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The question

Whose work do you read even when you disagree with them?

Originally asked

Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017

Vox used this as one of nine fixed questions in its 2017 series on intellectual habits.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

RW
Richard Wolfson

Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury College

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
I chose this book because it’s written by a physicist, very elderly now, who has spent all his life working in controlled fusion. The title is a take on Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth . The first part of the book is Chen claiming that fusion is indispensable for our future, and why. He has a very readable section on climate change, a section on fossil fueled energy and a section on renewables—in which I disagree with him strongly, because he denigrates solar energy—and then goes on to say that we need fusion.

Sophie Roell, Five Books interview, published transcript, 24 May 2021 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 26 →
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Novelist and essayist
The Wall Street Journal editorial page, because I imagine it to be what the thoughtful American right reads.
Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 27 May 2017 source ↗
Guy Raz Radio journalist and podcast host
I don’t think there is a better journalist than Hitchens writing in English. The power of his arguments – they’re so crisply written, they’re so forceful that, if you are on the other side, they almost strangle you. There’s nobody more compelling to read. Every time I read him, I learn something from him. His arguments are so tight, they’re hermetic. It’s very difficult to take them apart. I certainly don’t agree with him a lot of the time, but you can’t but be in awe of the way he can build an argument.
Recorded Five Books interview, published transcript source ↗
Ariel Rubinstein Professor of economics at Tel Aviv University and New York University
Firstly, Bob Aumann is a very special man. I disagree with him about his political views – he is a right-wing person. I disagree with him about his current position on “what game theory is about”. From time to time he expresses views – about politics for example – backed with the authority of the great game theoretician. I don’t like those statements. In spite of this fact, I admire him for his academic work and personality.
Recorded Sophie Roell, Five Books interview, published transcript, 6 December 2016 source ↗
Bill Nye Science communicator and television presenter
I disagree with virtually everything I’ve ever seen on Fox News, but I watch it anyway.
Recorded Sean Illing, Vox, “9 questions” series, 17 June 2017 source ↗

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