Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
2people
2020–2022years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I started on this path when I was trying to nurish myself back to health over a decade ago when I suddenly got fat. I thought science was the way to go... but was robbed of that notion a couple of years into it when I discovered that the path to health was in the opposite direction of what the science tells us.
Turns out the food industry fully controls the science of food and nutrition. You can start by reading Unsavory Truth or Food Politics by Marion Nestle for better understanding of why that is the way it is.
Having said that, Marion Nestle doesn't really explore one side of it... which is that because of ethical reasons, we'll never have proper human experiments, thus nutrition science will always be limited and incomplete, which leaves a lot of room for manipulation, which the industry is happy to do for profits. This has been covered very well by the YouTube channel What I've Learned: https://youtu.be/xRAw7yeDO-c
The same channel has several other videos on food and nutrition, one of the most important ones imo being the one on seed oils: https://youtu.be/rQmqVVmMB3k
Nutrition and Physical Degenaration by Weston A. Price as described in this thread is one of the best works in support of indigenous foods.
The Hidden Life of Trees is a great book on plant intelligence.
Other than those resources, we have to piece these things together, take long term views... like should we trust a diet that kept a culture of people alive and well for 100s of years over several generations or do we trust studies with couple of dozen subjects done over a few weeks funded by the food industry?
- I read 136% of what I'd set out to (34, was set out to read 25). Here are the best ones:
- Unsavory Truth by Marion Nestle
- The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson
- The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins
- The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
- Yes, lots. But again, I think it's a life situation thing. What is extremely revealing and useful for me could be completely redundant or harmful for you.
Having said that, I found the following, in no particular order, worth it to have read than not:
=================
The Richest Man in Babylon
=================
It simplified how I think about personal finance for me. I was irresponsible with my finances. This provided some basic rules of economics and personal finance that have stuck with me.
=========================
The Simple Path to Wealth
=========================
I read this one only recently but it simplified things even more for me when it comes to investing. I had been doing sort of the same thing but it gave it much more perspective on how simple things can be.
=====================================
How I found Freedom in an Unfree World
=====================================
I think this one has empowered me to look for things I can control rather than getting stuck up on things I can't.
====================
The Sovereign Individual
====================
I have a different and richer view of politics than I did before I read this book.
=============================
A Short History of Nearly Everything
=============================
Gives a different perspective of scientists. I think I believed "science" much more before I got to know personal stories of scientists.
===============================
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
===============================
Good read just because it's popular and referenced in other places... and is interesting if you're into "history" of humans. It's fictional (in that, it's his take on what happened) obviously but he makes it look like that is actually what happened.
=============================
All books by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
=============================
He has the same kind of hatred of the academics that I do, which I think I resonate with. And the ideas are interesting.
=========================================
Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy
=========================================
Simplified (sometimes oversimplified) economics which is a good read for American conservative view on economics.
==========================
Propaganda by Edward Bernays
==========================
This was written when the meaning of propaganda was changing to something nefarious (previously, it has a positive neutral or positive meaning to it, in that it meant "propagation of information" - implied to be for public good). Edward Bernays is the father of what is now known as Public Relations.
Related to the same book:
* http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html (this one is among the most shared links on HN)
* Tim Wu's books: The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants
=========================
The Complete Guide to Fasting
=========================
Even though I met people who were fasting, I needed to read this before I would start doing it myself so that I felt I understood what I was getting into.
=====================
High Output Management
=====================
I was a follower of "management is unnecessary" meme which pervades the dev community. This gives a first principle view of what's happening in management.
===============================================================
The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (and the newer edition of the same)
===============================================================
It's just an insider view on international organizations. I had second hand knowledge of how corrupt these organizations are... but it is just one more confirmation. Do I think the author is biased? Yes. It's only his view and I'm sure other people many have a more positive outlook and intentions in these organizations... but at least I'm familiar with this one.
===========================================================
Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat
===========================================================
Again, it's one view of how food science works, and it confirms my personal experience with information I get from science, whether on the internet or from the doctors (who basically say the same thing that ends up in WebMD).
These are not all of them but it covers a lot of them that I consider have enriched me in one way or other.
