Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
John Carreyrou wasn&#x27;t an expert on phlebotomy or biochemistry.  Roger Lowenstein wasn&#x27;t an expert on hedge funds or technical finance. Eric Schlosser on nuclear command and control? Nope. Woodward and Bernstein and constitutional law? Not so much!<p>I don&#x27;t think these are very good rules.<p>I thought it was especially amusing that this person doesn&#x27;t trust journalists to write about anything but journalism. If you believe that, why are you interested in reading about journalism in the first place?<p>HN has an unfortunate fixation on Michael Crichton&#x27;s supposed Gell-Mann amnesia effect (wherein you read something in the news that pertains to your field, spot errors, get angry, and then forget that happened when you go on to read the next story). I propose the countervailing Djikstra amnesia effect, wherein a technical professional produces workmanlike output with all the attendant errors and omissions that attach to any work produced by humans (Christ knows our field is intimately acquainted with errors and omissions), then forgets they did that, and expects every other professional to measure up to the standard they themselves failed to meet.