Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#1

Post by Sam_Odio » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 3:37 PM UTC

I'll start it off:

- O'Reilly's Python in a Nutshell

- A 12" PB (I use my old PB as a more capable "kimble" and for quick SSHing into my servers)

- And to preempt the half-dozen comments suggesting them: Founders at Work & Hackers and Painters

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#2

Post by kirubakaran » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 3:46 PM UTC

I would just put a thumb drive and a sticky that says isohunt.com

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#3

Post by Glimjaur » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 4:35 PM UTC

I would add "Getting Real" by 37Signals, for starters.

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#4

Post by davidw » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 4:42 PM UTC

Glimjaur wrote: post #3

I would add "Getting Real" by 37Signals, for starters.

It's not bad, but it's free on the web. And in terms of "getting real", they could stand to make a real book out of it by getting an ISBN number for it with all the money they made off of people throwing their money at them.

And of course I'll add the obligatory mention of Squeezed Books, which is more or less based on business books I've bought and enjoyed (although there are also others like Good to Great that I wouldn't recommend).

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#5

Post by tjr » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 4:46 PM UTC

- New Hacker's Dictionary (print version is nice for browsing)

- The Little Schemer (or the whole series, if you really like them)

- The Art of Computer Programming

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#6

Post by marcus » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 4:49 PM UTC

Programming Collective Intelligence - O'Reilly Media Toby Segaran

Art of the start - Guy Kawasaki

The art of war - Sun Tzu

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#7

Post by marcus » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 4:53 PM UTC

kirubakaran wrote: post #2

I would just put a thumb drive and a sticky that says isohunt.com

Call me old fashioned but I like my dead-tree products, it's an entirely different feeling to read a physical book than a PDF.

Although I usually have soft copies of all my favorite books, so I can search them quickly.

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#8

Post by klocksib » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 4:59 PM UTC

Hmmm, here's a list of books I really like:

Memory as a Programming Concept in C and C++ by Frenck

The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System by McKusick/Neville-Neil

Learning GNU Emacs by Cameron, et al.

Practical Common Lisp by Seibel

The C Programming Language by K&R

The C++ Programming Language Stroustrup

The Design and Analysis of Algorithms by Leviten

Assembly Language Programming for the IBM PC Family by Jones

Essays/Collections:

Hackers & Painters by PG

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Feynman

What Do You Care What Other People Think by Feynman

The Cathedral & The Bazaar by Raymond

Novels:

The Soul of a New Machine by Kidder

Where Wizards Stay up Late by Hafner

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#9

Post by raju » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 5:02 PM UTC

marcus wrote: post #6

Programming Collective Intelligence - O'Reilly Media Toby Segaran Art of the start - Guy Kawasaki The art of war - Sun Tzu

Huh! Currently I have Programming Collective Intelligence and Art of the start on mine. Just started reading Prog Coll Intell. So far, I am impressed.

Re: Ask YC: What would you put on a hacker's bookshelf?

#10

Post by tomjen » Wed, Mar 12, 2008, 5:02 PM UTC

Make friends and influence people -- will help you understand why people react as strange as they do.