Ask HN: Books you should have read when you start a career in SE / CS?

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 practices.

Reading these books after you've been a practicing programmer means,IMHO, that the return you get from reading them goes way way down.

You'll find that you've already learned all/most? of what they are trying to teach.

You'll find yourself getting frustrated that they are preaching what you already know as common sense and first principles.

Or put another way, I'm not sure there is much that someone who has programmed for 5-10 years can get out of those books that they haven't picked up somewhere else already or learned the hard way.

2. Dilbert. This comic series is an excellent introduction into how corporations actually work.

3. The Systems Bible. Somewhat obscure. Fascinating ideas on how large systems, both technical and organizational, actually work.

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.

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 can go wrong and right with different personalities interacting with highly technical ideas. The project in this book starts without the consent of management, which to me shows the value of questioning the system to add business / engineering value.

3. Little Schemer

Small book that will give your brain a serious workout and show you how to problem solve with Lisp like languages. Even if you never end up using a Lisp dialect, this book expands your brain.

I have more here, all of which I recommend for software and other careers http://benbrostoff.github.io/books/