Seeing my book Crafting Interpreters on this list is really really gratifying. :)
It's very well done and absolutely deserves that placement!
The Hacker News Top books of 2023
31–40 of 118 posts
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#32How to win friends... Is an awful book and I'm tired of seeing it.
Why’s that, I found it to be insightful. “15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge. 85% is due to skill in human engineering”
To be honest, my gut feeling is that it's a cynical observation and mediocre perspective on life in general.. removes some human qualities in life. That said:
1) adult life is often a swamp
2) not knowing how to play the game can harm you
3) often, cynicism wins over good hearted values for tons of simple reasons..
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#33Offtopic, but is it just me who struggles to treat seriously any post that has "I used GPT" somewhere in the beginning? This one actually isn't a good example, since I "feel" it's kinda reliable for the task, and may only produce slight false-negatives, which isn't that bad, and I don't see any other plausible way to parse HN comments for books anyway. But I'm noticing lately that I'm half-consciously slightly annoyed every time when somebody nonchalantly offers me "used GPT" as a source for the "answer" (which really starts happening quite often), and I'm wondering if it's normal these days.
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#34Seeing my book Crafting Interpreters on this list is really really gratifying. :)
I’m going through it now. Brilliant book. Just finished your design patterns book as well.
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why’s that, I found it to be insightful. “15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge. 85% is due to skill in human engineering”
To be honest, my gut feeling is that it's a cynical observation and mediocre perspective on life in general.. removes some human qualities in life. That said: 1) adult life is often a swamp 2) not knowing how to play the game can harm you 3) often, cynicism wins over good hearted values for tons of simple reasons..
He goes on to say “Success is owed to personality and the ability to lead people
-the person who has technical ability plus the ability to express ideas, assume leadership and to arouse enthusiasm among people”
Not sure how that’s cynical maybe mediocre or trite but it was insightful to me as a programmer focused on code and less on people.
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#36Seeing my book Crafting Interpreters on this list is really really gratifying. :)
My hope is that you make a similar book on databases. :)
Crafting Interpreters is one of my favorite technical books ever and serves as a masterclass is technical communication. Thank you!!!
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#37Fred Brooks passed away last year.. so I would imagine that the Mythical Man month spiked because of it.
Why do you even think it spiked? Pretty much the whole list of books is something I'm used to seeing here and in the neighborhood since like forever, so I don't even feels these lists provide any value anymore (especially because ⅔ of these feel like forced memes to me, that aren't truly worthy of attention they get).
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#38Seeing my book Crafting Interpreters on this list is really really gratifying. :)
It absolutely deserves to be there!
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#39It's wild to me that Euclid's Elements made #15. Not that math isn't a great thing to learn but are hundreds of pages of (translated) straight propositions from over two millennia ago really such a superior means of learning vs everything written since that it's still the 3rd most referenced math book in the list? I mean it's not like the propositions will have changed but surely there are many improved arrangements of teaching the concepts by now that people would be using and mentioning instead? Dunno, maybe it's just my ignorance for not trying it.
Re: The Hacker News Top books of 2023
#40It's wild to me that Euclid's Elements made #15. Not that math isn't a great thing to learn but are hundreds of pages of (translated) straight propositions from over two millennia ago really such a superior means of learning vs everything written since that it's still the 3rd most referenced math book in the list? I mean it's not like the propositions will have changed but surely there are many improved arrangements…
I would imagine people aren't reading Euclid's Elements as a math textbook so much as a historical document