Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

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Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 64 comments. Each links to the original.

1. The author was clear that he makes his point early on and then just explains it many different ways

   Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Nobody finishes reading my books”

2. It is a popular science book which catches the vibe of mathematical logic in an excellent way.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

3. I find the book to be much deeper than just a threshold for conversational intelligence.

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “LLMs and self-referentiality”

4. I read it again and deeply regretted having put it down for those 12 intervening years

   Recommends · Sep 2026

5. I've found a lot of joy in wrestling with paragraphs and writing notes in the margins.

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported (2025)”

6. I loved the beginning, but for some reason I dropped off somewhere in the first 1/3.

   Mixed · May 2026 · in “There Is No 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'”

7. I read GEB several times and enjoyed the intellectual challenge and the humour.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

8. I felt that it dealt with otherwise-opaque topics in a very approachable way.

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

9. Hofstadter observed something transcendentally beautiful about self-reference

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

10. It rewired how I think about self-reference, consciousness, and abstraction.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What's a book that fundamentally altered your mental models”

11. If I could save only one of my books from destruction, it would be that one.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What's a book that fundamentally altered your mental models”

12. I read them from beginning to end but still have so much to learn from them!

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “How to Read More Books”

13. It's a good book, despite its flaws. It offers a lot of deep insights

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “I should have loved biology”

14. It made math come to life in way that my high school courses didn't.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

15. is notoriously digressive and quirky (looking at you, dialogues)

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

16. The extraneous stuff is what makes the book magical.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

17. many parts haven't aged all that well

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

18. I still love the quirkiness of GEB

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

19. a bunch of interesting talking points, only loosely related

    Criticizes · Sep 2026

20. if you find GEB a slog (which was also my experience)

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

21. she found it so boring she couldn’t finish it

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

22. it is pretty dated these days

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

23. our next impenetrable book

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

24. You might enjoy the book Escher Gödel Bach, the Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter, which will open up the world, power, and "danger" of proofs using contradiction to you.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Computation as a Universal and Fundamental Concept”

25. If you like the mathematical aspects of computer science and computability theory, cranking out proofs using lambda calculus and Turing machines fascinates you

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “I should have loved biology”

26. I credit GEB (and its dialogues like Little Harmonic Labyrinth) for helping prepare me to deal with the kind of multi-level abstraction

    Recommends · Sep 2026

27. I remember reading “Gödel, Escher, Bach” and getting into the rabbit hole of term-rewriting

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Lambda MicroEgg”

28. Hofstadter rebutted it very convincingly in GEB long before Penrose's books came out.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “LLMs and self-referentiality”

29. Both are heavy reads. But I would recommend looking at Wiki article before buying

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Thought-Provoking Books”

30. GEB annoys me in that I feel like the three figures in the title are ill matched

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

31. many find it underwhelming. There's no "aha" moment to be found in any of this.

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “I should have loved biology”

32. one of the main influences on my career, along with Goedel, Escher, Bach

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”

33. I dutifully went ahead and bought it, and I still work in logic today.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Principia Mathematica is modern and insightful”

34. It is unique; you've certainly never read anything else quite like it.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “I should have loved biology”

35. Much more interesting than anything I've got to say on the matter.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “How to Stop Being Boring”

36. I remember being very impressed with it and bringing it to school.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “LLMs and self-referentiality”

37. it really seems to trivialise the artistic achievements of Bach

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

38. GEB uses just ascii and a lot of the side task get obvious

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

39. If you find this interesting, I highly recommend reading

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “How Gödel's Proof Works”

40. I recommend _Gödel, Escher, Bach_ by Douglas Hofstadter.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “John Carmack about open source and anti-AI activists”