Timeline for What are the popular science books that inspire TCS?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 20, 2013 at 20:22 | comment | added | Artem Kaznatcheev♦ | I read GEB before I knew any cstheory, and found it inspirational. In the long run, though, the only real thing I learnt from it is how to write in a way that captures the popular imagination. However, this is a very important lesson. I've recently read one of Hofstadter's other books (I Am a Strange Loop) and was overwhelmed by how poor his scholarship is (never acknowledging earlier philosophers when he blatantly steals ideas from them). It made me sad to know that one of the easiest way to a cult following is do this. I would never reread GEB, since it would ruin my earlier experience. | |
| Sep 20, 2013 at 20:15 | history | edited | Artem Kaznatcheev♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 2 characters in body
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| Sep 20, 2013 at 18:20 | comment | added | vzn | see also learning Godel, Escher, Bach still valid today? programmers.se | |
| Sep 20, 2013 at 5:56 | comment | added | Vijay D | I think in this case, as in many cases with popular science books that experts dislike, the author is not an expert in the field and takes the liberty of interpreting and presenting results in a way that an expert in the field never would. | |
| Sep 19, 2013 at 16:58 | comment | added | Kaveh | You will have hard time finding an expert in the topics discussed in the book (e.g. logic) who would say anything positive about it. Popular inspiring books are not necessarily good books. | |
| Sep 19, 2013 at 16:54 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Kaveh | ||
| Sep 19, 2013 at 7:02 | comment | added | Vijay D | "hail Goedel as the greatest logician of all time, mount the absurdities of Goedel numbering on a pin, and make it a sort of super-puzzle. This burying-under-flowers is characteristic of that monument of vulgarity, "Goedel, Escher, Bach"." -- Jean Yves Girard | |
| Sep 19, 2013 at 3:17 | comment | added | Jeffε | Yeah, but. Back when I was a graduate student, one of the local AI faculty told me his secret for selecting good PhD students from the applicant pool. If an applicant's statement of purpose mentioned Gödel, Escher, Bach, he rejected them. | |
| Sep 18, 2013 at 21:26 | comment | added | Giorgio Camerani | Definitely true. | |
| Sep 13, 2013 at 21:22 | history | answered | Aaron Roth | CC BY-SA 3.0 |