111–120 of 316 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any suggestions on what books? I've been looking to go further with mathematics.
How about "Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science", by Ronald Graham, Donald Knuth, and Oren Patashnik. I have not finished it. Just starting out, but seems like an enlightening text.
I'm working my way through taocp so this is a great addition.
Funny 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…
I'm fortunate enough to live in a city where the library does home delivery ("It's like amazon, but without the money"). Having to physically return the books can be daunting, but it's a small price to pay for eclectic reading habits with no buyer's remorse. I'd recommend that more people look into using the local library. Now that all of my books are free, I have more reading to do than I have time.
I care a lot more now about how I give away my eyeballs and info, knowing what's being done with them. That's not to say I'm some nutjob who lies on every form or doesn't sign up for everything. I'm just aware of, say, seating in restaurants, or brand placement on items/film, or even now, sign up for online services.
I want ads that are tailored to me, and I may be interested in. I do not want ads that are seemingly random or seemingly say people enjoying brand that they really don't. I like Hulu's and Google's advertising. I don't like Facebook's or Twitter's.
Absolutely 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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Yeah, Mao wrote about that too. You can't get being a decent person that way though.
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 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 system of values I guess)
I don't mean to say everybody who wants something is evil. But I think by definition we always think what we want is justified, that the wanting itself is justification enough.
Therefore I want to know why I want things, and what to want, if anything.. I am willing to think 24/7 to achieve that. Beyond that, it depends..
Some of the things in life I wanted the most I'm now really really glad I didn't get. Growth is a slow process that never ends, and even at age 90 I might want things that might seem bad 20 years later.
So yeah, go for it, but take it with a grain of salt as you do.. winners never quit; but only a rock never changes or expands goals, and that ain't quitting. Sometimes you can achieve 100% success by not wanting something anymore and actually be better off for it.
The 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…
"A year since then and I've picked up half a dozen new languages" Definitely not an attack or a skeptic, indeed, it may play into your assessment of the worth of the book... But 12 months, 6 languages - how well do you feel you've mastered any/all of those?
The 'superpower' that the book gave me was a set of tools to think about computation in a language-independent way. Once I had that, then every new language was "oh, here's a nice syntax for doing something I already know how to do in Scheme".
The new languages I learned were from a variety of paradigms - functional (Haskell, OCaml, R), object-oriented (Java, Python) and array-based (Q, Matlab). I haven't learned a logic-based language yet, but I've written an evaluator for one (section 4.4 of SICP) so I don't expect picking up Prolog to be difficult, if I ever choose to do it.
The 4-Hour Chef is probably not a surprising choice since it's a recent release and Amazon has been pushing it heavily (Amazon are also the publisher). I'm just over 60% through the book so I don't want to give it a ringing endorsement just yet but it fits the category of "developing a new superpower" quite nicely and it's definitely worth a particular mention on HN for two reasons. 1. Ferriss, the author, is very mu…
This is a function of the way he writes the book. If you read four-hour work week he basically describes his process, which is that he develops the headline structure for the book and each chapter and then outsources the actual writing online via elance or equivalent. Presumably the writers read a bunch of stuff on the topic and essentially write crib notes. Quite a clever way for Ferris to make money, but not the hi…
The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want by Mike Hernacki There are many inputs that affect success: intelligence, hard work, work ethic, emotional balance, determination, and even luck. I believe that the single most important of these over which we have the most control is determination. This book is provides a pretty good recipe to cultivate your own determination. I'm even going to tell you t…
"I am willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want." Yeah, Mao wrote about that too. You can't get being a decent person that way though.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
A kindle-ready version: https://github.com/twcamper/sicp-kindle