And yes, in today's world, you don't solve anything IRL using closed form expressions, you use numerical methods. Now, there are tons of books on the various numerical methods, but that is a more sophisticated topic IMO. I'd consider that a graduate topic since in order to understand those methods, one ought to have a decent understanding of the more elementary math used to build them.

this reminds me of the old argument about science over the arts and vice versa. each side thinking they are more important to our civilization than the other.

this reminds me of the old argument about science over the arts and vice versa. each side thinking they are more important to our civilization than the other.

So you do understand this. Then why do you avoid applying for jobs in sectors that use numerical methodology or, in other words, 'applied mathematics' (though I despise the term).

Also I don't think we need to be so categorical about 'books that will make you X' - I think reading is a great pleasure and you don't have to limit your reading to 'non-fiction' to benefit from it.

So you do understand this. Then why do you avoid applying for jobs in sectors that use numerical methodology or, in other words, 'applied mathematics' (though I despise the term).

Also I don't think we need to be so categorical about 'books that will make you X' - I think reading is a great pleasure and you don't have to limit your reading to 'non-fiction' to benefit from it.

someone has to actually know what they are doing...

Read:

Alberts' Molecular Biology of the Cell
Martini & Nath's Anatomy and Physiology
Sears and Zemansky's Introductory Physics
Atkin's Physical Chemistry
Voet's Biochemistry
Taylor's Classical Mechanics
Curtis' Linear Algebra
Haberman's PDE
Horowitz and Hill's The Art of Electronics
Griffiths' Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, and Introduction to Elementary Particles
Schroeder's Introduction to Thermal Physics
Hecht's Optics
Fraleigh's Introduction to Abstract Algebra
Munkres' Topology
Rudin's Analysis


These are, in my opinion, the best introductory textbooks to various topics in STEM. I will assume you are familiar with 200 level STEM, such as calculus+differential equations, chemistry, biology, physics, etc. These books are all from undergraduate courses. The reason I chose them is because they each teach you a huge amount about the topic they cover. You could read them in descending order as listed. If you were able to get through all these books, you would have a good survey of biology, chemistry, physics, and math at an undergraduate level. If you knew about 90% of the material from all those books and were able to do the exercises, you'd be considerably more competent than the average BS in physics, math, biology, or chemistry. If you got through this entire sequence of books, you'd definitely think in an entirely different manner and have a far greater appreciation for the universe.

Yeah...every single book on that list is a textbook. The reason is that most books that are not textbooks are bullchit. In terms of nonSTEM topics, another book that I think is worth a read is Smith and Roberson's Business Law. The questions were kind of fun to do IIRC but it's been forever since I took the course, and the book is designed to very clearly explain common law. I remember they also had some interesting cases and stuff.

There is another set of harder books, but those are for grad students and specialists. Anyway, you can get these books off library genesis (duckduckgo it...it's the gen lib rus ec link).

When you read textbooks, it is important to realize that it really doesn't matter if you understand every last detail. As long as you follow some of the steps, you can keep going. You will still get a lot out of a read. You don't have to be a total expert. You can always refer back to previous things if you are lost. I've put some of the most interesting and least difficult stuff first to read. Getting through all these books would take serious study, and probably about 5 years, maybe longer depending on your skills and how busy you are with other things...

IMO Alberts' book is an amazing book worth going through. You can also look up videos for the processes they describe in the book. Sometimes the video conveys the idea better than text.

Constantly reading and lifelong student crew. Not novels or full encyclopedias but constantly reading articles, doing research, reading up on finances and my industry, etc etc etc

almost everyone does this lol, even low iq homer simpson boomers read the newspaper and ****. it's clearly not making them too much smarter. reading a book at length is different, it's like a form of meditation where your brain chemistry is calm and can go deeper in thought. when you read an article you sort of just blast through it.

lol wtf you some kind of genius bro? i'm guessing you got most of these through uni and that's why you've read so many textbooks. i looked up the first one and it's $110 or something.. i'm not spending that on a book. if i could pay after reading it and i think it's worth it i would but it's too risky otherwise, i might not like it. i'm used to spending like $8 a book on kindle lol and getting to read a sample first, which ends up in me rejecting tonnes of books i would've otherwise had to pay for and waste my money. with a textbook it's a bit hard to 'sample' it in this way, you'd want a hard copy. the reviews look pretty good though.

But what about

lol @ the anti-book *******s ITT...

What are some books you would recommend OP?

Read:

Alberts' Molecular Biology of the Cell
Martini & Nath's Anatomy and Physiology
Sears and Zemansky's Introductory Physics
Atkin's Physical Chemistry
Voet's Biochemistry
Taylor's Classical Mechanics
Curtis' Linear Algebra
Haberman's PDE
Horowitz and Hill's The Art of Electronics
Griffiths' Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, and Introduction to Elementary Particles
Schroeder's Introduction to Thermal Physics
Hecht's Optics
Fraleigh's Introduction to Abstract Algebra
Munkres' Topology
Rudin's Analysis


These are, in my opinion, the best introductory textbooks to various topics in STEM. I will assume you are familiar with 200 level STEM, such as calculus+differential equations, chemistry, biology, physics, etc. These books are all from undergraduate courses. The reason I chose them is because they each teach you a huge amount about the topic they cover. You could read them in descending order as listed. If you were able to get through all these books, you would have a good survey of biology, chemistry, physics, and math at an undergraduate level. If you knew about 90% of the material from all those books and were able to do the exercises, you'd be considerably more competent than the average BS in physics, math, biology, or chemistry. If you got through this entire sequence of books, you'd definitely think in an entirely different manner and have a far greater appreciation for the universe.

Yeah...every single book on that list is a textbook. The reason is that most books that are not textbooks are bullchit. In terms of nonSTEM topics, another book that I think is worth a read is Smith and Roberson's Business Law. The questions were kind of fun to do IIRC but it's been forever since I took the course, and the book is designed to very clearly explain common law. I remember they also had some interesting cases and stuff.

There is another set of harder books, but those are for grad students and specialists. Anyway, you can get these books off library genesis (duckduckgo it...it's the gen lib rus ec link).

When you read textbooks, it is important to realize that it really doesn't matter if you understand every last detail. As long as you follow some of the steps, you can keep going. You will still get a lot out of a read. You don't have to be a total expert. You can always refer back to previous things if you are lost. I've put some of the most interesting and least difficult stuff first to read. Getting through all these books would take serious study, and probably about 5 years, maybe longer depending on your skills and how busy you are with other things...

IMO Alberts' book is an amazing book worth going through. You can also look up videos for the processes they describe in the book. Sometimes the video conveys the idea better than text.

Whatever, dude. You want a list of books where you actually learn things and expand ur mind, read the books I listed. You want some bullchit, go read Dostoevsky and pretend ur cultured, *******. I suppose the latter will impress low iq lib females at bars.

Whatever, dude. You want a list of books where you actually learn things and expand ur mind, read the books I listed. You want some bullchit, go read Dostoevsky and pretend ur cultured, *******. I suppose the latter will impress low iq lib females at bars.

Would do this if I was rich too. Tell society to fack off and just expand your mind for a bit.

I love how people attribute success to just luck so they can be lazy and not work hard....

it is not like MJ, Kobe, jeff Bezos, bill, steve jobs, Arnold etc didnt work hard at what they did, they all got lucky lolll

Warren buffett said by the age 11 he read every single book on investing in the library..... all just luck. He even said iq doesnt make you successful and it is actually a negative in some cases because you think you are smarter than you really are and do dumb things to prove it.

I love how people attribute success to justluck

I just said those books would change ur life. Other books can be just fun to read. I used to read a lot of fiction when I was a child.

LMAO strong choice of author to ether yourself with.
"Dostojevskij gives me more than any scientist" - Albert Einstein

It's not that those guys didn't work hard, it's that for every Jeff Bezos type, there's a 100 other guys who are just as talented and just as hard working who are doing mediocre. That guy earlier hit the nail on the head about survivorship bias. Consider the founder of McDonalds who made it big when he was in his 50s and compare him to a guy like Zuckerberg who made it big in his 20s. Are you really going to tell me that the McDonalds guy was lazy from age 20-50 instead of unlucky?

Anyway, all the people too dumb to realize how important luck is are too dumb to accomplish anything even with good luck so keep believing what you're believing, no skin off my balls.