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Read the Best 100 Books Over and Over Again.html
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Read the Best 100 Books Over and Over Again.html
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<p>![[Naval-Ep76 (1).mp3]]</p>
<p>
<strong>Naval:</strong> <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> reminds me the
most of
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%25C3%25B6del,_Escher,_Bach"
><em>Gödel, Escher, Bach</em></a
>
in that it is very wide-ranging and stitches together ideas from many
different disciplines. It’s very difficult to understand and follow
completely. Everyone claims to have read it, but, as far as I can tell,
very few people understand it.
</p>
<p>
I had this experience in college when I first found Hofstadter’s work. I
remember that I put it on my bookshelf and I started reading it, and I
started reading it, and I started reading it. About a year later, I was
probably halfway through it. Then I just ran out of time. I had other
things going on.
</p>
<p>
I remember that I would approach my other friends in college and would
say, “This is a great book, you should read it.” And a week later they’d
roll back and say, “Yeah, I read <em>Gödel, Escher, Bach.</em> It was
great.” And I felt like the stupidest person in college.
</p>
<p>
It was only years later that I realized nobody had read it. When you get
older, you get more confident in those confessionals, where you either
say, “I didn’t read it” or “I read it at a constant pace and when I
encountered something I didn’t understand, I kept going.”
</p>
<p>
I confess, to this day I have not read all of
<em>Gödel, Escher, Bach.</em> But at least at this point, I’ve gone
through and found the parts that were most interesting to me—which were
the Gödel parts—and did read those and try to understand them. I skipped
the parts that were not as interesting to me—which were the Bach parts.
</p>
<p>
<em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> is similar. Everybody in my social
circle has it on their bookshelf. Many claim to have read it, but very few
have gotten it.
</p>
<p>
I go back to this point that was first eloquently stated on Twitter by a
character named
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmvhCWvHk3-SJqljh5cCm8A"
>@illacertus</a
>, who essentially wrote,“<a
href="https://twitter.com/illacertus/status/779563228959498240"
>I don’t want to read all the books; I just want to read the best 100
over and over again.</a
>”
</p>
<p>
I’m currently stuck in a loop where, at least in science, I’m only going
to read <em>The Beginning of Infinity</em> and
<em>The Fabric of Reality</em> over and over again until I understand them
fully. If I had read them 20 years ago, I would know a lot more, because
then I would have chosen the right books and the right authors to read
subsequently.
</p>
<p>
It’s a hard book to follow. You should buy the hardcover and electronic
versions, so you have it all.
</p>
<p><strong>Brett:</strong> And the audio version.</p>
<p>
<strong>Naval:</strong> Get it every way possible. If you can get through
it in the first sitting and understand all the points at a deep level,
then congratulations. But if not, we’re hoping to break it down for you.
</p>
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