Sunday, December 8, 2024

Hoisted from the comments: non-science books for becoming a better scientist

EcologyHoisted from the comments: non-science books for becoming a better scientist


Recently, I asked commenters to share non-science books that had helped them become better scientists. Our commenters always come through! Here are just some of the suggestions from some of the commenters.

Also: Meghan, Brian, and I love that this post attracted numerous comments from brand new commenters. We love our regular commenters, but we also love attracting new commenters. So thanks for commenting, and hope you’ll keep commenting in future, whether you’re a longtime commenter or a newbie. 🙂

Here’s Pavel Dodonov’s blog post (in Portuguese) on what you can learn about doing science from the anime Saint Seiya.

Tanya Dapkey suggests former Pixar head Ed Catmull’s book on creativity, Helen McDonald’s collection of nature essays Vesper Flights, and the Seven Kennings fantasy series.

Daniel Vedder suggests “gaining at least a working knowledge in fields that offer a different perspective on [your] subject of study, including but not limited to business, art, engineering, or the humanities.”

Baseball fan that I am, I’m moving Amber Wright’s suggestion of Heads Up Baseball, by sports psychologist Ken Ravizza, straight to the top of my reading list.

Hal Caswell suggests books by writers about writing, particularly Ursula LeGuin’s essay collection Dreams Must Explain Themselves.

Rich Wallace sends us to Roger Pielke Jr.’s The Honest Broker, Wendell Berry, and a number of different pieces of nature writing and sci fi.

Chrissy Hernandez sends us to the writings of Maria Popova, on meaning-making in the lives of scientists and non-scientists.

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