Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

Author: Nicole Forsgren

Book: Accelerate

I picked up this book after hearing high praises from Martin Fowler and Dan North during conference talks. Forsgren and her colleagues have been doing research into DevOps and its effects on organizational performance. This is a much more rigorous account than is usual in this space, so I believe it is a must read for everyone in software.

---

Author: Gerald Weinberg

Books:

* Are Your Lights On?

* Becoming a Technical Leader'

* Introduction to General Systems Thinking

Jerry's books have had a tremendous amount of impact on my thinking in the past couple years. I highly recommend reading everything you can get your hands on.

---

Author: Nassim Taleb

Books:

* The Black Swan

* Fooled by Randomness

Taleb has changed my way of looking at the world. His books are enjoyable to read, and his ideas thought provoking. I will continue to read the rest of his books over the next year.

---

Author: Robert Pirsig

Book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

A classic. I reread this for a bookclub. It's a bit esoteric, but I coupled it with Weinbergs General Systems Thinking and extracted some vague but interesting insights.

---

Author: Timmothy Snyder

Book: On Tyranny

This is a short and captivating book. I read it in about an hour and a half on Remembrance Day.

I side with you on this, I found it to be fantastically bad.

That being said, the defenders here have me suspecting that I may have misjudged it or misinterpreted it some. There is also a fairly popular tv show based upon it. It is very polarizing, perhaps it’s the age of the reader or some other experience that makes it so.

I'm reading "Extreme Ownership" and it's a really entertaining read. The only offputting aspect is the nonchalant way they describe killing enemy combatants and the language they use is somewhat deragotory towards their adversaries. But I'm not sure you could survive sane through the things the authors went through without a bit of dehumanization of ones enemies - enemies that have killed your friends and colleagues and that you've had to kill yourself.

War is really ugly, but I liked the rational tone nevertheless and the techniques they use to stay focused and organized in a totally chaotic environment.

Systems analysis, nihilistic violence, group psychology, mindless cruelty towards animals, building leadership and team spirit - all applied to corporate consulting. 10/10 points, would read again. Would likely not want to be employed where this was considered the highest art of management literature.

It seems Boris Johnson knows about the book, unfortunately :-)

This has been a light reading year, for various reasons of circumstance and laziness, but here are the standouts in my mind:

* Thomas Merton -- The Wisdom of the Desert

A collection of quotes by and about the Desert Fathers of the early Christian church. I especially liked the ones that showed extreme mercy and selflessness, such as the monks who turned in a band of robbers, felt bad about it, and broke them out of prison, or the monk who would not count payments he received, as that might cause someone who cheated him to add lying about it to their sins.

* Alfred Lansing -- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

This is just an exciting adventure log, following Shackleton's expedition as they spent over a year stranded on an Antarctic ice floe.

"The adaptability of the human creature is such that they actually had to remind themselves on occasion of their desperate circumstances." -- Alfred Lansing

* Seneca -- Letters from a Stoic

"I am not, mind you, against your possessing [riches], but I want to ensure that you possess them without tremors; and this you will only achieve in one way, by convincing yourself that you can live a happy life even without them, and by always regarding them as being on the point of vanishing." Letter XVIII