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

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

#73

Post by Trundle »

I'm surprised to see basically only books on how to be better at making software. Nothing on negotiation or other soft skills like that.

Do people generally just not value things like negotiating? Or do you just not think a book would have helped younger you?

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

#74

Post by tabtab »

modbait wrote: post #4

1. The Mythical Man Month. Quite old, but still a classic. 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.

Dilbert! Amen. Humans are not Vulcans.

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

#75

Post by senorsmile »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #43
busterarm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a sense, I agree with you, but TPP is specific to a software organization and I find it "translates" better, especially to the inexperienced.

You make a compelling argument that making the information accessible is more important than the means of conveyance. This is a good point for many books listed in this thread: it doesn't matter how you pick up the design pattern knowledge, the algorithm knowledge, the code quality knowledge, etc etc, so long as you get it, and with complete understanding.

Couldn't agree more. The fact that there are options out there means that there are more ways for these things to hopefully "click".

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

#76

Post by jpamata »

Designing Data-Intensive Applications[0] by Martin Kleppmann. There's a previous HN thread about it[1]. Helped me understand a bit more about databases and systems. The book is also very approachable and has the perfect blend of application and theory at a high level that anyone approaching the industry for the first time stands to gain a lot from reading it.

The Architecture of Open Source Applications[2] series is a good one for leaning how to build production applications and you can read it online. The chapter on Scalable Web Architecture[3] is a must-read.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Data-Intensive-Applications...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15428526

[2] http://aosabook.org/en/index.html

[3] http://aosabook.org/en/distsys.html

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

#77

Post by sidcool »

Trundle wrote: post #73

I'm surprised to see basically only books on how to be better at making software. Nothing on negotiation or other soft skills like that. Do people generally just not value things like negotiating? Or do you just not think a book would have helped younger you?

I can recommend two books, Crucial Conversations, and Getting to Yes.
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