Does anyone have any book recommendations? Preferably non-fiction (like business, self-help, finance, tech, etc). What are the best books to read? I'm going on a learning/reading binge, and I want to get the best stuff.
If you're interested in project management, Making Things Happen is good.
I've just started High Output Management and so far it seems good. Of course there are always the classics like Good to Great, What Color Is Your Parachute, etc
I was going to add, "The Goal". I just received two more copies of it from Amazon today. I've given away more copies of that book that I can count (and will give away another one to a co-worker on Monday).
>Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: An excellent book with autobiographic content about Richard Feynman, contains many funny stories and interesting insights of this brilliant man.
>J. Hromkovic: Theoretical Computer Science: An excellent introduction to complexity theory, kolmogorov complexity, automata and turing machine, language and grammar theory
>Harris & Harris: Digital Design and Computer Architecture: Introduction to electrical engineering, graudally builds your knowledge until you could implement a simple little CPU in e.g. Verilog.
My recent favorites: Jobs, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, High Output Management, Innovator's Dilemma, Lean Startup, On The Shortness Of Life, How Google Works, Zero To One, Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Power of Habit, Things Fall Apart, Stoner
In this video[0] Van Roy claims that the function Three "resolves" to 3. It's at around 8:45 minute. I tried working that out, but can't seem to get it correct. What I tried
I prefer HN Reads. Though both are good sites (and the first is aggregated automatically, which is a plus), ramiro.org only finds books that are linked to Amazon. IMO this gives a rather skewed result, as most books mentioned on HN are only mentioned by the title. (And the more famous the book, the less likely it is to be linked to Amazon, since everyone is assumed to know about it already - e.g. TAOCP, SICP, etc.)
Creativity Inc., by Ed Catmull (co-founder of Pixar). A book on the structure and processes used at Pixar to sustain the creative process - It's one of the best books I've read on business/management and personal development.
I made http://www.hnreads.com a while ago to help find book suggestions from threads on hacker news. I expanded the idea to look at subreddits related to books, at http://www.bookbot.io - the eventual plan being to unify the two. There are quite a few things I would like to add, but they will have to wait until I finish my thesis!
I've been reading Boxes - How The Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levison lately. It's pretty interesting and enjoyable.
I'm not sure this is the "best stuff," but I'm currently reading From Counterculture to Cyberculture, and moderately enjoying it.
It's about Stewart Brand, but really more about the scenes he was involved in, it's not a biography. Covers the Whole Earth Catalog and the WELL, but also talks about the influence of systems theory and Bucky Fuller, and clarified, for me at least, the difference between the New Communalists and the New Left, which were somewhat conflated in my mind. It also puts Stewart Brand as a character, if not an essential one, at some key events. The mother of all demos and the founding of the Homebrew Computer Club are what I'm referring to here.
The Design of Everyday Things. Probably the quintessential book on design, the basic premise is that if you can't figure out how a thing works, it's not your fault.
Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down. About the engineering of various things, mostly buildings. Highly recommend.
The Elements of Computer Systems (better known as NAND to Tetris). Describes a computer from the bottom up.
A History of the Arab Peoples
The Quran
The Bible
Space and Time in General Relativity by David Mermin
Feynman QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
If you haven't already read it, "Getting Things Done" by David Allen is one of the best known productivity books.
Some people I have spoken to say his method isn't for them but I've found it useful, even if I haven't implemented everything he suggests.
I'd also recommend "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold. It starts at simple circuits and builds up a picture of how computers work. It has really helped me get my mental models of what's going on inside a computer straightened out!
I have always been skeptical about GTD (and haven't read the book). It seems very cultish. And apparently he just released a new version where he changes the terminology he uses for every concept, which sounds very confusing.
On the other hand, I see GTD principles pop up all the time on todo list apps, and a lot of it seems like a good idea.
I'm about 100 pages in, and the concepts seem very sensible so far. It boils down to methodically keeping track of your to-do's in one list, not in your head, so you don't have those distracting "oh right I need to do X" moments throughout your day. The book is a collection of tips to help you do that better -- you can take bits and pieces if you want.
I have no doubt that if I actually started doing what he says my days would be more productive and less stressful.
That said, so far the book is really verbose, so I'm unsure if I'd recommend it over an online summary.
It's a little bit GTD-ish, but has a direct practical IT take on it without so much dwelling on terminology. Certainly changed the way I worked for the better.
I felt the same way about GTD for the longest time, until I decided to read the small book and see what the fuss was all about. It completely changed the way I look at productivity and getting things done. GTD is not so much about David Allen or The GTD Method, but about a logical, structured way of processing inputs into your life. The more inputs you have, the more you'll benefit from the ideas (I consider them ideas more than 'methods') presented in the book.
I don't follow GTD exactly the way David presents it in the book, but that's just the thing: What I learned from the book was not a specific method, but how to think about task management in a way that makes sense given the limited capacity of my brain to remember a large number of transitory things.
IMHO GTD is right in two key things i) put everything into inbox; ii) distinguish between tasks, tasks with deadlines and events (e.g. a doctor appointment).
But it doesn't give us some key insights needed to prioritize and to avoid getting stuck into executing unimportant things. IMHO, the kanban concept of work-in-progress limits is crucial.
Just finished "Love's Executioner" and "Creatures of a Day," both by Irvin Yalom. A deeply touching glimpse into the world of psychotherapy. Highly recommended.
John Holland, "Hidden Order". Really. What is money? A message bus in a complex adaptive system. Lots of other stuff out there on complexity but this has a unique perspective. If you really want to go crazy find "Signs of Life, How complexity pervades biology" after you read "Hidden Order"
You can also check out Blinkist - they summarize business/finance/self help books to 10-15 short key insights. It's pretty cool (Disclaimer: I worked for them, but actually mean it): http://blinkist.com
I have barely finished chapter one of this 1981 book but I think it offers insight into the past for all of us who got into this field after Java was already prevalent.
> It chronicles the experiences of a computer engineering team racing to design a next-generation computer at a blistering pace under tremendous pressure.
Robert Caro's The Power Broker about Robert Moses, the most powerful unelected government official in U.S. history.
Caro, a Pulitzer winning journalist, is a wiz at writing, so you'll enjoy each page. But more importantly, even though Robert Moses was a bad buy, you don't have to be bad to learn to get what you want, in an organization, by ignoring superficial power structures, and focusing on the real ones.
Plus you'll learn a ton about how NYC was built out in the depression.
84 comments
[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 186 ms ] threadIf you're interested in project management, Making Things Happen is good.
I've just started High Output Management and so far it seems good. Of course there are always the classics like Good to Great, What Color Is Your Parachute, etc
>J. Hromkovic: Theoretical Computer Science: An excellent introduction to complexity theory, kolmogorov complexity, automata and turing machine, language and grammar theory
>Harris & Harris: Digital Design and Computer Architecture: Introduction to electrical engineering, graudally builds your knowledge until you could implement a simple little CPU in e.g. Verilog.
If someone else is familiar with Oz/Van Roy stuff, I have a question.
[0] https://youtu.be/Arh_6J5_fWU?t=8m46s
http://ramiro.org/vis/hn-most-linked-books/
http://www.hnreads.com/
Now that I'm working with them,I realize those books aren't fiction: they're documentaries.
- The obstacle is the way (Ryan Holiday)
- Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
- Level up your life: how to unlock adventure and happiness by becoming the hero of your own story
- the six pillars of self-esteem
- so good they can’t ignore you
- the power of habit
- how to fail at almost everything and still win big
Business:
- soft sell: the new art of selling
- essentialism: the disciplined pursuit of less
- the magic of thinking big
- everything is negotiable
- making things happen
- lean customer development
- what customers want
- inspired: how to create products customers love
- delivering happiness
Ed is an incredible human being! Go read it!
He was also at the center of a wage fixing scandal.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/artist-rights/ed-catmull-on-wage-...
[0]: http://www.amazon.com/Legionnaire-Englishman-French-Foreign-... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Murray
http://smile.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller/d...
It's about Stewart Brand, but really more about the scenes he was involved in, it's not a biography. Covers the Whole Earth Catalog and the WELL, but also talks about the influence of systems theory and Bucky Fuller, and clarified, for me at least, the difference between the New Communalists and the New Left, which were somewhat conflated in my mind. It also puts Stewart Brand as a character, if not an essential one, at some key events. The mother of all demos and the founding of the Homebrew Computer Club are what I'm referring to here.
Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down. About the engineering of various things, mostly buildings. Highly recommend.
The Elements of Computer Systems (better known as NAND to Tetris). Describes a computer from the bottom up.
A History of the Arab Peoples
The Quran
The Bible
Space and Time in General Relativity by David Mermin
Feynman QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
Some people I have spoken to say his method isn't for them but I've found it useful, even if I haven't implemented everything he suggests.
I'd also recommend "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" by Charles Petzold. It starts at simple circuits and builds up a picture of how computers work. It has really helped me get my mental models of what's going on inside a computer straightened out!
On the other hand, I see GTD principles pop up all the time on todo list apps, and a lot of it seems like a good idea.
I have no doubt that if I actually started doing what he says my days would be more productive and less stressful.
That said, so far the book is really verbose, so I'm unsure if I'd recommend it over an online summary.
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596007836.do
It's a little bit GTD-ish, but has a direct practical IT take on it without so much dwelling on terminology. Certainly changed the way I worked for the better.
I don't follow GTD exactly the way David presents it in the book, but that's just the thing: What I learned from the book was not a specific method, but how to think about task management in a way that makes sense given the limited capacity of my brain to remember a large number of transitory things.
But it doesn't give us some key insights needed to prioritize and to avoid getting stuck into executing unimportant things. IMHO, the kanban concept of work-in-progress limits is crucial.
This is a novel, but Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind is fantastic.
> It chronicles the experiences of a computer engineering team racing to design a next-generation computer at a blistering pace under tremendous pressure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HG4W9W/
Caro, a Pulitzer winning journalist, is a wiz at writing, so you'll enjoy each page. But more importantly, even though Robert Moses was a bad buy, you don't have to be bad to learn to get what you want, in an organization, by ignoring superficial power structures, and focusing on the real ones.
Plus you'll learn a ton about how NYC was built out in the depression.