HN Books @HNBooksMonth

Finite and Infinite Games

https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/...

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquir...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060589469/

IMO, It's more "philosophy" than "programming", but it makes you think about the role of technology in our lives and our role as creators of that technology.

This sounds a lot like the open vs closed system debate we had/(have?) with computers. I'm glad that in my youth I could wrench on the internals of a PC and I'm glad that in my 30s I never have to because my Mac 'just works'. Also, this debate is older than I am: http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry...

⬐ soared

The PC v MAC is an interesting parallel. Sure you can mod your pc and fix it yourself, just like most cars today. You also need very specialized skills and could ruin your whole system (Car or computer). Mac on the other hand, you can't really mod, but it just works and thats good enough for most people.

The difference is cars need regular maintenance and computers don't. The author is claiming maintenance on Tesla's is difficult, but he dismissed the point that they might not need regular maintenance like other cars.

I think only time will tell (a justification on most of his points) whether Tesla is the Mac of cars, or if Teslas still need regular maintenance.

⬐ dragontamer

http://www.consumerreports.org/cars/tesla-reliability-doesnt...

Consumer Reports claims that Tesla does not have high reliability. Defective drivetrains are far more common than they should be.

⬐ loopbit

If you had read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance you'd known that it has very little to do with actual motorcycle maintenance, apart of using it as a tool to make its point.

⬐ wetmore

This is a kind of dickish way to reply. Yeah it's not the original point but there is a discussion of this issue in it IIRC.

⬐ loopbit

It may have come across dickish, It was not my intention. I had no time to go in more detail and just left it as a note.

As for the issue at hand, yes, it's mentioned nearly at the beginning of the book, when the narrator is discussing the motorcycles each character has and why they chose it, mentioning the two views[0]. If I recall correctly, there's no discussion, it's simply there to give an example of the concept of quality that the author is trying to define. Anyone thinking that the book has anything to do with actual motorcycle maintenance (or worse, trying to use the advice) didn't understood the ideas and concepts of the book.

[0] The tinkerer, open view, exemplified with an old motorcycle (of which I don't remember the make) vs the "it just works", closed view, using a brand new BMW.

⬐ pcarolan

Dust off your copy and go reread it under a tree.

It's particularly cool that "quality" is the word dissected in this article.

Robert Pirsig wrote a whole book[1] about Quality: specifically the unique characteristic that it doesn't completely resides in an object itself, nor does it reside completely within the subject experiencing the thing.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060589469