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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?

#141

Post by photochemsyn »

Molecular Quantum Mechanics by PW Atkins and RS Friedman

Kind of a niche subject but this one really stands out. The prerequisites are a fairly solid understanding of linear algebra and differential and integral calculus. It's for anyone interested in spectroscopy from IR through UV, the electronic structure of molecules, approximate techniques, molecular symmetry and group theory, computational matrix-based methods, etc.

For background on computational linear algebra, this one is great:

Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction by David Poole

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

#142

Post by sarchertech »

kilotaras wrote: post #109

Designing Data Intensive Applications is one of the most useful books if you work with big systems. Doubly so if you're actually working on a system like that. Nicely threads a line between too dense and too watery.

One of the best books I’ve read in years. There’s very little fluff, which is exceedingly rare in a technical book.

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

#143

Post by rramadass »

User23 wrote: post #61

Dijkstra’s A Discipline of Programming and its spiritual successor that he did with Scholten Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics . They changed how I think about programming.

You must surely then get his (with Feijen) book A Method of Programming. It is designed for classroom use targeted at a "introductory programming curriculum".

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

#144

Post by sarchertech »

spapas82 wrote: post #122
lamontcg wrote: post #110

Here's a request: someone once recommended a text book which lays the foundations for understanding all different kinds of programming languages (and presumably their design tradeoffs). And the people who had read it commented that it made it easy to understand different programming languages quickly. Anyone got an idea of what book that might be?

A classic reading on the field of programming language theory is the Sebesta one: Concepts of Programming Languages.

The programming language concepts class I took in college used that as our text book. Looking back it was one of the most useful classes I took.

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

#145

Post by rramadass »

throwaway5371 wrote: post #15

all of Tanenbaum's books, especially Structured Computer Organization

>especially Structured Computer Organization

+1.

One of the best books explaining the abstractions and layering involved in Computer Systems. For some reason not many people know about this.

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

#146

Post by idlewords »

If you're interested in the effects social media has on political and civic life, these are two great books to read. One is recent, the other is a foundational classic of social psychology:

- Zeynep Tufekci, Twitter and Tear Gas, The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest (2017).

- Erwin Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956)

Goffman uses a theatrical metaphor to talk about how our behavior and social life is affected by our perceptions of who the audience is for our actions. Zeynep writes about how the magnifying and flattening effects of social media have been both a help and hindrance to large-scale organizing. Both are wonderful books.

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

#147

Post by meiji163 »

heinrichhartman wrote: post #3

# Pure Mathematics / Geometry - Harshorne - Algebraic Geometry - Bott, Tu - Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology - Milnor, Stasheff - Characteristic Classes - Milnor - Morse Theory - Serre - Linear Representations of Finite Groups - Fulton - Intersection Theory

Milnor is a wonderful writer, in his books as well as his papers.

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

#150

Post by xcambar »

cercatrova wrote: post #134
_qua wrote: post #120

The Selfish Gene should be read by everyone who studies biology or life science. Modern biological sciences are underlied by an understanding of evolution an genetics. I had heard variants of the phrase "change in allele frequency in a population over time," as a description of evolution many times starting in high school. But it wasn't until I read The Selfish Gene in college that I really understood what this meant…

Indeed. We are only vessels for our genes, what we do doesn't really matter as long as we pass our genes along, from the perspective of our genes. I would also recommend other Dawkins books such as The God Delusion, it was one of the pivotal books that turned me from someone vaguely religious to an atheist. It explains simply how the various fallacies of religions are explainable and unwrappable.

> It explains simply how the various fallacies of religions are explainable and unwrappable.

It might be a very good book, but that sort of comments is divisive and does not show as understanding and hence, doss not sell the book, to me at least.

The question of God from an anthropological perspective is fascinating, as it emerged all around the world in completely disconnected populations and societies, yet to answer the same set of questions: how did we happen to be? Why? Are we accountable for anything?

It does not suggest any existence of God, of course, but it does suggest something deep that is that somehow, sentient creatures require answers to what they deem beyond them and typically, Homo Sapiens did/does invoke variations around the idea of superior beings to answer these questions.

As such, I do not understand why some so-called atheists continue to throw stones at religious people instead of showing curiosity at the larger phenomenon.

Religious institutions, though, are a well-organized scam around the beautiful anthropological and philosophical question of God.

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