Gwern
Pseudonymous independent researcher and essayist writing on gwern.net about statistics, psychology, genetics and AI.
Bias in Mental Testing by Arthur R. Jensen
One of the classics in the field, Jensen sets out to explain almost everything, it seems, in psychometrics
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose by Francis-Noël Thomas
A style book which actually delivers real style advice!
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph A. Tainter
much more convincing than Spengler or Toynbee
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
A solid biography, though I don’t have anything in particular to say about it.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy
I learned a great deal from this book about Google, which put some of my own experiences with Google products in context.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
I enjoyed this tremendously for revealing a new world to me where I thought I already knew the lay of the land.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
Roach comes up with all the best quotes and stories, seems to have talked to everyone and done everything.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe
a fascinating book on the bloody aftermath of WWII as the destruction wound down
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
It’s really impressive how Stapledon just casually scatters around handfuls of jewels that lesser authors might belabor singly throughout an entire book.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
He is the closest thing to a modern Jorge Luis Borges in melding high concepts with literature to create something better than either
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
This was really really good, as in, maybe the best book I’ve read that year.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Black Company by Glen Cook
I enjoyed the first book a great deal: it’s in a fairly stock medieval setting, but it handles the dark fantasy well
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War by Graham Robb
This is incredibly interesting because from our perspective, we have forgotten (if we ever knew) what went into the process of taking the thousands of villages and regions differing in all sorts of ways
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Histories by Herodotus
Overall, far more interesting than I had expected. Surprisingly funny or interesting anecdotes.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Notenki Memoirs: Studio Gainax and the Men Who Created Evangelion by Yasuhiro Takeda
It is an invaluable resource for any researcher
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama
It is, overall, an excellent book and one of the better ones on grand history I’ve read
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The prose is so smooth that like Gene Wolfe’s, it becomes invisible, and you pass through it to the slow silent sorrow of the protagonist.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
It was surprisingly unliterary and unpostmodern for Mitchell, but in exchange, he nailed the historical details and gave us an adventure which subverted many of the usual tropes
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze
A fascinating account of the economic transformation of Germany under the Nazis
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
Fascinating account of a Gilded Age titan much worse known than Carnegie.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022
Tombstone: The Untold Story of Mao’s Great Famine by Yang Jisheng
The statistics and anecdotes are fairly horrifying, and the sheer profusion drills in how widespread the famine was.
on gwern.net · 13 Oct 2022