Books that have influenced your thinking
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Timsup2nothin
Deity
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The New Industrial State by John Kenneth Galbraith. Totally broke the already weakening underpinnings that had allowed my participation in the cold war and at least in part lead to me getting out of the military.
Speed and Politics by Paul Virilio. While there are some flaws, heavy assumptions, and I am well aware at times it makes me sound like a turn-of-the-century Futurist, Proto-Fascist or Militan, it has seeped into not just how I create worlds but my tactics and views in life.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Well, for me, the big takeaway was that even "good wars" are pretty horrible things, and that whatever good they achieve does not erase or negate the horrors the produce. Means versus ends, I guess.
It had a big impact on me because it was the first serious anti-war text I encountered which didn't ground itself at least partly in the position that this war in particular was foolish, or illegitimate, or stupid. Vonnegut doesn't bother with that. To the extent that these descriptions are true, it is because any war, war itself, is foolish and illegitimate and stupid. The common wisdom that the Second World War was a "good war" may well hold, because what Vonnegut is interested in describing is not good wars versus bad wars, but simply war, without prefixes, and it turns out that war is pretty terrible.
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H4run
Deity
The book that affected my line of thought is automatically a book about "line of thought" or "how to think". There is, It is a very old book called "Madilog" stand for "Materialistic, Dialectic and Logic" (the difference between logic and dialectic is pretty crucial here and becomes the main theme) written by an ex communist party leader name Tan Malaka (even though ideologically I'm definitely not a communist) but that book taught me a lot on how to think effectively (basically Aristotelian's logic++), even though the nature of author was too ambitious (naive?) as he treat the method as some sort of an arche that can ejected ultimate truth of every phenomenon (axiom?), however it is quite a useful book.
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche and "Man and Superman" by Bernard Shaw also affected me quite much back during my undergrads time, but yikes not anymore. But I like to reread "Man and Superman", that book is so funny.
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Nietzsche and "Man and Superman" by Bernard Shaw also affected me quite much back during my undergrads time, but yikes not anymore. But I like to reread "Man and Superman", that book is so funny.
The Naked and The Dead by Norman Mailer is an excellent WW2 novel.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
Jurassic Park made me think sexually transmitted diseases also could be transmitted through cannibalism
Berzerker
Deity
The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchin, and his series called the Earth Chronicles. Up until then I dismissed the Bible, religion and myth as the ignorant explanations of awe-struck primitive peoples trying to explain existence. Now I see evidence of a worldwide culture tuned into knowledge we're just discovering.
Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, a survey of literature and myth about the cosmos overhead.
Hamlet's Mill by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, a survey of literature and myth about the cosmos overhead.
Lexicus
Deity
The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi
This book has had a huge influence on how I view the modern world. It helped me move away from the dogmatic/orthodox Marxism of my teenage years.
Economics For The Rest of Us: Debunking The Science That Makes Us Dismal opened me up to heterodox economics and paved the way for me absorb MMT.
This book has had a huge influence on how I view the modern world. It helped me move away from the dogmatic/orthodox Marxism of my teenage years.
Economics For The Rest of Us: Debunking The Science That Makes Us Dismal opened me up to heterodox economics and paved the way for me absorb MMT.
The Next 100 Years by George Friedman. More of a thought experiment than an actual set of predictions. It showed me that countries were more than just intangible masses or numbers, and gave me the ability to think *genuinely* outside of the zeitgeist.
Blindsight by Peter Watts. Can't overstate how deeply it affected me. The book reveals a psychological truth that is fundamental to human behavior (but does overreach and come to some dubious conclusions). It was quite possibly the catalyst for my reactionary turn, even though Watts himself would be horrified to hear it. Also worth reading just as a fantastic piece of fiction.
Is it worth learning orthodox economics in the first place?
Blindsight by Peter Watts. Can't overstate how deeply it affected me. The book reveals a psychological truth that is fundamental to human behavior (but does overreach and come to some dubious conclusions). It was quite possibly the catalyst for my reactionary turn, even though Watts himself would be horrified to hear it. Also worth reading just as a fantastic piece of fiction.
Is it worth learning orthodox economics in the first place?
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Lexicus
Deity
It depends what you want to do. If you want to be an economist, then you need to learn mainstream economics even if you think it's useless.
Lexicus
Deity
True, if you want to study the actually-existing economy. If you want to be a courtier fawning on the ruling elite though, which is what most mainstream economists are, there's plenty of money in that. In all seriousness economics is one of the most solid career options for academia right now - not that that's saying much, of course.
Lexicus
Deity
Lexicus
Deity
These numbers are from 2014 so I don't know whether they've changed but it seems I was wrong to be even as down on economics as I was:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/susana...es-that-get-the-most-job-offers/#3788b5172c4e
Economics is actually the second-best field after computer science.
But this is actually a fairly revealing exchange. "Don't go into debt to go into the second-best academic field for job placement" essentially means: don't go to college unless you're rich.
I would have to believe that they end up more in Financial or Accounting type jobs instead of being theoretical economists. But what would I know. I have a poly sci degree and work in IT. So studied to be a lawyer and ended up telling machines/people what to do.
Lexicus
Deity
Yeah, to be clear those numbers are for undergrad degrees in economics. That is exactly where most people with undergrad degrees in economics end up. I suppose I'd amend my statement above: if you want an economics credential then you need to learn mainstream economics.
I am not sure about job opportunities for academic economists, but I will stand by that it is likely a whole lot better than the job market in almost any other academic field. That's because there's money in turning out all those basic financial analysts.
Yeah, A lot of those clowns end up as financial advisers at banks using investment software to advise clients instead of actually thinking. Their percentage is pretty good. 1 to 2% annual vig on a lot of money ends up a decent chunk of change.
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