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Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

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Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#42

Post by pyronicide »

Here are some books that are a mix of psychology and economics that I think are especially suited for HN:

Behavioral Economics:

  Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely
  Nudge - Richard Thaler
  Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - Chip and Dan Heath
Economics:

  The Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Taleb
  Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb
  Drunkard's Walk - Leonard Mlodinow
Psychology:

  Opening Skinner's Box - Lauren Slater
Management:

  The Education of a Coach - David Halberstam

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#43

Post by RobKohr »

nate wrote: post #2

The Tao of Pooh, a book I read 10 years ago and just recently picked up again. Fantastic read. http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Pooh-Benjamin-Hoff/dp/0140067477 Taoism in general is something I'm going to dive more into.

Awesome. I loved this book. Easy read. Enjoyable.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#44

Post by Qz »

berntb wrote: post #36
aarongough wrote: post #15

I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi because I feel it makes people think about what they want the future to be, as well as avoiding the re-hashing of historical and current events that many fiction books set in the present do. With that in mind a list of great books to read: The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Gridlinked - Neal Asher Neuromancer - William Gibson The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamil…

I also liked most of those. I'm just reading Blindsight, wonderful. The only one I hated was "Market forces" by Morgan. It felt like reading "The Pilgrim's Progress", but with Chomsky as Jesus -- a little bit too heavy handed in political propaganda. For that kind of stuff done in a fascinating way, check Ken MacLeod's "The Stone Canal" and following. (Asher got a little too much of Space Opera for me, in the end.) F…

Greg Egan writes fantastic stuff.

Another really good book is Ventus by Karl Schroeder. It's phenomenally entertaining and has some really interesting ideas in it.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#45

Post by btilly »

I don't know what you mean by "related to software". I'm going to take a narrow definition that you mean related to the process of writing, designing, tracking, etc. So something like Information Rules on the economic theory of pricing software products is OK. Or a classic on managing software developers like Peopleware is OK.

Some other general business books I like include The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution and First, Break all the Rules. A non-software specific design book I highly recommend is The Design of Everyday Things. Even though it is geared towards manufacturing related industries, I'm also very fond of Winning at New Products.

If you haven't already you should learn more about negotiation. Even if your only negotiation is negotiating a new job every several years, reading a book on it is very worthwhile. If you can negotiate yourself an extra $1000 bonus, once, the book has paid for itself with interest. The two books I recommend there are Start with No and Bargaining for Advantage. I'd recommend the first if you need a general purpose bargaining strategy and aren't experienced. I'd recommend the second if you're an experienced bargainer who is looking to improve.

A few years back I read The Prince by Machiavelli. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

For general interest for anyone who likes math I strongly recommend The Mathematical Experience by Davis and Hersch. My summary of it is that Godel, Escher, Bach is the book that non-mathematicians have on their coffee table book, while The Mathematical Experience is the one that mathematicians have.

Lots of people gave sci-fi recommends for you. To those I'll add Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction series and Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series. Furthermore if you haven't seen it yet, go to an IMAX and see Hubble 3D. If you ever dreamed of space, you need to see it. Really.

For random science fact, I like Jared Diamond. I like virtually everything by Stephen J. Gould. I recently re-read Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and still love that.

I could list more, but that's enough for the moment.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#48

Post by ColemanF »

pyronicide wrote: post #42

Here are some books that are a mix of psychology and economics that I think are especially suited for HN: Behavioral Economics: Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely Nudge - Richard Thaler Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard - Chip and Dan Heath Economics: The Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Taleb Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb Drunkard's Walk - Leonard Mlodinow Psychology: Openin…

Another good Behavioral Economics book: Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman I liked it a lot better than Predictably Irrational.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#49

Post by dschobel »

I'll repost my suggestion from the last "great reads" thread on HN.

----------------------------------------

The Bet by Anton Chekhov

You can read it here: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bet.shtml

It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. It's so fantastically misanthropic, I cannot recommend it enough.

The polemic against society at the end is just epic.

Re: Ask HN: Interesting (Non software) books?

#50

Post by ColemanF »

The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century by Thomas P. M. Barnett.

It's like The World is Flat on steroids. It's probably even more pro free trade. It's the most optimistic look at world affairs I've ever seen. The idea is that trade ties countries together and makes them stop fighting.

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