Great Books I Read in 2017

This year I'd love to begin using Steemit to blog, share ideas and form relationships but the first post has always been daunting. So, to get things rolling I just want to share a few books that influenced me in 2017.

58 books... mostly non-fiction last year. I'm not sure I've read that many books in the last 12 previous years. It's very addicting, in part I think, because I listen to them and crank up the speed so that the learnings come quicker.

Here are a few from last year I'd recommend, let me know if you've read any of them:

Reality is Not What it Seems

This is the most amazing a beautifully written introductions to physics I’ve ever heard. Starting 2000 years ago with the introduction of atomism, the concept that everything is composed of finite common particles. Reality is far more interesting than can be imagined.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

This is one of the most referenced books I've read. System 1 and System 2 thinking. I've heard much of examples in this book but it was still a valuable read. I really enjoyed the last 2 hours of the book. Comparing the Present Self and Remembered Self, and how the two play in our understanding of Well-being. I've always loved the concept of redemption which is the Remembered Self reevaluating past suffering as a positive.

The Selfish Gene

Evolutionary biology is fascinating! This book is revolutionary to understanding how evolution works. Everyone was wrong about how life came to be until only recently.

There was a lot to this book that took me a few minutes to understand but they reiterate the important bits so just keep pushing through. Here are some interesting things I remember and we can talk about:

• The Cuckoo Bird - is a fascinating bird that survives by fooling other birds to care for it at their own broods peril. How does this continue to exist? And don't the adoptive parents realize the difference? Perhaps they do, but they can't help themselves because is satiates the same needs they are disposed to crave... like men lusting after the image of a woman... they know it's only an image but it still creates a biological desire. My mind connected with super normal stimuli... the cuckoo bird is bigger and louder... the parents are disposed to responding to the cries and open mouths of their babies... now here is a louder and bigger baby mouth.
• Our minds are not designed to think about evolution... there is no design, there is no purpose there is only replicators and those that kept replicating. Animals are vehicles for the replicators that are our genes.
• If a parasite (or another organism) is able to effect/embed itself in the replicator then it becomes one. The distinctness is lost and if it survives it keeps replicating. Who knows how many times this has happened in our evolutionary history
• We are the collection of millions of distinct cells working together... why do they do that? They all share the exact same DNA so they can act altruistically because by they carry on replicating if the vehicle succeeds.
• Why the bottleneck? AKA why start from one cell every time? Why not just clone? There is value in starting over. (forgetting all the reasons at the moment)
• Dawkins pretty much coined the term meme! The only other replicator to emerge beside the gene we know of yet.
• Social insects and the naked mole rate... so cool. They're all very closely related which means the genes that work together survive because they replicate through
• For a long time people thought that locusts were a separate insect from grasshoppers then it turns out that they have a special cycle for distribution... perhaps naked mole rats have another form they take when distributing.

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Walks through using external triggers to build internal triggers. Very practical with many examples.

Trigger -> Action -> Reward -> Investment.

Utilizes the B.J. Fogg method to help explain how habits are formed but focuses only on products that hope to become integral to a person's life. It pays lip service to the ethics of creating habit forming products but falls far short of Tristan Harris' thoughts on product ethics.

Hooked: How To Make Habit-Forming Products, And When To Stop Flapping

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam

I wanted to learn more about Islam and this book allowed me to gain some appreciation for it — though I'm pretty critical of all religions.

Simply a great story well told. I recommend everyone give it a listen (or read). It's a tragic story that has shaped our world and continues to. Why do women wear a veil? When and why did muslims start killing each other? What is the difference between Sunni and Shia? Political drama!!! Forced me to realize the nice/principled guy can finish last.

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

At the time of reading I gave this book a 4/5, and noted, "there are central theses I disagree with, but still I enjoyed the book and the author's attempt to bridge the divide between conservatives, liberals, religious, and non-religious."

Since then I have continued to reference this book's moral foundations theory and come to realize that much of my disagreements have little to do with what makes it and the author interesting.

Good review: https://spiriteddreams.com/2012/11/20/review-of-haidts-the-righteous-mind-and-moral-foundations-theory/

Here is the result of my test via moralfountations.org

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

I really, really like Steven Pinker. There is no Ghost in the Machine . Our brains are complex biological machines and as a result we are not Blank Slates with the ability to become anything. We are the product of evolution and genes which predisposes us to interact with each other and the world in certain ways. Communism was born out of the concept that environment could erase the nature of man for a better society and today there are still some intellectuals who subscribe to parts of the Blank Slate theory. There is a fear that acknowledging genetic differences will lead to Hitler but Steven Pinker guides us through why that is not the case.

I think everyone should read Steven Pinker. Here is a summary .

Opposing View:Allen Orr Review, Pinker response and Orr Counter

Quotes:

“Though many of my arguments will be coolly analytical — that an acknowledgment of human nature does not, logically speaking, imply the negative outcomes so many people fear — I will not try to hide my belief that they have a positive thrust as well. "Man will become better when you show him what he is like," wrote Chekhov, and so the new sciences of human nature can help lead the way to a realistic, biologically informed humanism. They expose the psychological unity of our species beneath the superficial differences of physical appearance and parochial culture. They make us appreciate the wondrous complexity of the human mind, which we are apt to take for granted precisely because it works so well. They identify the moral intuitions that we can put to work in improving our lot. They promise a naturalness in human relationships, encouraging us to treat people in terms of how they do feel rather than how some theory says they ought to feel. They offer a touchstone by which we can identify suffering and oppression wherever they occur, unmasking the rationalizations of the powerful. They give us a way to see through the designs of self-appointed social reformers who would liberate us from our pleasures. They renew our appreciation for the achievements of democracy and of the rule of law. And they enhance the insights of artists and philosophers who have reflected on the human condition for millennia.”

“Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle that individuals should not be judged or constrained by the average properties of their group.”