The second self

What Hacker News says

1. mcshicksAug 2023
   There are some places where I still experience "Things Come to Us". The open library on the internet archive is one. Worldcat is another although I still have to reserve/pick up the items. Using RSS and w3m to read news is another. You can use something like UserLand to run w3m on a phone, and the terminal program is pretty slick.

   I've been reading older books on computing on open library, like "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" written in 1984 by Sherry Turkle and it's fascinating to see the questions people were asking back them. My favorite quote from that so far is this:

   "That question is not what will the computer be like in the future, but instead, what will we be like? What kind of people are we becoming?"

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2. kandruszkowJan 2022
   Some good books on the topic are "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder or "The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit" by Sherry Turkle. As for the podcast, I’ve heard good things on "The Bits from Bytes History of Computing Podcast" by Richard Haynes.
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3. jdp23Jul 2012
   Agreed about The Innovators Dilemma; and from the original list, Founders at Work, Crucial Conversations, and The Design of Everyday Things. Your mileage may vary on The Alchemist; some people find it transformational, others aren't so excited. I haven't read the others on the list so don't mean to be dissing them, just don't have any first-hand experience.

   I'd also add

   - Sherry Turkle's The Second Self - Geoffrey Miller's Crossing the Chasm and Inside the Tornado (a different Geoffrey Miller than the one in the original list :) ) - Rita McGrath and Ian MacMillan, The Entrepreneurial Mindset

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4. jonjackyFeb 2014
   In her book The Second Self, Sherry Turkle wrote that the MIT AI Lab hackers were "loners who are never alone".
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5. _deliriumMay 2011
   That's more or less the thesis of Sherry Turkle's recent book Alone Together, which you might find interesting. It's also interesting because Turkle was quite techo-optimist in the '80s; The Second Self (1984) was much more positive on the role of computers (and things like the then-new BBS scene) for interpersonal relationships.
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6. Jun8Apr 2011
   This is not a recent phenomenon. Even in the 80s it had a negative connotation, fueled mostly, I think, by Sherry Turkle's The Second Self (I wonder how many young hackers are aware of that infamous book) where the hacker culture was shown to be macho, masochistic, and closed, see Sex/Machine (http://books.google.com/books?id=vo5b6XA2F30C&lpg=PA369&...) for a summary.
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