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Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
71–80 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#721. An anonymous poaster in an image board who was very very passionate about SWE to such a degree it made me passionate about it too. 2. https://www.tedinski.com/archive/
Is 1 a reference to the /prog/ poster?
If so, his functionalCS syllabus is some of the best content online.
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#73Probably not the answer you are looking for but Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. So much of our career path is decided on relations more so than deliverables, also self-promotion is key but it doesn't come naturally for everybody. The idea that I shouldn't self-promote (because somehow it felt like bragging) and that people will notice if I do amazing work but stay silent was probably one of the…
I found Carnegie’s book terrible and impossible to finish. Though his advice (the main idea of each chapter) might be true, his supporting arguments are all purely anecdotal, are of dubious veracity, lacks nuance, and commit the logical fallacy of claiming correctness by bombarding you with examples that only repeat each other.
I’m still looking for a more science-backed book on influence and persuasion and I’m currently looking at Influence + Persuasion from the HBR Emotional Intelligence series. Would be happy to hear about others’ recommendations as well.
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#74Software Engineering Risk Analysis and Management by Charette. This unlocked the meaning of "risk" for mme and how it applies to engineering and systems.
VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures by Kenah. Not that anyone cares anymore but this provides a distinctively different description of operating system internals. Very different from Linux. Explains what goes on behind system calls; process creation; file systems and so on.
Structured Programming by Djikstra. Up there with K&R.
System Engineering Management by Blanchard. This introduces you to system lifecycles of very very large systems (pre-Google/pre-Meta). And how to manage the people building them and manage the engineering. Relatively hard to read; the NASA System Engineering Handbook or matching European references are easier reads.
C/C++ Users Journal (magazine subscription). Seeing a wide variety of programming styles, approaches to solving problems, and approaches to describing the solutions.
Various SQL language guides. Knowing SQL helps organize my problem solving even if a "database" is not part of the solution. "The" classic declarative language.
Other books already mentioned here: Mythical Man-Month; Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#75Probably not the answer you are looking for but Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. So much of our career path is decided on relations more so than deliverables, also self-promotion is key but it doesn't come naturally for everybody. The idea that I shouldn't self-promote (because somehow it felt like bragging) and that people will notice if I do amazing work but stay silent was probably one of the…
I’d like to also recommend Nonviolent Communication.
Like the other reply said: it’s an opportunity to switch one’s mindset from a manipulative one (getting people to… like you/whatever) to a mindset of serving what’s alive in them, and yourself.
It’s an invitation for a deeper alignment with one’s humanity and generates effortless compassion and understanding.
Leading to satisfaction much deeper than the one of getting your way.
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#76* Beyond Java, by Bruce Tate Convinced me to leave Java and start doing Ruby instead. Did a lot more programming languages since then. * Javascript the Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford Taught me how to write better js. Of course since then the language has changed so much that this little booklet is completely obsolete, but for a brief period, this book was absolutely essential. It's hard to single out a third book.…
> * Beyond Java, by Bruce Tate
> Convinced me to leave Java and start doing Ruby instead. Did a lot more programming languages since then.
So you did not like the book?
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#77Antipatterns
SICP
Sedgewick Algorithms
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#781. Fundamentals of Physics by Halliday, Resnick, Walker 2. Quantum Mechanics by Eisberg, Resnick 3. Mathematical Physics by Arfken, Weber, Harris 4. Introduction to Statistical Learning with R by Hastie et al. 5. Deep Learning for Coders by Jeremy Howard
> Deep Learning for Coders by Jeremy Howard
Can you discuss a bit more on this choice?
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#79* Beyond Java, by Bruce Tate Convinced me to leave Java and start doing Ruby instead. Did a lot more programming languages since then. * Javascript the Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford Taught me how to write better js. Of course since then the language has changed so much that this little booklet is completely obsolete, but for a brief period, this book was absolutely essential. It's hard to single out a third book.…
> * Beyond Java, by Bruce Tate > Convinced me to leave Java and start doing Ruby instead. Did a lot more programming languages since then. So you did not like the book?
Of course I did. It convinced me to move beyond java.
Re: Ask HN: Name 3-5 books that had the most impact on your career and knowledge?
#80Not books on Software engineering, but since you asked for most impact:
* Limits to Growth (Meadows, Meadows & Randers)
* Sustainable Energy: Without the hot air (David MacKay) Available here: https://www.withouthotair.com/
* Sitopia (Carolyn Steel)