Nobody has mentioned the “Do Committees invent” paper by Melvin Conway. It’s the origin of Conway law, but the actual paper is way deeper than that
Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
91–100 of 140 posts
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never understood what engineers find in this book. It looks like a shallow kitchen philosophy of a guy next door to me. What you think is so good about this book for engineers, in a nutshell?
Did you read the whole book yourself or just skim it? (asking sincerely)
i've tried few times to fight through first several pages - it gets dead boring and meaningless right from beginning
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#93The Design Of Everyday Things by Don Norman might be something of interest https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/840
Seconding this. It's an important book for all kinds of design I would also recommend "Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship" by Robert C. Martin. It focuses on crafting higher quality code, which is the property of it not only running well, but being easy to understand and to work on
I'm curious as to how you feel about this[1]?
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#94If you want the philosophical approach to the way to do things on Unix systems, you can’t beat “The Art of Unix Programming” by ESR. That book flipped my whole understanding of the way to write code more than any other book.
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never understood what engineers find in this book. It looks like a shallow kitchen philosophy of a guy next door to me. What you think is so good about this book for engineers, in a nutshell?
The core thing is exploring just exactly what is subjective and what is objective, and whether quality is subjective or objective. Pirsig came up with an answer, and then goes on to talk about excellence (arete). Thinking back, this discourse seems like it was deliberately embedded in a kind of every day, guy-next-door narrative in order to touch on lived experience of "quality". Although Pirsig didn't explore it, qu…
i donknow... wasting so much time just to get a basic idea that quality is important looks like a terrible book to me.
Of course in the context of "books useful for engineers".
If you just enjoy someone's couch philosophy - i can totally understand that and agree that the book may be great.
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are several ways to approach the Tao Te Ching, including the mystical, but I think that there's a great book that explains the underlying approach the Chinese have, called, Treatise on Efficacy. Essentially, in Chinese philosophy, any given situation has a propensity (water tends to run downhill). It is therefore more effective to work with that propensity, than it is to work heroically against that propensity.…
> Essentially, in Chinese philosophy, any given situation has a propensity (water tends to run downhill). It is therefore more effective to work with that propensity, than it is to work heroically against that propensity. Interesting, this is similar to the Hindu/Indic idea of dharma (e.g. the dharma of water is to flow) and the idea of working with/towards dharma (both of oneself and the world generally). (Dharma re…
The notion of propensity/flow made me question if one's life is not best when being able to see and surf trends as you need. Tiny soft and round exchanges between all parties.. a kind of dance.
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#97You did say philosophy of engineering, right? Look no further than “The Specialist” by Charles Sale “YOU'VE heard a lot of pratin' and prattlin' about this bein' the age of specialization. I'm a carpenter by trade. At one time I could of built a house, barn, church, or chicken coop. But I seen the need of a specialist in my line, so I studied her. I got her, she's mine. Gentlemen, you are face to face with the champi…
Thank you so much for that. It is wonderful. So therefore you must be. I am from Ireland and the whole sense of it resonates with me; the soft humour, the self-confidence, the sheer loveliness of his outlook, the different times.
And the beautiful "nartural" language used is a joy. Cheers.
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#98“The unwritten laws of engineering”
https://www.asme.org/publications-submissions/books/find-boo...
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#99[dead]
Re: Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?
#100You did say philosophy of engineering, right? Look no further than “The Specialist” by Charles Sale “YOU'VE heard a lot of pratin' and prattlin' about this bein' the age of specialization. I'm a carpenter by trade. At one time I could of built a house, barn, church, or chicken coop. But I seen the need of a specialist in my line, so I studied her. I got her, she's mine. Gentlemen, you are face to face with the champi…
I found an small old copy of The Specialist without any attribution in a junk shop a few years ago and went down a short research rabbit hole about Chic Sale. Thanks for the reminder!