I’ve never been to China, but would love to go, especially after reading Liu Cixin. It’s been fascinating exploring the Eastern way of thinking–very old, very mature, yet so different from Western thought.
- I loved the book Three Body Problem by Chinese author Liu Cixin, but The Dark Forest is twice as long and, I think, twice as good. This trilogy is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Cixin might not be as inventive as Neal Stephenson and he may not have the character breadth of fantasy authorBrandon Sanderson, but in terms of pure science fiction, he’s up there withIsaac Asimov.
- The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why by Richard Nisbett dives into why China never developed science in the Western sense, but how their very different way of thinking led to many pragmatic inventions and a worldview Westerners could learn a lot from. I’m only a couple chapters in, but have already have learned a ton.
- Speaking of different ways of thinking… I’ve seen The I Ching, or, Book of Changes referenced many times, but I’ve never read it. I’m still a complete noob but this version has a great forward by Carl Jung (read it online here). He explains how what could seem comparable to astrology or a magic book of spells can be useful to even the Western mind.
- ? is “wood” or “tree” in Chinese. ? is “forest.” Cool.
- That 423% number came from WolframAlpha, one of the most impressive search sites on the Internet.