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Ask HN: Non-tech books that have helped you grow professionally?

152 points by tsaprailis ↗ HN
I've recently moved back to reading non-tech books (I have spent the last years reading on solely programming languages or frameworks) and it was a bit of an eye opener regarding getting a more general picture of startups and businesses. I have read the four hour work week, the daily entrepreneur, and the 22 immutable laws of marketing. I have a few others under consideration (like Peter Thiel's From zero to one) but I'm wondering which other books have you read that have had the most impact on you professionally or even personally?

107 comments

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wepple
I really enjoyed and got value from books about companies/people I admire; Hatching twitter, In the Plex, Elon Musk, etc.

More specific topics, however:

* "what every body is saying" - how to read/understand body language

* "an astronauts guide to life on earth" - by Chris Hadfield, lots of good general advice

* "speed reading" - for digesting information quickly (albeit, I find with less depth)

* "The 8 traits successful people have in common" - kinda painfully obvious advice, but often it's the context and stories that help you digest a message

* "the lean startup" - wasn't mindblowing but looks aligned with what you've been reading, still worth reading.

tsaprailis
Thanks a lot for these. The lean startup is already on my list, will check the rest.
DarkTree
I definitely agree with getting value from books about companies/people you admire. I think it's more memorable to read about real people's actions and lifestyles as opposed to reading "how-to" or "self-help" books, though I read those too and have received value from them as well.

Here are some books I'd recommend in the former vein:

1. Elon Musk - as mentioned, awesome, inspiring read

2. Creativity, Inc. - Ed Catmull's story of Pixar

3. Masters of Doom - Carmack is a boss

4. The Innovators - The people who created the computing world

5. Hackers - The people who created the computing world

6. Steve Jobs - obligatory, whether positive/negative

tsaprailis
Will check these just because Elon Musk is on the list :)
wepple
Hackers & Masters of Doom are two of my favourite books. And I'm not even really a gamer.
alexmorenodev
The ones from Scott Adams and Cal Newport.
snappye
Influence - Psychology of persuasion

Gun Germs and Steel

Hero with a thousand faces

Starting Strength

SyneRyder
The Scott Adams book "How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big" is surprisingly good. It's too early for me to tell if it's made an improvement, but I have a ton of highlights and I've been reviewing them every couple of weeks. [I've had a similar reaction recently to "Everything I Know" by Paul Jarvis as well.]
bizzleDawg
I guess someone has to be the first to say "Thinking Fast and Slow"[1] by Daniel Kahneman. It's certainly a very useful book (even for it's flaws) for it's detail on cognitive phycology and human biases. It certainly improved my personal and professional life.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow

dominotw
>It certainly improved my personal and professional life.

If you don't mind me asking how has it improved your life? Also, have you seen the effects wearing off after a while?

p333347
Coders At Work and Founders At Work. Immensely inspirational.
rckrd
Founders at Work was phenomenal. Its a collection of interviews with early startup founders where Jessica Livingston asks great, probing questions. An excellent example of how to conduct a good interview.
MichaelGG
Are there any other books that are as inspirational? I very much enjoyed reading those ones.
p333347
YMMV but I found Masterminds of Programming quite a worthy read. It is an interview based book and talks to the creators of a variety programming languages, including such 'obscure' ones as Forth, APL and Eiffel. I am interested in programming languages in a meta way, and even dabble around designing a couple, so it was inspirational to me, also quite an eye opener.
kentt
Deep Work has been one of the most influential books about productivity.

https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/...

adamnemecek
Can you give me a tl;dr?
proksoup
> The book is written as if it's presenting "a new, flashy, grand theory of everything". It's not that. The idea of working in a deep, focused manner isn't a new one or one that would shock people (as the book's extensive citations show). But the book puts up a very intense battle against an army of straw men. I don't think you'd find anyone who disagrees with the general notion of working intensely on your priorities; it's making your life conducive to it (and getting done what you aim to get done when you sit down) that's the hard part. So the book feels more to me like ideas you'd share with friends about how to be more productive than a revolutionary new idea, but you have to wade through pages of why this is life-changing and flashy to get to the more useful actionable steps.
adamnemecek
I checked it out and it seems to criticize the whole open office movement which is good I think.
cylinder
This is the problem with almost all self help books. I ignore the category because of this.
pavlov
Seneca's Letters to Lucilius helped me come to grips with the modest scale of my own achievements (or lack thereof) and the futility of further ambition at the expense of anything else.
kornish
Seconded.

For those interested in Seneca's timeless letters but short on time (or if you find existing translations a bit dry), http://stoicletters.blogspot.com/ is a phenomenal resource which concisely but effectively modernizes the language. They're a pleasure to read.

rckrd
Also, Seneca's De Brevitate Vitae, or On the Shortness of Life
sn9
That's Letter 49 IIRC.
boothead
Extreme Ownership by Joko Wilink

Team of teams by Gen. Stan McChrystal

Both of these are required reading for understanding how humans work together.

dv35z
FYI: For Your Improvement, A Guide for Development and Coaching (4th edition)

Several close colleagues & mentors recommended this book as their "career bible". I finally listened to them (took me 10 years, but finally did it). And glad I did.

In my opinion, it is the most infornation-dense, non-BS, completely actionable advice I have found in a business book. Strongly recommend. From my understanding, the 4th Ed is the one you want.

This is the way you take your professional & career life to the next level.

https://www.amazon.com/FYI-Improvement-Guide-Development-Coa...

gary__
An acquaintance recommended Peter Drucker's "The Effective Executive" as a first book to read about management. I found it very interesting and it changed my outlook on the value of tracking time, focusing on strengths and what contribution matters. (I am not a manager myself.)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Effective-Executive-Classic-Drucker...

tracker1
I would look at a few design and user experience books... "Don't make me think", "Thinking fast and slow" and "Designed for use" come to mind.

As developers, and even PMs we will tend to overload our users with too much... simplification, structure, clarity come to mind. Another deep issue, and I don't have any books to recommend center around nomenclature... Too many projects don't take the time to concentrate on naming things from a high level... From project features to user roles and the language/platform that integrate them, there's often confusion and blurred lines with the same names used in different contexts.

anotherarray
The Bible.
uxp100
Maybe elaborate a little bit? Its certainly an influential book. I can think of a lot of professional lessons it could contain, (I've turning the other cheek a lot at work this summer with some very abrasive folks; hard to tell how well its worked so far...) but you probably should be the one to justify it. I'm an Atheist, though culturally christian, so I won't pretend to understand it well.
beginrescueend
Start with the book of Proverbs, follow its wisdom and advice, if all you're after is career improvements. Great wisdom.

(Wisdom about people, situations, attitudes, and actions are all found there).

But, move on to John, if you are eager for more.

beginrescueend
0 points?!?!?

I thought this was about what non-technical books have helped me, professionally.

Intolerance?

anotherarray
The Bible provides a solid moral background for a very successful career in the long-term.

I'd ask material atheists to go beyond the realms of Genesis and focus on the true revolutions it has brought about. Go ahead and read about Rene Girard.

"Thou shall not covet or kill" is not a self-evident concept for Humanity.

nik1aa5
Probably the best to start with is "How to read a book". That opened my eyes and helped me a lot with deciding what to read and how to read it.
hoodwink
+1 for How To Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. I wish I had found this at a younger age.
thrilleratplay
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

This should be a required reading for anyone who does UI design. It helps explain why items you interact with subconsciously frustrate you and why product simplicity is typically better than more features.

kej
Not just UI design, either. The same concepts that make a UI or a physical object pleasing to interact with apply to the API your library exposes to other developers, or even your own helper functions that nobody but you will ever use.
sathishvj
I too have been recommending this book quite a bit for new UI developers.
zackbloom
Never Split the Difference is ostensibly a book on negotiation, but I found it also a great primer on the more subtle and emotional side of human communication.
b_emery
The most important books I've read in the last 10 yrs (with respect to professional growth) are:

Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, by G. Colvin

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by C. Duhigg

These books have reshaped how I work and how I think about work. With the knowledge contained in these books it's not hard to outline the daily routines needed to be great at just about anything.

myg204
I am interested and curious. Could you give an example of something you were dissatisfied with, and at which you became great because of those books? Thanks.
b_emery
Well, I'm still a work in progress! I'm working on a PhD and passed my oral exams because of these books. I have a weekly schedule that balances reading/doing math, writing and coding and producing toward the dissertation. These books have helped me 'discover' the process for becoming an expert. Cribbed from my notes:

One very important idea is the idea of intrinsic motivation: the best motivation is perhaps a really compelling and or interesting problem. Also, time is needed to learn and practice, and this practice comes at the cost of time spent elsewhere (eg producing). So there is a natural division of time into learning (incl. practicing) and producing. A lot of the Talent book is the sort of nuts and bolts of deliberate practice.

From the Habit book: Have a plan for what to do when the pain or other emotional event threatens to derail your action. Such as when this happens, I will do __. Having a plan helps people to get through the event, encouraging will power, and continue on until the will power action becomes a habit (by being incorporated into long term memory I suppose). (Incidentally, this is why having a daily plan help one to be more productive. When you get tired and easily derailed, and are low in will power, you can fall back onto your plan).

1) Cue, 2) Routine, 3) Reward. That is the habit loop.

A book called Moonwalking with Einstein, as well as a number of Cal Newport's books have also been helpful with these goals.

codyZ
Moonwalking with Einstein -Definitely. Also Brain Rules is a good one as well.

I would be cautious with Cal Newport's books and take it with a box of salt, however. To be fair, I only read one of his books (So Good They Can't Ignore You). His intentions with framing the book and its details are great. But I found it hard to trust that he actually believes in some of the things he writes - as opposed to just writing books that can sell well

lifeisstillgood
Up the organization https://www.amazon.co.uk/Up-Organization-Corporation-Stiflin...

The complete Yes Minister https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yes-Minister-Prime-Complete-Collect...

The undercover economist and it's follow up https://www.amazon.co.uk/Undercover-Economist-Tim-Harford/dp...

I would struggle to encapsulate it all except "people and organizations can be vicious and complex but we all innately want them to be simple, fair and if we can find someone believable we can turn around any hideous situation"

navbaker
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni. It's a pretty fast read, I think the thing that stuck with me the most from it was the reassurance that (constructive) conflict on a team is not something to be avoided at all costs.
slavik81
I haven't got a chance to put its advice into practice yet, but I liked "Getting to Yes". It's short and to the point, providing a good perspective on handling negotiations.
kapv89
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
sebringj
absolutely, it focuses you to what matters
jjbohn
I have a lot of the classics on my list, but a new one that I've found extremely growth spurring was "Ego is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday. I never really considered myself an egotists; confident perhaps, but something I never struggled with. This book showed me that I indeed did have more ego than necessary and gave me some really good guidance on how to live a better, happier, and more fulfilled life. Really something for a book I didn't even know I needed.