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What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

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Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#141

Post by anthonyb »

orangethirty wrote: post #93
kolektiv wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should never comment after a fine and bibulous meal, but... I'm not sure how appealing I find the idea of a society where people thought in that way. Perhaps Bacchus is distracting me from the nuance of that point however.

You are misisng the point by analyzing it from a negative perspective. Read it again but as a positive. "I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Doing whatever it takes means getting a minimum wage job to be able to pay for college. Finish college and work your way into a good starting job. Then working your way up to a good position. Doing whatever it takes to get what you want is the right attitud…

> Though whatever it takes does not imply illegal or immoral approaches.

Yes it does, and that's often what's lost when people start applying mantras like that.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#142

Post by dullcrisp »

neumann_alfred wrote: post #115
shantanubala wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Revising it to "I am willing to do whatever it takes within my existing system of values to get what I want" makes it less pithy.

I mean this tongue-in-cheek, but.. that is still compatible with Mao: I am everything. Everything exists for me. I have only an obligation towards myself, not towards others. I am only responsible for my own reality, not for past or future. I am only responsible for that which I know. I have my needs and I follow them. This is the way great heroes live. -- Mao Tse Tung in an essay he wrote as student (describing his…

"I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want" sounds more like a slogan for cultivating motivation. It doesn't say "I am unwilling to reflect on or revise what it is that I want," just that one is willing to work as hard as it takes to achieve one's goals.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#143

Post by neilk »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #24

"He Said, She Said by Deborah Tannen is a layperson's guide to gender communications." I would actually recommend "You Just Don't Understand" by the same author about how men and women talk to each other. Valuable in ways you cannot imagine.

Seconding this. Tannen's framework is very useful for understanding miscommunication across genders.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#145

Post by vog »

anthonyb wrote: post #141
orangethirty wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are misisng the point by analyzing it from a negative perspective. Read it again but as a positive. "I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Doing whatever it takes means getting a minimum wage job to be able to pay for college. Finish college and work your way into a good starting job. Then working your way up to a good position. Doing whatever it takes to get what you want is the right attitud…

> Though whatever it takes does not imply illegal or immoral approaches. Yes it does, and that's often what's lost when people start applying mantras like that.

Indeed. So the advice should rather be:

"I won't put bullshit excuses to get to where I want."

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#146

Post by vog »

danenania wrote: post #137
drunkpotato wrote: post #65

Just code. Seriously, just write code. You will come across a lot of books that influence your thoughts, behaviors, patterns. I have, everyone does. But the only thing that actually has any effect on your psyche is doing , whatever the doing is. So you want to learn how to build a better body, great, read books on building muscle. It won't have nearly as much effect as going to the gym and swimming for a half hour th…

Meh, writing code is the easy part, the fun part. Every programmer loves to sit down and bash out features. Even if they do so in ways that they know (or don't know) are perilous, ugly, or inefficient, there is still that beautiful rush of progress, and people will still pay for the service. The discipline to step back, reevaluate, and think conceptually rather than pragmatically is much more difficult to accomplish…

I fully agree. So the advice should be not merely be "code", but:

Code long-term on a real-world project, cooperating with other coders. (ideally, on a Free Software project)

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#147

Post by tome »

maneesh wrote: post #48
malloreon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read Work Week and Body, and I know he advocates outsourcing, but did he ever actually mention that the books themselves were outsourced?

I know for a fact that he didn't outsource the writing of his books

You know that for a fact? But it would have been perfectly consistent with his own advice if he did outsource at least parts of the writing process.

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#148

Post by michaelfeathers »

How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants

http://www.amazon.com/How-Sharpen-Pencils-Theoretical-Contra...

Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?

#150

Post by anthonyb »

vog wrote: post #145
anthonyb wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Though whatever it takes does not imply illegal or immoral approaches. Yes it does, and that's often what's lost when people start applying mantras like that.

Indeed. So the advice should rather be: "I won't put bullshit excuses to get to where I want."

And what's a "bullshit excuse"? I don't think you'll find an easy criteria for that, either. Is "someone else's happiness" a bullshit excuse?
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