The vast majority of tech books are garbage and are often obsolete I don’t read any without a good recommendation and I get few. I always see a few gems like “mastering vbscript” kicking around corporate offices.
Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
161–170 of 184 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#162I used to buy hundreds of physical computer books but I've switched 100% to ebooks. I noticed that I finished the ebooks more often than physical ones and when I dissected my behavior, I realized that it was the heavy weight (e.g. 3 lbs) of the physical book that nudged me away from reading it . You can't hold a thick computer book in 1 hand. And propping it on your chest while laying down is also uncomfortable. Yes,…
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Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#163Yes. It's mildly embarrassing but I've learned most languages and tech in the same way: buy a book, leave it in the bathroom and whenever I pee or poop I open it at a random page and read. If it's a new page, good if not then it's a good refresh. With ebooks it just doesn't work, with mobile devices I get distracted.
Watch out, you don't want to condition yourself to need a dump every time you see a code block or forced analogy.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#164To be honest, I don't think using programming language (e.g. learn Go) books is a great way to approach learning as it's a bit too passive and often ends up as coffee table material. I'd argue trying to build a project and using the latest documentation helps things stick better. Obviously better if you have to do it for work. On the other hand, programming and architecture concepts (e.g. designing data intensive app…
I think this is fair.
I do have to say though, as a past "video learner" I've switched to books and I don't think I'm going back.
If I'm in a crunch, videos and docs are great. Learning a "new" thing, the books are great mostly because _usually_ the author is experienced and most importantly (imo) it reveals unknown uknowns.
I think for me I learn best by Doing -> Books -> Videos
But really, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#165I still like physical books for the fact that I learned to study by doing a lot of highlighting and note taking. It's just a bit more of a pain in the ass to do all of that when you've just got a PDF. You get what you pay for in a good book by a good author from a reputed publisher most of the time. They're SO HEAVY, though, and since I live on the road my books are my heaviest possessions. I always end up giving the…
+1 for that recommendation
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#166Yes. It's mildly embarrassing but I've learned most languages and tech in the same way: buy a book, leave it in the bathroom and whenever I pee or poop I open it at a random page and read. If it's a new page, good if not then it's a good refresh. With ebooks it just doesn't work, with mobile devices I get distracted.
I usually read hn on the loo (not a shitpost pun/joke) as idle reading, and sometimes I discover interesting products or news. Aside: it feels like being on the toilet is the most "me time" I get lately, so maybe I should change that lol. Do you read the book first start to finish, and then add it to your bathroom library after for this random reading, or do you go straight to random loo reads?
Honestly, the toilet is like sacred ground for me these days. No kids, no work, no chores. I can read and be left alone and it is literally the only time of my day that is true.
My family probably thinks I have a severe bowel problem because sometimes I hang out in there for like a half hour.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#167It really depends on who wrote the book. I don't really care about whether it's on papers or on a screen.
I was once quite confident about my knowledge on PHP (version 5), thought I learned it all. Then I brought a book from O'Reilly for the newbies in the team, flipped a few pages before handover, learned a few new damn things myself.
I would totally recommend to read a book while learning a big topic (such as a language, framework etc). There are so many things that if you know, you'll be a better user.
Yes, so many things change, but, so many things don't. Plus, you can buy another book to learn the new knowledge.
With that said, I want to go back and remind: know the author and read the review before you buy, don't waste your time on bad books.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#168No. Last ones I read were about XMPP and the leading Erlang server implementation of it known as eJabberd. It was fun in a way to learn from a textbook, but I think it's just too slow and deliberate for modern programming. Even back then, the real learning only started when I sat down with eJabberd's src, a code editor, and a compiler. Nowadays things move faster. Mainstream software tools shouldn't require a serious manual, and for special snags, your best friends are solid GitHub Gists and StackOverflow answers. Math is a different story.
The last tech book I acquired was on FreeBSD system administration, found discarded on a street in Berkeley, CA.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#169I buy physical tech books because I enjoy writing notes in them to keep track of concepts while reading.
For example I have a copy of the excellent Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision by Hartley and Zisserman filled with little sketches and notes I took in the margins while trying to grok the book, and it’s kinda nice to be able to thumb through the book and review concepts complete with my previous thoughts and notes. I could of course do the same on my tablet or in a separate notebook of course, but something about the space constraints and commitment of real marks on paper makes it feel more rewarding.
Re: Ask HN: Do you still buy physical tech books like “Learn Rust” or “Learn Go”?
#170Yep