# General Relativity by Robert Wald

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/general-relativity/

5 people recommended General Relativity by Robert Wald in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 3 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

3 of the 5 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “What is a manifold?”.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a mathematically modern, coordinate-light textbook on general relativity, often named among the classic GR texts.

Summary written by Claude from 8 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Mathematically modern, not coordinate-heavy (2 comments in the sample): "So much more painful to learn from than Wald or other mathematically modern treatments of GR" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45812822)) "good to know Wald is mathematically modern and not encrusted with coordinates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45814783))
- Named a classic GR textbook (2 comments in the sample): "A good textbook treatment is that of Wald (1984" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439311)) "the two great classic GR textbooks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439264))

## Other physics textbooks people recommend

- [The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Feynman, Leighton and Sands](https://hackerapproved.com/p/feynman-lectures-on-physics/): 33 recommend, 1 mixed, 3 criticize
- [University Physics by Young and Freedman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/university-physics/): 5 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Computational Physics (2nd Edition) by Giordano and Nakanishi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/computational-physics/): 4 recommend, 1 mixed, 1 criticize
- [Picturing Quantum Processes by Bob Coecke](https://hackerapproved.com/p/picturing-quantum-processes/): 4 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "General Relativity by Robert Wald", https://hackerapproved.com/p/general-relativity/ (5 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.