UCLA

Graduate Student

Department of Computer Science, UCLA

Joseph D. Kulisics

Kulišić Кулишић    居候犬

Projects

I like to study on my own—studying alone is much better than going to school—because I can take my time and thoroughly cover material. I've come to view several classics or especially didactic texts in a range of fields as projects through which I should carefully work for my own edification. I began to complete some of these projects in my late twenties, and I'm keeping this log of my work as a motivational tool.

• Mathematics
• The Calculi of Lambda-Conversion, by Church
• Linear Algebra, by Friedberg, Insel, and Spence
• Computer Science
• None
• Chemistry and Biochemistry
• Structure and Bonding, by Barrett
• The Humanities and Social Sciences
• Treatise on Law, by Aquinas
• General
• Watching all Academy Award nominees for Best Picture or Best Director

• Mathematics
• Functions and Graphs, by Gelfand, Glagoleva, and Shnol
• The Method of Corrdinates, by Gelfand, Glagoleva, and Kirillov
• Trigonometry, by Gelfand and Saul
• Algebra, by Gelfand and Shen
• Axiomatic Set Theory, by Bernays, Part 1: Historical Introduction, by Fraenkel

  Fraenkel's introduction to the set theory monograph by Bernays offers a concise overview of the motivations for the development of axiomatic set theory and the general form of that development.

• Computer Science
• The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson and Sussman

  If you read only one book in the field of computer science, make it this book. No other work explores the range of subfields covered in this book with similar depth and coherence. The problems are challenging—I spent close to a year working through the programming problems from the text—but completing the problems teaches more about computer science than you can possibly imagine. This book made me into a computer scientist.

• Chemistry and Biochemistry
• None
• Anthropology
• Totemism, by Levi-Strauss
• Biography
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Haley
• Education
• Toward a Theory of Instruction, by Bruner
• Feminist Theory
• States of Injury, by Brown
• The Imaginary Domain, by Cornell
• Intercourse, by Dworkin
• History
• Eichmann in Jerusalem, by Arendt
• The history of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
• The Rage and the Pride, by Fallaci
• No One Left to Lie to, by Hitchens
• The Trial of Henry Kissenger, by Hitchens
• In the Shadow of the Sun, by Kapuscinski
• Shah of Shahs, by Kapuscinski
• The Impossible Country, by Hall
• Music
• What to Listen for in Music, by Copland
• Philosophy
• The Birth of the Clinic, by Foucault
• Discipline and Punish, by Foucault
• Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth Century French Hermaphrodite, by Foucault
• The History of Sexuality, by Foucault
• The History of Sexuality, Part II: The Use of Pleasure, by Foucault
• The History of Sexuality, Part III: The Care of the Self, by Foucault
• Madness and Civilization, by Foucault
• Mental Illness and Psychology, by Foucault
• Remarks on Marx, by Foucault
• This is not a Pipe, by Foucault
• Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, by Kant
• The Communist Manifesto, by Marx
• Beyond Good and Evil, by Nietzsche
• Ecce Homo, by Nietzsche

  I only read the parts commenting on other work of Nietzsche that I studied.

• On the Geneology of Morals, by Nietzsche
• Thus Spoke Zarathustra, by Nietzsche
• The Euthyphro, by Plato
• The Apology, by Plato
• The Crito, by Plato
• The Phaedo, by Plato
• The Symposium, by Plato
• The Republic, by Plato
• Psychology
• Beyond the Pleasure Principle, by Freud
• Civilization and its Discontents, by Freud
• The Ego and the Id, by Freud
• The Interpretation of Dreams, by Freud
• Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, by Freud
• Moses and Monotheism, by Freud
• New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, by Freud
• Totem and Taboo, by Freud
• The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, by Freud
• Theology
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• The Diamond Sutra
• The Heart Sutra
• The Gospel According to Matthew
• The Gospel According to Mark
• The Gospel According to Luke
• The Gospel According to John
• The Confessions, by Augustine of Hippo
• The Baghavad-Gita
• The Koran