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Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

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Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#21
1. The Bible. It encourages me to live in a way that's also good for others, especially when I'm feeling selfish and cynical, and it teaches me how to interact with them in a healthy way (e.g. the book of Proverbs).

2. The Elements of Style. I always enjoyed writing, but at first school taught me to write in a flowery, longwinded way. This was the book that cracked the code for me to good writing. It dispelled a lot of self-serving and ultimately self-defeating habits and paved the way to clean, helpful English. When I finally got into programming in my late twenties, I found that many of the same principles make good code.

3. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. This is like the Elements of Style but for graphs. Again, it encouraged me to cut through the hype and deliver the content as clearly and succinctly as possible --- to serve the reader, not stroke my ego.

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#22
1) Hackers and Painters, by Paul Graham—This book had a huge influence on me and is why I left a successful and growing low tech business in Asia to move to California and become a software engineer.

2) Zero to One, by Peter Thiel—Zero to one opened my eyes to several angles of business that I hadn't been thinking about. It made me think much harder about making long-term plans towards a concrete goal, even if changes must be made along the way. It also clarified my thoughts about the nature of competition and non-conformity. Courage is in even shorter supply than genius.

3. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell—While it's not a business book, this book is a deep look at mythology and psychology. I find it helpful both for understanding people and for understanding myself.

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#24

1. Ego Is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday 2. sidebar from /r/theredpill 3. The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime Book number 3 has probably the most 'click baity' and the most douchey title of all times. It sounds like one of those self help books or one of those get rich fast schemas but in fact, it's an eye opener and it encourages hard work.

TRP has a horrible reputation. What did the sidebar help/teach you?

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#25

1. Ego Is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday 2. sidebar from /r/theredpill 3. The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime Book number 3 has probably the most 'click baity' and the most douchey title of all times. It sounds like one of those self help books or one of those get rich fast schemas but in fact, it's an eye opener and it encourages hard work.

Is #2 a joke? I sincerely hope it is. Such a hateful ideology has no place on Hacker News

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#26
Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman. Learn why we're fools by nature.

Incerto - Nassim Nicholas Taleb (4 volumes, with The Black Swan as my favourite). Learn how not to be a fool, or at least, minimize its impacts.

The Startup Owner's Manual - Steve Blank. Learn how to find your way through the market.

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#28
Career not life, so:

K&R C (Draft ANSI Edition) - A small book that shows how you should write. Many of the examples are not really good code anymore, but it traveled and inspired.

Perl Little Black Book - I needed to learn Perl and it was packed. Much like many of the ORA pocket references, except with a lot more examples. My copy is in rough shape with flags, notes, and highlights.

I will have to dig it out of a box, but I had a system process and design book from a college class that I used extensively in my first decade of work. I think I internalized it all. I put the book in a crate with my K&R C book waiting for a good shelf to put it on when I get somewhere a little more permanent.

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#29

Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman How I raised myself from failure to success in selling, Frank Bettger Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Daniela Meadows Most important thing is to get up and start doing stuff, understand how you personally f$$k things up and reap benifits of compound interest in personal development. I think these three bookshave a lot of information that is usable in any career or path one might…

Donella* Meadows is the author of #3

Great primer for folks unfamiliar with systems engineering.

Re: Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?

#30
post #7

Practical skills are easily acquired. Personal skills and greater self-awareness are what really fast-track you. 1) Scott Adams 'How to fail at almost everything' for life strategy. 2) Robert Glover's 'No more Mr Nice Guy' for assertiveness and being your authentic self no matter what. 3) As cliche as it is, 'The Power of Now' is a great source to return to in times of personal and professional woes. Good luck and Go…

I've not read any of those, but the title of #2 struck a chord. I remember years ago complaining to someone that the manager of a project whose code I needed kept refusing to fix the showstopping bugs in it. His answer was "go over his head to his manager. No more Mr Nice Guy." I thought it over and he was right: I'd tried being reasonable for as long as I could and this guy was preventing me from doing my job proper…

As a christian, I found parts of No More Mr. Nice Guy a bit less worthy, but I can highly recommend the book as a whole if you find yourself unbalanced.

The author isn't recommending anybody to be a jerk, but his admonitions to being more forthright, up-front, and a bit less scheming will help people find balance. And in consequence actually treating people with respect rather than project a somewhat false "nice-guy" facade.

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