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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?

#241

Post by boruto »

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…

Would you recommend it to a non electrical engineer. Who is interested in power systems?

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

#242

Post by aleclm »

nextos wrote: post #180
aleclm wrote: post #22

For compiler theory, "Principles of Program Analysis" (by Nielson, Nielson, Hankin). It is so foundational to what we do at rev.ng, that we gift a physical copy of the book to every interviewee, even if they don't pass.

Wow, I never expected Nielson & Nielson to be mentioned here. It's one of my favorite books, I have referred to it in some of my past comments, and certainly the best static analysis textbook out there. I actually took several courses from the authors some years back, and implemented most of the book for a not-so-simple imperative language, including e.g. abstract interpretation for detecting out-of-bounds array acce…

> certainly the best static analysis textbook out there

During my PhD I really felt stupid reading Muchnick and not getting data-flow analysis. Nielson & Nielson literally saved my PhD and enabled the creation of the company. I'm so grateful.

Do you have any contact? It'd be cool to invite one of the authors to our weekly internal meetings.

> the authors have written a prequel

Oh crap, that's great!

Honestly, we use Chapter 2 a lot, it already provides so much value. And in fact, you could write a whole book only about that.

Here's our C++ implementation of MFP:

    https://github.com/revng/revng/blob/develop/include/revng/MFP/MFP.h#L66
Having infinite time, it'd be nice to rewrite some LLVM analyses using it.

We joke saying that we'll open a new company when we start using Chapter 3 effectively. :)

Btw, if you're in a CEST-friendly time zone and are interested in what we do, drop us an e-mail :)

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

#243

Post by pawelmurias »

xcambar wrote: post #150
cercatrova wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 answe…

Dawkins is a priest of atheism and his book is an apologetic tex, so don't expect a more nuanced study of religion from an anthropological point then you would expect from the pope.

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

#244

Post by justin66 »

kristiandupont wrote: post #81

I am going to repeat what I always say when these book threads come up: I love all the recommendations here but please say a word or two about why you recommend said books. Sell them to me, don't make me do the work. Dumb lists of titles are so uninteresting.

> Dumb lists of titles are so uninteresting.

The most information-dense form of book recommendation possible is probably a “dumb” list consisting largely of books one knows and appreciates, with one or two new titles in addition. I’ll probably learn more about where a person recommending a book I haven’t read is coming from based on a list of their favorites than I will from the text of a hastily constructed review.

In any case, I wouldn’t dismiss someone out of hand for providing a “dumb” list.

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

#245

Post by noud »

dxbydt wrote: post #212
shanusmagnus wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how you laid this out as a tension between two worldviews. I'm curious: as a seeming master of the "bag of tricks" worldview, do you feel like having fully absorbed so many "tricks" has given you a kind of empirical insight into things? In other words: have the tricks, when crashed against the real world over and over like you describe, oozed into something akin to a larger theoretical sense of things? Or do t…

i will unfortunately give you a half-assed response. Because the truth will take up a lot of time & space & is very inflammatory. So here's what I honestly believe - there are only isolated tricks. The ones who sit in judgement of us, like savants, and claim some sort of coalesced mastery of these tricks into some larger theoretical construct, are faking. They are good at faking, so we listen to them. They have bette…

One of my teachers taught me this: "If you apply a trick once, it's a trick, if you apply it twice, it becomes a method."

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

#246

Post by kennend3 »

thushan wrote: post #177

From the lens of a Product Manager working in ML / Large Language Models... The Alignment Problem By Brian Christian How do we tell the computer to do all the things we want it to do, all the things we don't want it to do, and all the things we didn't realize we want it to do or not do? How do we capture the rich implied and inferred nature of humanness? That's the Alignment Problem. The book dives into this broadly…

Nice list. I looked at "An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management" and think i found my next read so Thanks.

+1 for Principles (disclaimer - I'm a former BW employee).

Having worked at several large banks it is clear to see how they would benefit from basic rules like "no water cooler talk" and a clearly documented culture.

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

#249

Post by edumucelli »

"The Art of Computer System Performance Analysis: Techniques for Experimental Design, Measurement, Simulation and Modeling"

I have seen so many errors on computer science benchmarks and experimentation that I think this book is a must read when it comes to "how to compare things" in computer science. It goes from the basics to advanced scenarios. I have really great memories of studying quantitative methods during my Master's Degree and reading this book. It is really an underrated book. The confidence it gives when you base your experimentation/benchmark on the theories this book gives is amazing, whatever your audience is you can step in and present the results feeling that what you present is really what it is.

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

#250

Post by andrewlgood »

lioeters wrote: post #218
wunderlust wrote: post #90

My field of study (what I really like to think and learn about) isn't my field of work, but I like the question so I'll spill some thoughts. I spend a lot of time thinking about philosophical-ish stuff, so here are some books that have had the strongest residual effects (whether that's changing how I think, changing what I think about, changing my values, or simply getting the thought ball rolling faster): Ishmael (D…

The Planiverse: Computer contact with a two-dimensional world - by A.K. Dewdney > A mind-bending, paradigm shifting visit with Yedred, a denizen of the 2 dimensional Universe. It is written so that the physics comes through very easily for those without science training. A university student discovers that this being Yendred is communicating with him through his computer. There begins a lively dialog as both the 2D Y…

I read Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game several times in my younger days. I was a Hermann Hesse fan. I echo the recommendation but would add what I found most appealing about it is the idea that all knowledge is related. Once players study for years, they realize mathematics and music theory are related. Architecture and geometry are related. By analogy all knowledge is related and one can glide from one concept to another (in a Glass Bead Game) and tell interesting stories. Very influential to me on universality of learning and knowledge.
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