Something for any industry that interests you. Computers are a tool. We use them not because a bubble sort is n-squared and quick sort is nlogn with a n-squared worst case. Step outside of your box and learn something about the real problems in the world and you will be the better as you realize how you can apply computers to solve the real problems.
Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
51–60 of 99 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#52Some I haven't seen mentioned here: 1. Coders at Work Peter Seibel does an amazing job of asking programmers questions that make them explain their methodology. The interview with Donald Knuth is awesome; really enjoyed hearing him talk about literate programming. 2. The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder's 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner I think is a brilliant case study on how engineers work together and the things that…
+1 for Little Schemer. Before I read it, I could write recursive methods, but after I read it I could think about recursion naturally.
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#53(1) Object Thinking by David West.
(2) Thinking Forth by Leo Brodie
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#54Linux kernel coding standard, for attitude rather than specific guidance?
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#55Some I haven't seen mentioned here: 1. Coders at Work Peter Seibel does an amazing job of asking programmers questions that make them explain their methodology. The interview with Donald Knuth is awesome; really enjoyed hearing him talk about literate programming. 2. The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder's 1981 Pulitzer Prize winner I think is a brilliant case study on how engineers work together and the things that…
The Soul of a New Machine is a wonderful book. I don't think it helped me career-wise, but it's an absolute joy to read.
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#561. Mythical Man Month - obvious reasons 2. Deathmarch: The Complete Software Developer's Guide to Surviving 'Mission Impossible' Projects- also a classic. 3. Thinking fast and slow - a great introduction to biases that will affect your thinking in any project. 4. The Art of War - strategy and tactics for attacking any problem. My personal favorite translation is by Thomas Cleary.
Don't read "The Design of Design" though. Brooks had some amazing insights in The Mythical Man Month and managed to be clear an concise in the points he wanted to make.
The Design of Design is just Brooks building a house. How the building project relates to software and what his point is, is never really made clear.
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#57The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development
It changed my understanding and thinking about how best to work flow development. I highly highly recommend this book to coders to managers.
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#58Three boks I'll recommend you read as soon as possible. 1) The Mythical Man month 3) The Pragmatic Programmer 3) Code Complete. The thing about these books, well atleast 1 and 3 is that when they were written they broke new ground. Or if that phrase bother you, they were the first mainstream publications that brought their core ideas to developers. Reading these books early in your career will help cement these best…
This x1000. I'm only just getting to reading these now 10 years into my career and I find them to be a bit useless for me since I've already picked up bits and pieces of each throughout my past jobs/companies. Would have been much better off earlier on if I had just read these beforehand.
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#59Web Scalability for Startup Engineers
Re: Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?
#60As far as a technical book, Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman. This book covers distributed systems as well as databases, data-warehousing, and data-processing. A lot of tools and patterns you don't see in school that describe how most of the "magic" behind high-powered software we use is implemented.
This should honestly be the top-voted answer. The standard palette of cargo cult options are at best a weak proxy for real-world experience.
But Kleppman's book is genuinely and outstandingly useful for understanding the various components involved in modern backend architectures.