Worst books

[chiral3]

I tried to get through Taleb's latest piece of shit. For a guy with no skin in any game he certainly has a bunch to say.



I'll give Taleb this: he was a visionary in anticipating the anti-intellectual and divisive climate, particularly in the US. For him to anticipate that writing a baseless and meandering book that basically indicts,..., well, everyone, was brilliant. He could get a job writing policy.

[Cheng]

Scott Adams "Win bigly" [sic]. He keeps explaining why Trump is a "master persuader" (I would say manipulator but that is probably nitpickery on my end) which is a bit tedious but ok. What really cracks me up are the interludes where he tries to show off what a f*cking genius he is ("When you read this paragraph I mesmerized you"... well... actually I didn't read every single word so I missed the important point). Unfortunately there are too many of them and the book found its way back on the staple where it will remain for some more time.

[pj]

Hi Cheng,



I need to apologize.

I read the book, thought 'meh', and went my merry ways.

I should have warned you that you, being European,

aren't in his target group and his mind tricks won't work on you.

The proof: they hadn't. Cool



And your post is the living proof for the usefulness of the thread.

[Cheng]

It is probably my fault that his tricks didn't work on me since my reading style involves skipping words here and there... Wink



What annoys me, though, is that I read his last book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big", thought *meh* and still fell for the next one. Old habits die hard and it needs more that one mediocre (not to say crappy) book to change them...

[pj]

For anyone to thinks of reading Scott Adams Looserthink,

don't.



Paraphrasing the old dictum, there are important facts, new facts, and, miscellaneous facts in the book.



The important facts, that people are biased and irrational,

and what to do with that are now quite " à la mode"

and are much much better covered by Kanehman, Ariely, Yudkowsky, McRaney etc etc.



Go there.



I am skipping the self help part of the book, since I don't buy into it. (sorry)



The new facts are: Adams has a paruresis (i.e. shy bladder),

had his periscope endorsed by the husband of Kardashian,

and is Twitter active.



Here you have the summary of the whole book.



In general, it is always a bit fascinating to watch a guy getting unhinged in real time.



He had some interesting ideas in his own time.

Is quite a demagogue ( "false analogy" is his forte),

and oh so full of himself.



Sad.



Ah, and a miscellaneous fact, he is a trained hypnotist.



Warning, don't engage "in mind reading" as proposed at your own risk.



@Cheng, I hope I am not too late this time.

[nikol]

"Mein Kampf "

I was spitting almost at every page. But useful to read. Like antidotes.

[pj]

"Mein Kampf

The best anti-fascist book evah

Ниасилил аднако

[nikol]

Me advanced to 50% level. Then got fed up 200%.

[vertigo]

@pj, i did not plan to read scott adam's new book but since it has made you have such a visceral feeling, i will now buy it and then read it.



a good heuristic to follow is that if a book can rustle the feathers of an intellectual, then it is absolutely worth reading.

[pj]

@vertigo



Thanks for calling me an intellectual. Cool



If you want I can pass you a .mobi file as a Christmas present.