One of the threads like this one has prompted me to start reading the book Molecular Biology of the Cell several years ago. I need to get back to it.
I realized after getting a degree in engineering from CMU that I should've loved biology so I went back to school after working as a software engineer for a year and studied neurobiology. And since then, I've suggested that people early in their career should take a break and go back to school and study something totally different.
This is one of those perennial HN favorites<p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?query=I%20should%20have%20loved%20biology&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?query=I%20should%20have%20loved%20bi...</a>
>It was only in college, when I read Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach<p>I see this book referenced all the time (HN, tech CEOs, misc. articles, etc), especially from folks who got into AI early. Is it really that amazing? Or is this some kind of signaling folks like to do to prove their smarts? Or both?
The author prefers people read his newer book I am a strange loop since it more directly represents his views. He’s apparently frustrated that nobody gets the point of GEB (which is to discuss consciousness).
I read it shortly after it came out when I was in high school and it was sort of a mind blow - perhaps just because in the early 80s we didn't really get exposed to so many interesting ideas.
It is unique; you've certainly never read anything else quite like it. Hofstadter is a careful thinker who loves language and wordplay. I've read a number of his other books, and some of his ways of thinking have stuck with me for years and shaped the way I see the world.
It's a good book, despite its flaws. It offers a lot of deep insights and I think it really inspired a lot of people, myself included.