Reddit reviews Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Firstly, I love that dude in that gif up top. I can't not smile like a maniac when I see it!

Last year I read 26 books in total. A lot of those were literature from a course I was studying and included such classics as The Cruicible, Maus and Lolita to name a few of my favorites.

A large amount of my other reading was biology/physiology related books to do with my degree, which I will spare you all from here, save one honourable mention to a complete story of cancer research and treatment starting from it's inception to relatively present day. The book is called The Emperor of all Maladies and it is a "biography" of cancer and it's treatment written by a very prolific caner researcher. It has loads of really heartwarming (and emotional) first hand stories and really gives you a up close and personal look at the world of cancer without you necessarily needing a scientific mind.

This year I want to get a bit more casual with my reading, maybe lay off the science so much and read more for fun again. I have been meaning to go back to the Artemis Fowl series as I really enjoyed it as a kid. I have been told it is a good one to re-read as an adult. I also have a metric tonne of assorted Douglas Adams books that I want to read, including all of the Hitchikers and Dirk Gently series.

I was going to ignore what you wrote because it was just so ridiculous and showed how you aren't really aware of how the world works. But after seeing the amount of downvotes my comment got compared to your upvotes, it seems a lot of people are really not sure how things work.


Let me break this down then:

> True. I mean what good do the universities do? It's not like they do cutting edge research that can alleviate poverty, streamline factories and form new economic policies.

Do you have any evidence for this? Do you know of any major technological breakthrough that has occurred because of university directed and funded research? No, you don't. Because there literally isn't any major breakthrough from such research.

The internal combustion engine was made by a man in the United States in his garage by trial and error. He did not go to university. His name was Henry Ford.

The Internet was a project which started as a spy network to gather Russian data and intelligence for the US Army.

The US could have been dependent on the Arab state for their oil imports (like India) but through sheer ingenuity and entrepreneurship, they figured out fracking and they produce natural gas without having to depend on anybody else outside. It wasn't a university project that made it happen.

Consider the war on cancer - the US universities poured in billions from the 1940s till now on research on how to beat cancer. Has it been successful? No. In fact, read the book The Emperor of All Maladies in which the author argues that such directed research may have actually slowed down to finding the cure for cancer.

There is simply no evidence that University labs have alleviated poverty or streamline factories although they have formed new economic policies which have been mostly disastrous for the world economy. All the improvements in the standard of living and technological innovations have been because of entrepreneurs and companies who deserve every bit of the money they get. Because they make huge strides, the benefits trickle down to the rest of the people.

> Look, the free markets aren't the magic solution to every problem. If you let the free market (aka Indian parents) decide what kind of schools we want right now then I'm sure they'd want a cramming cage where children are prepared for the IITs from their nurseries. Letting the markets decide what is a good school and what is a bad one is an immensely stupid idea

Free markets are not the magic solution but they are the best solution yet. Compare the countries which have adopted free markets with a stable rule of law and compare socialist countries with both top-down and bottom-up policies. Socialism has failed everywhere and failed to produce any advances when compared to free markets.

Regarding your parents remark, do you know what are the regulations of setting up a school? Do you know schools in India have regulations ranging from the size of a classroom window to the area of a playground? Who can comply with these sort of requirements if not the rich and well connected to politicians? Free markets with these sort of regulations only result in a very limited number of good private schools and a vast number of pseudo-private schools run by politically affiliated people who can compromise on the regulations and get away with it.

Right now, your parents do not have any real choice when it comes to selecting schools. India has become a degree factory with a very limited number of institutions that actually teach something of use to its population. Have you asked yourself how does the CBSE and the State Board set their curriculum? Listen to this podcast - http://www.seenunseen.in/episodes/2018/7/16/episode-77-education-in-india

> Right, which is why most of them need government welfare schemes to survive right? Such wealth much immense benefits.

This is such a trivial statement. You are just being ignorant here. Compare social welfare schemes of the US and India and you will see the difference. A simple google search will tell you the difference between how many people depend on the welfare system. Besides, who do you think funds the most of these welfare schemes? The top 1% pays the bulk of taxes that goes into funding social schemes.

It is kinda disheartening to see so many people despise capitalism here. Capitalism has winner-take-all effects but it is the only solution yet that has created prosperity for most number of people. Hope you read some books and stuff and change your view.