Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#81

Post by samuell » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:31 AM UTC

These are the books that IMO felt worth really carefully digesting:

Software engineering practices:

- Designing Data-Intensive Applications

- Site Reliability Engineering

- Software Engineering at Google

- Designing Event-Driven Systems

- The Data-Centric Revolution

- Code Complete

- Data Management at Scale

Self-help:

- So Good They Can't Ignore You

- Deep Work

- A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

- Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

- Ultralerning

Misc:

- The book of proverbs in the Bible

- The rest of the Bible

- On Intelligence

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#82

Post by Bancakes » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:31 AM UTC

Books are free though?

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#83

Post by mongol » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:32 AM UTC

sgdpk wrote: post #10

gurjeet wrote: post #6

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 2. The Selfish Gene 3. Podcast: Kings of Kings https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings... Each one of these were worth every minute of read/listen. Edit to add: The world around us feels like it was created as we see it today. But these books and the podcast, combined, show us how we got here, where we are today. Wars, long periods of peace, pandemics, evo…

The Selfish Gene is great. The portions on Evolutionary Stable Strategies are particularly interesting. It shows how Darwinism can lead to a "steady state", where a population contains individuals with competing characteristics (selflessness VS selfishness), and why this not at odds with selection.

Yes it is certainly a classic, I think it belongs to a category of books that really changes how society at large reasons about things. There are not that many books of that kind.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#84

Post by hcks » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:32 AM UTC

epolanski wrote: post #20

- The Way of The Superior Man. The only "self help" book I give any credit. It really boils down to encouraging people to have a purpose in life and accept ourselves. - The Stupidity Paradox. Ever feel the world works in a "stupid" way? That your organization keeps promoting stupid ideas? Read this book and get into the roots of functional stupidity. It's a bit repetitive, but extremely insightful book. - Structure a…

SICP is literally computer science 101 in LISP. Personally I found it less englightening than doing medium/hard leetcode problems.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#85

Post by ThalesX » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:33 AM UTC

One of the best time / insights book I've ever read, as a product builder, is The Mom Test. I think the audio version is like three hours, and it's a good read | listen in my opinion: https://www.momtestbook.com

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#86

Post by babarock » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:36 AM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #64

epolanski wrote: post #20

- The Way of The Superior Man. The only "self help" book I give any credit. It really boils down to encouraging people to have a purpose in life and accept ourselves. - The Stupidity Paradox. Ever feel the world works in a "stupid" way? That your organization keeps promoting stupid ideas? Read this book and get into the roots of functional stupidity. It's a bit repetitive, but extremely insightful book. - Structure a…

Framing SICP as a book is a little misleading. I mean, it is a book, but mostly it's a collection of ~350 programming exercises. Exercise solving time will dominate reading time like 10:1. It's worth it! But plan accordingly.

I've spent much more time in sicp on text (and video lecture) than I did exercises. I also read it on my own time, not in class, and it took me many months to go through it.

I guess everyone has a different way of approaching this.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#87

Post by math-dev » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:36 AM UTC

On Lisp by Paul Graham

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#88

Post by TheAceOfHearts » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:36 AM UTC

The Tao Te Ching is short and beautiful. It can be read in 30 minutes and reflected on for a lifetime. My favorite translation is by Stephen Mitchell.

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#89

Post by euph0ria » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:41 AM UTC

samuell wrote: post #81

These are the books that IMO felt worth really carefully digesting: Software engineering practices: - Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Site Reliability Engineering - Software Engineering at Google - Designing Event-Driven Systems - The Data-Centric Revolution - Code Complete - Data Management at Scale Self-help: - So Good They Can't Ignore You - Deep Work - A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science…

Thanks! Agree with the bible, wildly underrated

Re: Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

#90

Post by FearNotDaniel » Thu, Sep 22, 2022, 10:43 AM UTC

jonathanstrange wrote: post #65

Just a few non-fiction books from me this time: - Lewis Dartnell The Knowledge : This book made me realize the fragility of modern technology and how it is funded on chemical industry, shipping, oil, and the exploitation of natural resources. - Peter P. Wakker Prospect Theory : This is not an easy reading but it contains one of the few understandable and detailed explanations of rank-dependent utility theory and why…

> Taschenbuch der Algorithmen

Thanks for the tip! Since I'm currently trying to improve both my German and my understanding of algorithmic principles, this looks like a fun book to work through.