if superpower is what you're after, you should get something stronger than a book
What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
51–60 of 316 posts
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#52finnegans wake
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I own it, and used it until I realized how much time I was wasting on unnecessary complications. Try "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman — it cuts out the cruft and the results are just as good.
There's the Basic Edition of "How To Cook Everything". Should I get that instead? http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Basics-Photos/dp/0...
I don't know — I've never seen it. I don't see why you would; the full version is simple enough for anyone who can fry an egg.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#54Find a good one on body language. Can't recommend one now, but some 25 years ago read several and, done well, it amounts to basic mind reading.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#55The 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…
Interestingly, the book jokingly uses sorcery as an ongoing analogy for computing. Programs and algorithms are "spells," computational processes are "spirits" which are conjured and controlled by spells, programming languages are the arcane symbols and runes wizards use to compose their spells, and software bugs are the flawed spells which novice sorcerers often cast (sometimes with disastrous consequences).
I keep promising/threatening to make up business cards with the title "Angel Choreographer". I don't just know how many can dance on the head of a pin, I direct their steps on a regular basis.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#56"The Joy of Cooking" is great for learning how to cook.
I own it, and used it until I realized how much time I was wasting on unnecessary complications. Try "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman — it cuts out the cruft and the results are just as good.
It's an iPhone app too. I use it weekly.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#57Innovator's Dilemma gave me the "super-power" of identifying what kind of businesses will succeed or fail in the tech industry, much earlier than most people (or even big companies' CEO's). I think others who have read it and understood it will feel the same way. I'd also recommend his sequel Innovator's Solution, which also has a few different and good insights in it. Blue Ocean Strategy is also pretty similar to th…
I'd say also read "Seeing What's Next", the third book in the disruption series. There he deals with a lot of stuff like structuring your business to take advantage of Asymmetric Motivation and Asymmetric Skills as shield and sword of your business, as well as building an orthogonal Value Network to the existing solutions to avoid co-option by incumbents (or not doing so accidentally, if you are aiming to be acquired).
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#58"Tribal Leadership" http://www.triballeadership.net/
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#591. The Three Musketeers, to teach the young about bravery and comradeship.
2. Catch-22, to teach you to recognize and reject bureaucratic momemtum, and to resist it -- to bravely run away...
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude, to remind us that family and understanding and continuity are being lost, adn that's a shame.
4. My vaporware series of novels, which will contain the wisdom of the universe, to be written in an accessible and engaging style, certain to be optioned to Hollywood for seven figures each. Tick-tock.
Re: What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?
#60Try Strunk and White. Read it once a year, thinking about what you have written since the last time, and you will be ashamed and improved.
I have a copy of Strunk and White, but I like other advice on writing much better. The new book by Steven Pinker that is promised in Jerry Coyne's post about Pinker's project
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/steve-pin...
is a book that I expect to be especially helpful for Hacker News participants. The book isn't finished yet, but Pinker's lecture on how to write
http://video.mit.edu/watch/communicating-science-and-technol...
includes a convincing critique of Strunk and White.
Students who have read Strunk and White should read two other critiques of Strunk and White,
1) the essay "50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice" by Geoffrey K. Pullum,
http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...
and
2) Adios, Strunk & White: A Handbook for the New Academic Essay by Gary and Glynis Hofman.
http://www.amazon.com/Adios-Strunk-White-Handbook-Academic/d...