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A non-standard book list for software developers

mihaiolteanu.me

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Re: A non-standard book list for software developers

#2

Post by WinterMount223 »

Good books but still quite standard. Spivak’s is standard on initial calculus courses at universities.

If you really wanted non-standard but relevant authors I would add Feyerabend, Kuhn, Kahneman, Dostoyevsky, Borges, Taleb, Montaigne, Popper, Hofstadter, Don Norman, Alexandrescu. Add something about systems of representation by Kierkegaard or Nietzche or some interpretations by later authors.

Re: A non-standard book list for software developers

#4

Post by civilized »

WinterMount223 wrote: post #2

Good books but still quite standard. Spivak’s is standard on initial calculus courses at universities. If you really wanted non-standard but relevant authors I would add Feyerabend, Kuhn, Kahneman, Dostoyevsky, Borges, Taleb, Montaigne, Popper, Hofstadter, Don Norman, Alexandrescu. Add something about systems of representation by Kierkegaard or Nietzche or some interpretations by later authors.

The Calculus pick is completely fungible. There are at least two other popular Calc books that different people would say the exact same things about.

Euclid as the ideal place to learn logic seems debatable, although I can't think of a better resource off the top of my head.

The Xinu OS and LISP recommendations I've never seen before, so those were potentially valuable for me at least.

Re: A non-standard book list for software developers

#5

Post by mumblemumble »

I would suggest Essense of Decision (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essence_of_Decision)

Because when you're working on a larger software team, or even a small software team within a larger company, understanding how organizations actually understand the world and make decisions is invaluable.

A person can drive themself crazy expecting groups of people to behave like a monolithic rational agent.

Re: A non-standard book list for software developers

#7

Post by molteanu »

thwave wrote: post #6

> Proclus (ca. 335 BC) Proclus, whose quote opens the section on Euclid, lived more than 700 years after this date, well into the 5th century AD. Euclid himself wasn't born till about decade after, in 325 BC.

That is true. I've updated the info, though I couldn't quite find the exact date of the publication of "Proclus' Commentary on the First Book of Euclid's Elements".

Good catch! Thanks for the heads-up!

Re: A non-standard book list for software developers

#8

Post by dfaiv »

This looks great - thank you for sharing. Now, if this (getting rapidly older) software engineer just knew how to find a mid-(late?)-career job change where the interview consisted of geeking out about these books instead of if I know how to reverse a queue with the least amount of memory...

Re: A non-standard book list for software developers

#10

Post by jamjamjamjamjam »

civilized wrote: post #4
WinterMount223 wrote: post #2

Good books but still quite standard. Spivak’s is standard on initial calculus courses at universities. If you really wanted non-standard but relevant authors I would add Feyerabend, Kuhn, Kahneman, Dostoyevsky, Borges, Taleb, Montaigne, Popper, Hofstadter, Don Norman, Alexandrescu. Add something about systems of representation by Kierkegaard or Nietzche or some interpretations by later authors.

The Calculus pick is completely fungible. There are at least two other popular Calc books that different people would say the exact same things about. Euclid as the ideal place to learn logic seems debatable, although I can't think of a better resource off the top of my head. The Xinu OS and LISP recommendations I've never seen before, so those were potentially valuable for me at least.

What calc books are those? Reading a calculus book is a massive investment because I will be rereading pages. So I’d like to find the best one first
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