz's series
- Vladimir Arnold's books on ODEs and Classical Mechanics
- Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays (by Berlekamp et al.)
- Elements of Information Theory (by Cover & Thomas)
- Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms (by MacKay)
- Network Optimization (by Bertsekas)
- Convex Optimization (by Boyd & Vandenberghe)
- Nonlinear Control Systems (by Isidori)
- Visual Complex Analysis (by Needham)
- Lasers (by Siegman)
- Game Theory (by Fudenberg & Tirole)
- Trading and Exchanges (by Harris)
Plus a bunch of books on Classical Mechanics, Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Differential Geometry, Real Analysis, Algebra, Theoretical CS, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Cellular Biology, Evolution, Game Theory, Mechanism Design, Auction Theory, Economics, Finance, etc. That would be a reading list worth considering! It would also take a lifetime to read all the books...
Most lists include books that I would avoid because they are actually bad or controversial. Design patterns is a good example. This list doesn't contain any of those.
As with most meta-topical lists, there is virtually
no profit in browsing through it. Time may be wasted
a-plenty, though.
Bring a question about technology X with you, go straight
to section X and then consult with the search engine of
your choice (or a hacker friend, idealy) which book to
actually read.
Hint: some of those have wikipedia-pages, like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher-Order_Perl
and others hide the books behind an email
signup front
(one is a strong signal for quality, the other, perhaps,
not so much).
any book list that starts with "first you should read TAPL and PFPL, then move on to SF and CPDT and read HOTT and of course these three category theory textbooks" is really out of touch IMO. mostly because i don't think there's anyone alive that has simultaneously read all of those works, not even the authors of each individual work!
It’s obviously not meant to be an exhaustive list of such books, which would be impossible. And any such list on the internet is just an opening for an argument.
Agreed. That the list is restricted to five titles does not mean that we can't manage a better selection. Indeed, there are individual introductory books available (such as Feser's) that offer broader coverage.
"In case you’re new to Five Books, the format is: an expert, a topic and the five best books on that topic, explained in an interview. Tip: you’ll normally learn quite a lot about the topic from our interviews, even if you don’t get around to reading all the books."
I saw that and wondered why they didn't just include the entire Feynman Lecture series. The list wasn't supposed to be the most approachable non-fiction books. But then "best" is vague enough to be interpreted that way, I suppose.
Actually a great comment. This is what I wish all those "awesome lists" were: lists written by people actually in the field who've actually read all the books they're recommending. Unlike the current state, which is lists compiled by people completely new to the field looking for easy github stars putting up every book they can find with a Google search.
where are the best five books on linear algebra, on signal processing, on control theory, on equid phylogeny, on group theory, on energy-efficient architectural design, on civil engineering?
they do have https://fivebooks.com/best-books/artificial-intelligence-gpt... to be fair, and all five seem to actually exist, but kahneman is in the list?
some of the lists on https://fivebooks.com/category/technology/ look more promising
for example, they do have a list of five books on programming. but it includes 'clean code', by that unqualified blowhard bob martin? the cs for data science list looks possibly okay
and their recommendations for philosophy of technology come from... evgeny morozov? are they deliberately trying to get terrible recommendations?
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