# Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a tool for understanding modern culture and media, once the dense French prose is worked through. The most common caveat is that it is hard to read.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful for understanding modern culture (3 comments): "once you worked through the book, it is a phenomenal tool to understand modern culture" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371540)) "Suddenly, wildly, pertinent to today's world." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49273240)) "Also worth reading, especially today in LLM age" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48168857))
- Disneyland observation sticks with readers (2 comments): "I always liked his observation that Disneyland was created in order to make the rest of America seem real." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49369410)) "That quote has always stuck with me. It's haunting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49372749))

## What people warn about

- Dense, hard-to-read French prose (4 comments): "Great book, though it requires a bit of experience sifting through florid 20th century French philosophical prose." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49370677)) "It took me about 20-30 re-reads of the first page to understand it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49372876)) ""readable and accessible" are some of the last words I would use to describe the book" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49370915))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Tao Te Ching by Laozi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tao-te-ching-translated.md): 32 recommend
- [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance.md): 24 recommend
- [Meditations by Marcus Aurelius](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meditations.md): 17 recommend
- [I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/i-am-a-strange-loop.md): 16 recommend
- [The Republic by Plato](https://hackerapproved.com/p/republic.md): 11 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0472095218?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780472095216) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard", https://hackerapproved.com/p/simulacra-and-simulation/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).