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Comment by arethuza | Hacker News Reader

It's not quite so "campy" when you realise how seriously people who were actual nuclear war planners regarded Dr. Strangelove:

https://www.wired.com/2018/03/geeks-guide-doctor-strangelove...

I can recommend Ellsberg's book on nuclear war planning if you have difficulties staying awake at night.

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> I can recommend Ellsberg's book on nuclear war planning if you have difficulties staying awake at night.

Are you implying it's boring?

I think Parent means that the contents of this book WILL keep you awake at night.

No - I meant its literally the only book that I have read that caused me to have difficulties sleeping for a few nights.

Edit: Don't downvote jmkni - my fault for wording things strangely.

Some books kept me awake, but I wouldn't say I was calm enough to be functional in that period.

The book includes accounts of his time at BLAND, sorry RAND, the sheer banality of it all makes it all the more shocking - young men calculating whether it would be 100 million, 600 million or far more and oops shame about Finland.

[A job where you feel that meetings you attend feel like the Wannsee Conference can't be good.]

I think you've got what @jmkni said mixed up with the common saying "read this book if you have trouble sleeping at night" -- which means exactly as you said.

"If you have trouble staying awake" would be the opposite, and I'd take it to mean the book is positively terrifying.

And if you don't have those difficulties you'll definitely have them after reading the book.

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