A stellar introduction to the real science of intelligence. I read the whole thing today. Highly recommended for those who are having trouble figuring out what’s real and what’s not about the concept of mental ability, and our ability to measure it.

Links

[ INTELLIGENCE: A Very Short Introduction | amazon.com ]

Delicious Library is one of the coolest pieces of software I’ve seen in years. It allows you to categorize your books (and other media) using OS X. It has a crapload of features, but I only need to tell you about 1.

Yeah, you read it right. You use your iSight camera on your Mac to scan in your media using the barcode. Then it pulls all the book’s content from Amazon.

Truly sick.

I say “can’t”, but what I really mean is that it’d be hard to read them given my current priorities. So it’s my fault, really.

I really wish I could be an old college professor, with a bike with a horn on it. I’d teach at a small college with smart students who wanted to learn. Class would take little time and with the surplus I would read, write and travel.

Spending that life with the woman I love is my ideal existence.

Anyway, here’s the booklist. I’ve read probably 20%. So sad.

[ 100 Essential Books ]

My friend Steven Harms has just put up an excellent reference for those interested in philosophy. It attempts to chart the relationship context between the various books mentioned in my Episteme post from a while back. Steven writes:

Recently I read about a “Most Influential Books” list via Daniel Miessler’s post “Episteme”. I commented that it was a bit presumptuous to believe that the reader of the 100 list would be able to get anything out of some of the selections without other key concepts and items discussed in the previous authors’ work. For example, to make sense of Hume or Berkeley, you really need to know Aristotle’s Categories and Descartes’ Meditations. The former is not singled out and the latter didn’t make the list ( cogito ergo sum doesn’t rate? ).

I gave some thought as to how I could give a rough sketch of Western intellectual development in a broad-strokes sense that worked visually. Enter FreeMind. FreeMind is a mind-mapping software ( Free! ) that exports to PDF.

So I took an attempt at producing a PDF that gives context for these books.

Head over to Steven’s site to see the full post as well as the mind-map.

[ A Mind-Map to Western Philosophy ]

I am unable to convey how strongly I feel you should read this book. It changed the way in which I approach life within 20 minutes. This book quite simply contains the most wisdom on achieving fulfillment in life that I’ve ever seen.

It’s not a book about making more money, it’s not a self-help book, it’s not a productivity book. It’s all those things. It’s a book about life — specifically how to improve yours in the most revolutionary way possible.

That’s all I’m going to stay about it. Read this book. Immediately.

 

One does not become more intelligent or wise simply by being born in a more modern age. The knowledge and understanding of previous generations is not absorbed through some default means.

No. To gain that knowledge we must read. We must actively seek out those shoulders before we can stand on them, and I for one am tired of stumbling upon profound wisdom that should have been part of my early education. Here’s what I’m doing about it:

http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtinfluential.html

I am building a master book list. Please let me know, either by comments here or via email, what you think should be included. The only criteria is that they should be must-reads — i.e. books that should, in your opinion, be required reading of all humans during secondary education and/or university. I’d prefer your favorite classics, but new books are fine too.

If you’re a geek like me, your books are a source of pride and joy. For those who love reading and learning, your book collection is something to be cherished and displayed. What follows is the best way I’ve found to inventory and search your collection.

Archiving

The best resource I’ve found for inventorying your books is LibraryThing.com. Using this amazing resource you can import your books and have them displayed beautifully, with all the information you could possibly want on each entry. The system uses a database that’s linked with Amazon as well as dozens of other sources. The sheer number of options is staggering; you can tag your books, compare collections with other LibraryThing users, and even connect with others that have similar interests.

Searching Your Library

Being able to find what you’re looking for in a large collection is a must, and I’ve come up with a pretty cool way to search my library without even navigating to the main LibraryThing website. Using Firefox Quicksearches you can actually search your entire book collection right from the Firefox address bar. Here’s how you set it up:

1. Create a LibraryThing account and add some of your books
2. Go to your library and right-click inside your search field
   
3. Name the search and add a keyword for it, such as “books”
   
4. Once you’ve saved the bookmark, go into your bookmark management and edit the bookmark’s location field with the following url:

   http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=danielrm26 &view=danielrm26&searchmode=Books&searchbox=%s&searchButton=Search

5. Replace my username with your own (red)
6. You’re done. Now, from Firefox’s address bar, type:

   books $searchterm

   You’re instantly taken to LibraryThing.com and shown all of your books relating to your searchterm. Repeat as desired.

Searching On The Go

Ever been in the bookstore looking at a particular selection and been unsure about whether you had it already? Well, LibraryThing puts and end to that as well.

Naviage to http://www.librarything.com/m from any web-enabled device, enter your username, and you can search your books before making the purchase.

Enjoy.:

I’ve posted about this before, but if you are a reader and don’t use LibraryThing.com — you’re missing out.

LibraryThing lets you archive, rate, and search your books, as well as compare your collections to those of others. It’s totally amazing. I just signed up for the life membership for just $25.

Seriously, go check it out.

LibraryThing.com

About LibraryThing.com

LibraryThing.com Zeitgeist

My Library

(** Oh, and the coolest feature? http://librarything.com/m lets you check whether or not you have a book from your phone/pda while you’re in the bookstore)

This site will let you select the book you have from Amazon and a number of other sources, and then maintain a list of what you own. Very cool stuff — especially for geeks like me that have over a hundred technical books and need to know exactly what we currently own to avoid buying duplicates. :)

http://www.librarything.com/