Item — HN Reader

Of the 25 authors listed there are:

  18 americans.
  24 people in the global north.
  24 men.

EDIT: people reaalllllyy hate when this is pointed out. See child comment for some alt recommendations.

5 comments

Identity doesn't matter. Ideas matter. If you think the ideas in those books are bad, attack the ideas.

In a vacuum you would be right. However, such a skewed distribution is virtually guaranteed to be biased and expose you only to a very small sample of the ideas and experiences of humanity. It's not even a matter of the "ideas" being "bad", but rather being only a tiny sliver of the world.

Well, my point is that you don't actually know how diverse the authors are. It was just assumed by their identity. They could be immigrants. They could have been abused as children, or hungry. They could have been raised by wealthy tennis pros. They could have spent their lives hacking on electronics and playing chess, or they could have spent their lives camping and herding cattle. You have no idea. And this is true of someone from any part of the world.

> Identity doesn't matter. Ideas matter.

Your ideas are shaped in large part by your identity, which includes your socio-economical background, race, gender, sexual proclivity, country, and on and on.

When you are only exposed to ideas from the same homogeneous group, your view of our heterogeneous world becomes deeply flawed. Diversity of identity is paramount for a diversity of ideas.

>Diversity of identity is paramount for a diversity of ideas.

I don't think we really need a proliferation of diverse ideas. Put 10 people in a locked room with 10 different ideas, and you're probably going to find them arguing, not out, in a few hours.

Don't get me wrong being stuck after 1 idea is bad, but I don't feel that's where we are today.

None of that has anything to do with the conversation, which is about reading books.

Diversity of ideas is not what most people want, is it?

They want to know how to survive in a tough world.

If you want to learn “how to survive in a tough world”, the worst strategy you could follow is to to only read ideas from the group which dominates much of it. By your logic, you should be reading books specifically from people who face constant hardship and discrimination, which includes trans, homosexual, black people… Sure, throw in a few books from rich white men in the global north to learn how they think, but to only read from them would be a mistake.

Even if you don’t want diversity of ideas, you need it to form an accurate picture of reality.

Ideas matter, yes. And distribution. If you want good coverage, read books from a more diverse crowd. If you want narrower ideas, do the opposite.

I mean, we’re looking at a list of books—and 24 out of 25 of them were written by men. So clearly identity matters to the compilers of this list.

Another assumption.

Nah, it’s just math.

Which alternatives would you suggest? Why are they particularly relevant to people in the startup ecosystem?

Some randoms I remember : )

  - Thinking in Systems - by Donella Meadows
  - Dead Aid - Dambisa Moyo
  - Day of Empire - Amy Chua
  - Mistakes Were Made (not by me) - Caroll Tavris 
  - Brotopia - Emily Chang

And 24 non-fiction books.

You mean rich, powerful, and ambitious. Yes, American men are well represented in that category. Sorry?

You seem to be arguing as if those are unambiguously positive traits. They’re not. The biggest societal problems we face are caused by people with too much money and power who always thirst for more.

One of the reasons to read books is to expose yourself to other perspectives. Reading 25 books from exactly the same group of people is just a waste compared to reading a diverse selection of books. You should read some books from the rich, power and ambitious. You should also read books from other people.

Maybe you could just, idk, provide your own diverse list?