Mythical Man-Month and Software Project Survival Guide
Programming books you might want to consider reading
131–137 of 137 posts
Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoops. In that case, I think they are referring to http://danluu.com/learning-to-program/
Interesting read. "I managed to get a B.S. degree without ever using or seeing anyone use version control." This agrees with my own experience. Do tech courses teach VCS's these days?
> Do tech courses teach VCS's these days?
I would kinda hope not. They're one of those things you'll quickly get lots of experience with on-the-job, and there are so many useful things you can learn at university that no employer will let you learn on the job.
Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The aim of the University is a true enlargement of mind... the power of viewing many things at once." [0] Would very much like to see Cardinal Newman's Ideas around 'liberal' and 'servile' education catch the attention of the HN crowd. We're doing learning and advancement all wrong by focusing on utilitarian outcomes for universities rather than pure development of the mind (whence would flow marvellous creativity).…
I cannot find that quote on the site you linked. Do you have an expansion? The closest I found in the text was this paragraph: "Instances, such as these, confirm, by the contrast, the conclusion I have already drawn from those which preceded them. That only is true enlargement of mind {137} which is the power of viewing many things at once as one whole, of referring them severally to their true place in the universal…
Hi Jach,
I'm glad you find the Cardinal's thoughts stimulating. Yes, I pulled that quote from a Google result without sourcing it correctly, but perhaps you would agree they convey the spirit of the discourses? I'd love to hear your remarks on Cardinal's distinction between liberal and servile education[0], or, indeed, your impressions of the essay as a whole.
Addressing your point, it seems that these things are not that different (being able to fit knowledge within a universal system and understanding how to learn), or that in achieving the stated end (being able to fit knowledge within a universal system), one would need to 'learn how to learn.'
If you'd like to continue the discussion offthread, I'm available at myusername at geemayl dawt com
Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading
#134The best Calculus book I've ever found is free from MIT. https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-tex...
Lang's "Short Calculus" (a reprint of the 1st edition of his calculus textbook) is a welcome change from those 2234th edition doorstop textbooks that make calculus into a boring parade of examples, where the goal of the game seems to be becoming an ace at pattern-matching.
More recent, more idiosyncratic but quite nice is T.W. Körner's Calculus for the Ambitious. I could see a motivated high-schooler learn calculus from this.
Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading
#135A little-known book, quite dated by now, but one of those books that takes a tightly-focused problem and shows how to solve it in a beautiful way that doesn't just solve the problem but also creates meaning that transcends the initial problem, is "Threaded Interpretive Languages" by Loeliger.
Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here here, constant learning is the only thing to save our sanity. Regarding work, I do have a fulltime job, yet one has to fight hard to ensure any amount of learning, constant or otherwise.
https://www.google.com/search?q=hear+hear&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 :)
Whoops, thanks, how did that slip past my brain filter ;-)
Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading
#137Off-topic, but body { font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0 auto; width: 50em; } Please? I get that these websites aim to be simple, but it's really hard to read like this.
I use printfriendly.com for such cases