/lit/ - Literature

>>14583180
Can we please stop calling shit "Midwit"? It reminds me of my childhood bullies and I don't come to 4chan to remember them...

>>14583180
they are very old books now but i remember loving anything by stephen jay gould

the library of ice by nancy campbell and underland by robert macfarland are two recent good science books

Do you think "faceberg" knows anything about complex mathematics?

>>14583180
Quantum mechanics and relativity are fucking complex, but their impact on the way we perceive life and the universe are huge. People generally want to know about that (and other complex phenomenon) without having to understand the math. Just like any other book, some are well written, since are shit

>>14583257
>but their impact on the way we perceive life and the universe are huge
This is basically not true unless you're a physicist. Normies don't care and don't want to care

>>14583189
4chan(nel) is a hurtbox, not a hugbox. Reddit seems more to your liking.

>>14583600
Disagree.

/thread

>>14583180
>using Twitter
Biggest sign of a midwit. I repent making the midwit meme because it has been appropriated by midwits.

>>14583180
I mean, the twitter retard is kinda right and you are kinda right, but at the same time you're missing a big point. Most people are absolutely devoid of intelligence so if a small portion of them gather the brain cells to want to learn more it's good to have low effort material for them to read to try to understand a little. We should be encouraging this shit even if it isn't for us. This is how society gets slightly better.

>>14583670
You use twitter you massive faggot

>>14583678
I've never used Twitter.

>>14583180
People want to know about modern research/advances science. Science has progressed to a point where your average interested person isn’t going to be able consume the complexity of modern research in a single book. These books bring the research down to a popular level of reading. They’re important, they generate public interest which leads to funding. It makes people feel like academia is less of an ivory tower.

>>14583180
people want to seem smart, to others or themselves, without actually going out of thrir intellectual comfort zone or tensing their brain. and i tell you, illusions sell the best.

im not much into non-fiction, bit Shallows by Nicolas Carr was great. i was familisr with some of the neurological facts and research mentioned, but the historical accounts were completely new info and it's very well-composed

>>14583659
> /threading your own reply
you really need to go back, midwit.

>>14583670
It should have been obvious that it would be

Anyone notice that these frogwitter types (e.g. faceberg, logo daedulus, etc) think of books -- and everything else they consume -- in terms of some ongoing status warfare? They literally wake up, log on, then go to work tweeting like some sort of accountant who does status bookkeeping of what is low status or high status or not. It's an ugly way to live for a group of people who think of themselves as concerned with beauty and style.

>>14583257
>Quantum mechanics and relativity are fucking complex

>>14583534
the prominence of pop-science books which are literally the topic of this thread disproves you.

>>14583676
This

I know this is /lit/ heresy and for good reason but I actually enjoyed stuff like Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker and Carl Sagan. Their enthusiasm was infectious and got me reading other stuff that was a better treatment of the subject, though maybe not as hypey.

>>14583686
>They’re important, they generate public interest which leads to funding. It makes people feel like academia is less of an ivory tower.
These sentences are mutually exclusive. If people felt like academia was less of an ivory tower, they would start doing research themselves without paying scientists for their "expert" insight.

>>14583693
>people want to seem smart, to others or themselves, without actually going out of thrir intellectual comfort zone or tensing their brain. and i tell you, illusions sell the best.
You're referring to pop science, but this actually applies better to the rat's nest of jargon and abstract notation in professional sciencedo you really need to say "neonate" instead of "newborn"? LOL.

>>14583786
Mathematically, yes. Conceptually, not really

>>14583238
>stephen jay gould
lmao nigger are you a retard?

>>14583670
/thread

Anyone who posts screenshots of social networks on 4chan is automatically a sage for me.

>>14583828
No it doesn’t. There’s nothing to learn from those books, people put them on their coffee tables to seem clever

>>14584844
Quit being a jackass. There are people that read this so it can explain in more layman's terms incredibly complex scientific thought. Dont brush the entire consumer base for these books as psueds like you.

>>14584871
>there are people that read this so they can pretend to understand ideas without going through the work required to actually understand them
I know; that’s what I said

>>14584885
>I need to get a PhD in mathematics or physics before I can have even a shred of general knowledge about current scientific research
I know you said it, that's why you're a retard

Recently picked up pic related, did I fall for the midwit meme?

>>14585036
>I need to study something before I can claim to have knowledge about it

>>14583676
>This is how society gets slightly better
Worse. Pop science creates soulless pseuds
pic related

>>14583676
>>14584013
See >>14585064

The explosion of "le smart reddit sciencephiles" that I have seen around in the past couple of years is really fucking demoralizing. I am a big believer in the idea that people should have nothing before they have somthing half good. The half good thing makes them believe they are done and they become complacent and rest on their laurels. A basedjak in the wild is dangerous because he believes he knows a lot and yet he knows only a little.

Tl;dr
It is always the half educated man that is the most dangerous. Remember, that wise men and shepherds both knelt in Belthehem. - Robert Benson Hughes

>>14583180
Why are you faggots so concerned with appearing intelligent. Just. Read. Who cares what morons on the subway think. Pick up a book and turn the pages. Christ.

>>14586150
>a little learning is a dangerous thing

>>14583180
There is nothing wrong with people trying to understand the natural sciences without having to study years of technical knowledge. Fuck off. You're just another medicore trying to feel superior to offset your lack of any real accomplishments

>>14583189
>It reminds me of my childhood bullies and I don't come to 4chan to remember them...
Thats exactly what I come to 4chan for so you fucking midwit can gtfo

>>14586207
Real talk nigga

>>14583659
stop being a faggot RIGHT THE FUCK NOW

>>14583189
Anybody who uses the term midwit has automatically made a logical fallacy, and the most basic one as well. It's almost always used by people who need to make themselves feel as if they're above somebody else.
Plus, there's nothing inherently wrong about being a midwit other than the stereotype that they are pretentious; this typically isn't true in the real world and if you get an actual career you'll realize it awfully quick.

>>14586600
>logical fallacy
>cope & projection
>wageslave
This is either brilliant satire or peak midwittery

>>14586731
Projection obviously doesn't mean what you think it does.

>>14586805
give it up midwitbro, go back to the other reddit tab

So does this mean that every book with a quote or a reference to the New York Times on the cover is automatically shit? Because basically every book in my library has it I don't even buy based on shit like that.


Some examples
>Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky
>How to not be wrong the power of mathematical thinking by Jordan ellenberg
>The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
>Don fucking Quixote

Granted most of these were impulse buys and gifts, it's creepy how many books have that

>>14586150
Truth.

Can we have, then, some solid recommendations in regard to math, physics and neuroscience or science-related material in general? I'm asking due to the lack of suggestions of this topics in the /lit/ wiki.

>>14587056
Bump

>>14588171
For neuroscience I'd recommend 'Principles of Neural Science' by Kandel and his buddies.

>>14585047

no idea, but that looks like some business secrets of the pharaohs shit

>>14586283
No, you're wrong. It's nigh impossible for someone who is a scholar on a subject to convey concepts to people who are dumb or uneducated without oversimplifying them. Then, you have these dumbed down ideas get published in these pop-x books that are then spread second and third-hand by midwit normies who won't shut up about their latest flavor-of-the-month book you just HAVE to read to the point where our reality are further shaped by incomplete, inaccurate, or outright bullshit information, which is pretty fucking terrifying.

>>14583257
>well written QM books with no math

lolno

>>14589005
How much math would be necessary for a well written QM book? Are the base equations and theoretical ideas enough? Do they need to go into rigorous doctorate level detail?

>>14583600
Great take, I'm using that. Not always true though--a lot of boards here are full of cowardly nerds circlejerking each other into safe spaces with reaction image mockery and saying "Is this bait?" to anything they disagree with.

I wish there was a way to filter for people that wanted a critical, independent environment. The 4chan method of scaring off normies with racism and whatnot doesn't work on normies that are also degenerates.

>>14585064
>>14586150
Best case this book is a stepping stone that will be forgone from the reader's mind after consuming better sources of information.

Worst case, someone reads this and believes themselves to be an expert in all of history, thus discontinuing their education and living henceforth completely misguided.

In every case, those without humility will always live misguided and wreak havoc on the world no matter what book they happen to pick up. Good education will always come to those who desire a good education (so long as we've got libraries and internet).

If reading promotes more reading, then let people read books.

>>14584013
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/science/14skull.html

>>14583685
>I've never used Twitter.
Bullshit. Everyone has twitter now.