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Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

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Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#61

Post by eatonphil »

dondraper36 wrote: post #49
eatonphil wrote: post #46

Focused on systems and design for backend devs: 1. High Performance Browser Networking 2. Designing Data-Intensive Applications 3. Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Services 4. Effective Python: 90 Specific Ways to Write Better Python I wrote in a bit more detail here: https://notes.eatonphil.com/books-developers-should-read.htm... . Personally I would definitely not put Pragmatic Programmer, C…

Have you seen the book "Web Scalability for Startup Engineers"? I think it's also good for system design. Definitely not as deep as DDIA, but I would say it's a decent prerequisite :)

Nope, I haven't seen it!

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#62

Post by readthenotes1 »

Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design, Gause+Weinberg

This book introduced me to the questions I should have been asking before starting to write software and helped me make a lot more money by impressing people with those questions.

Included in the book are context-free and meta-questions which are useful in all sorts of arenas.

By forcing me to become immersed in separation between functional and non-functional requirements, I began to understand the importance of the non-functional requirements (software quality attributes) and have since found that it is a useful distinction in the pursuit of living well.

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#63

Post by preordained »

1. Effective Java. The mentality/no-nonsense approach more than anything...the language itself not my favorite these days.

2. Headfirst Java. A stepping stone book like above, but it was very helpful in progressing from "here are variables and control statements" to here are the wide range of things a language can do in the later sections.

3. TCP/IP Illustrated. I never really saw the use in pulling back the curtain of some these lower level details in most modern development, but having pulled it back I can say it is absolutely useful/enlightening/worthwhile.

4. The Haskell Road to Logic. Educational exploring some math and logic through the lens of a programming language.

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#64

Post by kstealth25 »

1. The Millionaire Next Door - I read this as a kid and took away the importance of owning your own business and living below your means.

2. The Good Earth - Another book that I read as a kid that I think about often…specifically about the choices the family makes as their fortune rises and falls.

3. Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works - I like the 1 page canvas for capturing assumptions and the product & solution interviews.

More recently, I read Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. I wonder if the central message of this book (“you can’t do it all & how to embrace that”) will stick with me.

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#66

Post by asar »

1. Atlas Shrugged - made me understand the complex relationship between politics and the business world

2. The Code Book - gave me a great appreciation for cryptography and its historical importance

3. The Swerve - made me understand how the renaissance came to be and also showed me what great writing and unique research can accomplish

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#68

Post by mindentropy »

idontwantthis wrote: post #13
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #10

Probably not the answer you are looking for but Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. So much of our career path is decided on relations more so than deliverables, also self-promotion is key but it doesn't come naturally for everybody. The idea that I shouldn't self-promote (because somehow it felt like bragging) and that people will notice if I do amazing work but stay silent was probably one of the…

I’d recommend reading this and then immediately reading Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. Carnegie opened my eyes to how to communicate productively, but it’s also a really manipulative way of being. Nonviolent communication comes from a position of love and understanding instead of just getting what you want. There is significant overlap, but where they differ, NVC is going to lead to better relationsh…

>Carnegie opened my eyes to how to communicate productively, but it’s also a really manipulative way of being.

I find it odd that people keep raving about this book. As you said it is a very manipulative and exploitative way. It is ok if you are just aiming for getting what you want. Instead I find Robert Green's books which callout and does not sugar coat anything.

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#69

Post by hnthrowaway0328 »

sedeki wrote: post #17
rg111 wrote: post #7

1. Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, Walker 2. Quantum Mechanics by Eisberg, Resnick 3. Mathematical Physics by Arfken, Weber, Harris 4. Introduction to Statistical Learning with R by Hastie et al. 5. Deep Learning for Coders by Jeremy Howard

I want to self-learn physics from scratch. I have a degree in mathematics, but my understanding of physics is embarrasingly shallow. Is Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday et al a good starting point for me?

Aha, it looks like we have similar objectives.

I'd like to understand General Relativity, and do not care about Quantum Physics. I have found this post to be helpful. Hopefully it can help you to some degree, too.

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/14074/what-are-t...

Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?

#70

Post by npteljes »

leetrout wrote: post #12

"Peopleware" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peopleware:_Productive_Proje... We are still making the same mistakes managing software projects and teams 30 years later.

Looking at construction projects, making the mistakes seems a millennia-old tradition at this point.
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