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Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#32Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure.
Ignore the programming/technology part.
Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them.
Knot books.
"Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting.
"The Art of Intelligence", by Henry Crumpton.
"Diplomacy" by Henry Kissinger is an interesting read. It starts with the balance of power in Europe, raison d'état, Richelieu, "U.S. exceptionalism". It is well written.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's different in that you do have some subset of people who think they're doing things for the common good, and some actually are, but... "Greed is good" Gordon Gecko
Lots of finance people, rightly or wrongly justify their work as giving a valuable service to humanity: From "providing liquidity" to "absorbing risk" and "helping your pension grow" the list of supposed goods provided by finance is very long.
And they're not entirely wrong. Although there are benefits provided by other industries on net (probably including tech) that are greater.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#34I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating.
Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becoming, a chef.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#35I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating. Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becom…
Kitchen Confidential was really fun. The audiobook happens to be narrated by Bourdain, too.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#36Here's a reply[0] to a question that asked about directory structure. Ignore the programming/technology part. Military books (such as "One Bullet Away" by Nathaniel Fick or "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright which was turned into a mini-series on HBO). Field manuals can be interesting and you can learn a lot from them. Knot books. "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" by Robert Gates is interesting. "The Art of Intelli…
Since you called out working on a container ship, a lot of these have a nautical bent but that’s an area of my personal interest as well.
Looking for a ship, John McPhee, Book about a sailor looking for work and eventually catching a ship.
Born A Crime, Trevor Noah, not about another career but Apertheid South Africa, I enjoyed it and wished I would have read it before traveling through S.A. For work.
Don’t Tell mum I work on the rigs, she thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse, by Paul Carter, read this one awhile ago but it’s about an oil well driller. The industry has changed quite a bit since this book was written but I remember really enjoying it.
Salvage: a personal odyssey by Ian Tew. I enjoyed this book about a a salvage master out of Singapore
The ride of a lifetime by Robert Iger, book about Iger’s journey to being CEO of Walt Disney Company. A bit of insight to what the company executives are doing/ supposed to be doing?
Quench Your Own Thirst, Jim Koch, the founder of the Boston Beer company. He discusses some of the mistakes he made along the way too.
Good clean fun, Nick offerman
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#37I found 'The Prize', a history of the development of the oil industry, by Daniel Yergin, to be fascinating. Perhaps closer to your request, 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain comes the closest to describing life in a restaurant kitchen in a very entertaining way. (Source: Was once a dishwasher and cook in a couple places.) If you like Bourdain, his friend, Michael Ruhlman has several books on being, and becom…
Anthony Sampson's The Seven Sisters about the oil industry was also good although pretty old at this point. It does go into how the powers split things up post-WWI though.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#38The Secret Barrister. A little bit UK-centric but a lot of what is mentioned is really true of most modern criminal justice systems.
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#39Never split the difference : Chris Voss [0] &
Start with No : Jim Camp [1] opened my eyes to tactics used by sales/"business" folks when they negotiate with me and provided some tips which help me in my own negotiations. Case in point: A car dealer mentioned to me casually that a car whose MRP is AUD 38800 would never be discounted below 34000. I took it as a psychological "anchor" that had to be explored and negotiated rather than agreed upon without discussion. Started with a random figure of 32349 and ended up with getting the car for 33500 ( given that it was my first negotiation, I think it's a win :-) )
Influence by Cialdini is a timeless classic that helps me appreciate the fascinating world of human psychology
[0] https://www.amazon.in/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Dep...
[1] https://www.amazon.in/Start-No-Negotiating-Tools-That/dp/060...
Re: Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions
#40The Secret Barrister. A little bit UK-centric but a lot of what is mentioned is really true of most modern criminal justice systems.
The secret barrister and its sequel, Fake Law, are just fantastic introductions to the British criminal (and civil to an extent) justice system and its current failings, and where improvements can be made. I’d recommend it to anyone, even outside the UK, as so many of its lessons are generally applicable. Further, to a US audience, it might shatter some ingrained beliefs that all justice systems are the same globally (driven largely by tv and movie narratives).