When comparing :59 Seconds vs Rationality: From AI to Zombies, the Slant community recommends :59 Seconds for most people. In the question“What are the best non-programming books programmers should read?” :59 Seconds is ranked 4th while Rationality: From AI to Zombies is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose :59 Seconds is:
Clear, logical, well laid out, whilst including well-told stories. Reasonable contents/summary section at the start. Available both in dead tree and kindle formats.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Programmer-friendly
Clear, logical, well laid out, whilst including well-told stories.
Reasonable contents/summary section at the start.
Available both in dead tree and kindle formats.
Pro Entertaining
A good read to dip in to.
Pro Backed up by evidence
Every piece of advice is backed up by evidence from peer-reviewed studies that are clearly referenced.
Pro Easy to follow
Split into manageable chapters, with clear, brief summaries than you can genuinely use in under a minute.
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
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.