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Books that changed my career as a software engineer

julianogtz.github.io

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Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#211

Post by Aeolun »

wodenokoto wrote: post #140
Osiris wrote: post #61

Is it just me or do other people struggle to read these kinds of very technical books? It's not that I don't comprehend, it's that my brain finds it boring and hard to focus. I think I have trained my brain so much on rapid skimming of websites for useful info, while throwing away most of the content, that I tend to do the same with books, which really doesn't work well. Has anyone found alternative ways to consume t…

I totally agree, to the point where I’m skeptical about people saying they’ve read something cover to cover. Someone once recommended me to start at the back of each chapter and do the the problems and only read the chapter or even parts of the chapter for problems I couldn’t solve. It comes with its own set of drawbacks but it does help with getting through text books where the author was paid by per letter.

Is not that hard, you just start at the front and make your way to the back.

For the really good books you’ll actually reach the end.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#212

Post by thewakalix »

mjburgess wrote: post #205
headmelted wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun story I like to tell people about exactly this. A little over a decade ago I was working a gig at the software subsidiary of a fairly large non-tech multinational. It was a lot of mostly nice people and a mix of skills and experience as you’d expect. Anyway - there was a manager (M) on a project I was on who was.. unpleasant. They had quite an ego, and were very much the type to pass blame down the chain. Regardl…

I can't speak to this story itself, but I wonder about the general principal underneath these sorts of objections. That is: we should just be naively encouraging of people to pursue whatever they happen to be trying to pursue. This seems born of a boomer-era "be yourself" world view in which "anything is possible". I think this cheats people a great deal. When physics is demonstrated in schools and TV as some game, i…

Maybe some people take to programming like a fish to water, but plenty of others struggled at first. Knowing when to give up is important, but part of that is knowing when not to give up. That is a complicated and individual question; an ignorant gatekeeper who discourages anyone who's not immediately successful isn't helping here.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#213

Post by criddell »

TeeMassive wrote: post #116
Osiris wrote: post #61

Is it just me or do other people struggle to read these kinds of very technical books? It's not that I don't comprehend, it's that my brain finds it boring and hard to focus. I think I have trained my brain so much on rapid skimming of websites for useful info, while throwing away most of the content, that I tend to do the same with books, which really doesn't work well. Has anyone found alternative ways to consume t…

I have the same kind of problem. It has gotten to the point that I couldn't even read sentences that make more than two statements. What helped me to go back on track was reading novels and constantly asking myself: did I understand the last sentences that I've just read?

I love William Gibson novels, but I have to read them twice. The first time I’m too confused. Only on the second pass do they make much sense to me.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#214

Post by mjburgess »

thewakalix wrote: post #212
mjburgess wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak to this story itself, but I wonder about the general principal underneath these sorts of objections. That is: we should just be naively encouraging of people to pursue whatever they happen to be trying to pursue. This seems born of a boomer-era "be yourself" world view in which "anything is possible". I think this cheats people a great deal. When physics is demonstrated in schools and TV as some game, i…

Maybe some people take to programming like a fish to water, but plenty of others struggled at first. Knowing when to give up is important, but part of that is knowing when not to give up. That is a complicated and individual question; an ignorant gatekeeper who discourages anyone who's not immediately successful isn't helping here.

The gordon-ramsey (army coach, sports coach, theatre director, ballet director...) school of "encouragement" prescribes the opposite.

That is: if you arent passionate enough to overcome discouragement, you arent passionate enough to excel.

Of course, we dont need excellent programmers en-mass. However, it is interesting to observe that this "egotistic troupe leader" is a fairly common form of small-group excellence-seeking human organization -- and appears to work.

It gets more-and-more common when looking at how the best "troupe-sized" groups in the world are organized.

I'd be interested in research on this area.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#215

Post by 8589934591 »

mgraczyk wrote: post #85

Some of the juicier bits from these books have been fairly well absorbed by engineering culture, ie "rubber duck debugging" and "DRY". Some of these books I haven't heard of though. As somebody who didn't study CS in college, the books that most changed my career were: * Algorithms, by Robert Sedgwick (probably not the best algorithms book, but lots of hands-on stuff) * Learning From Data, by Yaser S. Abu-Mostafa et.…

For both C and Algorithms, what do you think is the best since you feel both the above books aren't the best?

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#216

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

mjburgess wrote: post #214
thewakalix wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe some people take to programming like a fish to water, but plenty of others struggled at first. Knowing when to give up is important, but part of that is knowing when not to give up. That is a complicated and individual question; an ignorant gatekeeper who discourages anyone who's not immediately successful isn't helping here.

The gordon-ramsey (army coach, sports coach, theatre director, ballet director...) school of "encouragement" prescribes the opposite. That is: if you arent passionate enough to overcome discouragement, you arent passionate enough to excel. Of course, we dont need excellent programmers en-mass. However, it is interesting to observe that this "egotistic troupe leader" is a fairly common form of small-group excellence-s…

Well, it also has a lot to do with whether or not you want good teams, or good individuals. The "Marine Bootcamp" methodology is hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and is how we make good teams.

Teams are how we make awesome stuff, but individuals are how we conceptualize awesome stuff.

I've found that the best products come from hybrids of the two.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#217

Post by [deleted] »

Aeolun wrote: post #203
headmelted wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun story I like to tell people about exactly this. A little over a decade ago I was working a gig at the software subsidiary of a fairly large non-tech multinational. It was a lot of mostly nice people and a mix of skills and experience as you’d expect. Anyway - there was a manager (M) on a project I was on who was.. unpleasant. They had quite an ego, and were very much the type to pass blame down the chain. Regardl…

I was really hoping for some karma in this story, but it wasn’t there :(

[deleted]

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#218

Post by baranoff »

mjburgess wrote: post #205
headmelted wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun story I like to tell people about exactly this. A little over a decade ago I was working a gig at the software subsidiary of a fairly large non-tech multinational. It was a lot of mostly nice people and a mix of skills and experience as you’d expect. Anyway - there was a manager (M) on a project I was on who was.. unpleasant. They had quite an ego, and were very much the type to pass blame down the chain. Regardl…

I can't speak to this story itself, but I wonder about the general principal underneath these sorts of objections. That is: we should just be naively encouraging of people to pursue whatever they happen to be trying to pursue. This seems born of a boomer-era "be yourself" world view in which "anything is possible". I think this cheats people a great deal. When physics is demonstrated in schools and TV as some game, i…

So true. Direct feedback is way under appreciated.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#219

Post by baranoff »

sriku wrote: post #157
banana_maker wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deep, focused reading is a muscle that you need to work on. There isn’t a real answer other than practice, and focus on delayed gratification. We skim websites/articles because there is so much information out there, and not all of it is useful. I skim articles and then go back to fully read them once I make sure they’re actually worth the time. Same with some books, but books generally are worth it since they went t…

This is right, however we also need to acknowledge the prevalence of books which put forth some good ideas, but which perhaps can be summarized in a page or so. Instead they choose to labor on and on around the same point(s) without adding much. A book that definitely wasn't in the category I described above (for me) was John Ousterhout's Philosophy of Software Design - https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Desi…

Second that book! I have read dozens of technical books, but none come close in practical wisdom. If you have been in the industry and worked on large projects you will find it very relevant. I hope it is also as relevant and easy to understand for people who do not have many years of experience already.

Re: Books that changed my career as a software engineer

#220

Post by sriku »

janto wrote: post #190
sriku wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is right, however we also need to acknowledge the prevalence of books which put forth some good ideas, but which perhaps can be summarized in a page or so. Instead they choose to labor on and on around the same point(s) without adding much. A book that definitely wasn't in the category I described above (for me) was John Ousterhout's Philosophy of Software Design - https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Desi…

From the reviews it sounds mainly from the OO/Java and heavy design up front paradigm and not very Agile / test driven. Is that fair? I'd really like a philosophically minded book that integrates these relatively newer approaches.

The book came out of Ousterhout's course on software design where he reviews student code as they work on a significant problem - building a text editor. There is very little (if any) material out there of this nature that goes much beyond personal opinion (usually under the guise of experience) and sloganeering. This one though, is a hearty dive into the delectable details of design.
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