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Heh, I remember reading William Poundstone's books "Big Secrets" and "Bigger Secrets" as a kid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Secrets ). They're mostly about debunking or explaining various urban legends and conspiracy theories. I'm not sure how well they've stood the test of time, but they definitely had a formative impact on my thinking in a way that I only suddenly realized upon reading his name thirty some years later.

Everything written by Poundstone is worth reading.

A highly inspiring book, for sure. In my own case, it has led to a handful of blog posts about HashLife, a literate programming implementation, implementing Life on a Turing Machine, and of course, Conway’s passing from COVID-19 led to a post about FRACTRAN and the Collatz Conjecture.

We may not break new ground, but when we read about something and are inspired to write code and play with ideas, we engage with the idea at a deeper level than simply reading to comprehend.

What a great post.

Glad you liked it!