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Programming books you might want to consider reading

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Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#61

Post by cgag »

Zombieball wrote: post #57
sbov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do, but with a kid my time is now limited. Unused knowledge has this habit of being forgotten. It turns out to be a terrible waste, at least from my POV.

There is a good video from Niel deGrasse Tyson talking about learning. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=utedyJ7QRBs His argument is learning is never a waste of time, even if you don't ever use and forget everything you studied. The simple act of learning is beneficial, it helps build connections in your brain. You develop skills that can be applied to other problems.

It's always beneficial but is it always more beneficial than going to the gym, being with your kids/SO, sleeping more, etc?

Everything has a cost.

I'm very heavy on learning for learnings sake but I don't like the way it's framed as the correct thing to do.

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#62

Post by bbarn »

uola wrote: post #24

These type of lists have nothing to do with efficient learning. In the information age we have more available information than time. Knowing how to learn is the multiplication factor. If you do your due diligence these lists quickly becomes anecdotal.

I kind of disagree. Knowing what to learn is hard. You have two choices, listen to the advice of others, or learn everything. The latter isn't practical, so I appreciate seeing lists like this. If I see a book on 2 or 3 of these lists, it makes me at least curious to read it if I haven't.

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#64

Post by Bluestrike2 »

jcoffland wrote: post #48

The best Calculus book I've ever found is free from MIT. https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-tex...

Adrian Banner's The Calculus Lifesaver is an excellent companion text as well. It's not really a textbook, but it's a great reference to help you alongside it that's written in a way meant to be accessible to introductory students.

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8351.html

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#65

Post by syncopatience »

Could anyone weigh in on his assessment of Martin Fowler's Refactoring book? I'm considering picking it up - some seem to be of the opinion that its ideas are old news in 2016 and there's not much to learn from it, others say there's still lots of useful information.

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#66

Post by questionr »

questionr wrote: post #3

I often here comments about finishing a mathematical/technical book over the course of a "few" weekends. But I don't see how thats possible if it includes completing all (or even most of) the given exercises. Especially when you have a full-time job.

created a thread asking just this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12718444

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#67

Post by blowski »

syncopatience wrote: post #65

Could anyone weigh in on his assessment of Martin Fowler's Refactoring book? I'm considering picking it up - some seem to be of the opinion that its ideas are old news in 2016 and there's not much to learn from it, others say there's still lots of useful information.

It's still extremely relevant and useful. Once you've read it cover-to-cover, it remains useful as a reference. I would also recommend Michael Feathers "Working with Legacy Code".

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#68

Post by ChuckMcM »

sbov wrote: post #34
fao_ wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't believe in knowledge for the sake of enjoying the perspective that more knowledge gives you?

I do, but with a kid my time is now limited. Unused knowledge has this habit of being forgotten. It turns out to be a terrible waste, at least from my POV.

FWIW, I read a lot and while I often find it difficult to "recall on demand" particular things I've read, I have often experienced that I'll recall what I read in a relevant situation. I first experienced this when I did engineering calculus in college which covered a lot of (for me) obscure parts of calculus. And frankly I couldn't recall much of it at all, but when I took electromagnetic field theory and needed it to answer a question, it would bubble up to the surface.

That experience lead me to keep reading interesting things even if I couldn't recall them a week later on the assumption that when the need arose, if it was relevant, my brain might somehow surface the information for me.

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#69

Post by grawlinson »

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #64
jcoffland wrote: post #48

The best Calculus book I've ever found is free from MIT. https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-tex...

Adrian Banner's The Calculus Lifesaver is an excellent companion text as well. It's not really a textbook, but it's a great reference to help you alongside it that's written in a way meant to be accessible to introductory students. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8351.html

Adding to this thread, Paul Dawkin's online notes really helped me get through Calc 1-3. There's also notes for basic algebra & differential equations.

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/

Re: Programming books you might want to consider reading

#70

Post by dancek »

sbov wrote: post #34
fao_ wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't believe in knowledge for the sake of enjoying the perspective that more knowledge gives you?

I do, but with a kid my time is now limited. Unused knowledge has this habit of being forgotten. It turns out to be a terrible waste, at least from my POV.

I'm currently a stay-at-home twin dad, and I absolutely crave to learn something new in my spare time (which varies from none to even two hours a day if I'm lucky). I don't care if I forget, but for me life just becomes too stressful without constant learning.

Of course, if I was working, I'd probably have enough to learn at work.

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