131–140 of 283 posts
Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold is perhaps the most beautiful group of cook books, although quite pricey.
Professional Goldsmithing by Alan Revere is hands down one of the best books on jewelry fabrication in precious metals.
"Seeing Like a State" by James C. Scott I started my career in international development, and the book above provides a dozen case studies on states using scientific management, stats, etc. to try and control their growth/populations/economies and failing miserably. It is a beautiful book in that it illustrates how difficult it is to actually manage a country and economy well, especially if you are trying to complete…
This book is next on my reading list. One question that's come to mind before having read the book is if Singapore is an example of a highly-legible planned state's success?
"The Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss. (I'm a fantasy fiction writer)
Strangely enough nothing is coming to mind for my field, technical writing. Docs for Developers is great at covering the end-to-end basics of a high-quality documentation process. But I feel like there is some book out there that has inspired me to think more deeply about how to effectively communicate ideas and instructions to other people, which is the true heart and soul of technical writing as an art and science. How We Learn by Benedict Carey is the right direction but I don't remember thinking of it as a masterpiece.
"The Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss. (I'm a fantasy fiction writer)
Note that this is part of a trilogy that hasn't had the third book released and its been 10 years. I doubt it will be out in another 10, so tread with caution if you don't like to wait on a book release. Amazing book though.
Anyway, it may be for the best (think Matrix 3 and 4).
"The Slow Regard of silent things" is also a beautiful book that builds slowly and expands a little detail of the world of "The name of the wind"
I think Masters of Doom is a great book for getting people interested in either software development in general, or game development. Alternatively, some of the horror stories may actually turn them away. But every time I read it, I get excited about writing code again.
"Seeing Like a State" by James C. Scott I started my career in international development, and the book above provides a dozen case studies on states using scientific management, stats, etc. to try and control their growth/populations/economies and failing miserably. It is a beautiful book in that it illustrates how difficult it is to actually manage a country and economy well, especially if you are trying to complete…