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Comment by roymurdock | Hacker News Reader

I really like the way he limits his list to 4 books. Most other thought leaders/influencers/CEOs do lists of 10, 20 "hot topic" books that you know they probably haven't read. I find the volume also diminishes the individual importance of each book on the list.

I'll have to pick up String Theory (I love that Bill Gates reads DFW) and The Grid per his recommendations.

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Whatever I know Gates is a reading machine. I am sure he has read everything he recommends.

When Jon Stewart did the Daily Show I always wondered if he had read guests' books because he had pretty detailed questions.

It was pretty clear he didn't (or even hardly ever) watched the movies whose stars came on his show. It definitely seemed that, in the case of authors, he generally had a more personal grasp of the book.

I wonder if in some cases his producers would give him "cliff's notes" for the books.

I suspect he reads some of the books but ultimately that's why he has producers to make sure he looks good. I'm sure he has read many of them and the producers read the books he has not.

Every host of a major show has a staff to help research and put together the show.

This question has been asked a lot. He's impressive in that more often than not, he reads the books cover-to-cover.

Do you know that for sure? He certainly makes that impression.

> He doesn’t spare himself, though. “I have a habit, which I don’t recommend, of finishing essentially every book I start,” he said. “And if I disagree with a book I spend lots of time writing notes in the margins. Perversely, this means that the more I dislike a book, the longer I spend reading it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/fashion/bill-gates-the-bil...

I wonder if being "argumentative" against a book you disagree with in this way is a good antidote to confirmation bias.

One type of person might stop reading a book when it veers in a direction they disagree with and therefore end up never changing their mind.

I don't know for sure, of course, since I don't know him - but, from all the interviews I've seen of him where the conversations were variable and unscripted, he has a very broad but also deep knowledge. I'm convinced that he's a voracious reader.

On a tangential note: Over the years, many people have asked me how I know so many things... and I always give them the same answer: because I wanted to, so I put time into making it be that way. That's it.

While I feel that I should recognise that being reasonably gifted has likely benefited me here, there are _many_ people considerably cleverer than me! I take pains to attempt to drive home the central point, which is that I believe it's the _attitude_ that matters the most of the two. Just because I might have had a easier time than many when learning _doesn't_ mean it was easy, or didn't consume a lot of time and effort! No.

I just thought it was important, so I did it. It requires effort. It was an investment.

It greatly irritates me that many jump to the conclusion that some talent negates all the hard work that it required - and still requires. Learning never ends - or, it shouldn't!

I think most people are considerably more capable than they think - they often just don't try.

I remember in an interview Jon saying he read most books before the interview. He would burn through the book a day or two before the interview, but retained very little a week later.

> I really like the way he limits his list to 4 books.

I've been doing this when friends ask for recommendations to cities. Google and guidebooks are already at their disposal, so a manageable list of 3-5 options with some personal insight is better than a comprehensive, but impersonal list of 20.

And if folks haven't read DFW's Roger Federer as Religious Experience in String Theory, you can read it on the Times web site (but you should also look into reading the rest of his works):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20fede...

Agreed. Anything past 3 to 5 is either "Actually, I'm really not sure" or "Sorry, I can't be bothered. You figure it out." In other words, you're not telling me anything and you're not saving me time. So annoying.

Here's my favorite essay from String Theory that really sums everything that book is about: http://www.esquire.com/sports/a5151/the-string-theory-david-... This version is a bit of pain though since the footnotes are collected at the end and you would have to swap back and forth to read them; the book allows space on each page to make it much more convenient. I think I'm in the minority, but I really wish Infinite Jest handled footnotes in the same way.

String Theory was incredible, David Foster Wallace really a pleasure to read.

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