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Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

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Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

#73

Post by thro388 »

probablypower wrote: post #38

For power system operations: "Power System Stability and Control" by Prabha Kundur ( https://www.amazon.com/System-Stability-Control-Prabha-Kundu... ) It is the bible of modern power system operations, and it will become more and more important as more renewable energy comes online. Understanding the concepts presented in this book is the difference between "why haven't we hit 100% renewables yet?!" and "we need mark…

》as more renewable energy comes online.

Maybe better name is "unstable" energy. Some types of renewables are stable (water dams, geothermal).

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

#75

Post by gavinray »

Not a professional database developer but study it in my spare time

Books that stand out to me are:

- Database Internals, Alex Petrov

- Database Design & Implementation, Edward Sciore

- How Query Engines Work, Andy Grove

These have been much more useful than IE the Cow book or "DB Systems The Complete Book" to me.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

#76

Post by dkural »

docdocgoose wrote: post #44

Principles of Neural Science by Kandel et al Molecular Biology of The Cell by Alberts et al Janeway’s Immunobiology Robbin’s Pathologic Basis of Disease All of these books are extraordinary in their sheer ability to organize thousands of small details into thematic narratives of how life operates. They also reveal how hard we humans try to narrate life into tidy, comprehensible themes. These books are all of an era (…

This is a great list. I'll add the following covering related areas:

Cancer - by Weinberg

Introduction to Proteins - Kessel, Ben-Tal (an older classic is Proteins by Creighton)

Developmental Biology - Gilbert

Organic Chemistry - Clayden et al

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

#77

Post by jackconsidine »

I run a professional software-development firm, and Managing the Professional Service Firm by David Maister is the most accurate and instructive book I've read on the topic (and not for lack of other books).

Maister basically made a manual of my whole world which includes things I never thought about like "leverage formulas" and "service programs". Would highly recommend if you are a partner of a firm or thinking of starting your own.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

#78

Post by philliphaydon »

Lots of interesting suggestions from people!

I love “the inmates are running the asylum”

This book made me feel like a shit developer, but also made me change the way I think about software. I think it made me a much better developer in how I approach a problem and how I solve it for the customer.

Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?

#79

Post by dkural »

These two books I read recently are real gems / eye openers for me, which changed my view on many things:

Robert C. Allen - The Industrial Revolution: A very short introduction (don't be fooled by the book series, every sentence carries its weight).

C.S. Lewis - The Discarded Image (we get so many things wrong about what people before us thought and why).

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