
SICP review by Peter Norvig (2000) - safij
http://www.amazon.com/review/R403HR4VL71K8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
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ckuehne
"Most reviews give a bell-shaped curve of star ratings;"

Not true now [1] and not true back then [2].

[1] <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1134743> [2]
<http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/eclstabus/1670r.htm> (Fig. 1)

~~~
acangiano
The same was true for YouTube comments, and that's why they switched to
Like/Dislike buttons. When it comes to judging the value of things, people
tend to be all or nothing.

~~~
philwelch
That's more the case if you show some sort of aggregate 5 star rating on the
front page, I suspect. If you look at peoples iTunes libraries they probably
use 2-4 stars a lot and 1 or 5 stars more rarely. But on Amazon, people who
think a book is 4 stars but see it rated as 3 stars are going to vote for 5
stars to push it up more.

~~~
eru
They should aggregate the reviews by taking a median. That way there's no
incentive to game the system.

~~~
xenophanes
Only works if people understand there's no incentive...

Which they won't, cause math is so hard...

~~~
eru
Only the median voter(s) would need to understand that there's no incentive.

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zck
Also see pg's review, referenced but not linked from Norvig's:
[http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G05B1TQ5XGZP/ref=cm_cr_pr_per...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G05B1TQ5XGZP/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0262011530&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=)

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gcheong
<http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html>

~~~
hasenj
Lecture videos: [http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-
sussma...](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-
lectures/)

~~~
hga
Although note they are for the earlier edition of the book.

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drdo
I don't understand how someone could give it anything but 5 stars.

~~~
mathgladiator
Imagine if all you need to do everything is turn PSDs into HTML and your job
title is programmer.

And then someone shows you this book and tells you that every good programmer
loves this book and it is confusing. The reaction is always negative.

~~~
drdo
That is not the intended audience, it's a book about programming, not about
some specific technology.

~~~
msbarnett
Well, yes, but the people giving it one star appear to not understand that
they weren't the target audience. That's the point.

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spacemanaki
It's sitting open on the desk next to me. I have loved seeing SICP-related
links show up on HN over the past 6 months that I've been reading it.

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baddox
I loved SICP. That review definitely made me want to read TAoCP.

~~~
hyperbovine
Even for those who love SICP (and I count myself among them), reading TAoCP
cover to cover would not necessarily be enjoyable or fruitful. It's useful as
a reference, but not as a teaching text. (IMO.)

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hasenj
Sounds like a good description of "sensing" vs "intuition" in the Myers-Briggs
personality type indicator.

[http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-
bas...](http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-
basics/sensing-or-intuition.asp)

"Sensing" types will definitely hate this book, as they hate all high-level
conceptual talks and writings.

