Ask HN: What article/book do you recommend for my next flight? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What article/book do you recommend for my next flight?

26 pointsbreak_the_bank18 comments

I've been flying fairly often recently. I've a few books on my Kindle to read but I was wondering what HN suggests.

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Bad Blood by John Carreyrou. John is the WSJ reporter whose investigation of Theranos brought to light their behavior.

Every chapter you read there will be at least one "Holy shit. I can't believe someone did that" moment.

Bill Gates concurs https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Bad-Blood

Reading this right now. God this book is soo good, it's a must read for any startup founder.

American Kingpin was a really good read. It's the story of Ross Ulbricht, the guy that built the silk road.

It reads like fiction, but is a true story, and hits all the right buttons for me (technology, entrepreneurial spirit, understanding how to (or how not to) learn from your mistakes, etc.).

It's well written and hard to put down.

-----

The power of habit was also a really good read if you hadn't read it already.

I just finished the audiobook of American Kingpin and LOVED IT. Nonfiction that reads like a thriller. Very well done and the narration was also excellent (which also comes into play a lot for audiobooks!).

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou about the rise and fall of Theranos is very similar feel to American Kingpin, if you enjoyed one you will probably love the other; I thought both were equally fantastic, probably my best reads of 2018.

I just bought "The marijuana conviction: a history of marijuana prohibition in the United States," although I don't think you'll find it on Kindle. Pick up a copy at Amazon or AbeBooks.

These were extremely fascinating for me, and were written for a layman which I appreciated [0][1]. They're about the singularity.

[0] https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revol... [1] https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revol...

You can pick something from HN Books [1]. Happy Reading and Happy Flying.

[1]: https://hackernewsbooks.com.

"the theory that would not die"

I didn't expect much, and don't think I was a fan of the first chapter because the story is pretty well known atleast in my circles. But it grows exponentially interesting as the chapters roll

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300188226/theory-would-n...

“This is water” the transcript of a commencement speech that David Foster Wallace gave. Probably the best thing he ever wrote (and shortest :) ).

If you like thrillers with a geeky edge to them, you might like Zero Sum Game by S.L Huang. Some review I read described the protagonist of the story as "the geek's Jack Reacher". Pretty good analogy, IMO.

If you want non-fiction, maybe try Dreaming In Code. Or if you haven't read it before, how about *The Soul of a New Machine"?

I'm a big fan of Redef as an article aggregator.

Yes, there is a tech specific stream: https://redef.com/channel/tech/feed

Some finance books I love (and reread frequently). These books are more about characters and stories, more than traditional non-fiction.

My Life as a Quant by Emanuel Derman

The Quants by Scott Patterson

A Man for All Markets by Edward O. Thorp

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre

Flash Boys by Michael Lewis

Fiction? Non-fiction?

If you have a Goodreads profile, you could link to that so we don't recommend things you've already read.

A word on words, a speech by Václav Havel, is one of the most interesting and increasingly pertinent things I've read. Havel was the last president of Czechoslovakia, and a lifelong dissident against the Communists. He talks about the way Communists revised thought through the words that were allowed to be spoken.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/01/18/words-on-words/

If you want some pleasant fiction, I suggest the Lies of Locke Lamora

Something about the effect of flying on climate change?

Atomic Habits - James Clear

Banish Your Inner Critic - Denise Jacobs

Can't go wrong with Daniel Silva.

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