Hacker News Books

...'Charles Mackay, whose 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions' and 'the Madness of Crowds' of 1841 have had huge and undeserved success'.

Another example of books which get it all completely wrong yet become what people believe and 'how history happened'...

• The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray

• Consciousness by Annaka Harris

• More From Less by Andrew McAffee

• The School of Life: An Emotional Education

• Perfect Sound Whatever by James Acaster

• Humble Pi by Matt Parker

• The Last Pirate of New York by Rich Cohen

"perhaps the greatest contribution the Bitcoin experiment will make to humankind is to teach you and me and our neighbors more about the realities of economics"

I most certainly wish this was the case, however the cycle of booms and busts rarely teach anyone anything. Think about how they were documented in the 1800s, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds specifically, they STILL teach that book in plenty of schools, and yet the same idiots believe this time, things'll be different.

> I wish there was some rulebook on how to spot trends that will be short-lived.

It's not exactly a rulebook, but if you read enough of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, there are some patterns that recur over and over. It was written 180 years ago, but it's amazing how little the psychology behind manias has changed.

In particular, a good golden rule is to not follow people into an investment that you don't understand because you are blinded by greed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusion...

You reason why you think the book is not worth reading, which is fine with me. Reasoning why other people should not read the book is fine as well. As far as I'm concerned you're free to picket in front of the book store with a sign "don't buy this book", all of this falls under freedom of expression which is - barring illegal actions - a given as far as I'm concerned. What is not OK is to call for a book to be banned so others can not read it even if they want to. There are many books out there which espouse ideas which I do not hold with but I will not call for them to be banned.

I will not go too far into the whole 'trans issue' since that is a minefield which can not be negotiated without having a current map which is likely to try to send me ways I'd rather not tread. What little experience I have with the phenomenon tells me that people who were 'born in the wrong body' just want to be accepted for what they are without being forced into a cheerleader role for a team. The book - which I have heard about, having listened to several interviews with the author as well as having read Douglas Murray's "The Madness of Crowds" - calls for caution in performing irreversible operations on children, something which I whole-heartedly support. As far as I know - from having listened to the author as well as several others lecturing on the subject - the large majority of children who present as 'trans' end up as gay or lesbian, at ease in their own bodies. To me this makes it clear that a call for caution needs to be heard, given the irreversibility of sex change operations and the negative effects of puberty blockers.

It is topical.

There are good, solid reasons to believe that today's monetary and fiscal policy is dangerous and wrong-headed (I say that as a liberal closer to Paul Krugman than Ron Paul but sympathetic to some points made by each).

The trouble is that those seeing the current problems look for pig-in-poke solutions rather than getting a solid understanding of what's happening.

I would strongly recommend a critical reading of Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin, Paul Krugman's blog and at least a university level text on Money and Banking. Also Charles Mackay's classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds also merits a look.

Many people have an emotional reaction to money. This emotional reaction is part of what can make something "money-like" but if one wishes to understand what's going on, one needs to get beyond one's immediate reaction.

Don't be surprised if in the next edition of A Random Walk Down Wall Street cryptos get appended to chapter 2, The Madness of Crowds. Events like these are embarrassingly similar to those that have occurred in past bubbles. If you have any skin in this game (as I do) you'd do well to read the aforementioned chapter and start planning your exit strategy.