Stats for nerds
5recommend
6mentions
6people
2019–2026years
83% recommend17% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > why do we invent these formal languages except to be more semantically precise than natural language
To be... more precise?
On a more serious note, cannot recommend enough "Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World" by Winchester. While the book talks mostly about the precision in mechanical engineering, it made me appreciate _precision_ itself to a greater degree.
- I though it was about machining threads on screws. If you did too and found it exciting, you'll find this book exciting too:
Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exactly-Precision-Engineers-Created...
- Not amateurs, but a NASA contractor managed to mess up Hubble's mirror back in the day.
Involves chipped paint and household washers.
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/29/test-equipment-shim-washers-...
Simon Winchester also covers it in great detail in his book Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
If you're interested in precision making and how it all came to be it's a very joyful read.
- Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World http://www.simonwinchester.com/exactly
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38840.Boyd
- The ones I rated highest out of those I read this year (which is what I think the question means).
* Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester
* Atomic Adventures: Secret Islands, Forgotten N-Rays, and Isotopic Murder-A Journey into the Wild World of Nuclear Science by James Magaffey
* Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
* Vulcan 607 by Rowland White
* Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
* Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery
* A Fabulous Creation: How the LP Saved Our Lives by David Hepworth
* 1983: Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink by Taylor Downing
* The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why by Amanda Ripley
* In Your Defence: Stories of Life and Law by Sarah Langford
* Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons by Mike Reiss
* Working Actor: Breaking in, Making a Living, and Making a Life in the Fabulous Trenches of Show Business by David Dean Bottrell
* Becoming by Michelle Obama
* Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
* Rush Hour by Iain Gatel
* Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World by Alice Roberts
* The Next American City: The Big Promise of Our Midsize Metros by Mick Cornett
- In Ireland at least, there's no such book title - here it's "Exactly: how precision engineers created the modern world"
https://dlr.spydus.ie/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/BIBENQ?SET...
Just in case anyone else can't find it under the "Perfectionists" title. ISBN at that link.
