When comparing Rationality: From AI to Zombies vs Zen and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance, the Slant community recommends Zen and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance for most people. In the question“What are the books outside the technology field that every developer should read?” Zen and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance is ranked 4th while Rationality: From AI to Zombies is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Zen and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance is:
How do we know how much to tighten a nut ... and then stop? Lovely stuff on fixing things...
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Will make you smarter
Your intelligence is being used to defeat itself. Learn how to stop that.
Pro Mindblowing ideas
From (friendly) AI to (philosophical) zombies. Also Pebblesorters. And why humans are insane.
Pro Fictional interludes
These are quality science fiction short stories in their own right.
Pro Funny
Pro Engaging
Pro Because he has a wonderful riff on 'gumption'
How do we know how much to tighten a nut ... and then stop? Lovely stuff on fixing things...
Cons
Con Not enough citations
Just Google it.
Con Has some highly technical references in places
Things like physics (relativity, quantum mechanics), mathematics and computer programming. Scared? Didn't think so.
Con Long
The chapters are relatively short and digestible essays and short stories. The problem: there are 333 of them. On paper, this would take volumes, but this is an ebook. You'll get a lot out of it long before you finish though.