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Books I Recommend

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Re: Books I Recommend

#151

Post by kevintb »

jeff76 wrote: post #6

I don’t understand why people recommend books like “a programmers introduction to mathematics”. They’re advertised as books for “programmers” or people that know little math, yet they hide solutions from the reader. The reader that doesn’t know proper proofs or deep mathematics likely isn’t the same ones that know if their solutions are correct. Programmers like to write code with test cases. We don’t like to write c…

You clearly haven’t read the book or even clicked on the link. It’s written by Jeremy Kun, a fantastic math professor who’s written several excellent posts on his blog on how to intuitively grasp mathematical concepts.

Re: Books I Recommend

#152

Post by dkarl »

jeff76 wrote: post #140
dkarl wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who is a beginner will be working on easy material with a textbook that has very mild expectations of "mathematical maturity." Textbooks mostly (with a few intentional exceptions) calibrate the mathematical maturity they require according to how much work a student will have done in order to be ready to tackle the book's subject matter. Some people might think they can be ready to do problem sets in an advanc…

The way you were arguing makes it sound like you are against beginners having access to solutions, or that you completely misunderstood my initial argument. I am not arguing about anything other than that. If you want to address that in particular sure. I am not saying anything about people skipping material and getting bitten by it later.

Even the first textbooks that start introducing abstract math and developing mathematical maturity in beginning college students often (usually?) have problem sets without solutions, and I'm defending that. I think it's better than providing solutions, even for people working alone.

Of course it isn't ideal to work alone; it's helpful to have other people to point out errors in your proofs and to present their own proofs to you. I just don't think providing solutions helps at all in that way. What gives you the best approximation of that experience is spending a long time working on problems. Sometimes you'll realize you've proved something false and have to debug your own proof, so you'll be collaborating with yourself. Solutions will only make it harder for you to force yourself to have those experiences.

Re: Books I Recommend

#153

Post by adam-_- »

decebalus1 wrote: post #97

> The Manager’s Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change: Every single book list should include Camille’s book. It is a great read for managers and non-managers and has given me the tools for knowing what is normal and what is not. Ugh.. no. If there was a book I read this year which read as if it was written for the sake of writing a book, it was 'The Manager's Path'. It was a series of insipid bl…

As someone new to people management, actually, prior to people management but with an interest in the topic, I found it very interesting and useful.

I was not even sure what "IC" meant or what an "engineering manager" might do.

Personally, I found there was lots of actionable advice and a clear "path" for how one might operate in different roles in an organisation.

Almost any non-fiction book could be described as a series of blog posts or articles, so I don't really understand that criticism.

YMMV but I would recommend it.

Re: Books I Recommend

#154

Post by goldfeld »

mcguire wrote: post #137
goldfeld wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could generally be said about anyone under 25 and philosophy books. Read the literature classics, sure (they're about philosophy and politics too), but reading treatises on someone else's hard-won idiosyncratic view of the world without the emotional barriers and critical filter erected by years of trial and error may just turn the young person into a parrot, or worse, a nihilist without a cause.

Out of curiosity, what would a nihilist with a cause look like?

I know, I know, but a cause could be just sustained senseless but concrete suffering, as opposed to imagined sorrow.

Re: Books I Recommend

#155

Post by goldfeld »

voidhorse wrote: post #79
goldfeld wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could generally be said about anyone under 25 and philosophy books. Read the literature classics, sure (they're about philosophy and politics too), but reading treatises on someone else's hard-won idiosyncratic view of the world without the emotional barriers and critical filter erected by years of trial and error may just turn the young person into a parrot, or worse, a nihilist without a cause.

I have read philosophy before turning 25 and hence, and I both agree and disagree with this advice. On the one hand, I’ve certainly had my fair share of realizations of how daft I was when I read the works when I was younger and how quick I was to adopt the ideas of others without really understanding them. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be able to contend with a vast number of texts that I do now without the backgrou…

Your last advice is critical, but I've seen people fall into voids and make twitch decisions and statements about important things in their lives with consequences spanning years, because they have a philosopher's aura around their fledgling heads. Besides, we can still be plenty arrogant at 25, 30 and 40 but with a bit more consistency.

Re: Books I Recommend

#156

Post by dalore »

lbacaj wrote: post #21

I read/listen to a lot of books and the only book on there I’ve read so far is The Managers Path, which is about the transition of the software engineer in his/her career. It’s a great book for any software engineer, it’s short too. Given that I haven’t heard of many of the other books on the list, I’d say this is a good list I’ll be checking out a few of the titles. One trick about “reading” (listening) to a good ch…

How do you take notes on your commute? I find when I'm driving I can't take notes, any voice note taking app is too cumbersome. I assume your commuting let's you use your hands though.

Re: Books I Recommend

#157

Post by dalore »

Perseids wrote: post #142
lbacaj wrote: post #21

I read/listen to a lot of books and the only book on there I’ve read so far is The Managers Path, which is about the transition of the software engineer in his/her career. It’s a great book for any software engineer, it’s short too. Given that I haven’t heard of many of the other books on the list, I’d say this is a good list I’ll be checking out a few of the titles. One trick about “reading” (listening) to a good ch…

> One trick about “reading” (listening) to a good chunk of books has been Audible, to retain the content I’m listening to on my commutes and on the go I take a lot of notes. While I share your enthusiasm about audiobooks, I encourage you to leave Audible behind: - Audible is heavy on DRM, for no particular reason except for platform lockin and control. There are plenty of DRM free alternatives e.g. https://audiobooks…

Nice and I agree. But the convenience from Audible is hard to beat especially if you have an Echo.
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