Everything will be wishy-washy when compared to "The Art of Computer programming" by Knuth.
Have you read it? Did it change your life?
What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
31–40 of 316 posts
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#32Funny how a chain of thought goes: 1. I read a few titles and thought "Hmm, I'll go and buy a few of these on Amazon." 2. Then I thought: "I already have some of these books that I never read, I could gift them to others." 3. Perhaps I could set up some sort of book exchange where HN users can share books. 4. It would barely be worth the hassle and cost of postage. 5. Couldn't we share digital copies and avoid the po…
A good book on piracy from a cultural and business perspective is The Pirate's Dilemma. It used to be "pay what you want" but the payment system seems broken.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#33The book that has changed my life the most, so far, has been The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman. In 2010 I started a job that was far, far ahead of my skillset. I'd written fewer than 10,000 lines of code in my life, and I was completely ill-prepared for the work I was supposed to be doing. I picked up SICP about a month or two into that job. Fast forward a year, and I felt t…
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#34My candidates (not in order):
Getting Things Done (Superpower: Time Management)
Bargaining for Advantage (Superpower: Negotiation)
The Art of Learning (Superpower: Learning)
Telling Lies (Superpower: Facial expressions etc...somewhat of a cheat since you'll probably need to read more on the topic)
Economics in One Lesson (Superpower: Understanding the fundamentals of economics...and wandering down the dark,Austrian path eventually)
Edit: An even better superpower is learning a new language and understanding the corresponding culture. I usually suggest that over anything else for anyone that knows <3 languages well
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#35[deleted]
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#36A physical copy of the 3.5 "Player's Handbook", Forgotten Realms supplementary literature, and likely all the literature on Psionics. Welcome to Modern D20 with tinges of Tolkien. Maybe pepper in Neal Stephensen. Read up.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#37[deleted]
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#38Absolutely hands down this: http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Book-Classic-Improving-School/d... Within a day I was memorizing lists of 75 items forwards AND backwards. Completely random items as well. It makes remembering names a joke, you will remember them for years. I gave the book to my 15 year old brother and explained to him how much the book meant to me and that it was a very quick read (most of the good stuff is…
Oh, these memory tricks... Not unlike the ones waiters and martial arts practitioners do use.
You hardly need a book for that: I saw a waiter talking on TV about what he was doing. I heard two or three sentences or so.
And, hacker way, I devised my own memory trick to remember items.
No book needed for that ; )
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#39Zen in the art of archery
Best book about Zen I've ever read. It doesn't relate to anything about computers but if you get into the Zen philosophy your whole life will be more satisfactory and thus you'll become more productive.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#40I would say the following book may have given me a new, useful superpower:
http://www.amazon.com/Ivor-Hortons-Beginning-Java-Programmer...
It is the first book that has actually explained the "why" of using a Java interface to me (Rather than the usual "how").
To most of you, this may seem trivial. However, this brings up a bigger point that I have noticed: Not all books (Or people) can teach or explain a concept in a concise, easy to understand manner.
As such, it is a rare gem when I find a book that can explain the "why" of a concept rather than just throw pages upon pages of filler at you.
Today, this book has given me a superpower of finally understanding just how interfaces work. Tomorrow, others may benefit from me (Hopefully) writing better code.